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I saw this film/tv show (tend to think film) when I was a kid and have been trying to find out what it is since then, it's driving me insane! It's definitely a 60s/70s film that I must have viewed sometime around 1980, give or take 3 or 4 years.

The only scene I remember is one where the main male character is with two or three other people and he looks up at a distant planet in the sky (could possibly have been on a monitor/tv screen) and says something like "that planet up there...it's Earth, isn't it?". The main character thought that he was already on Earth, and the others were letting him believe this. He has slowly realised that he is being fooled. Perhaps he was a human anstronaut..travelled through space...landed on what he thought was Earth, but apparantly not... Very paranoid and sinister.

This is not 'The Martian Chronicles' with Rock Hudson, nor the later Ray Bradbury Theatre stuff. I'm sure it had a vibe/look similar to 'The Invaders' with Roy Thinnes. It could have starred someone like John Saxon or Karl Malden.

Please, help!

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I, too, had a vague memory years ago of this. And I also had it confused with "Doppelganger" a.k.a. "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun". If it's the same thing I remembered, then you're looking for a television pilot called "The Stranger". Like you say, it had a paranoid, sinister sense about it. Here's a description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(1973_film)

You remembered it starring someone "like" John Saxon. I think that's a reasonable match. The actual star was Glenn Corbett, better known for portraying Zefram Cochrane, inventor of warp drive in the original Star Trek.

It appears that there is a complete copy on youtube:

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    That's the one! That is the one!! I can't thank you enough, you've ended over 30 years of torment! As soon as I watched it and flicked forward to various scenes, I recognised it straight away. And Cameron Mitchell, that's who I was thinking of, not John Saxon. Yeah, they don't look very similar, but...you know...vague memories of an almost ubiquitous jobbing cult actor from the 60's/70's. A mistake anyone could have made! Anyway, thanks again.
    – boneyuk
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 17:16
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    You're welcome. So glad you came back here. I'm going to put that on my resumé: I ended "over 30 years of torment" for a sci-fi fan. Ha! :) And by the way, I downloaded that copy from youtube shortly after I found it and watched it again for my own entertainment. It's not bad. As a drama/melodrama, it holds up fairly well after four decades. Clearly it owes a lot to "The Fugitive".
    – Frank Reed
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 23:56
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    I was two minutes late with my comment edit. I meant it owes a lot to "The Prisoner".
    – Frank Reed
    Commented Mar 11, 2014 at 0:07
  • I've always liked that little flick. My person nickname for it is "Planet of the Fascists". And I think you were right the first time. It owes a lot to "The Fugitive". I think it was a failed pilot.
    – Emsley Wyatt
    Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 23:20
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Might be Doppelgänger by Gerry Anderson (US title Journey to the Far Side of the Sun).

A joint European-NASA mission to investigate a planet in a position parallel to Earth, behind the Sun, ends in disaster with the death of one of the astronauts. His colleague discovers that the planet is a mirror image of Earth

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  • You know, I came across this film earlier this afternoon and thought, like you, that it could be the one. I've just finished watching it (Gerry Anderson's first foray into live action!) and, although the storyline is a pretty good match, I don't think that it's the film. Thing is, it's missing the scene that I remember, the one outlined in the OP. There's nothing even similar. It could be the one...maybe it's my memory that needs a second opinion! Anyway, thanks.
    – boneyuk
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 18:24

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