MGM called the score of Forbidden Planet “electronic tonalities,” which is one way of admitting nobody quite knew what Bebe and Louis Barron had created. Because the Barrons were not members of the musicians’ union, the Academy did not even consider their work for an Oscar. Seventy years later, their soundscape still feels alien, and Arrow’s restoration of the film’s original Perspecta presentation makes audio one of the biggest stories in this release.

In the 23rd century, the cruiser C-57D reaches Altair IV to investigate a colony that went silent 20 years earlier. Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon, Mrs. Miniver) immediately warns Commander John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen, Airplane!) to stay away. Adams lands anyway and discovers Morbius living with his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis, Bad Day at Black Rock) and Robby the Robot, who can manufacture almost anything from a new dress to 60 gallons of bourbon. Morbius wants the visitors gone. Adams wants to know what happened to everyone else.

Fred M. Wilcox, best known for Lassie Come Home, built an entire planet on MGM’s Culver City lot for roughly $1.9 million. Robby alone reportedly cost about $125,000. That is roughly seven percent of the budget, and he earned every penny. The robot became an icon and kept working for decades, while Disney animator Joshua Meador helped bring the film’s invisible threat to life. The visual effects earned an Academy Award nomination, and critics have long connected the story to Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Some of the dialogue and the crew’s treatment of Altaira belong unmistakably to 1956. Nielsen, decades before he discovered deadpan comedy, plays Commander Adams completely straight, which makes him fascinating to watch now. The ideas are what lasted. Gene Roddenberry reportedly drew from the film when developing Star Trek, and its fingerprints can be found on everything from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Star Wars. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2013. Simply put, it’s a classic for a reason and deserves to be in every serious film collectors library.