Why So Blu?

Signals: A Space Adventure (Blu-ray Review)

Dust off your space helmet and dial up the synths — Signals: A Space Adventure finally lands on Blu-ray, thanks to the restoration wizards at the DEFA Film Library in Germany. This 1970 East German sci-fi oddity blends Cold War tension with trippy futurism, serving up alien contact through the lens of socialist realism. Long out of reach for Western viewers, this new disc beams it back into orbit with style, substance, and more retro analog tech than a control room in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

Film 

Imagine if 2001: A Space Odyssey got a jolt of color from Barbarella and swapped HAL for something out of a Star Trek diplomatic mission. That’s the strange, hypnotic orbit Signals: A Space Adventure flies in. Directed by Gottfried Kolditz and released in 1970 by DEFA Studios in East Germany, this isn’t your usual bleak, slow-burn Soviet sci-fi. Sure, it’s philosophical and laced with Cold War subtext, but it also knows how to crack a smile. There’s a surprising lightness to the tone — moments of levity tucked between cosmic communiqués and cosmic dread.

One early beach scene stands out — not for high drama, but for what feels like proto-drones flying around a group of kids. That alone earns the film some speculative-tech cred, but it also captures the film’s curious charm. Signals dares to imagine a utopia with playfulness still intact. Where 2001 often feels sterile and intimidating, Signals lets a little air into the vacuum. It’s accessible without being dumbed down, making it an ideal gateway for viewers just starting to explore international or retro sci-fi.

Visually, this thing is a marvel. The production design leans large — monolithic control panels, massive hangars, long hallways flooded with fluorescent glow. These aren’t models pretending to be big. They are big. You can feel the weight of the steel walls and the hum of those humming corridors. Everything looks built, not faked, and that tactile realism makes the universe feel inhabited rather than imagined. The space stations and transport ships look ready for launch — no green screen shortcuts, just miles of carefully lit, gorgeously blocked sets.

And that sense of scale doesn’t just apply to the visuals. The story — centering on a mission to contact a mysterious alien signal — grapples with ideas of unity, communication, and purpose on a planetary scale. It’s speculative fiction with a collectivist backbone, where working together isn’t just a theme, it’s a way of surviving the unknown. The film asks big questions, but it doesn’t demand that you come armed with a philosophy degree to enjoy the ride. It’s smart, strange, and — especially now in its restored form — satisfyingly epic.

Video 

NOTE: Stills are provided for promotional use only and are not from the Blu-ray.

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1

Region: A

HDR: N/A

Layers: BD-50

Clarity and Detail: This transfer is razor-sharp without losing its filmic soul. Sourced from a 6K scan of the original 70mm negative and restored in 4K, the detail is just phenomenal. You can spot rivets in the space station walls, textures on uniforms, and even minor imperfections in the set construction — which, honestly, only adds to its charm.

Depth: The 2.20:1 framing gives every corridor and starfield some real breathing room. Foreground and background elements feel spatially alive, and there’s a convincing sense of dimensionality in wide shots — especially in those massive control rooms and hangars.

Black Levels: Black levels are deep and stable, with no crush in the shadows or murkiness in low-lit scenes. That said, some mid-tones lean slightly gray, but it’s likely baked into the original 70mm ORWO stock.

Color: Color is where the disc really pops. The ORWO color palette is vivid and slightly off from Western stocks — reds are punchy, teals lean cool, and everything has a slightly surreal edge. It suits the tone perfectly, and the restoration doesn’t oversaturate anything. It’s faithful but alive.

Flesh Tones: Facial tones veer neutral to cool, especially under fluorescent lighting. No waxiness or digital tinkering — just natural, healthy skin texture with slight shifts depending on scene lighting.

Noise and Artifacts: Absolutely minimal. Grain is present and organic, with no evidence of noise reduction, edge enhancement, or compression artifacts. For a film this old, it looks shockingly clean.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): German DTS-HD MA 5.1

Subtitles: English

Dynamics: The mix pulls more weight than expected from a 1970 production. It was taken from the 6-magnetic-channel sound elements and remastered by Pharos – The Post Group in Munich in 2022. The result is punchy, lively, and never tinny. Volume levels are consistent, and crescendos hit without distortion.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: While there’s not much deep bass content, low-end tones in ship rumbles and background machinery give the film just enough rumble to ground its sci-fi soundscape. Think subtle, not subwoofer-breaking.

Surround Sound: For a mono-to-multi-channel track, the 5.1 spread is immersive without feeling gimmicky. Ambient station noise, electronic beeps, and occasional atmospheric swells move through the channels smoothly, creating a surprisingly rich soundstage.

Dialogue: Clear and front-focused. The German-language track is crisp, with no sync issues or muddiness. Subtitles are well-timed and easy to read, making the story easy to follow even in its more cerebral stretches.

Extras 

The disc may not be loaded with extras, but what’s here hits hard. The standout is a sharp, engaging commentary by Stephen Bissette, who brings deep-cut insight into both Signals and East German sci-fi at large. It’s paired with a standout visual essay, “Other Worlds, Strange Dreams,” which dives into the space operas of director Gottfried Kolditz and situates the film within the broader DEFA sci-fi movement. Rounding things out is the original 1970 theatrical trailer, a grainy, high-drama time capsule of retro-futurist charm. It’s a small but potent set of features that add real context without padding.

 

Special Features

• New commentary by film historian and comics artist Stephen R. Bissette and Dr. Mariana Ivanova of the DEFA Film Library
• “Other Worlds, Strange Dreams: the East German space operas of director Gottfried Kolditz”
• Original 1970 theatrical trailer

 

 

Summary   

Whether you’re deep into Cold War cinema or just want to explore sci-fi that isn’t from Hollywood or Toho, Signals: A Space Adventure on Blu-ray is worth the pickup. The DEFA Film Library’s restoration does justice to the film’s scope and strangeness, giving new life to a title that’s rarely seen outside of Europe. It’s bold, bizarre, and visually striking — a true deep-space detour for fans of 2001, Star Trek, or vintage genre oddities. Add it to the shelf before it drifts back into obscurity. For more East German sci-fi mayhem, don’t miss our review of In the Dust of the Stars Blu-ray — it’s disco, danger, and DEFA at its weirdest.

 

Signals: A Space Adventure is released on Blu-ray June 10, 2025 on Blu-ray!

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