What they all had in common was the saucer. From a filmmaker's perspective, this iconic spacecraft was a godsend, in that it was relatively easy to construct and shoot. Unlike a traditional rocket, it could switch direction without any need to show it turning around. It also looked fantastic. "The great thing about flying saucer design is that it is simple to the point of abstraction," Bould tells BBC Culture. "Its perfect symmetry insists that it is not some naturally occurring thing, while the absence of familiar signifiers of flight – no wings, no engines – insists that it must be not only a technological artefact but an incredibly advanced one. It asserts its place far ahead of us in the western mythology of progress."
