the BBFC rejected the idea, stating that this would cause the film to lose all narrative sense. After premiering in the US on 27 August 1969, the film had its UK opening at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on 8 October. In Odeon cinemas, it was screened as half of a double feature with Death of a Gunfighter, ultimately running for less than a week. A second round of US screenings began in Detroit on 1 November. The overall box office response was poor. The film was distributed by Rank in Europe and Universal in the US and Australia. While Rank kept the original title, Universal, which judged that non-Europeans would be less familiar with the term "doppelganger", renamed the film "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun"the title by which it is now more commonly known. Gerry Anderson biographers Archer and Stan Nicholls argue that while this title provides a clearer explanation of the plot, it lacks the "intrigue and even poetic quality of Doppelgänger". Two original 35 mm prints of the film are known to exist. One is kept by the British Film Institute; the other by Fanderson, the official Gerry Anderson fan club. While original prints give top billing to Ian Hendry, Universal's Journey to the... format credits Thinnes first. Some British prints feature an alternative version of the final scene with a short voice-over from Ross, repeating a line of dialogue the character says to Webb earlier in the film: "Jason, we were right. There are definitely two identical planets." Some TV broadcasts of the film have shown an incorrectly flopped picture. This originated from a mistake made in the 1980s when an original print was being transferred to videotape: a telecine operator who was unfamiliar with the film believed that the Counter-Earth scenes had been flopped in error and therefore made a second flop to reverse this. This de-flopped picture, which became the standard for all TV showings, changed the plot of the film: if shown in this format, the film makes it appear that the Ross of the Counter-Earth has landed on the "normal" Earth. Reception Since its original release, Doppelgänger has received a mixed response from commentators. Archer and Nicholls consider it a cult film. Contemporary reviews Writing for The Times, critic John Russell Taylor praised Doppelgänger as "quite ingenious" but suggested that the title and pre-release publicity gave away too