Genesis II

USA 1973
produced by
Gene Roddenberry for Norway Corporation, Warner Brothers/CBS
directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
starring Alex Cord, Mariette Hartley, Ted Cassidy, Percy Rodrigues, Harvey Jason, Titos Vandis, Bill Striglos, Lynne Marta, Harry Raybould, Majel Barrett, Leon Askin, Liam Dunn, Scott Graham, Ed Ashley, Linda Grant, Robert Swan, Beulah Quo, Dennis Robertson, Ray Young, Tom Pace, Teryl Willis, David Westberg, Robert Hathaway, Tammi Bula, Didi Conn
written by Gene Roddenberry, music by Harry Sukman

TV-pilot
Genesis II

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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It was to be a mere short experiment in suspended animation, but then an earthquake destroys the underground lab, and Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord) is only awakened from his deep sleep some 150 years later. He now finds himself on a vastly different earth that has been destroyed by a nuclear war, but the humans are already busy rebuilding it, but lacking the scientific knowledge of humankind of Hunt's age. Obviously there are two communities sharing the USA these days, Pax and Tyrania, and while Pax has given Hunt abode, he is taken care of by Tyranian Lyra'a (Mariette Hartley), who gives Hunt the impression Pax is a totalitatian state and eventually gets him to defect to Tyrania with her.

In Tyrania, two-navelled mutants rule while normal one-navelled humans are kept as slaves. Hunt is privileged because he knows how to repair Tyrania's nuclear powerplant - but then he refuses to and is made a slave. Among the slaves however he meets Pax agents who are planning a revolt, which eventually succeeds, too, but Hunt is captured by the Tyranians, and only saved because Lyra'a still feels something for him. But now he has to repair the powerplant, and to his shock he discovers the powerplant also houses a few nuclear warheads the Tyranians plan to blow Pax up with. Somehow he manages to delay the nuclear reaction until he can escape and warn Pax, who is now presented to him as a peace-loving community of aesthetes who won't retaliate even when under mortal threat ... and then, on the horizon, everybody sees the Tyranians' nuclear powerstation go up in a bang, as obviously Lyra'a has been made to see the light by Hunt and has given her life to save others ...

Slightly childish revamped version of Buck Rogers, based on some hippie ideas that seem to be outdated in their unreflected state this side of the 1970's. Also, the television movie's low budget prevents it from actually showing all the action that makes up the story (first and foremost the explosion of the powerstation), while none of the actors seem to be too keen on  ever surpassing television mediocricy in their acting.

This was a proposed pilot for a TV-series by the way (which explains the many open narrative threads), but the series never got picked up. Writer/producer Gene Roddenberry wouldn't give up on his concept though and one year later followed up Genesis II with Planet Earth, a sequel with amostly different cast intended as a second pilot (after all, making a second pilot worked with Roddenberry's Star Trek, right?) ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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