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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that seem to be outdated in their unreflected state this side of the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?) ...
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