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Planet Earth
USA 1974
produced by Robert H. Justman, Gene Roddenberry (executive) for Warner Brothers/ABC
directed by Marc Daniels
starring John Saxon, Janet Margolin, Ted Cassidy, Christopher Cary, Diana Muldaur, Sally Kemp, Johana De Winter, Claire Brennen, Corinne Camacho, Majel Barrett, Jim Antonio, Aron Kincaid, John Quade, Rai Tasco, Sara Chattin, Lew Brown, Raymond Sutton, Joan Crosby, James Bacon, Craig Hundley, Robert McAndrew, Bob Golden, Susan Page
story by Gene Roddenberry, screenplay by Juanita Bartlett, Gene Roddenberry, music by Harry Sukman
TV-pilot Genesis II
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Dylan Hunt (John Saxon) is a scientist from the 20th century who has
made it to the 22nd century thanks to suspended animation - and since he
has been thrown into a post-doomsday world with hardly any scientists left
alive, he has become one of the model citizens of Pax, the peace-loving
city set to preserve human knowledge as such. But in a battle with the
evil Kreed, Pax-leader Kimbridge (Rai Tasco) is badly wounded, and the
only man who could help him, Connor (Jim Antonio) is believed to be held
prisoner by a gang of amazons. So Hunt and his sidekick Harper-Smythe
(Janet Margolin) pay a visit to the amazons, with him posing as her
prisoner - and soon he is made a slave of the amazon-leader Marg (Diana
Muldaur) and drugged like all the slaves, who are exclusively male, are.
However, Harper-Smythe finds out that Connor is in Marg's employ, and
somehow gets Marg to hand him over to her. What's even more important
though is that Connor has somehow found a way to escape drugging and has
created an antidote, which he first feeds Hunt, thenm the other male
slaves while Hunt is busy keeping Marg busy by seducing her. Eventually,
the amazons' male slaves prepare an uprising when the Kreed attack, and
now the slaves and the amazons fight and defeat them side-by-side ... and
what do you know, that makes men and women understand that it's better to
live with each other than fight against each other. Oh, and Connor can
be returned to Pax just in time to save Kimbridge, too. In
1973, Gene Roddenberry wrote and produced a pilot called Genesis
II he intended to spin off into a series - which never happened,
and yet Roddenberry did not give up on his idea but wrote and produced
another pilot in 1974, the movie at hand, Planet Earth, which was
based on the exact same concept. AQgain though, the series didn't happen.
From today's point of view, it might sound weird of course to produce a
second pilot for the same series only a year after the first one failed,
but then again, that's exactly the same Roddenberry did with the original Star
Trek, in which case it worked phenomenally. Interestingly too,
Planet Earth is not a remake of Genesis
II but a direct sequel, with a mostly different cast though. This
all doesn't say very much about the inherent quality of Planet Earth
though, now does it, and taken by its own merits, the movie is mediocre at
best, a very simplistic sci-fi-parable about equality that consciously
dodges any real question the topic might pose and instead goes for a
somewhat silly happy ending. Add to this a very indifferent direction that
seems to shout made-for-television with every frame, and you are left with
nothing but mediocricy that might be fun in a nostalgic sort of way, but
nothing more.
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