Cult-TV Blogging: Otherworld: "Rules of Attraction" (January 26, 1985))

“Other Worlds lie outside our seeing; beyond the beyond; on the edge of within. The Great Pyramids: erected by the Ancient Ones as a barricade at the portal between two dimensions; two separate realities. This is the story of one family drawn through a mysterious vortex into the other world and their perilous trek homeward.”

-Opening narration to Roderick Taylor’s Otherworld (1985)

From the age of nuclear family sitcoms such as The Cosby Show (1984 – 1992) and Family Ties (1989) arrives this family-oriented science fiction series, Otherworld(1985).  


Created by Roderick Taylor and airing on CBS,  Otherworld — much like The Fantastic Journey (1977) — concerns a tightly-knit group of displaced people trapped in an alien world, moving from place to place, civilization to civilization, in search of a path home. 

In The Fantastic Journey, that prized destination was the Devil Triangle’s “Evoland” (in the East…) where wayward travelers could return to their time periods and lands.  In Otherworld, that destination is “Emar,” a city where wayward travelers could also find portals home and return to their lands as “sorcerers” and “kings.”

But where The Fantastic Journeyconcerned a group of characters who became an ad-hoc family over the course of many episodes and adventures, Otherworld focuses instead on an already-existing American family: The Sterlings.  


That name sounds a lot like “Serling” (as in Rod Serling), which may or may not be an intentional tribute given the Twilight Zone nature of the premise. 

More importantly, the word Sterling is defined as “genuine, pure or true,” and those descriptors very much apply to this suburban family.  The family consists of resourceful engineer and Dad, Hal (Sam Groom), Mom and veterinarian June (Gretchen Corbett) — seemingly named after June Cleaver — teenagers Trace (Tony O’Dell) and Gina (Jonna Lee), and little Smith (first Brandon Crane, then Chris Hebert).

In the first episode of Otherworld, titled “Rules of Attraction,” the Sterlings are finishing up a summer vacation in Egypt, where Hal has been working to construct a hydro-electric plant.  


On the day of a great planetary alignment — which has not occurred for 10,000 years — the family visits the Great Pyramids.  In short order, the family is zapped through a whirling vortex (shades of The Fantastic Journey, again), and whisked into an entirely new, alien world.

Specifically, the Sterlings arrive in a barren “Forbidden Zone” outside the province of Sarlex, and have a terrifying run-in with a Zone Trooper Kommander named Nuveen Kroll (Jonathan Banks).  After Kroll attempts to arrest the family for traveling in a restricted area, the Sterlings overpower him and appropriate his military hover-craft.  More importantly, the Sterlings take Kroll’s “access crystal,” a small, cylindrical key which permits unlimited access to travel and information banks in this bizarre totalitarian world.  In short order, Kroll is ordered to catch the fugitives and retrieve his access crystal.

Hoping to hide and blend in with the populace, the Sterlings soon settle down in the mining Province of Sarlex, which seems a weird reflection of 1950s America.  Everyone seems to live by the edicts of a strangely-worded Bible, and in Leave it to Beaver-styled family units.  The government of Sarlex even orders Mom – a medical professional – to become a “housewife.”  Meanwhile, Trace falls in love with a high-school classmate, the beautiful Nova (Amanda Wyss).

But the Sterlings have a shock coming. Everyone in the town, including Nova herself, is an android, a “plasmoid replicant” designed to work the mines, which produce a radiation poisonous to human beings.


When June falls ill from exposure to the radiation, the Sterlings realize they must flee their new home, in search of another, and Nova helps the family escape through a series of subterranean tunnels.  Before Nova says farewell to the Sterlings, she also tells Trace of Emar, the capital province where a technology is located that can send them home.  She also informs them that in this strange world “every province is completely different” and also  that “a long time ago, people would follow” strange monuments to reach Emar.

Cutting to the chase, “Rules of Attraction,” the pilot forOtherworld is a really great opening hour, and one that wastes no time beginning the adventure.  We learn just enough about the family before the unexpected trip through the vortex, and then suddenly, we’re in an entirely different world, and in a new adventure.

In the finesttradition of science fiction television, “Rules of Attraction” also involves a social critique of the then-contemporary “real” culture in which it was produced.  Specifically, Trace has trouble accepting that Nova – as an artificial life form – can feel love as fully as he does.  “It’s not the same,” he declares

This is the old, widely-accepted fallacy we have all  heard over the past few generations in America: that people of different ethnicity, religion and race don’t possess the same evolved sense of family, love and humanity as we do; that they are somehow “inferior” beings.  In this case, Trace suggests that Nova must leave Sarlex with him, since he can’t possibly leave his family.  Of course, she points out that she can’t leave her family, either.  But Trace has a tough time seeing the families as equivalent.  “If you cut me, I bleed.  It’s the same,” Nova declares, hoping to sway him.

Making her point in brilliant, pointed fashion, Nova later shows Trace exactly where her “soul” is located (in a wall of computerized machinery beneath the city), and then challenges the Sterling boy to show her his soul.  


Of course, he can’t so easily pinpoint his own soul, and so the question becomes, how do we know we have souls?  Is it possible that the machines are more “alive” and “spiritual” than we are?

      

 Talk about a heady brew for a first outing on network television…but Otherworld is extremely ambitious in terms of its subject matter and perspective on that material.  At its root, “Rules of Attraction” brilliantly discusses racism in this subplot of Trace/Nova, which involves, essentially, an interracial romance.  I must confess, I was gratified to see the series so quickly and so efficiently move into the “meat” of its theme, when so many opening episodes of cult-TV require laborious set-up and lengthy exposition.  But Otherworld gets right to the action, and right to the beating heart of its premise.

            

There’s an even more subversive aspect of “Rules of Attraction” as well.  The Sterling family meets with neighbors (who resemble the Flanders on The Simpsons) and there’s this uncomfortable sense of someone  behind-the-scenes (the androids progenitors?) intentionally creating a world of social inequality, a world of 1950s stereotypes.  For instance, women are not supposed to hold down jobs, only do the shopping.  Why have the androids been created in the image of…an outmoded patriarchy?

At episode’s end, Hal battles for replicant rights by destroying a main computer under Sarlex that can audit the personal memories of each android, thus freeing them from domination by the Zone Troopers.  With this very Captain-Kirkian blow against a corrupt establishment, one gets a sense of Otherworld’s burgeoning sense of morality and ethics.   I remember watching this pilot in January of 1985 and thinking, at the time, that Otherworld was as close to a new Star Trek as we were likely to get in the 1980s in terms of TV sci-fi probing the edges and parameters of the human equation.

Of course, Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered less than two years later.  So I was wrong.


Still, there was a delight in discovering Otherworld on CBS, and its full-throated sense of humor and social commentary.  Simply put…I loved this show.  And I can’t figure out why in Hell it isn’t available on DVD, or at least for streaming.  I know it boasts an avid cult-following…

Although produced cheap, “Rules of Attraction” features some good visuals that hold up pretty well today.  For instance, there’s a nice matte painting of Sarlex (later re-used on TNG in episodes such as “Angel One”) and also the bizarre monuments of the Other World.  Also, underneath Sarlex is a vast computer center and that wall of souls, and the breadth of the domain is impressive considering the TV budget.  

You may also notice here the series’ trademark upside-down Zone Troopers guns.  The barrels are below the handles, in other words.  I always thought this was another creative way of showcasing the topsy-turvy, upside down nature of the Otherworld, but the weapons still take some getting used to.

Next Week: Otherworld episode 2, “Zone Troopers Build Men” starring Mark Lenard.

Otherworld (1985) Theme

CULT TV BLOGGING: The Fantastic Journey: "The Innocent Prey" (June 6, 1977)

So,  at last we arrive at the final episode of The Fantastic Journey, “The Innocent Prey.”

In this tenth story, our wayward travelers encounter a crashed spaceship in the forest.  They encounter two men, York (Richard Jaeckel) and Tye (Nicholas Hammond), who claim to be co-pilots of the craft, but are actually prisoners who have escaped from that vessel…a penal transport.

Before long, Varian and the others, along with York and Tye, encounter a race of peaceful aliens, led by Rayat (Lew Ayres).

Rayat’s people cherish “harmony” and “the balance of nature,” and possess a mystical orb that helps maintain that balance.  Even as Tye falls in love with Rayat’s beautiful daughter, Natica (Cheryl Ladd), York plans to steal the orb from the aliens, and take its power for himself. Then, York commits a horrible murder…

Although I’ve watched it several times, “The Innocent Prey” has never really worked for me as a Fantastic Journey episode.  It seems strangely disconnected from the rest of the series in some peculiar way, as though it is flying entirely on automatic pilot.  Perhaps everybody involved with the program knew the show had been canceled when this episode was made..  Or perhaps it is that this episode, more than any of the others, feels like it could have been produced on Logan’s Run (1977), The Starlost (1973), or even Planet of the Apes (1974).  I don’t know, but it just feels…undistinguished.

Unfortunately, precious little happens in “The Innocent Prey” terms of character development, and the large and distinguished guest cast — Jaeckel, Hammond, Ayres, Ladd  and Gerald McRaney as a prison guard – only seems to subtract from Martin, Eisenmann, McDowall and Franklin.  And at this point, I’d rather see more of the regulars than another “rote” adventure in which a pacifist society must be saved from itself.  

All in all, this episode feels very much “by-the-numbers,” though perhaps I feel this way simply because I would have preferred a stronger final episode, and certainly one that featured some sense of closure for the characters I have grown to appreciate.

Directed by Vincent McEveety, “The Innocent Prey” opens with stock footage of the alien spaceship from The Invaders (1967 – 1968) and features Lew Ayres in a role well-in-keeping with his real life philosophy of pacifism.  

In fact, Ayres has portrayed pacifists in sci-fi TV and film history more than any actor I can remember.  He was the ape, Mandemus, guarding the armory in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), the scientist Elijah Cooper, who hoped to force disarmament and world peace on the nations of the Earth in The Bionic Woman (“Doomsday is Tomorrow”), The Colonies’ misguided President Adar in Battlestar Galactica, and the peaceful Rayat here.

In “The Innocent Prey,” Ayres delivers several speeches about harmony and peace, and his people here are so “open” that they don’t even believe in doors.  It’s interesting that on cult-tv programming pacifists are often equated with “fools,” ones easily exploited by those with bad intentions  I wonder how Ayres squared that perception with his own philosophy.  He not only played a pacifist many times, but a man “tricked” and manipulated by evil doers.

“The Innocent Prey” culminates with the villain, York, touching the mystical orb, and the orb reverting him to a form of “innocence,” as an infant to be raised by Rayat.  It’s a memorable ending to an otherwise “meh” episode of The Fantastic Journey, but an entirely unfitting end for the series as a whole.

Gazing back at The Fantastic Journey’s catalog, I can see that a few episodes really worked well (“Beyond the Mountain,” “The Funhouse,” “Riddles” and perhaps “An Act of Love”) while the rest mostly seemed to mark time.

However, the performances and character interaction makes me want to revisit the show time and again, over the years: Jared Martin as Varian, Ike Eisenmann as Scott, Roddy McDowall as Jonathan Willaway, Carl Franklin as Fred Walters and tragic Katie Saylor as Lianna.   The actors really did a marvelous job with these characters, and had terrific chemistry with one another. It’s too bad that so many of the episodes were rather pedestrian in terms of concepts and narratives.  These characters deserved better.

Next week on Cult TV Blogging, I begin my episode-by-episode retrospective of another short-lived science fiction series Otherworld (1985).  It lasted all of eight episodes — two less than The Fantastic Journey (1977).

CULT TV BLOGGING: The Fantastic Journey: "Riddles" (April 21, 1977)

The Fantastic Journey’snext-to-last episode, “Riddles,” represents a big step up in quality from the previous “episode, Turnabout,” for two reasons.  In the first case, the episode abandons the “civilization of the week” template which, even after just nine weeks, feels very tired.  In the second instance, the episode begins – finally – to craft some coherent mythology regarding Evoland and the series’ strange island in the Devil’s Triangle.

In terms of mythology, “Riddles” introduces the wayward travelers to characters called “Riders,” horseback sentries who patrol the various time zones helping lost wanderers and guiding them to Evoland.  


Unfortunately, these Riders speak only in riddles, and their words must be deciphered by any travelers. 

“Riddles” also introduces the idea that to reach and gain access to Evoland, a traveler must possess at least one of the “twelve keys” to that mysterious destination. 


This key to Evoland represents a helpful story tool because now Varian, Scott, Willaway and Fred must actually accomplish something important each adventure: they must find a crystalline key.  Otherwise, the question remains: why interfere in local politics and not just high-tail it out of each province as soon as possible?  At least now there’s a reason to stick around, and solve mysteries, and deal with the locals.  Of course, no more keys were found on The Fantastic Journey since the series was canceled after one more episode.

Meanwhile, the above mentioned locals in “Riddles” are represented by three mysterious individuals: Kedrin, Krista and their manservant, Simkin.  Throughout the episode, these characters take on different physical guises, so that who and what they are represents an important mystery.  Rather unconventionally, they also lie about their nature and planet of origin.  Twice.  


At first they claim to be from an overpopulated world, and simply seeking privacy and isolation.  


Later, Kedrin claims they are actually parasites and vampires, seeking to “suck the life force” out of unsuspecting visitors.  


Only in the last moments of the episode is the true nature of the “curse” imperiling Kedrin and Kendra revealed.  And it’s actually a good one: they come from a world where old age is shunned, and have been holding onto the illusion of “youth” here in the Bermuda Triangle, with the help of the Evoland Key, which can create hallucinations.  Rather surprisingly, this revelation permits the episode to end on a tender rather than harsh note.


Eagle-eyed cult-tv fans will also note that Kedrin wears the PAX uniform from the Roddenberry pilot, Planet Earth!

“Riddles” is also an intriguing episode of The Fantastic Journey because it so clearly highlights a sense of the Gothic.  In particular Krista, Kedrin and Simkin share a secret with a character from Picture of Dorian Gray.   Specifically, these aliens boast two faces: one beautiful, young and welcoming, one repulsive, aged and horrifying.  The setting is a rotting, haunted house, one which also boasts two visages.   The gloomy, horrific atmosphere and the idea of an edifice filled with secrets both seem authentically of this literary movement.  Along with “Funhouse,” “Riddles” is a Fantastic Journey episode that tends towards the horror genre.

Even the character touches in this late episode are stronger than in many previous segments.  For instance, Scott encounters a vision of his mother….who rejects him.  He weeps at her feet, and she continues to maintain that she has no son.


Each character in the tale is similarly asked to face a deep fear.  Willaway faces claustrophobia (in a shrinking closet), the doctor, Fred, faces the loss of his hands, and Varian falls into an endless abyss…alone.  They  each manage to escape these mental traps, but Scott’s terror is the most powerful, and Ike Eisenmann does a terrific job expressing Scott’s pain.   Although The Fantastic Journey certainly boasts its share of problems, one perpetual strength, perhaps, is the characterization of Scott, a teenage boy.  Rather than presenting him as a know-it-all, a genius or a savior, the series writers present him as an absolutely likable, regular kid.  Scott is smart, resourceful and clever, but he’s not a superman, and is rarely used as a deus ex machina in the manner of an Adric or a Wesley Crusher.  


Future cult tv programs would be wise to remember Scott’s example.

“Riddles” even ends on a great literary note, as Willaway quotes from a poem by Robert Browning and Abraham ibn Ezra.  The poem is called Rabbi ben Ezra and it was published in 1864. 


The work begins, in part “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.”  So, once more, Roddy McDowall gets the smartest and best line in the show.  Looking back, it’s clear that in many ways, the addition of the Willaway character as a regular saved the series.

Along with “Beyond the Mountain” and “Funhouse,” “Riddles” is arguably one of the most satisfying episodes in the Fantastic Journey canon.  The biggest disappointment is that Lianna is gone, never to be seen again on the series.  She is mentioned in the episode as having remained behind (with Sil-El) in the previous province, of “Turnabout,” to help establish the new government there.  But Katie Saylor and Lianna are sorely missed here, and we would never see them again on The Fantastic Journey.

CULT TV BLOGGING: The Fantastic Journey: "Turnabout" (April 7, 1977)

It’s funny how the world plays tricks on you.

When I began cult-tv blogging The Fantastic Journey some weeks ago, I thought immediately of the episode “Turnabout,” a seemingly archaic battle-of-the-sexes episode in which the women of a province in the Bermuda Triangle zap away chauvinist men to a null-zone after suffering many personal and sexual indignities at male hands.

I had expected to write how “old” and tired this familiar story is.

After all, narratives such as “Turnabout” have been seen before many times in cult-TV history.  It’s the old role reversal tale: the women – gasp! – take over society, dislodging males from their (rightful?) perches of authority.

The Fantastic Journey’s ”Turnabout” is not even the last instance of this conventional tale.  Star Trek: The Next Generation offered a similar, horribly hackneyed story in 1987, entitled “Angel One,” about a matriarchy of women lording it over poor men.

A war between men and women?  I mean, come on, right?  How cliched is that?

But by the time I actually watched “Turnabout” last week, the national news was veritably filled with utterly horrifying stories of prominent male “leaders” in our 21st century culture making bizarre decisions regarding women and their rights.

For instance, Congress held a committee meeting about birth control and no women were present.  Then, the leading Republican candidate for President, Rick Santorum, made the claim that women are “too emotional” for combat assignments in the military.  Then Virginia considered passing a law that would – literally — force non-medically-necessary “trans-vaginal” penetration upon women seeking to have an abortion, a procedure that, regardless of how you feel about it in terms of morality, is still technically legal in this country.

Hey, I thought these people didn’t believe in Big Government dictating matters of health to individuals, top-down?  Now I suppose I understand Newt Gingrich’s warning about “right wing social engineering.”

Anyway, given this new battleground in the war of the sexes, perhaps “Turnabout” isn’t so old and hackneyed after all…

In this final episode of The Fantastic Journey to feature Lianna (Katie Saylor), the wayward travelers enter a new time zone.  Male hunters quickly capture Lianna and take her back to an advanced kingdom.

Varian, Scott, Fred and Willaway follow, and learn that Queen Hayalana (Joan Collins) is plotting a rebellion against her husband, King Morgan (Paul Mantee).

Willaway, Varian, Fred and Scott are kept on hand as “breeding stock” while Hayalana utilizes a powerful computer called “The Complex” to zap away the men.  ”What evil magic is this?” Morgan asks dumbly, before his untimely disappearance.

Unfortunately, Hayalana and her women prove to be just as despotic as the male rulers were.  ”Be silent or you will be de-materialized” declares the Queen, squelching all debate.  Then, she poisons the travelers’ food so they can’t escape.

But when the Complex begins to malfunction, Hayalana needs men after all.  She requires Willaway’s help reprogramming the machine.  The travelers utilize this opportunity to broker a tender peace between men and women…

As is par for the course in The Fantastic Journey, Willaway gets the best line in “Turnabout.”

When confronted with the facts that women rulers are as merciless as men, he pinpoints their hypocrisy.  ”It’s not the lack of compassion I hate, it’s the lack of justice,” he declares. Well said.  I should also add, this episode does a nice job of filling in some of the blanks of the Willaway character.  We learn, for instance, that he worked at NASA, JPL and Cal Tech.

Meanwhile, the Complex certainly seems a pretty conflicted computer.  It possesses a female voice but a male chauvinist attitude.

The seemingly self-hating nature of this machine aside, “Turnabout” doesn’t win any points on the women’s lib front since the women are incapable of solving their problems on their own

Instead, Fred and Willaway explicitly come to the rescue, time after time.  As for Lianna, she disappears for long spells in “Turnabout,” and I fear it’s because Katie Saylor had fallen ill during filming.

Yet another civilization of the week story, I find “Turnabout” one of the most tiresome and long-winded episodes of The Fantastic Journey.  We’ve seen the split culture in stories such as “Atlantium” and “Beyond the Mountain,” to name just two.  And, once more, the characters aren’t really involved in the story on anything other than a very shallow basis.  They must fix the civilization of the week so they can escape, and that’s it.

It’s just a shame that real life events in 2012 have made this old story relevant again.  In that light, “Turnabout” is certainly a cautionary tale.  Tread lightly, male moralists, or there will be “an end to male domination.”

You tell ‘em, sister.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Jason of Star Command: "Frozen in Space" (September 22, 1979)

In the second episode of Jason of Star Command’s second season, “Frozen in Space,” Jason (Craig Littler) and his new friend, the amnesiac alien, Samantha (Tamara Dobson), head to a small planetoid that appears to be the source of a deadly freezing beam.  


As Samantha and Jason seek out the beam’s source, Star Command nears destruction.  The base’s power systems frozen, it lurches dangerously towards a dwarf star…

On the surface of the inhospitable planetoid, Jason and Samantha meet “Tehor,” a monstrous minion of Dragos who is responsible for controlling the freeze beam.  


Realizing that she may be Star Command’s last chance for survival, Samantha pretends to be an ally to Tehor and Dragos, and betrays Jason.  In reality, her actions are an excuse to get the duo into the base and to the all-important freeze beam control system.

Straight-forward and to-the-point “Frozen in Space” by Margaret Armen is buttressed by some outstanding special effects work, and a dramatic through-line that is actually pretty impressive in terms of children’s television.  


In the case of the former, “Frozen in Space” features some dynamic miniature shots of Star Command under the burning shadow of a giant dwarf star.  There’s also a terrific composition here involving Jason’s Star Fire descending to the planetoid surface.

On the latter front, we get the newest chapter in Samantha’s on-going attempt to discover her own mysterious origin…and nature.  She wonders aloud: “what if my people are evil?”  Samantha wonders too, if she might be evil, on a personal basis.  


Jason’s encouraging reply suggests that she can be whom she chooses to be.  In that answer, one can detect how a good message is being transmitted to the kiddies out there in TV land.  


It’s not too heavy-handed, but Samantha’s plight reminds the viewer that people should be judged by the content of their character, not by stereotypes or other external factors which may not truly consider the measure of a man, or woman.  


Samantha also claims this week to be a person from a race called “the Capillos.”  I don’t remember if that moniker recurs or not in future episodes…

Other than the nice character development about Samantha proving to herself she is not evil in nature, “Frozen in Space” is a pretty rudimentary narrative affair with captures, escapes, and more captures.  My friend Mateo Latosa, editor at Powys Media, calls this brand of story a “run around.”  The characters run lots of places, rescue each other, get captured, and then defeat the villain…but not much meaningful actually happens.   The pure movement and busy-ness of the enterprise distracts you from the thematic emptiness.  The original Dr. Who, in the early years, did a lot of these “runaround” stories, and after a while they certainly grow tiresome. 

Here, Jason of Star Command seems more obsessed with action than interesting sci-fi storytelling: Jason smashes the freeze beam control panel by throwing a chair at it!  Not exactly a high-minded solution, though it certainly gets the job done.

Besides the narrative’s general lack of ingenuity, “Frozen in Space” features quite possibly the slowest, worst-aimed paralysis beam in TV history.  


Samantha and Jason (and WiKi) all attempt to avoid the ray, yet somehow manage to outrun and pivot around the bloody thing.  Dragos needs to upgrade his technology or something.

Probably the biggest disappointment of the week is that Jason and Commander Stone don’t get to interact, and continue their contentious process of coming to understand one another.  Stone is trapped on Star Command with Parsafoot, and Jason is away on the planet, so there aren’t many character fireworks.


But, of course, “Frozen in Space” is aimed at kids, not at adults seeking thematic complexity.  Hopefully things get a little more fun and elaborate next week…


Next episode: “Web of the Star Witch!”

CULT TV BLOGGING: The Fantastic Journey: "An Act of Love" (March 24, 1977)

“An Act of Love” is either one of The Fantastic Journey’s finest episodes, or one of the series’ worst, depending on your point of view.  Specifically, the emotional content and heartfelt handling of the dramatis personae is deeply affecting. 

But, contrarily, the gimmick by which this character development arises is actually pretty ham handed and ridiculous. 

So appreciating “An Act of Love” is all about loving the sinner, perhaps, but not the sin.  I don’t know…

In “An Act of Love” by Richard Fielder and directed by Virgil Vogler, the wayward travelers in the Bermuda Triangle enter a new time zone roiled by violent, active volcanoes.  Varian is unknowingly shot by some kind of dart containing a psychotropic drug, and the drug in his system makes him fall in love with a woman he has never met before, the lovely Gwyneth (Christina Hart).  When something drives Varian to awake from a troubled sleep and go exploring, he actually finds Gwyneth in the flesh.  Miraculously, she is just as in love with him as he is with her.  

Despite the fact that they have just met.

Although Varian doesn’t realize it, he was shot with the dart because in this strange time zone, the ruling class believes in an angry Volcano God called “Vetticus.”  Vetticus can only be quieted (and thus the village saved…) by continual human sacrifice.  When women are married in a ritual of “eternal unification” (following a night of hot, lusty passion), the man are thrown into a fire pit to appease Vetticus. 

Now in love with the high priestess’s daughter, Varian is next in line for this treatment.

In short order, Varian convinces his friends that he is happy and content, and wants to remain behind, while they continue the search for Evoland. 

Scott is deeply upset to be losing Varian, a friend who has become a father to him, but — trying to be a grown-up — he accepts Varian’s decision.

Soon, however, Scott learns the truth about Vetticus and human sacrifice, and must save Varian from the consuming fire. 

As the ritual of eternal unification nears,  Gwyneth makes the ultimate sacrifice to save her would-be husband’s life, and an angry Varian rains destruction upon the worshippers of Vetticus…

The reasons to enjoy “An Act of Love” are plain.  By separating Varian from his friends and showcasing a heartfelt goodbye between the likable travelers, the audience gets to see how deeply these characters have grown to care for and love one another.  Ike Eisenmann is particularly strong in these sequences, as his character Scott has already lost one father, and now must lose another.  We feel and understand Scott’s pain, and these moments are perhaps the best in the episode, and some of the most human interactions in the entire series.   Saying goodbye to someone you love is never easy.

Also commendable is the fact that, once more, The Fantastic Journey treads deeply and boldly into social commentary, here indicting the essential irrationality of religion, and in particular, religious rule.  After Gwyneth dies, her Mother (Ellen Weston) sputters around vainly, trying to justify the human sacrifice ritual…and murder.  She claims that she accurately interpreted the signs of Vetticus.   In one of the series’ finest and most blunt moments, Willaway responds to her assertions with pity:  “There are no signs.  You are trying to make deals with volcanoes.“  Then he tells her, very directly, to take her people from the time zone and “leave superstition behind.”

In other words, grow the hell up.

In the same fashion that Star Trek’s “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” exposed racial strife at its most clear-cut and plain by featuring half-white/half-black opponents, so does The Fantastic Journey indict theocratic rule on the most concise and straight-forward grounds imaginable. 

When we believe God is  actually speaking to us, what we’re really doing is interpreting our own desires and biases...and often with disastrous results. 

Believing that God speaks to us and shares his/her desires with us and us alone, is the ultimate in vanity (Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, j’accuse),  and a wholly feeble excuse to validate a belief system that doesn’t bear up to close scrutiny, logic, rationality or science.  I love that in 1977 The Fantastic Journey had the brass balls to make this point about this religious fallacy, and to do so in a manner that is absolutely unmistakable.

Also, it’s interesting, at the very least, to see the pacifist Varian devolve into a rageful basketcase over the death of his wife, giving up his cherished beliefs for all-out vengeance.  I don’t know that such behavior serves the character well in the long run, but here…it works.  In some ways, “An Act of Love” is The Fantastic Journey’s “City on the Edge of Forever,” the doomed love-affair that changes a character’s destiny forever.

Or maybe it’s “Spock’s Brain….”

One could reasonably conclude the latter because the episode’s gateway to all of this emotional upheaval and social commentary is a convenient cupid’s arrow dart that makes Varian fall in love in an instant, and with one particular woman too.  It’s a very specific dart, in other words. 

More to the point, the episode never really deals with the fact that Varian is manipulated into feeling so strongly for Gwyneth.  His free will (and thus real love) is not involved.

The writer of this episode wanted Varian to engage deeply with a woman, fall in love, and then feel rage and vengeance at her unnecessary death.  Fine.  I buy that.  But by using the gimmick of the dart, the whole enterprise feels a little…hollow. 

And there are deeper questions.  How come Gwyneth falls so deeply in love with Varian at first sight?  Was she darted too?  And did she get a dart directing her to fall for Varian, specifically?  If so, how did the servants of Vetticus know he was coming, and the nature of his body chemistry?

There’s another problem here too.  All the young men of this time zone, after copulating with and marrying their would-be wives, are tossed into the flames, right?  Wouldn’t it rather difficult to keep this secret from the general population?  Every time a friend gets married, you have to ask: hey, what happened to Steve?  I haven’t seen him since you two went down to the fire pit…

Basically, every woman of marrying age would know what marriage portends for her spouse.  The episode doesn’t deal with this problem, and so the society feels like a bit of a straw man culture.  I don’t see how it could possible exist for any length of time under these circumstances.

In terms of series continuity, I might also add that “An Act of Love” misremembers the details of Paul’s letter to Scott.  It notes that Paul worried that Scott would have to be away from him until he reached Evoland.  But, as “Atlantium” points out, Paul believed Scott would be right behind him, returned to 1977 America by the power of the “Source,” the self-same power that sent Paul home. Oopsy.

Finally, one minor aspect of the episode I enjoyed: Sil-El — the cat — plays a more significant part in this episode than usual.  Sil-El is aware of Varian’s situation and follows him around.  The cat also finds a path out of a collapsed cave when the group is trapped in it during an avalanche.  Basically, the cat gets a lot of action here (and a lot of reaction shots), and I find that amusing, and kind of rewarding.  In an earlier episode, “Beyond the Mountain,” it was noted that Sil-El was “one of the group,” and “An Act of Love” fulfills that promise.

Speaking of getting a lot of action, Varian gets to have (off-screen) sex in this episode, and right beforehand, Gwyneth informs him that she’s a virgin.  She has “never known another man.”  This whole aspect of the episode is kind of kinky, especially as mother and daughter dance around the whole intercourse issue.  “The pain is brief.  The memory is eternal,“  one character, says, speaking of death in the fire pit, not sex.  “Have this moment to remember Varian for all time…” and so forth.   All the erupting volcanoes also play as perverse visual subtext for this, ahem, “act of love.”

Heck, it was the seventies…

So, how can I put this?  I love the emotional content of “An Act of Love,” as well as the pointed social commentary.  But I absolutely hate some of the poorly thought-out details of the narrative.  I’ll say this: despite its problems with structure and internal consistency, “An Act of Love” is an episode of The Fantastic Journey that you won’t soon forget.  Whenever I think of the series, this episode leaps instantly to mind.

As does next week’s effort, the scarifying horror story “Funhouse.”

CULT TV BLOGGING: The Fantastic Journey: "A Dream of Conquest" (March 10, 1977)

The Fantastic Journey’s fifth episode, “A Dream of Conquest,” is the first installment to open with a voice-over narration accompanying the opening credits.  Mike Road (the voice of “The Source” in “Atlantium”) now recounts the series premise.  He also names and describes the main characters, and notes that our heroes –  now together — “face the unknown.”

I point out this narration, mainly, to remind one of how much The Fantastic Journey changes from episode to episode, searching for some sense of identity or some certainty in its format.  Five episodes in (out of ten…), and the elements are still coming together.

In terms of the actual episode, I’d say that “A Dream of Conquest” is actually pretty strong, most notably because it is buttressed by a good, villainous performance from guest star John Saxon.  Here, he plays Consul Tarrant, a “Materran” warlord who hopes to march East across the island and conquer all the time zones between his own, and land’s end.  In one splendid bit of series continuity, Tarrant asks Willaway about what he will find in the other time zones, and Willaway very pointedly and very specifically discusses the societies featured in “Atlantium,” “Beyond the Mountain” and “Children of the Gods.”  For a series always shifting ideas, it’s nice that The Fantastic Journey remembers its history.

Those with only a casual memory of The Fantastic Journey may also recall this particular episode because it features a kind of dog/man/alien creature called “the Nephring.” 

Much of The Fantastic Journey’s promotional material in the 1970s featured images of this kindly, shaggy alien.  The creature suit looks pretty good, even today, except for the one horrid moment near the conclusion in which you can plainly make out the monster’s socks…

In “A Dream of Conquest,” our travelers come across Materra, a “colony” of aliens from another solar system (and “another dimension,” as Lianna asserts).  The peaceful ruler of the Materrans, Luthor, is deathly ill and his power-hungry subordinate, Tarrant (Saxon) has assumed complete authority.  Varian and Fred attempt to cure Luthor, while Willaway – conducting a Mission: Impossible-style sting – ventures out on his own to bring down Tarrant the tyrant.  Willaway assumes his dangerous assignment this because he can’t stand the idea of brute force winning the day, “storming” through the zones and territorializing them, each in turn.  He tells a lovely Materran rebel that “it takes a thief to catch a thief,” and begins hatching his plans.

Meanwhile, Lianna and Varian watch in horror as Tarrant serially mistreats the Nephring, a being that Lianna and Sil-el have determined is both sentient and highly intelligent. 

In one horrifying sequence, Tarrant’s soldiers use the Nephring in a military exercise, and Varian jumps into danger (and into the line of fire…) to save the creature’s life. 

Of course, the subtext here involves the human (and inhumane) treatment and abuse of animals.  You shouldn’t use them for target practice, and you shouldn’t put them on the top of your family car either, when you go on vacation. 

Okay, I made up the last part.

Most trenchantly, however, “A Dream of Conquest” studies the twisted mentality of a despot.  Saxon’s Tarrant rather pointedly utilizes language we today associate with Nazi Germany, discussing the “Birth of a New Order” and ordering “purges” of his enemies. 

But of course, he doesn’t really have any enemies.  The other zones, as we have seen with our own eyes, are unaware of the Materrans, and either in ruins (“Atlantium,” after the destruction of “The Source”), peaceful (“Beyond the Mountain”) or woefully disorganized (“Children of the Gods.”)  In realizing this fact, we see just how petty and ridiculous Tarrant really is.  He just wants to flex his muscles; to look like a “big man.”  He imagines enemies to conquer because of his own ego and desires, not because such enemies actually exist.

In the end, Willaway and the others restore order and sanity to the Materran Zone, and the commentary is explicitly about what happens when madmen ascend to control of their countries, a control that usually extends to the armed forces. 

As Willaway says: “Ah, the generals.  They are numerous, but not good for much.“ 

This is abundantly true in “A Dream of Conquest” because none of Tarrant’s subordinates stand up to the madman when he proposes and plans  blatant aggression.  A hierarchical structure is a good thing for maintaining order, no doubt, but a very bad thing when a madman rests at the top of the pyramid, perpetually unquestioned.

There is one very weird moment in “A Dream of Conquest:” A young Materran shows Scott a model of his colony ship, and it’s clearly  a U.S. space shuttle and rocket boosters! 

Although it’s nice to see this now-retired ship again, the space shuttle is relatively small, and more than that, incapable of traveling from one solar system to the other.   How did Materrans and humans develop the same ship (but with such different capabilities?)  I can only guess that the prop master on The Fantastic Journey had access to a space shuttle model, and figured (since the craft was not yet in official use…) that no one would notice.

Next week on cult tv blogging, one of The Fantastic Journey’s more dynamic and emotional episodes: “An Act of Love.”

CULT TV BLOGGING: The Fantastic Journey: "Children of the Gods" (February 24, 1977)

In The Fantastic Journey’s fourth episode, “Children of the Gods,” our wayward travelers in the Bermuda Triangle — Varian, Scott, Lianna, Fred, Willaway and Sil-El –  happen into a strange province that reveals signs of both the ancient past, namely Greek ruins from 500 BC, and the distant future, particularly a bombed-out, ruined metropolis on the horizon.

Very soon, the travelers learn that the city remains inhabited, but only by a tribe of uniformed, militant teenagers and children.  All the grown-ups — “The Elders”– have been driven off by “the Power,” a particle beam weapon,  after making some children their slaves.  Entrenched in the society then, is a deep-seated mistrust of adults of all stripes.

When Willaway enters the sacred Greek temple and finds a cache of high-tech laser weapons, he is promptly sentenced to death by Alpha, leader of the children, for his trespass. 

Realizing only he can save Willaway from impending execution, Scott prepares for  ceremonial combat with Alpha.  If he wins,  he can take the leadership role in the society and save his friend’s life…

In reading the synopsis of “Children of the Gods,” you’ll probably recognize several literary and TV influences.  In terms of literature, the episode harks back to William Golding’s 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, which involved a society crafted solely by children.  In the novel, that society was designed to serve as a microcosm for all of human society, and the author debated human nature.  In “Children of the Gods,” the same issue is broached. 

Specifically, The Fantastic Journey appears to subscribe to the idea that power corrupts.  Here, Alpha is just as much a tyrant as any adult who ruled before him.  “You’ve become the very thing you say you hate,” Varian informs Alpha, near episode’s conclusion, sounding very Captain Kirk-like. 

Another issue roiling in ”Children of the Gods” is clearly the Generation Gap, the notion that adults and teens are literally enemies, locked in a war for all time.  There can be no peace between them, apparently.

If you’re a fan of Star Trek and other televised science fiction, “Children of the Gods” may strongly remind you of the first season Trek episode, “Miri,” which also concerned a society where children had graduated to positions of power and authority, and deeply disliked adults, or “Grups.” 

In both stories, the children are finally reminded of their common humanity, and of the fact that the “leader” will soon be an adult, himself.  

The Lord of the Flies premise also  appeared throughout science fiction film and television in the 1970s quite a bit, from the “cubs” in Logan’s Run (1976), to the “Children of Methuselah” episode of The Starlost in 1973.  

In terms of The Fantastic Journey’s continuity and development, “Children of the Gods” accents a number of elements that would appear again and again in the series.  Here, Willaway’s curiosity gets the better of him, and he inserts himself into the middle of a crisis.   We’ll see that again. Perhaps more importantly, Willaway is often utilized by writers as the informal historian of the group.  In “Children of the Gods,” he recognizes the Greek ruins, and quotes Pindar (522 – 443 BC), a lyric poet and author of choral songs.  Uniquely, Pindar often wrote of athletic victories and championships in Greece, and his “temple” here is the site of the society’s combat rituals. 

Willaway also gets to demonstrate again his characteristic world-weariness when he wonders: “Are people ever going to stop killing each other?”

In terms of other character touches in “Children of the Gods,” Varian again uses his handy sonic energizer, which is able to “manipulate matter” this week, and Lianna demonstrates the ability to render enemies  unconcious by placing her hands on their temples.  It’s sort of a Vulcan nerve pinch variation, I guess you’d say. 

In both instances, these “tools” feel a little bit like crutches.  They are easy outs for the characters (and for writers…) when confrontations occur.

Other than Willaway – who is featured in a great visual composition as he appears from behind a Greek bust – Ike Eisenmann’s Scott probably comes off the best in “Children of the Gods.”  His character boasts a strong sense of morality, and a sympathetic heart.  Here, Scott volunteers for ritual combat with Alpha – a much taller, stronger teenager — knowing he will lose, but that he has no choice but to make the attempt.  He’s a brave and likeable kid.  This is not a small accomplishment in terms of performance and character development since a lot of ”sci fi kids” like Wesley Crusher or Adric end up somehow angering sci-fi fans, and, I think, unconsciously activating a sense of fandom’s own deep-seated self-loathing.  

Meanwhile, our young doctor Fred (Carl Franklin) is as under-utilized as ever in “Children of the Gods,” though the beginning of a Spock-McCoy bickering relationship between Fred and Willaway has now begun in earnest.  At least that gives him something to do, other thanmerely recite hip 1970s slang.

Taken in toto, “Children of the Gods” is a solid if somewhat uninspiring episode of The Fantastic Journey.  The theme about endless war — and children repeating the mistakes of their fathers — is a good, if familiar one.  There’s not a lot new to see here, and so the episode plays as a little flat.  Some of the same issues of war and peace would be better handled in the next installment, “A Dream of Conquest,” with guest star John Saxon.

Next week on cult-tv blogging: “A Dream of Conquest.”

CULT TV BLOGGING: The Fantastic Journey: "Beyond the Mountain" (February 17, 1977)

The third episode of The Fantastic Journey, “Beyond the Mountain” introduces the final piece of the series’ character equation: Roddy McDowall’s temperamental scientist, Dr. Jonathan Willaway, a man whose plane disappeared over the Sea of Japan in 1963.  

The character of Willaway would promptly become an important one for The Fantastic Journey, offering the writers another viewpoint to explore, and another way of handling crises. 

Where Varian, Lianna, Scott and Fred tend to agree easily on how to grapple with any given situation, Willaway is a bit more independent…and feisty.  In short, he adds the element of the unpredictable, and that’s important for the entertainment value of the series, as well as the emerging character development.

“Beyond the Mountain” also perfects another component of its equation here: social commentary.  Historically, this is a critical facet that all great science-fiction series are wise to develop: the capacity to comment on contemporary culture (safely) by projecting that commentary into an alien or fantasy realm.   We saw a bit of that brand of social commentary emerge in the class warfare dynamic of “Atlantium,” but the commentary is at full flower in “Beyond the Mountain.”

In “Beyond the Mountain,” Varian, Fred, Scott and Lianna are joined by Lianna’s loyal cat, Sil-El, and then promptly engulfed in an eerie red-colored storm — a close relative to the green one that stranded the crew and passengers of the Yonder in the Bermuda Triangle.  Lianna is promptly separated from the others, and Varian laments that the time zones are not as “predictable” as he’d prefer.

Lianna ends up in a paradisaical, luxury villa, where Dr. Jonathan Willaway — a very “strong willed man” — is tended to by subservient humanoid androids. He calls the androids his “family” but rules over them like a very strict father.  His pleasant and welcoming demeanor hides a darker streak.

Meanwhile, Fred, Varian and Scott are cast down into a misty swamp of gnarled trees and fog. The swamp (which looks like Dagobah…), is impressively-presented here, having been constructed on a sound-stage and seeming very atmospheric, especially in contrast to Willaway’s sun-lit world, where the grass is literally always greener.

Before long, Willaway decides he wants to marry Lianna and attempts to keep her from searching for her friends, even as his android “son,” Cyrus (John David Carson) also begins to develop human emotions for the lovely woman.

Lianna rejects Willaway’s advances, and he drugs her to keep her prisoner at the villa.  He then attempts to re-program Cyrus to eliminate the android’s feelings for her.

Down in the swamp, Scott, Fred and Varian encounter a race of green-skinned humanoids, aliens called “Arujians” (think Indians). Their leader is deathly ill from a “bacterial disease” — malaria – and Varian and Fred heal him.

Once recovered, the leader explains that Willaway  — “the man from beyond the mountain” — came to their land some time ago, subverted their androids, and banished the green-skinned humanoids to the primitive swamp.

“He does not think of us as beings of any worth,” the leader comments about Willaway, and from this remark one can see how the episode’s central metaphor is crafted. “Beyond the Mountain” is a comment on, for lack of a better word, “the white man’s burden,” and here a white westerner has re-located a race of “lesser beings” off their land for his own benefit. Just substitute green skin for red skin, and you understand the historical analogy. 

It isn’t just the historical relocation of Native Americans that “Beyond the Mountain” comments on, at least obliquely, but also the very concept of slavery.

Here, Willaway keeps a society of androids serving him and is unable to countenance the idea that they could be sentient creatures deserving of the same rights and freedoms he enjoys.

They are only “an amalgam of simulated flesh and bone,” he declares at one point. Willaway even tells his son, “your marrow is transistorized; your heart is a battery; your veins and arteries are wire filament.” This might be another way of saying that because their skin is different than his; they are “less” than human, a widely-held belief of slave owners in America a hundred-and-fifty years ago.

Adding to the depth of the commentary, Willaway generally treats his android slaves with what he believes is love and kindness, even though he is still firmly master and they still obedient servants.   You’ve certainly heard the argument that pre-Civil War South, slaves were treated “well” and cared for affectionately.  Perhaps that was indeed true in some instances; but the slaves were still slaves, susceptible to the whims and wishes of a master who believed them nothing more than property. A cage is a cage, even if the warden isn’t overtly cruel.  Because some slaves were treated with kindness does not make the institution of slavery morally acceptable.

Here the darkest side of the historical slavery equation is made plain when Willaway, challenged by a female android (Marj Dusay), warns her that if she misbehaves, he will “take her apart.” When the enslaved androids finally do rebel against him, Willaway is baffled by their revolt. “I gave you a beautiful place to live. I even made you my son…” he says, feeling betrayed, unaware that his “children” are ready to chart their own destinies. 

Again, it’s not difficult to read this analogy as one akin to slavery in America. Many slaves did live on beautiful estates, and many masters did give their slaves their family name  But once more these are not qualities equal to freedom, self-determination, and liberty.

So, in the course of one episode, Willaway displaces one ethnic group (the green-skinned swamp dwellers), and enslaves another (the androids).

Or as he puts it at the denouement, society and he “do have problems.”

I’ll say. 

You’d think, given his actions, that Willaway would be played as an out-and-out villain, and left defeated and vanquished by episode’s end.  But The Fantastic Journey, to its credit, offers a bit more dimensionality in its treatment of Willaway.

In the end, with the help of the series regulars, both subjugated races are freed.  But surprisingly, Varian shows mercy to Willaway and allows him to travel with the group.

Again, this was the final piece of the character dynamics: Varian, Fred, Lianna and Scott are all likable, heroic characters, whereas Willaway (as this episode reveals) is more flawed; and more willing to strike off with his own agenda. He isn’t a constant foil (like, say Lost in Space’s Dr. Smith), merely a fly in the ointment and wild card. The ending solution, Willaway joining the team, works well story-wise and is even believable because Varian is a man from a peaceful future; one where men don’t hold grudges or act in petty fashion. He is the series’ version of the peaceful and enlightened Spock, and a great character because he calls to the better angels of our nature. 

In the spirit of Star Trek’s “Requiem for Methuselah,” Space: 1999′s “One Moment of Humanity,” Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Offspring,” and the new Battlestar Galactica’s “Downloaded” this Fantastic Journey episode also involves the idea of an android (or androids, plural) attaining humanity or understanding humanity. Willaway’s son, Cyrus, in this episode dies (in love with Lianna), a “tear” falling from his cheek.  This image seems akin to the one of Zarl attaining “one moment of humanity” in the 1999 story, and the image of Lol dying after learning to feel love towards her father, Data,  in the absolutely heart-wrenching and brilliant “The Offspring,” surely one of the most affecting Next Generation episodes produced.    Practically speaking, however, it’s hard to imagine an android crying…unless tear ducts were installed.

Kidding aside, the idea of androids grappling with sentience and emotional awareness is handled well enough here; though the depiction of the androids (lanky men and women in gold lame jumpsuits with circuit panels on their backs…) dates the series somewhat dramatically.   Still, “Beyond the Mountain” is likely the best The Fantastic Journey episode of the first three aired, and probably a serious contender for best episode of the short-lived series.

Next episode: “Children of the Gods.”