Genesis II

• Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
• March 23, 1973
• CBS

Due to an accident with a suspended animation experiment, a scientist finds himself in a post-apocalyptic future. Happens all the time.

Though I never caught this when it first aired but Genesis II (and its subsequent variations) are something that I recall from weekends where local stations would run this to fill the time that lacked anything from the network.

NASA scientist Dr. Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord) finds himself a century or so into the future after his experiment HE IS PERFORMING ON HIMSELF AND NOBODY/NOTHING ELSE gets interrupted by an earthquake that seals off the chamber until it is rediscovered by the PAX. I am pretty sure being first on the list for something you’re doing violates a few protocols.

Hunt is one of those TV scientists that knows a little something about everything. Even though his specialty appears to be some kind of suspended animation science he knows about nuclear reactors and airplanes and the subshuttle system that runs all over the planet that during its construction no nation objected to even though you could conceivably use it to get troops inside the border of an enemy nation. Cord also looks like the Bounty Guy, and I just cannot picture the Bounty Guy being a scientist.

Quickly Hunt is paired with a woman named Lyra-a (Mariette Hartley) who gives him (and the audience) the historical rundown and sets up the climate of the story’s world while fleeing to an area controlled by the Tyranians (Arizona and New Mexico). Like Lyra-a, the Tyranians are mutants with greater physical prowess than humans and can be identified by dual navels because reasons.

Hunt seems baffled by some information that he should know. For instance he looks surprised to find out that he is in the vicinity of Arizona and New Mexico. Or that the subshuttle has such great reach even though that was the goal while it was still being built in his time. There are others yet no indication of memory gaps. Never think that they continued to work on the necessary tunnel system that stretches thousands of miles but were unwilling to dig a few feet to get him.

As a TV movie, Genesis II was probably about an hour and a half when it premiered. There were far fewer commercials on television back then. My point being it’s far too short. The story feels like it’s careening with distinct narrative shortcomings/oversights such as how exactly did Lyra-a fall in love with Hunt?

Loyalties change rather rapidly here. A sentence or two is enough to convince somebody that this person or that person is evil. Mariette Hartley was certainly hot but was Dylan so sex starved that the first statement by the first future babe he met was enough to change his mind. Honestly between PAX and the Tyranians both had some serious issues. The former was authoritarian for what they viewed as the greater good while the latter was authoritarian for their own personal benefit. No real lesser evil here but a peak into Gene Roddenberry’s mind.

Genesis II predates Mad Max so it doesn’t have that post-apocalyptic look to it. You do not need to be wearing black leather, but this is a relatively clean looking bunch of people running around in cheap Roman/Greek outfits that would be beneath Spirit Halloween. They are supposedly still in the process of rebuilding but have enough resources for very brightly colored cloth. It even looks like some of the actors are wearing cheap whigs.

This is a movie hampered not only by the limitations of the time and the medium in which it was presented but by script writer Gene Roddenberry. I will forever adore him for Star Trek TOS and even TNG, but you could see a shift in his thinking between the two. I think he was perhaps more honest here on what his views were than in either of the two by picking the authoritarian regime he liked as the hero over the one he did not.

There’s a kernel of a good idea in Genesis II in it’s cheesy 70s fun but with narrative chunks missing and trying to craft a heroic authoritarian regime it does not work.