Planet Earth

• Directed by Marc Daniels
• April 23, 1974
• ABC

“Women’s lib? Or women’s lib gone mad…”-Dylan Hunt

A 20^th Century man living in 2133 while exploring a devastated Earth finds a place where men are slaves to the ruling class of women.

Unlike the veritable Rainbow Coalition that was the cast of Genesis II, this is a decidedly Caucasian group of people. It’s as white as the original pilot for Star Trek was. Not even a token actor from any group lingering in the background or a minor character of authority to hand Dylan Hunt some orders. Percy Rodrigues was unavailable for a cameo as Primus Isaac Kimbridge?

Despite the presence of John Saxon replacing Alex Cord as Dylan Hunt and multiple other alterations Planet Earth comes off as almost a sequel to the first to film yet not as one at the same time. Once again it involves the peace loving and science driven government of PAX seeking to expand their society and bring about global stability. Like the Soviets! They strike me less and less like the good guys but more like the better option in a world with few good ones.

Espousing how their side loves freedom, they dress in spandex non differentiating uniforms that would look like party clothes to Mao Zedong. This movie is filled with philosophical contradictions. Dressing your not military characters in uniforms in a time when the public was well aware of the likes of Maoist China feels like a mistake. It is better than the wannabe ancient Greece stuff of Genesis II.

This is supposed to be a more action-oriented version of Genesis II and it certainly starts out that way when Dylan and his, umm, away team encounter a group of post-apocalyptic jalopy riding mutants with bone ridges not all that different from TMP Klingons. The vehicles have purposeless wooden structures mounted on them. Go lazy and stick a gun or just have a dude riding there. The prosthetics are nothing groundbreaking but blend better than you would assume possible given the most sophisticated demonstration of the time was the Planet of the Apes films.

New to the mix are empathic powers developing in normal people a mere 160 years into the future. We get one demonstration of this by Baylok (Christopher Cary) and then it never gets used again. This was the SECOND pilot for a proposed series but if you got a guy with powers he better use them more than once.

Much like the Captain’s logs of Star Trek, this film uses voice logs by Dylan to shortcut from Point A to Point B rather than engaging in necessary and costly scenes to demonstrate things. We get a recap of the situation though he does not explain the origin of the subshuttle which is the future train with tunnels all over the planet that is their mode of global transport.

During the opening mission, one of their party is injured so they need to go get a doctor that can perform the surgery. Choice A is a guy who is about a two week trip from a subshuttle station location. Choice B is a guy who hasn’t been seen for quite some time but was last seen near the incident of the opener whose whereabouts are unknown. Guess which one they picked to go after.

Though Primus Isaac Kimbridge is not back, the old man that everybody cares about is named Pater Kimbridge (Rai Tasco). Not even a passing resemblance between the two actors. We get no idea why these people are engaging in a risky mission or why there are only two surgeons in PAX capable of delicate surgery and both were sent to the boonies. What makes Pater so emotionally important to the cast? At an hour and 15 minutes without commercials that might be tough to do but if you’re going to introduce a character in a standalone TV movie that’s important. Give them something other than a line where they sound kind of fatherly.

That quote I posted-“Women’s lib? Or women’s lib gone mad…” said by Dylan Hunt-is not meant to be funny but it is hilarious. John Saxon asks that quite seriously in a way only he could. It also tells you what you are going to get which is a look at gender relations from the view of the mid 70s.

It tries to be edgy for the day, but the dialogue used is stilted and awkward. Star Trek TOS was excellent at being about things in a way that not only got past censors but if the viewer did not get it, they still got a good character driven story. Gene Roddenberry and Juanita Bartlett screenplay is perhaps an unintended early example of the modern message film that rubs the viewers face in the point rather than telling a satisfying.

Despite pretensions of being deep and looking at feminism as well as the battle of the sexes, female characters get shoddy treatment. Our villain Marg (Diana Muldaur) is the more interesting of the bunch though easily duped by Hunt when the movie needs to end. Harper-Smythe (Janet Margolin) waffles between being Dylan’s pal and the young thing struck by his manliness.

Marg has some authority over (though not really in charge of) a settlement where drugged men are the sole representation of one of the oldest traded commodities-slaves. Another reason for the quote I started this with. Confusingly these men pull carts and plows despite some horses being around. How was the knowledge of using animals for labor forgotten?

With only some cast returning (and not all sporting the same name) it is tough to view this as a sequel but gets confusing if viewed as a standalone film since some events of Genesis II are referenced while others are discussed in a way other than how they happened. I’m not sure where exactly this telefilm stands but for the purposes for my own bit of head canon, I’m going to call it a sequel.

Planet Earth is an interesting look at what could’ve been. Roddenberry tried to get another vision of the future on the TV but couldn’t quite do it. It is a clunky sort of sequel that has no idea how to handle looking at what it wants to discuss.