Gene Roddenberry’s first attempt at a new sci-fi series after Star Trek
A late 70’s suspended animation test at an underground NASA complex goes awry when some kind of earthquake hits and Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord) wakes up 154 years later in a post-apocalyptic world where he finds himself caught between two societies—the underground Pax and the surface-dwelling mutants, the Tyranians.
"Genesis II" (1973) was written/produced by Roddenberry as the pilot to a new sci-fi TV series, but CBS declined to pick it up, wisely opting for the similar Planet of the Apes series. This one has its points of interest, like Mariette Hartley as Lyra-a and Ted Cassidy as Isiah, but it’s dramatically meh. The characters aren’t fleshed out and there’s too little human interest, although Roddenberry obviously planned to improve on this foundation with several episodes in the works.
Unshaken, Gene reworked one of the episodes "Poodle Shop" (which originated from an idea he pitched as “The Pet Shop” in 1964) into a second pilot called “Planet Earth” (1974) with John Saxon in the starring role of Dylan Hunt.
It also failed to be picked up, but Saxon is more charismatic as the lead and the story is more compelling featuring the return of Ted Cassidy as Isiah and a superior female cast with Janet Margolin and Diana Muldaur, not to mention Johana De Winter in a hairstyle reminiscent of Princess Leia three years before Star Wars debuted.
This one plays like an anemic version of “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (1970), just without the apes or the action.
The film runs 1 hours, 14 minutes, and was shot at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios and University of California, Riverside.
GRADE: C-