Welcome to the Archive. Following the infamous “Format Wars” (R.I.P. VHS), a multitude of films found themselves in danger of being forgotten forever due to their admittedly niche appeal. Thankfully, Warner Bros. established the Archive Collection, a Disc On Demand and Streaming service devoted to some of the more idiosyncratic pieces of cinema ever made. Being big fans of the label, we here at Cinapse thought it prudent to establish a column devoted to these unusual gems. Thus “The Archivist” was born — a biweekly look at some of the best, boldest and most batshit motion pictures the Shield has to offer. Some of these will be recent additions to the collection, while others will be titles that have been available for awhile. With over 1,500 pictures procurable on Warner Archive (and more being added every month), there’s no possible way we’ll get to all of them. But trust me when we say we’re sure going to try.
Welcome back to The Archivist! Get ready to have your animation all suspended because I have a super-seventies sci-fi trip into the more-or-less super-seventies future! Three years in a row, the great Gene Roddenberry gave television a feature-length pilot episode in hopes of starting a new series. Sadly, all three were rejected by their chosen networks, but fear not kids, for with the bad news, must come some good. The Warner Archives, in its wisdom, offers the whole “trilogy” for its Disc-On-Demand service! Gene Rodenberry! Obscure low-budget sci-fi! It’s a nerd two-for-one! Hyphens!
Genesis II
It all began with mustachioed Alex Cord as Dylan Hunt: swaggering NASA astronaut, adventuring into infinite possibilities. Somewhere within the Carlsbad Caverns, he was leading a team of scientists on a mission to achieve suspended animation. As fun would have it, the pressurized chamber holding Mr. Hunt forces the unknown fault lines above to shift and buries he and his team for over a sesquicentenary (somebody got a thesaurus for Christmas!). Unearthed by explorers from the future society, PAX, and a deserter from a supreme race of mutated humans (sexy fallout from WWIII, apparently) known as Tyrannians, Dylan must work his way through lies, lust, and multiple navels to uncover the truth about these warring factions. Who is on the side of righteousness?
It’s great! The filmmakers squeezed as much life into this thing as their clearly slim budget would allow. It has a lot of goofy charm, fun performances, and it achieves a fully fleshed-out vision of a new planet earth. The movie takes us on an adventure across new, but familiar terrain, and into new, but familiar conflicts. The Tyrannians need Hunt to repair their nuclear facility, but for what purpose? Do they need energy or weapons? Director John Llewellyn Moxey lives up to his surname in creating a surprisingly energetic movie, culminating in a cool climactic action sequence (at one point, they tackle a fucking horse), as well as a classic Roddenberry big-picture message about violence. Check it out.
Planet Earth
The next year, undaunted by his failure, Roddenberry returned, again with his protagonist, Dylan Hunt, and his new friends at PAX. This time, portrayed by the great character actor, John Saxon (Enter The Dragon, Nightmare on Elm Street), we get a better sense of what all could be done with this world in a TV series. Genesis II ended with such a sense of finality, that it might have felt like the entire story was over before it had hardly started. In Planet Earth, Dylan Hunt is now leading a team of PAX-onauts in exploring their new earth. Basically, it’s a small-scale Star Trek. They discover there are many societies all over the post-apocalyptic earth, including a matriarchy that has enslaved men.
The movie has a lot of fun with this idea. Maybe too much fun is had, including a rather outdated view of the politics of women’s lib. This is the seventies, after all, and although his intentions were good, Rodenberry’s teleplay (co-written by Juanita Bartlett) can’t help but condescend a bit. After being captured by the female confederacy, Hunt must find a way to seduce his mistress. He romances her as they drink (don’t worry, it doesn’t go date-rapey) and he muses, “Women’s lib… men’s lib… how about people’s lib?”
WHAT!? Man, as a sex, has never required liberation. Obviously, this woman-ruled settlement has taken social justice too far, and perverted it, but that line just reeks with deliberate misunderstanding. Sure, feminism was a little more militant back then, but over all, the plan in seeking gender equality was never about enslaving men. To suggest this “conquering woman” could be the future of women’s lib is completely ridiculous. Just the same, the movie manages to entertain.
The costume department had a lot of fun making wacky, but appropriate attire for these powerful women. Plus, the cast rather naturally affected their performances with a great deal of power and stature within the matriarchy. They great Diana Muldaur (from both Star Trek TOS and DS9) takes the lead role among her co-stars with a particularly impressive realization of her character. She is strong, even brutish, but still somehow feminine and graceful. Watching her, one has to ponder what features and characteristics can be considered specifically masculine or feminine, and whether or not any of those characteristics matter (they don’t, of course). That should have been the central theme of this film all along. Without those useless physical distinctions, Patriarchy collapses.
Strange New World
Another year later, finally giving in, Gene Roddenberry sat out when Ronald F. Graham and Robert Butler took some of the concepts and imagery from Roddenberry’s two previous attempts and created Strange New World (a sly reference to the opening monologue from Star Trek). This time, John Saxon returned to do more dropkicking, but not as Dylan Hunt. Now, he is Anthony Vico, saved with two other astronauts in a cryo-sleep in outer space while asteroids pummeled the earth they knew. They return 180 years later to find a secret society which harvests organs from clones in order to live eternally. The movie devotes the majority of its time to exploring that world and when the team makes its exit, after what feels like the climax of the script, only to discover another world, it is hard to find the energy to stay focused. The two acts are shockingly uneven. The first half slowly moved in “suspense”, and the second moves at a much faster clip and focuses on action and a far more appealing idea.
Vico and his team discover, hiding deep in the wilderness, tribal white trash! I’m not exaggerating. These people (all men) fear foreigners (“fornies”, they call them), live for huntin’ and trappin’, speak with a distinct southern drawl, and love weapons. As their foils, a group of tribal hippies (sort of) is also discovered. This faction has found a book detailing the laws of the Fish and Wildlife Services and adopted it as a bible. They live in what was once a zoo and now thrive in peace with the animals… they can even communicate with them. The NRA Vs. The EPA! It’s a beautifully goofy idea that would have made for wonderful satire, but this movie lacks the energy and structure to play well even as grounded science fiction. It just doesn’t live up to the fun or charm of its predecessors.
On the whole, these three features are a real treasure. To have this glimpse at some lost Rodenberry work is exciting and rare, not to mention these three works contain the concepts and characters which lead eventually to the successful TV series Andromeda.
Now wake your clone-ass up out of hibernation and discover some popcorn! It’s triple-feature time!
