Planet Earth (film)

{{About|the science fiction film|films related to the BBC nature documentary series|Planet Earth (franchise)}}

{{Infobox television

| image = Planet-earth-roddenberry-saxon-muldaur.jpg

| caption = DVD release of the TV movie

| genre = Sci-fi

| based_on =

| screenplay = Gene Roddenberry
Juanita Bartlett

| story =

| director = Marc Daniels

| starring = John Saxon
Diana Muldaur
Ted Cassidy
Janet Margolin
Christopher Cary
Corrine Camacho
Majel Barrett

| music = Harry Sukman

| country = United States

| language = English

| producer = Gene Roddenberry

| editor =

| cinematography = Archie R. Dalzell

| runtime = 74 minutes

| company = Warner Bros. Television

| network = ABC

| released = {{start date|1974|04|23}}

}}

Planet Earth is a 1974 American made-for-television science fiction film that was created by Gene Roddenberry, written by Roddenberry and Juanita Bartlett (from a story by Roddenberry). It first aired on April 23, 1974 on the ABC network, and stars John Saxon as Dylan Hunt. It was presented as a pilot for what was hoped to be a new weekly television series.{{cite news|last=Beck|first=Marilyn|date=February 19, 1974|title=Hollywood Closeup|work=The Milwaukee Journal|page=24|publisher=Gannett Company|location=Milwaukee|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19740219&id=VQQqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6CgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7253,4539675|access-date=January 12, 2014}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The pilot focused on gender relations from an early 1970s perspective. Dylan Hunt, confronted with a post-apocalyptic matriarchal society, muses, "Women's lib? Or women's lib gone mad..."{{cite news|last=Buck|first=Jerry|date=April 21, 1974|title=Planet Earth New TV Sci-Fi Series|work=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|publisher=Gannett Company|location=Sarasota, Florida|page=11|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19740421&id=qkg0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=EGcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6218,2931925|access-date=January 12, 2014}}{{cite news|last=Muir|first=John Kenneth|date=December 29, 2011|title=From the Archive: Planet Earth (1974)|author-link=John Kenneth Muir|url=http://johnkennethmuir.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/from-the-archive-planet-earth-1974/|agency=WordPress|access-date=January 16, 2014}} The film also stars Diana Muldaur, Ted Cassidy, Janet Margolin, Christopher Cary, Corrine Camacho, and Majel Barrett.{{sfn|Sherman|2000|page=143}}{{sfn|Young|2000|page=489}} Marc Daniels directed the film.{{sfn|Terrace|2019|page=193}}{{sfn|Young|2000|page=489}}{{sfn|McKenna|2013|page=268}}

Plot

It is the year 2133, and Earth was devastated by a nuclear war decades earlier. PAX, a science-based society dedicated to restoring civilization and peace to the world, sends a team to conduct a survey of central California.

Returning to PAX headquarters, the team is attacked by a group of militaristic mutants known as the Kreeg. After a struggle, the PAX team manages to escape in a hyperloop-like subshuttle, a vehicle that can travel between settlements via tubes underground, built during the early 1990s before the final conflict of the 20th century. One of the team, Pater Kimbridge (Rai Tasco), is severely wounded. To save his life he requires a bioplastic prosthesis to repair the damaged pulmonary artery sheared away by a Kreeg rifle shot.

PAX Team 21, led by Dylan Hunt (John Saxon), with members Baylok (Christopher Cary), Isiah (Ted Cassidy reprising his role from Genesis II), and Harper-Smythe (Janet Margolin) tries to locate a missing doctor, Jonathan Connor (Jim Antonio), the only surgeon who can perform the delicate surgery in time. Their search leads the team to the Confederacy of Ruth, a society of latter-day Amazons, where women are dominant and men are enslaved.

As a ruse, Harper-Smythe binds Hunt and enters the Confederacy's territory with him as her "property". Once there, she meets Marg (Diana Muldaur), the leader of the women, who claims Dylan as her own property. Harper-Smythe makes her way to a nearby farm and meets a woman who explains how the society operates (and the fact that there are fewer and fewer children).

While captive, Hunt learns that the men (referred to as "Dinks") are subjugated by a drug in their food. Despite his efforts, he soon succumbs to the effects of the drug. Harper-Smythe arrives at the village in time to reclaim her "property" by challenging and defeating Marg. When Harper-Smythe is unable to find Connor in the village, Marg invites her to see Marg's newcomer Dinks. Connor comes forward with an antidote for the drug and Hunt recovers. Connor, Hunt and Harper-Smythe decide that she should swap Hunt for Connor, allowing the doctor to return to PAX. Marg agrees to the exchange and Connor and Harper-Smythe leave for PAX after first distributing the antidote in the Dink food supply. That evening, free of the influence of the drug, Hunt seduces Marg.

In the morning, a small party of Kreeg arrive and demand the secret to making men compliant. Hunt leads the un-drugged men in overpowering the invaders. They learn the men in the other households were equally successful in fending off the Kreeg. As a result, the women's council decides to suspend the drug treatment program on their males. Kimbridge soon recovers from the operation.

Cast

John Saxon as Dylan Hunt
Janet Margolin as Harper-Smythe
Ted Cassidy as Isiah
Christopher Cary as Baylok
Diana Muldaur as Marg
Sally Kemp as Treece
Johana De Winter as Villar
Claire Brennen as Delba
Corinne Camacho as Bronta
Majel Barrett as Yuloff
Jim Antonio as Jonathan Connor
Aron Kincaid as Gorda
John Quade as Kreeg Commandant
Rai Tasco as Pater Kimbridge
Sara Chattin as Thetis
Lew Brown as Merlo
Raymond Sutton as Kreeg Captain
Joan Crosby as Kyla
James Bacon as Partha
Craig Hundley as Harpsichordist
Robert McAndrew as First Dink
Bob Golden as Second Dink
Susan Page as Little Girl
Patricia Smith as Skylar (Uncredited)

Production

Planet Earth was the second attempt by Roddenberry to create a weekly series set on a post-apocalyptic future Earth. The previous pilot was Genesis II, and it featured many of the concepts and characters later redeveloped and mostly recast in Planet Earth. Planet Earth was intended to be a second pilot for Genesis II.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AHeeDAAAQBAJ&q=Ted+Cassidy+as+Isiah&pg=PT93|title=The Impossible Has Happened: The Life and Work of Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek|first=Lance|last=Parkin|author-link=Lance Parkin|publisher=Aurum Press Ltd.|location=London|year=2016|isbn=978-1781314463}}

A third and final movie, Strange New World, was aired in 1975. This movie also starred John Saxon as Captain Anthony Vico. In this movie a trio of astronauts returns to Earth after 180 years in suspended animation to locate the underground headquarters of PAX and free the people placed there in suspended animation.

None of these three pilots was ever developed into a series; however, some of the characters served as prototypes for the later TV series (based on Roddenberry's ideas), Andromeda.{{cite web|last=Mills|first=Christopher|date=May 9, 2011|title=Space 1970: Planet Earth|url=http://space1970.blogspot.com/2011/05/planet-earth-1974.html|work=Awesome Inc.|publisher=Blogger|location=Atlanta|access-date=January 18, 2014}}{{unreliable source?|date=November 2018}} Most notably, the lead character of Andromeda was also named Dylan Hunt.

Reception

=Critical response=

File:Janet_Margolin_vs_Diana_Muldaur_Fight_Scene.jpg refers to as Hollywood's use of a blonde vs brunette polarity, dark haired Harper-Smythe fights her blonde nemesis, Marg, the Amazon leader.{{cite magazine|last1=Corliss|first1=Richard |title="A Total Recall Remake: Why?"|url=https://entertainment.time.com/2012/08/02/a-total-recall-remake-why/|magazine=Time|publisher=Time USA, LLC (Marc & Lynne Benioff)|location=United States|access-date=24 August 2019}}]]

In the years since the movie’s release, many critics have focused on comparing the movie to other Roddenberry works, especially Star Trek.{{cite news|last=Bond|first=Jeff|title= Reviews: Gene Roddenberry's 'Genesis II' & 'Planet Earth'|website=TrekMovie.com|publisher=SciFanatic Network|location=Los Angeles|access-date=January 17, 2014|url=http://trekmovie.com/2009/10/23/reviews-gene-roddenberrys-genesis-ii-planet-earth/|date=October 23, 2009}} In a three-way comparison between the earlier Genesis II, Planet Earth and Star Trek, Saxon’s character was considered closer to Star Trek’s Captain Kirk in that he shared the same "physical beauty" and "charming arrogance" as Kirk, compared to the dark, brooding star of Genesis II, played by Alex Cord. Saxon's fighting skills were also complimented by critics, "... you have to love Saxon delivering a full-on Captain Kirk drop-kick to a Kreeg." Janet Margolin has also been compared favorably to some of the female characters in Star Trek, including Yeoman Colt, featured in the first Star Trek episode "The Cage". Along with Muldaur, Margolin's fighting skills were also noted by critics as the sight of two barefoot women, one a fair, blue-eyed blonde and the other an olive skinned, dark-eyed brunette, fighting each other while wearing halter tops and slit skirts barely covering their bikini briefs, was difficult to ignore.

Marc Daniels brings professional polish and brisk pacing to the telefilm and the action sequences are very nicely-staged. Aside from the encounters with the Kreeg, there's a very well-done catfight between Muldaur and Margolin where it's clear that the two actresses are doing much of the stuntwork themselves."

Another fight scene, between the characters Harper-Smythe and Treece, was notable for taking place in front of Treece's children. The fight ends with the dark haired Harper-Smythe bringing her blonde opponent to her knees, unaware that the children are watching until they step forward, crying. Harper-Smythe, embarrassed, releases Treece and apologizes to the children for fighting their mother.

This mirrors a scene in Genesis II in which the shock wave from a nuclear explosion Hunt has triggered strikes a Pax lookout just as a mother has brought her young children out to see the stars. There and in the Planet Earth scene, the heroes witness the effect of their own violence on children, forcing them to rethink the use of force—a very effective and intelligent pacifistic touch from Roddenberry.

=Release=

Planet Earth aired April 23, 1974, on ABC.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRRLDAAAQBAJ&q=John+Saxon+as+Dylan+Hunt&pg=PT265|title=Unsold Television Pilots 1955-1989|first=Lee|last=Goldberg|author-link=Lee Goldberg|publisher=CreateSpace|location=Scotts Valley, California|year=1990|isbn=978-1511590679}} The film was released on DVD on November 16, 2009, by WBTV.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.amazon.com/Planet-Earth-1974-John-Saxon/dp/B002VA59ZS|title=Planet Earth|medium=DVD|work=WBTV|publisher=Gray Television|location=Charlotte, North Carolina|date=November 16, 2009|accessdate=May 24, 2020|asin=B002VA59ZS}}

References

=Citations=

=Sources=

{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRRLDAAAQBAJ&q=John+Saxon+as+Dylan+Hunt&pg=PT265|title=Unsold Television Pilots 1955-1989|first=Lee|last=Goldberg|author-link=Lee Goldberg|publisher=CreateSpace|location=Scotts Valley, California|year=1990|isbn=978-1511590679}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIeACgAAQBAJ&q=Janet+Margolin+as+Harper-Smythe&pg=PA143|title=Cyborgs, Santa Claus and Satan: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Made for Television|first=Fraser A.|last=Sherman|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=New York City|year=2000|isbn=978-0786407934|page=143}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ot6_DwAAQBAJ&q=Janet+Margolin+as+Harper-Smythe&pg=PA193|title=Encyclopedia of Television Pilots: 2,470 Films Broadcast 1937-2019|first=Vincent|last=Terrace|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=New York City|year=2019|isbn=978-1476678740|edition=2nd|page=193}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QoJ4jTghUPYC&q=Sally+Kemp+as+Treece&pg=PA489|title=The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies|first=R. G.|last=Young|publisher=Applause Theatre & Cinema Books|location=Lanham, Maryland|isbn=978-1557832696|year=2000|edition=2nd|page=489}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVCFAAAAQBAJ&q=Diana+Muldaur+as+Marg&pg=PA126|title=The ABC Movie of the Week: Big Movies for the Small Screen|first=Michael|last=McKenna|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, Maryland|year=2013|isbn=978-0810891562|page=268}}