Genesis II (film)
Genesis II is a 1973 American television film pilot[1] created and produced by Gene Roddenberry[2] and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey.[3] The film, which opens with the line, "My name is Dylan Hunt. My story begins the day on which I died", is the story of a 20th-century man thrown forward in time, to a post-apocalyptic future, by an accident in suspended animation. The film stars Alex Cord, Mariette Hartley, Ted Cassidy, Percy Rodrigues, Harvey Jason, Titos Vandis, Bill Striglos, Lynne Marta, Harry Raybould, and Majel Barrett.[4]
| Genesis II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | John Llewellyn Moxey |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Gene Roddenberry |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Harry Sukman |
| Cinematography | Gerald Perry Finnerman |
| Edited by | George Watters |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
Release date | March 23, 1973 |
Running time | 74 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot summary
In 1979, NASA scientist Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord) is working on "Project Ganymede", a suspended animation system for astronauts on long-duration spaceflights. As chief of the project he volunteers for the first multi-day test. He places himself in chemically induced hibernation deep inside Carlsbad Caverns; while there, his lab is buried in an earthquake. The monitoring equipment is damaged and fails to awake him at the intended end of the test. He awakens instead in 2133, emerging into a chaotic post-apocalyptic world. An event called "The Great Conflict" (a third and final World War) destroyed the civilization of Hunt's time. Various new civilizations have emerged in a struggle for control of available resources. Those with the greatest military might and the will to use it have the greatest advantage.
Hunt is accidentally found and rescued by an organization calling themselves "PAX" (the Latin word for "peace"). PAX members are the descendants of the NASA personnel who worked and lived at the Carlsbad installation in Dylan's time. They are explorers and scientists who preserve what little information and technology survived from before the conflict, and who seek to learn and acquire more in an effort to build a new civilization. Members of PAX find Hunt still sealed in the hibernation chamber. They revive him, and are thrilled to meet a survivor from before the conflict.
An elaborate "subshuttle" subterranean rapid transit system was constructed during the 1970s, due to the vulnerability of air transportation to attack. The subshuttles utilized a magnetic levitation rail system, and operated inside vactrain tunnels and ran at hundreds of miles per hour. The tunnel network was comprehensive enough to cover the entire globe. The PAX organization inherited the still-working system and used it to dispatch their teams of troubleshooters.
A totalitarian regime known as the Tyranians rule the area once known as Arizona and New Mexico. The Tyranians are mutants who possess greater physical prowess than non-mutated humans; they can be identified by their dual navels. Their leader discovers that Hunt has knowledge of nuclear power systems, and they offer him great rewards if he can repair their failing nuclear power generator. However, once he is in their power they attempt to force him to reactivate a nuclear missile system in their possession, with which they intend to destroy their enemies and dominate the region. Hunt is appalled by this small-scale replay of the events which must have led to the conflict. He leads a revolt of the enslaved citizenry, sabotages the nuclear device, and destroys the reactor.
To Hunt's dismay, the PAX leaders assert their pacifist nature and intentions. They are attempting to rebuild an idealistic society using all which was deemed "good" from Earth's past, and they regard Hunt's interference with a rival civilization and his destructive tactics as antithetical to this end. They also see great good in him and value his knowledge of the past. They ask Hunt to join PAX permanently, but only if he can agree to never take human lives again. Hunt half-heartedly agrees. Security chief Yuloff states that the rationale of taking lives to justify the saving of lives was what allowed "the Great Conflict" to happen in the first place.
Cast
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Production
Screenplay
While Roddenberry and Barrett were on vacation in the Bahamas in the summer of 1972, Roddenberry decided he missed working and wrote the screenplay in six weeks.[5]
Genesis II was the first of three concepts that Roddenberry hoped to develop into a new science fiction television series following the success of Star Trek (the other two were The Questor Tapes and Spectre).[6] Genesis II aired on CBS on March 23, 1973; although Roddenberry had stories lined up for a 20-episode first season, CBS declined to pick it up, opting instead for the short-lived Planet of the Apes live-action series.[7]
The plot point about the Tyranians having a dual circulatory system with two hearts and thus identifiable because they were born with two navels was an elaborate in-joke. While producing Star Trek, Roddenberry was constantly besieged by demands for changes from the censors at NBC's Broadcast Standards department, which he took to calling the "BS Department" due to the often petty nature of their revisions. Among the things to which the censors routinely objected was the depiction of a navel on anyone with a bare midriff, resulting in several reshoots of scenes with actors in revealing but otherwise "decent" attire whose navels showed. By making the double navel the distinguishing physical feature of the Tyranians, Roddenberry was effectively filming every navel that he had been forced to censor from Star Trek twice over.
Episode concepts
The following are story concepts that were in development during the production of Genesis II that would have become individual episodes had the network approved the series.
- "Company B" — A "Trojan Horse" suicide squad from the days of the great conflict comes out of suspended animation and attacks PAX. They represent the 1995 A.D. ideal of a perfect soldier.
- "London Express" — A hair raising journey through submerged portions of the North Atlantic subshuttle tube to mysterious London of 2133 A.D. Dylan Hunt and Team-21 meet Lyra-A there and the mad monarch King Charles X.
- "Robots Return" — The advanced computers and sophisticated machinery left on a moon of Jupiter by a 1992 NASA expedition have evolved into a new form of robot life and visit Earth in search of the "God" which created their life. They meet Hunt, formerly of NASA, and consider him a messiah. This story idea was later developed into the script for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and shares that work's thematic similarities to the Star Trek episode "The Changeling", written by John Meredyth Lucas.
- "Poodle Shop" — Dylan Hunt is captured and put on sale by the females in a strange society where men are treated as domestic pets and often traded back and forth for breeding purposes. This story idea would later turn into the second pilot, Planet Earth.
- "The Apartment" — Trapped inside 20th century ruins by a mysterious force field, Hunt is catapulted through a time continuum back to 1975 where he can be seen as a "transparent ghost" by the girl living in the apartment there. A bizarre love affair with a surprise twist ending ensues. The basic plot appears later as an unused Star Trek: Phase II episode "Tomorrow and the Stars".
- "The Electric Company" — Dylan Hunt and his PAX team encounter a place where a strong priesthood holds a society in bondage through the clever use of electricity. The simple inhabitants see the flashes of light and the amplified voices as the sight and sound of "God", but Dylan's team ends the dominance of the priesthood when they come up with still better tricks. This episode superficially resembles the Star Trek episode "Return of the Archons".
Source: - Lincoln Enterprises Catalog No. 6
Planet Earth
Roddenberry reworked the material into a second pilot, Planet Earth, in which John Saxon replaced Cord in the role of Dylan Hunt. Based on network recommendations, this second pilot focused more on action and physical conflict than its predecessor. Though it aired on ABC in 1974, it was also declined. Warner Bros, which owned the rights, reworked Roddenberry's material yet again for Strange New World, also starring Saxon, which aired in 1975.
Andromeda
Robert Hewitt Wolfe used the name "Dylan Hunt" and many ideas from Roddenberry's Genesis II notes to create the Andromeda television series.[8]
Release
Genesis II aired on television on March 23, 1973.[1] The film was released on DVD on November 11, 2009, by WBTV.[9]
See also
References
Citations
- Ingram 1998, p. 214.
- Farinas, Mark (November 17, 2016). "Forgotten Roddenberry: Genesis II". TrekMovie.com. United States: SciFanatic Network. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
- Quinlan, David (1983). The Illustrated Guide to Film Directors. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0389204084.
- Terrace 2019, p. 86.
- Connelly 2019, p. 37.
- "No Tricks, Formulas To Science Fiction. Author Claims". Santa Cruz Sentinel. February 14, 1973. p. 30. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
- Alexander, David, "Star Trek Creator", ROC Books, an imprint of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Books USA, New York, June 1994, ISBN 978-0-451-45418-8, pp. 398-403.
- Lipper, Don (November 1, 2000). "The Great Hen of the Galaxy Speaks". Space.com. United States: Purch (Future). Archived from the original on October 1, 2005. Retrieved October 1, 2005.
- Genesis II. WBTV (DVD). Charlotte, North Carolina: Gray Television. November 11, 2009. ASIN B002VA5A02. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
Sources
- Connelly, Sherilyn (2019). The First Star Trek Movie: Bringing the Franchise to the Big Screen, 1969-1980. New York City: McFarland & Company. p. 37. ISBN 978-1476672519.
- Ingram, Billy (1998). TV Party. Television's Untold Tales!. Lanham, Maryland: Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 214. ISBN 978-1566251846.
- Terrace, Vincent (2019). Encyclopedia of Television Pilots: 2,470 Films Broadcast 1937-2019 (2nd ed.). New York City: McFarland & Company. p. 86. ISBN 978-1476678740.