ALL SCI-FI

Bud Brewster · Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:32 pm Post subject: Logan's Run (1977 - 1978)

I wasn't a big fan of this show, but I'm sure All Sci-Fi has a few folks who'd like it to have thread. Very Happy

Here's how Wikipedia describes it.
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The series maintains the basic premise and visual style of the film in that Logan and Jessica have escaped from the "City of Domes" so that they will not have to die once they reach the age of 30.

However, the series differs from the plot of the movie in various ways, and depicts Logan and Jessica on the run in each episode in various locations on future Earth as they search for the mythical place known as "Sanctuary". Logan and Jessica are also assisted in each episode by an android called Rem (Donald Moffat) who did not appear in the film version.

The series lasted only 14 episodes before it was cancelled.
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The clip demonstrates just how good the show looked. But the idea that the series was just a series of visits to various locations, while the characters looked for a place that didn't exists . . . well, that might explain the cancellation.

Clip with Heather Menzies, Gregory Harrison, and Angela Cartwright

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Krel · Guest

It was a decent show, the time travel episode had people talking.

The show's premise was pretty much like "Genesis II" & "Planet Earth". They go to a place, have adventures and solve problems then move on. The difference is that they were being chased (a dash of "The Fugitive"), and had a fake hovercar (seriously, in some scenes, the skirt would fly up and you could see the wheels) rather than a subterranean choo-choo.

David.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 6:12 pm Post subject:

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I obviously over-simplified the premise, based on my limited viewings and my old memories. Sad

Your analogy to the Roddenberry productions made be realize that the series could have worked if it had been given a chance and received the right kind of stories. The premise depended on a more diverse "future world" than we saw in the movie.

Thanks, David. Netflix offers the DVDs of this series, so I put them on my list.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

ralfy · Mission Specialist Joined: 23 Sep 2014 Posts: 473

I think in terms of viewing I lasted two episodes. There might have been something wrong with the pacing, but I can't remember.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 11:49 am Post subject:

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Well, I got the disc from Netflix and watched a few episodes, but it just didn't hold my interest, so I'm inclined to agree with ralfy. Sad

Anyway, I gave it shot.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Krel · Guest

Bud, watch the Time Traveler episode, it was very popular at the time because of the ending.

David.

johnnybear · Mission Specialist Joined: 15 Jun 2016 Posts: 441

Logan's Run was a great Sunday afternoon series in 1978 as I recall! I never saw the film originally and didn't know too much about the concept, only that Sandmen enforced death at thirty. But I really enjoyed this show and the Sandmen and their ground cars chasing our heroes every week!
JB

Eadie · Galactic Ambassador Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 1670

Pow · Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 1:11 pm Post subject:

Harlan Ellison wrote the episode "The Crypt," and David Gerrold wrote "Man Out of Time."

So the LR producers did hire excellent writers for their show.

Somehow though the series never really was able to rise above doing mostly C or C+ episodes.

johnnybear · Mission Specialist Joined: 15 Jun 2016 Posts: 441

That's an opinion I don't share as I really loved the show and it's crazy music! Glad it's out on DVD, now I'm waiting for Fantastic Journey...
JB

Krel · Guest

I recently read that the original pilot for the show didn't have the Council of Elders. The original pilot just had Francis and the Sandmen taking off after Logan and Jessica because they were Runners. After the pilot was filmed, the Network asked for some changes, so the scenes with the Council and the offer to Francis were filmed and added to the pilot.

I guess the Network didn't find the original pilot complicated enough to suit them. Laughing

David.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:50 pm Post subject:

johnnybear · Mission Specialist Joined: 15 Jun 2016 Posts: 441

The runners never seemed to get too far from the City of Domes in the shows because on two occasions they return to the City for different purposes! One because of a disguised Sandman who has convinced them of an uprising in the Dome City and the other where Logan loses his memory and is captured by Francis and the Sandmen and returned to the City where he will denounce the cause of the runners!
Maybe they were of the opinion that Sanctuary must be close to the City due to the fact that runners don't like running that much when outside or whatever! In one episode they meet Matthew 12, the first runner, who had escaped from the City years earlier and was living in a broken down centre with low intelligent humans who protected him but if he hadn't set up Sanctuary then who did? The only other time we hear anything about Sanctuary outside is an alien hallucination and another place that just happens to be called Sanctuary and is not the same one that Logan and Jessica are seeking!
The show is good and worth a watch and although Gregory Harrison was good as Logan you can see that he lacks the appeal to be a film star lead in Razorback made in 1984!!!
JB

Pow · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 1:44 pm Post subject:

I just watched the episode "Crypt" (November 7, 1977) on Uncle Earl's Classic Television site. I wanted to see it because the story was by Harlan Ellison, although the teleplay is by Al Hayes.

Logan, Jessica, and REM discover an underground facility while driving through the ruins of a city. Inside one of the buildings they find a monitor with a taped recording on it by a dying scientist. She informs the trio that on a lower level there are six survivors of the nuclear holocaust who have been placed in cryogenic sleep. These six individuals possess the knowledge and skills to help rebuild civilization. Unfortunately they also each have a deadly virus. However, a cure has been discovered for all of them.

Logan and company decide to deliver this cure to the men and women in suspended animation. As they are going to the cryogenic room, an earthquake erupts causing Logan to drop the case carrying the precious cure. A large rock drops onto the case, and when the group check it they realize that a vial has been severely damaged. This means there is now only enough serum for three of the six people.

As I've said before, I wasn't a fan of the series, and I wasn't a fan of the feature film either. Both had intriguing concepts to them, but somehow the movie and the TV series never rose to great heights.

Crypt was interesting and was entertaining. Many moral & ethical questions are presented within this episode giving it a more intellectual quality to it. There's some nice looking set designs, the occasional spiffy visual effect, and the guest stars all do a fine job. I'm still not a devotee of the show, but there are some episodes that rise above average here and there.

Pow · Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 2:20 pm Post subject:

"Man Out of Time," October 17, 1977.

Written by David Gerrold under the pseudonym Noah Award (No Award). Directed by Nicholas Colasanto who later played Coach Ernie Pantusso on Cheers (1982 ~ 1993)for the first three seasons of the series.

Scientist David Eakins time-travels 200 years into the future, where he encounters Logan, Jessica, and Rem. He plans to alter history and prevent a nuclear war from his era, but this also may end up erasing Logan, Jessica, and Rem from existence
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The story was heavily rewritten so as to cause SF author David Gerrold to remove his name and submit his pseudonym. I still wanted to view this episode because it was scripted by David who is a fine SF author. I have no information as to how drastically the filmed episode differs from David's original script.

Like his friend Harlan Ellison who wrote the Logan's Run episode "Crypt," this episode did certainly provide food for thought as we watch the anguish of David Eakins struggle with his conscience that by preventing the nuclear war in his own time, he will eliminate the lives of those in the future. It is a thoughtful episode even if much of Gerrold's work did not make it to the small screen.

Trivia: Logan's Run takes place in 2319.

The android Rem was created to bring some comic relief to the episodes.
Sidebar: And that he does. Rem also serves to bring an outsider's observations on humanity just as Mr. Spock did on Star Trek. Rem is highly intelligent and is able to perform various technological solutions for the group when needed. He also is very strong which can also come in handy at times.

Logan's Run is not an outstanding SF TV show. However, it did had the talented writer D.C. Fontana as its story editor. It also solicited scripts from Harlan Ellison and David Gerrold, gifted writers.

I do think that the producers did attempt to do a SF show that was not just mindless entertainment like the Irwin Allen TV shows, or Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers. They did not succeed in producing a classic SF show by any means, but I think that their intentions were not to just deliver drivel to the audience.