The recent screenings of ‘Land of The Giants’ on the Horror
Channel has prompted me to take a closer look at this classic TV series created
by ‘master of disaster’ producer Irwin Allen.
The series premiered in September, 1968. It had two seasons
amounting to 51 episodes. The first
having 26 episodes, and the second having 25. Both seasons had different theme
music written by composer John Williams. At the time it was the most expensive
series on TV, having a budget of $250,000 per episode.
Although my favourite Irwin Allen TV series has always been
‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’, my fondness for vintage Sci-fi television
means ‘Giants’ will always get a look in from me.
For anyone who might be unfamiliar with the premise of ‘Land
of The Giants’, it takes place at the imagined future time of June 12, 1983,
and features the crew and passengers
aboard sub-orbital flight 612, which had previously taken off from Los
Angeles and was heading for London.
(Coincidentally June 12th 1916 was Irwin Allen’s
birthday)
However, during the journey their spaceship encounters a
strange cosmic cloud which draws it in.
After a struggling to steer the ship, Captain Steve Burton
and co-pilot Dan Erickson manage to carry out a controlled crash landing. Thinking they are just beyond the perimeter of
London Spaceport, Steve and Dan leave the ship to check for damage and arrange
safe passage for the passengers.
As they wander blindly in the damp mist beyond the crash
site, they encounter bright headlights and narrowly miss being run over by a
giant car.
Totally bewildered, they both rush back to the ship, and
attempt to do an emergency take off, but outside a giant figure approaches and
bends to pick up the ship.
Using all the ship’s remaining power to escape, the crew and
passengers strap themselves in as the spacecraft careers out of control, finally
crashing into the giant undergrowth of huge forest.
Remarkably, everyone is unharmed; however, it soon becomes
apparent that they will be spending the foreseeable future fighting for
survival in a strange land of giants.
So begins the first episode, entitled ‘The Crash’(based on
an unaired pilot). The series stars Gary Conway as Captain Steve Burton. Burton
is the self -appointed leader of the group, although his decisions based on
survival and the safety of the passengers and later, as the series progressed,
preventing the Giants from obtaining and using their technology to invade
Earth, would lead to disputes, especially with headstrong passenger, Mark
Wilson, played by the late Don Matheson.
Mark is a successful businessman and talented engineer. His skills and
knowledge are vital to the crew in adapting the ship’s systems to get it to fly
again and get them home.
The ensemble cast also included Don Marshall, who sadly died
recently, played co-pilot, Dan Erickson. Brave and determined Erickson is
fiercely loyal to Captain Burton and generally sides with him whenever Burton’s
authority is challenged. The same goes
for the third crew member, stewardess Betty Hamilton, played by Heather Young. Heather was pregnant for the early part of the
second season so to hide the fact; she was either filmed wearing loose fitting
clothes or failed to feature in episodes at all.
The glamour for the series is provided by Deanna Lund who
played passenger and heiress Valerie Scott, an impulsive woman who isn’t used
to being told what to do.
Deanna Lund was
briefly married to her co-star, Don Matheson during 1970. She also wrote a
novella based on her ‘Land of The Giants’ character called ‘Valerie in
Giantland’.
The late Austrian actor Kurt Kasznar, played the selfish
Alexander Fitzhugh, a thief who had stolen a million dollars. Initially in the
series he appeared to be a ruthless character, at one point pulling a gun on
the rest of passengers, however he soon became the occasional comic relief for
the show, and developed an avuncular relationship with the youngest passenger,
orphan Barry Lockridge, played by Stefan Arngrim. This premise was pretty much the same as the
relationship between Will Robinson (Bill Mumy) and Zachary Smith (Jonathan
Harris) in Irwin Allen’s ‘Lost in Space’ TV Series.
In fact, all the characters have a strong sense of loyalty
towards each other, and will take huge risks to rescue any of their party who
are captured by the Giants,(this happens pretty much in every episode)
including Barry’s dog, Chipper.
The giants are aware of ‘The little people’ as they are
referred to, as other spacecraft have crashed on the Giants’ planet. A reward
is even offered for the capture of the Earthlings.
Another recurring
character is Inspector Kobick played by Kevin Hagen. Kobick works for the Special
Investigation Department, a government agency, with McCarthyism overtones who
apparently believe, in their totalitarian society that the little people are
subversive.
A few other things are known about the Giants. Initially
their speech was very slow, presumably to make them appear more alien, and
their written language wasn’t originally intended to be English. However, it
was decided that this should change during the production otherwise the
Earthlings would have limited interaction with the Giants. In the episode ‘The Bounty Hunter’ strange
writing can be seen on a giant prop tin can, although at the beginning of the
story a poster nailed to a tree is clearly in English. Their world is not
unlike sixties America, although it appears quite totalitarian, and some
aspects of their technology are apparently fifty years behind that of Earth,
which is another reason why the S.I.D. want to capture the little people, as
one thing they’ve never developed is space travel (Although they are aware of the’
Dimension Lock’, the mysterious phenomenon that the spaceship passed through to
the land of the giant’s planet.
However, there are
episodes which feature other aspects of the Giants’ own technology which
sometimes appears more advanced. In
‘Flight Plan’ the Giants have the ability to miniaturise one of their own to
infiltrate the Earthlings camp. There are other episodes which feature
cloning,( The Clones) matter transportation (‘The Return of Inidu’ and ‘Panic’)
and robotics ( The Mechanical Man).
A couple of points about the Giants’ planet, in the episode
‘Land of The Lost’ there’s a huge ocean on the planet separating the Giants
from another despotic race ruled by a cruel dictator, and in the episode ‘The Secret City of Limbo’ a subterranean
race of Giants live beneath the surface. (An interesting point about this
episode is that the impressive set used is redressed from the film ‘Beneath The
Planet of The Apes)
Another familiar prop for fans of Irwin Allen’s shows is The
Space Pod from the third season of Lost in Space. It features in two episodes;
A Place Called Earth’ and ‘Home Sweet Home’.
And on the subject of ‘Lost in Space’, the rather odd episode
‘Pay the Piper’ stars Jonathan Harris as The Piper, pretty much reprising his
role as Dr Smith in all but costume.
But the undoubted ‘star’ of the series for me, and I suspect
many other fans is the Earthlings’ spaceship, ‘The Spindrift’, a small ‘Lear
jet ‘type six- seater passenger liner with advanced propulsion systems.
Even though we very rarely see it fly, and as the series
progressed it became more and more covered in moss it still held my attention.
It was a similar situation with the Jupiter 2 in Lost in Space. Both these
vehicles were definitely a crowd puller.
In a later part I’ll check out the ‘Spindrift’ spaceship a
little closer.
Although the Giants don’t appear to celebrate Christmas,
this didn’t stop the series having a Christmassy episode. In the ‘ Night of
Thrombeldinbar’ , the Giants celebrate an Elf-like creature every year, leaving
cookies out for him.
This charming story
about a pair of unwanted orphans who are left in the care of the harsh Parteg
(played perfectly by Alfred Ryder) who runs the orphanage has a very festive
feel. The children capture Fitzhugh believing him to be the mythical
being. Feeling sorry for them he goes
along with the deception until he finds out the only way he can grant their
wishes is if he thrown onto a fire!
Merry Thrombeldinbar Night.
More Land of the Giants posts to come.
