Retro TV: Irwin Allen's Land of the Giants

Before he was the producer of disaster epics like The Poseidon Adventure, Irwin Allen was the pre-eminent purveyor of prime-time TV sci-fi in the mid to late 1960s, with several shows running throughout the latter half of the decade. Recently, I've been celebrating Allen's work here at Eclectic Avenue, and this week, I'm shining the spotlight on an episode of Land of the Giants. The series was Allen's fourth and final out of this world adventure series of the 1960s. Land of the Giants ran for two seasons, from 1968-70. The show featured the adventures of the crew and passengers of the Spindrift, a sub-orbital craft which passed through a strange spatial disturbance on its way to London. The space warp transports them to a world where they're mini-sized, and everything else is well....gigantic. The cast included Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, Don Marshall, Stefan Arngrim, Kurt Kaznar and Heather Young.

 

Each week our heroes would try to evade capture by the giants, while trying to repair their damaged ship and return home. In the first season entry "On A Clear Night You Can See Earth," the captain of the Spindrift, Steve Burton, is captured by a scientist named Murtrah, who's trying to create a special set of glasses that will allow him to see our miniature heroes in the dark. In the series, the giants are aware of the existence of Earth and its superior technology, and rewards are posted for the capture of the "little people."  Murtrah is a particularly mean-spirited and sadistic individual, and he's also jealous of a fellow scientist who he believes is trying to steal his work. 

Steve plays on Murtrah's insecurities, while the rest of the Spindrift crew try to rescue him. "On A Clear Night You Can See Earth" is an action-packed and exciting episode. It's somewhat unique in the canon of Irwin Allen's series, which were generally family-oriented entertainment. The denouement features our heroes rigging an explosive device to kill Murtrah and destroy his lab. They take this drastic step in order to prevent him from completing the creation of his device, so that it can't be used to reveal the Earth crew's location to the giant authorities. Rarely on any of Allen's series, including Lost In Space, Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea, and The Time Tunnel, did the heroes kill someone in cold blood, even if that person or alien being was an outright villain.

Murtrah is played by Michael Ansara, who specialized in playing villains in a plethora of television series and films from the 1960s through the 1990s. He guest starred in all of Irwin Allen's series, and had a featured role in the 1961 big-screen version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, a film in which he appeared with his then wife Barbara Eden. Ansara is also well known for his portrayal of the Klingon Kang on Star Trek: The Original Series and Deep Space Nine, as well as his role as "Killer" Kane on the 1980s series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. 

 

"On A Clear Night You Can See Earth" was directed by Sobey Martin, who was frequently behind the camera for episodes of Allen's shows. The episode was written by Sheldon Stark and Anthony Wilson. The memorable theme music for Land of the Giants was composed by none other than John Williams of Star Wars and Superman fame, who also wrote the themes for Lost In Space and The Time Tunnel. Land of the Giants, like the rest of Allen's series and movies is entertaining, well-produced and a lot of fun. Here's a trailer for the Season One DVD release of the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oint3j4HlA.