When we find him convalescing from major heart surgery at the end of the episode he’s inexplicably on a bench in the open air. Even when a member of the team is injured we never see the inside of PAX as we did in Genesis II. Everything takes place in an open field, a ranch set that was probably made for another production, and the aforementioned campus. The matte painting of Tyrania is reused to depict long shots of the new PAX metropolis. After all, Planet Earth also lacks any interesting sets or props. His tenure on Star Trek was legendary, including amazingly shot episodes like “The Man Trap” and “Mirror, Mirror”. Even the stock subshuttle shots look out of place in the new pilot. Gone is much of the dark, cinematic flair of Genesis II. Directed by Star Trek veteran Marc Daniels, Planet Earth has the flat lighting and wide, lifeless angles of your average 1960’s second-rate drama. The outcome was Planet Earth (not to be confused with the BBC documentary series), a completely retooled and recast version of the adventures of 20th Century scientist, Dylan Hunt, in a post-apocalyptic future.īeyond its tone and plot points, though, the film also looks like a throwback. After Genesis II was passed on by CBS, ABC was willing to give the idea another shot on their dime. But no one can doubt that Roddenberry was the king of second (and third, and forth, and fifth) chances. The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gilligan’s Island and The Munsters (which was originally in color) are just a few examples.
In reality, it was pretty common at the time for networks to order a reworked second pilot, usually because they liked the concept but not the casting. Ī large chunk of Star Trek’s mythology revolves around NBC’s “unprecedented” willingness to order a second pilot after Gene Roddenberry’s first attempt didn’t quite work for them. This time we return to the land of the PAX in Planet Earth.
Last time we looked at a boy and his robot in The Questor Tapes. Welcome back to our bi-weekly series on Gene Roddenberry’s work between Star Trek incarnations.
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