DVD Review: MAN FROM ATLANTIS - THE COMPLETE TELEVISION SERIES (1977)

In 1977, NBC followed-up four TV movies about the water-breathing superhero known as "Mark Harris" with a single-season, hour-long weekly television series of 13 episodes. Now, Warner Archive has brought that series to Manufacture-On-Demand DVD with the 4-disc, Man From Atlantis - The Complete Television Series set.

As the series begins, there have been some changes made in the format used in the TV movies (reviewed HERE). Mark Harris (Patrick Duffy) has become more acclimated to the surface world and has taken on a more active role with the government-allied Foundation For Oceanic Research. No longer just a test subject for scientist Dr. Elizabeth Merrill (the lovely Belinda J. Montgomery, who, inexplicably, is absent from the final two episodes), he now commands the Foundation's deep-sea submersible, The Cetacean, and carries out missions at the behest of Foundation Director C.W. Crawford (Alan Fudge). Many of these missions consist of foiling the evil plans of capricious capitalist Mr. Schubert (the great Victor Buono) to accumulate wealth and power from the sea.

With the Cetacean's newly-redesigned command deck and presence of a regular bridge crew (including Communications Officer Jean-Marie Hon of Ark II), the weekly Man From Atlantis somewhat resembles an underwater Star Trek (the show's creators had strong ties to that seminal sci-fi series), but the overall tone of the show was much lighter than either its interstellar inspiration or the preceding Man From Atlantis teleflicks. In fact, while the show looks great - with consistently nice photography, great sets (the interior of the Cetacean submersible and the Foundation's underground headquarters are both really slick, by 70s TV standards), and marvelous, Old School miniature effects - the stories are no longer science fiction, and tend instead toward aggressively non-violent, kid-friendly fantasy.

With stories featuring mischievous imps, friendly (and unconvincing) sea beasts, misunderstood giants, mermaids, pirates and magical time-travel, as well as far too much Mister Schubert (who figures in 5 of the first 7 episodes) - a character that had been slightly menacing in the first TV movie, but was too genial, comic and physically unimposing to present much of a threat on the series - the weekly Man From Atlantis lacks any semblance of dramatic weight or real sense of adventure. The cast remains appealing, and the character of aqua-man Harris is very likable, but the weekly show is a definite step down from the four TV movies that preceded it, and just reeks of network interference based on timidity and/or condescension.

Guest stars in this single season include Laurette Spang (Battlestar Galactica), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dee Wallace, Pat Morita, Ted Cassidy, Dick Gautier, Pernell Roberts, Rene Auberjonois, John Shea and Billy Barty, among other familiar faces.

Warner Archive's presentation is remarkably nice. I don't know how much actual remastering was done on these episodes, but the 1.33:1, "full frame" transfers are surprisingly bright and clean, with only minimal occurrences of visible speckling or other detritus. The episodes are complete and uncut, and spread across four discs. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio is clear and free of distortion or distracting hiss.

If you grew up with Man From Atlantis and have the same sort of nostalgia for it that I do, the technical quality of these Warner Archive MOD discs is very nice, and definitely worth the somewhat higher price. But if you've never seen the show, or memories of it are somewhat vague, I'm not sure how well it will hold up. It is very much a 70s genre show aimed at a young audience, and while it's kinda fun and definitely charming, it's not really good science fiction. I enjoyed revisiting it and am pleased to have it in my collection; your mileage may vary (as they say).

BUY:  Man From Atlantis:  Complete Television Series  (Remastered, 4 Disc)

On this date in 1999...

...the moon was blasted out of orbit, taking with it the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha.

AND: A very happy birthday to Dr. Helena Russell - Ms. Barbara Bain turns 80 today!

STAR TREK @ Space: 1970

 

Back when I posted the magazine version of Marvel Comics' Star Trek - The Motion Picture adaptation, one of you pointed out that the composition of Bob Larkin's cover painting was a homage to the original Star Trek series art by James Bama that was used in early promotional material and on the cover of Bantam Books' first collection of James Blish short story script adaptations. And damn - I don't know how I missed that before!

I haven't posted quite as much about Star Trek on this blog as I have other shows, because a.) although its actual popularity was at its highest in the 70's through extensive television syndication and it was tremendously influential on shaping my love of the genre, it was technically a 60's show, and b.) there's tons of Trek on the web already. But, as today is the 45th anniversary of the series, here are links to some of my previous Trek-related posts. Enjoy!

STAR TREK (1979) Pinball Machine Flyer

My Enterprise Incident

STAR TREK Animated PSA

STAR TREK 4 Art by Lou Feck

These Are The Voyages...

45 years ago today, the starship Enterprise set out on its first five-year mission, and boldly took us all where no man had gone before. Happy anniversary to Star Trek - the original series. Without it, this blog wouldn't exist, and I'd be a completely different person.

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #7: SPACE: 1999

Filming "Breakaway," the premiere episode of Gerry Anderson's Space: 1999 at Pinewood Studios in England, 1973.

Well, the results are in. With 216 ballots cast, the clear winner in the "Which 70's sci-fi robot, droid, or android was YOUR favorite?" poll was Star Wars' astromech droid R2-D2, with a whopping 57 votes. Coming in second, with 36 votes, was the original, classic Cylon Centurion from Battlestar Galactica. The drones from Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running, Huey, Dewey & Louie, took third place.

I voted for V.I.N.CENT from The Black Hole, myself, but then I'm sucker for levitating robots and Roddy McDowell. The same film's menacing Maximilian placed a solid fourth in the poll. I admit, I was surprised that Space Academy's Peepo didn't get more votes, but, like Buck Rogers' Twiki, I think he was maybe just too annoying. I was pleased that Quark's Andy garnered at least one vote, though.

Look for another poll in a month or two!

STARCRASH (1978) Pre-Production Art

Apparently, today is Starcrash director Luigi Cozzi's birthday. In celebration, here's a gallery of some of the deliciously pulpy pre-production pieces created by Italian artist Niso Ramponi for Cozzi's much-maligned - but greatly loved, at least around here - intergalactic epic, when it was still known as The Adventures Of Stella Star!

DVD Review: THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN (1980)

"The year, 1994. From out of space, comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is cast in ruin. Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn. A strange new world rises from the old. A world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice. With his companions, Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sun Sword, against the forces of evil. He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!"

In my personal pantheon of Saturday Morning cartoons (subcategory: "adventure") few programs rate higher than 1980's sci-fi-fantasy, Thundarr The Barbarian, which ran for two seasons on ABC.

As that awesome introduction quoted above says, Thundarr chronicled the adventures of a brave barbarian warrior (actor Bob Ridgely, who, around the same time, also gave voice to legendary adventure heroes Tarzan and Flash Gordon on their respective Filmation animated series) with a lightsaber-like, flaming magic sword; a smart, sexy and sarcastic Asian princess-cum-sorceress (Nellie Bellflower); and a large, hairy, Wookiee-like anthropoid warrior (Henry Corden) as they roamed the transformed landscape of a post-Apocalyptic Earth, battling a seemingly-endless procession of power-mad, evil techno-wizards and vicious mutant creatures.

What more could anyone ask of a fantasy adventure cartoon?

Produced by Ruby-Spears Productions, and created by veteran comic book scribe Steve Gerber (Man-Thing, Howard the Duck), this action-packed animated fantasy epic featured imaginative (if somewhat formulaic) stories, appealing characters, great voice acting, and character designs by two of the greatest comic book artists to ever wield a pencil. Thundarr and his friends were visualized by the animation veteran Alex Toth (Space Ghost, The Herculoids), while virtually every other character (and vehicle, setting and/or prop) were designed by the legendary Jack Kirby (Captain America, The Fantastic Four, Devil Dinosaur).

While the animation lacks the slick sheen of modern, computer-assisted shows, and is a bit "rough around the edges," it's actually among the best seen on Saturday morning TV at the time, and far more polished than most other Ruby-Spears shows of the same vintage. It's apparent that the studio recognized that they had something good in Thundarr The Barbarian and put some extra care and attention into it.

The Warner Archives 4-disc, manufactured-on-demand DVD-R set includes all 21 episodes from the show's two seasons, presented in their original 1.33:1 "full-frame" aspect ratio, with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio. The film elements have not been remastered in any way, and show considerable age-and-neglect-related wear. On some episodes the otherwise bright colors appear faded, and most installments are dusted with specks and other minor damage. Overall, the picture quality is fair-to-good, and, unlike some off-air recordings, the episodes are complete. There are no bonus features included.

For my money, Thundarr The Barbarian is one of the all-time great fantasy adventure cartoons, with solid, smart scripting, fabulous visuals and a classic hero. Sure, I wish that the bean-counters at Warners had green-lit a fully-restored and remastered, mass-market DVD release, but I'm personally grateful to see it on DVD at all, in an authorized and complete form. If you're a fan, buying the set is a no-brainer; even with its faults, it's far superior to any of the old bootlegs floating around the convention circuit. If you're unfamiliar with Thundarr, but love Old School adventure animation, you might want to take a chance and order it - I doubt you'll be disappointed.

BUY: Thundarr The Barbarian (4 Disc)

STAR WARS (1977) Burger King Glasses

Let's forget about George Lucas and his infuriating OCD Star Wars Blu-ray changes for a moment, and return to a simpler time... when there was only one Star Wars, and it was not yet A New Hope... and fast-food franchises actually sold drinking glasses made of glass. When a 13-year-old Star Kid actually managed to persuade his folks to take him to Burger King four weeks in a row so he could collect all four commemorative glasses. 

The artwork on those glasses was great. I particularly liked the Darth Vader one.

Erin Gray/Wilma Deering Gallery

 Don't have time to write up a post right now, so here's a Space Babes "Extra" - a gallery of Buck Rogers publicity stills I've been saving, featuring the delectable Ms. Erin Gray as Earth Defense Directorate Colonel Wilma Deering.

Ms Gray was the Space: 1970 Space Babe for March, 2010. Enjoy!

NOTE: September's Space Babe will be posted shortly!