Logan's Run follows in the time-honored Hollywood attempt to translate film success into a TV franchise. It didn't quite pan out that way, though not for lack of trying. I remember it hitting the airwaves; but, it was on a network we couldn't tune in well (this was the Stone Age of 3 networks, no cable, and only the wealthy techies had video recording), I missed it. Now, thanks to a surprising commercial DVD release, I had a chance to catch up on this buried treasure.
The pilot replays the basic thread of the movie, using footage from the film, with new opticals for the flameouts on Carousel. We are introduced to Logan and Francis, our Sandmen on the hunt. Logan chases down a runner but fails to shoot when Jessica cries out to him. From this point, things start to diverge from the movie plot. Logan joins Jessica on the run, while Francis is dispatched by a newly revealed council of elders (which seems like a hard thing to conceal). Logan and Jessica find a living world outside their domed city and quickly discover other people. This is where the plot starts getting stretched, as they don't seem to have travelled very far from the city, so why has no one encountered these people before? They eventually find a solar vehicle and meet an android named REM. They continue on their journey to find Sanctuary, with Francis in hot pursuit.
Gregory Harrison, Heather Menzies, and Randy Powell are fine as the three central characters, though not quite in the same league as their movie counterparts. Donald Moffat steals every scene as REM, our series Spock; which brings up a troubling point. The series seems to mine a lot of Star Trek plots, with people split into good and evil sides, alien prisons of the mind, and fantasy made reality. It's not too surprising, as the story editor is DC Fontana. Heck, even the melody of the theme sounds like Star Trek (apart from the annoying synthesizer "shrieks"). However, Star Trek borrowed more than a few plots themselves and the comparisons are mostly surface gloss. There are plot holes, like how other Sandmen join Francis on the hunt, yet no one else seems affected by what they see outside their domed city. Francis has a vested interest and is a fanatic, but they rest don't seem to share these characteristics. It would seem that the social order in the city would start getting very shaky (which a later episode kind of treads upon). Unfortunately, the series was cut short before this idea could theoretically be explored.
So, on the positive side you have decent scripts and better than average acting (for a 70s genre series), plus decent, if lower budget effects. On the down side, it gets a bit repetitive, without an end in mind. It's not Star Trek, but that series has its hit and miss moments, too. It's a pleasant little series, with greater emphasis on ideas than action, compared to today's fare. It'll feed your brain more than a lot of today's TV. Definitely worth a rental for the average viewer, and worth buying for the genre fan. You can also see some early work by Michael Biehn, Kim Cattrell, and Melody Anderson (Flash Gordon). Give it a try.
The pilot replays the basic thread of the movie, using footage from the film, with new opticals for the flameouts on Carousel. We are introduced to Logan and Francis, our Sandmen on the hunt. Logan chases down a runner but fails to shoot when Jessica cries out to him. From this point, things start to diverge from the movie plot. Logan joins Jessica on the run, while Francis is dispatched by a newly revealed council of elders (which seems like a hard thing to conceal). Logan and Jessica find a living world outside their domed city and quickly discover other people. This is where the plot starts getting stretched, as they don't seem to have travelled very far from the city, so why has no one encountered these people before? They eventually find a solar vehicle and meet an android named REM. They continue on their journey to find Sanctuary, with Francis in hot pursuit.
Gregory Harrison, Heather Menzies, and Randy Powell are fine as the three central characters, though not quite in the same league as their movie counterparts. Donald Moffat steals every scene as REM, our series Spock; which brings up a troubling point. The series seems to mine a lot of Star Trek plots, with people split into good and evil sides, alien prisons of the mind, and fantasy made reality. It's not too surprising, as the story editor is DC Fontana. Heck, even the melody of the theme sounds like Star Trek (apart from the annoying synthesizer "shrieks"). However, Star Trek borrowed more than a few plots themselves and the comparisons are mostly surface gloss. There are plot holes, like how other Sandmen join Francis on the hunt, yet no one else seems affected by what they see outside their domed city. Francis has a vested interest and is a fanatic, but they rest don't seem to share these characteristics. It would seem that the social order in the city would start getting very shaky (which a later episode kind of treads upon). Unfortunately, the series was cut short before this idea could theoretically be explored.
So, on the positive side you have decent scripts and better than average acting (for a 70s genre series), plus decent, if lower budget effects. On the down side, it gets a bit repetitive, without an end in mind. It's not Star Trek, but that series has its hit and miss moments, too. It's a pleasant little series, with greater emphasis on ideas than action, compared to today's fare. It'll feed your brain more than a lot of today's TV. Definitely worth a rental for the average viewer, and worth buying for the genre fan. You can also see some early work by Michael Biehn, Kim Cattrell, and Melody Anderson (Flash Gordon). Give it a try.