Earth II

This was sort of a cross between 2001 and Marooned. It made a very early attempt to make a scientifically accurate sci-fi series. The station was populated by people from all nations. They set up thier own government, and they led very politically correct lives. Any adult could disagree with the station's government and put the disagreement to a vote via an interactive TV. The show had some very interesting ideas about the future development of technology. Early in the show, a national election takes place by people turning on their home lights, and an spaceship in orbit counts the votes. Worth seeing if you can.

TV film about a space station.

This should have been so much better than it is. It had the effects budget, it had the great cast, it had the quality writers (who also worked on TV's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) and even some of the music cues were good - so what happened??

About half way into it all anyone can talk about is a bomb in space.

Such a waste of great talent and effects. Towards the end I was so bored I was looking at my phone half the time. Don't bother with Earth II.

The effects were handled by the same folks who gave us "Marooned" but with a superior edge in design and technical know how. 2001,s Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole of 2001} is cast as a space rescue pilot.

The space shuttles in this feature bare a striking resemblance to our current shuttle design and the space suits are straight out of the NASA play book as the producers used technical help from major sources to ad realism.

One exciting scene of a race against time shows astronauts chasing down a Chinese nuclear satellite as it re-enters earths atmosphere, this scene incorperated early video image technology to generate a shower of sparks creating a burning effect that looked 3-dimensional and will remind you of the slit scan effects used by Douglas Trumball in 2001.

Intended as a TV pilot for a possible ABC series it is not to be confused with The short lived series Earth II 1993-94 featuring Clancy Brown and Tim Curry.

I was enthralled at a network movie of the week of this quality and have seen it repeated on CBS,s Late show in the early 80,s Catch it if you can on sci-fi channel but good luck finding it on DVD or VHS. This picture is still contemporary in style and is worth a look.

This is a very rare made for TV movie with a great story and excellent special effects. The only thing that might be considered wrong about this film is that even though it is supposedly set in the future, this film is now very much dated. This film was made during the height of the Cold War and at a time relations between The U.S., the then Soviet Union and China were not very good. In fact, the U.S. is almost looked at as a pawn in the struggle between the other two super powers. However, this film does provide a good glimpse at the future and how space travel could eventually be routine and the possibilities of global cooperation in outer space.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Tom Gries; Screenplay and Produced by Allan Balter and William Read Woodfield for MGM release, telecast by ABC-TV. Photography by Michel Hugo; Editing directed by Buddy Small and executed by Henry Berman; Music by Lalo Schifrin; Special Visual Effects by J. McMillan Johnson;Technical Advisor: R. Buckminster Fuller. Starring: Gary Lockwood, Tony Franciosa, Mariette Hartley, Scott Hylands, Gary Merrill, Hari Rhodes, Inga Swenson, Edgar Bell, Lew Ayres, Bart Burns, John Carter, Diana Webster and James Hong.

Straight sci-fi extrapolation, made with NASA cooperation, extensively uses "2001: A Space Odyssey" techniques (especially docking in space seen externally and internally with models) in telling a story of a space station/"nation" orbiting Earth and facing nuclear bomb difficulties with Red China. Direction is good but story is too straightforwardly told, with soap opera lapses, to be a current theatrical release. Slipups: in the first reel a key plot feature assumes that Red China is not in the UN. Presence of numerous guest stars and a minor episode plot indicate that this is a TV pilot.