Recensioni degli utenti

This was supposed to be a possible series that combines several themes from Star Trek. It takes place on Earth after a nuclear war, and some of the inhabitants faired differently depending on the area. This is similar to the Omega Glory. Some of the people have adapted and evolved into stronger humans as in Space Seed. Some lived under ground like in Spocks Brain. As in Star Trek, this is a small morality play.

The main character is a man from the 20th is awakened, and he has lost scientific knowledge needed by everyone. It found by a group called Pax. They want to end violence on Earth and restore it. They get around the earth in a high speed underground train called a "sub-shuttle." This survived the war. You can clearly guess that in each episode they would visit a different part of Earth in the same way Star Trek visited other planets.

This was not turned into a series, but was reworked into another pilot starring John Saxon. He was more of a Captain Kirk like lead.

Either version would have made a good series.

An underrated film about social doom, typical of the 70s for this genre, yet permanently relevant. The budget was not huge, but the atmosphere is there. Mariette Hartley gives a beautifully subtle performance, and is perhaps in her most physically attractive and visually memorable role.

Call me a geek, but I was 13 years old when I first saw this pilot, at a pre-release screening at a Star Trek convention.

It exhibits numerous elements characteristic of Roddenberry's finest, including a compelling premise, focus on recognizable human interactions, and some light, thoughtful humor: e.g. a reference to the teachings of "Saint Freud".

Sadly, it didn't have quite the kick of some of his better work, but rather plays like one of the weaker episodes of one of them. That is to say the story is pretty good, some of the characters display a potential for significant depth, but it drags a bit. I see it as kind of a "Star Trek - The Motion Picture", without the million dollar light show, or the established relationship with the characters that would have brought us back for Star Trek II no matter how excruciating it was.

It ain't easy maintaining the emotional pacing necessary for a "human adventure" while interspersing enough action (and scifi eye candy/gadgetry) to keep the plot moving. I thought it was not just watchable, but endearing in it's way... which is more than I could say for "Planet Earth"; which I thought came across as a rather superficial remake, dumbed down a bit for the masses.

The architecture referred to by another reviewer is actually the campus of the University of California at Riverside. It was filmed while I was a student there, during spring break so no students were around. While I loved the film, it was hard to suspend my disbelief looking at buildings I saw every day. We hoped it would take off as a series, since the campus got a paint job, some landscaping, and a few thousand dollars for our scholarship funds in exchange for letting them film. That "futuristic" architecture was mostly built in the early to mid 1960's. But it still has that "future" look. One of my fond memories of my undergraduate alma mater.

Unlike a lot of reviewers on here, I can't claim to have any sort of expectation for something that "Roddenberry" was involved in and all I have to say is that, if his other stuff is as full of massive plot holes and huge leaps of basic logic as this thing, then I think I'll pass. So, these guys thought it would be a good idea to build an underground network across massive fault lines (in California no less!) and not expect an earthquake? And how does this suspended animation contraption work again? You stick the guy in a massive Tupperware jar and what did he do for air for 150 years? And no one owns a gun in the future? This is never explained, nor is it explained how the "mutants" were able to subdue the humans to the degree they did in such a relatively short period of time (without guns!). So, they are twice as strong and have these stinger thing-ma-doohickeys? Big deal--they are drastically outnumbered and obviously not twice as smart, or they would have figured out their energy problem. And so on.

But don't get me wrong--this movie is entertaining as hell. Stupid, yes, but fun. Ending leaves a lot to be desired and they decided to skip a huge chunk of action where the hero rigs a nuclear warhead to explode and then escapes (not like anyone would want to watch that or anything), presumably to fit it into time constraints and save a buck or two. Pretty dumb stuff and bad overall, but I got some good laughs out of it and would watch again. Recommended.

As you would expect from Roddenberry there are many themes about the good and bad sides of human nature explored, and his optimism about the fate of the Human race shows through as it often does in Star Trek.

The plot follows a scientist who is researching suspended animation in deep underground caverns. He is supposed to be asleep for a week, but due to an Earth quake he is buried for 150 years.

When he awakes, he finds his world has been destroyed by war. PACS - a group of Unisex humans live underground, while the mutants (the only outwardly sign being 2 navels!)live outside.

Little is know about the ancient technology of the Nuclear Power plants and both sides fight to have the "man from the past" help them.

The moral dilema for out hero is which side he chooses to help.

Despite its age, this film ain't too bad. There's no flashy special effects , but an entertaining moral tale against slavery and oppressive regimes.

Look out for Gene Roddenberry's wife making an appearance (better known as Counsellor Troi's Mother in Star Trek The Next Generation).

'Genesis II' is a 1973 TV movie and it shows. Every set and scene could well be an extended episode of the original 'Star Trek' series, just removing the familiar cast. This is hardly surprising, given that it was written by 'Star Trek' creator Gene Roddenberry. Its tone, themes, and aesthetic make it easy to imagine this as a lost story from the 'Star Trek' universe, albeit one focused on Earth's future rather than the final frontier.

The film follows a familiar science fiction trope: Dylan Hunt, a scientist, is cryogenically frozen in the 20th century and wakes up in a distant future. This setup could have easily been generic, but 'Genesis II' delivers enough twists and turns to keep the audience engaged. As the protagonist navigates this unfamiliar world and its various warring factions, the story delivers a few unexpected surprises that make the journey worthwhile.

While its TV movie budget is evident in the somewhat dated effects and modest production design, the writing is actually quite fun. Roddenberry's knack for weaving social commentary into his sci-fi is present here, exploring themes of progress, control, and human nature. The performances are solid, though they lack the charisma of the 'Star Trek' ensemble, plus the pacing sometimes feels a bit sluggish at times.

Ultimately, 'Genesis II' is an intriguing 'what-if' scenario for fans of Roddenberry's work. While it doesn't fully escape the limitations of being a TV movie, its twists make it worth a watch for science fiction enthusiasts.

OK, I need to warn you right off the bat, this movie hasn't aged well. The fact that it was made with a pilot-sized television budget probably didn't help either. Also, if you're looking for hard science fiction, you're not going to find it here. This is typical Gene Roddenberry fare. But with all its limitations and faults, I enjoyed it.

The acting and character development were rough in spots, and the dialogue might have made me cringe a few times. But remember, this was the early 1970's. The story itself was interesting, although there was no groundbreaking here. If you actually choose to watch this pilot, you've probably seen the themes it plays with many times.

I guess for me, it's because of the nostalgic value that I gave it a couple of extra stars that the work itself really doesn't deserve. It's a reflection of the time it was made and by an author I like. For the total package, I give it 7 stars.

Originally filmed as the pilot for an aborted television series, this television movie from the creator of Star Trek stands as a strong piece of entertainment on its own. It's rarely seen today; there has never been official VHS or DVD release in America, in fact.

The movie demonstrates a lot of ingenuity (the sub-shuttle and the idea of Freud as a saint come to mind). It also captures some of the magic of the original series in its themes, but presents them with a 1970s mentality. It also has some of the camp charm of the original Trek (especially in regards to the underground cave set); the futuristic city's architectural style reminds me of a better realization of the planet Deneva from the original series episode "Operation--Annihilate!" The parade of former Trek actors -- Majel Barrett (Christine Chapel), Percy Rodgriguez (Commodore Stone), Ted Cassidy (Ruk), and of course, Mariette Hartley (whose two belly buttons here is a "gotcha" to the censors, who wouldn't permit her belly button to be shown on the original Trek) is also sure to please any original series fan.

While the film occasionally lapses into weak moments (the reactions to the nuclear shockwave at the end are among the laughable moments), it is nonetheless indicative of a series with great potential. A rare find, and well worth the watch to catch a glimpse of one of a Roddenberry series that never was. (This film was remade as Planet Earth, another failed pilot, a year later.)

I'm old enough to have seen and remember the original airing of this television pilot. Being a Roddenbery creation, it garnered quite a bit of anticipation and attention at the time. It was by and large well received, but CBS decided not to pick it up as an ongoing series.

The episode starred both Alex Cord as Dylan Hunt and Mariette Hartley as Lyra-a. Both render credible performances, and they are backed up by a strong supporting cast. Cord plays a twentieth century scientist who, as a result of a suspended animation procedure gone awry, is resuscitated over two hundred years later.

The episode begins on a futuristic conveyance that is called a sub-shuttle. It spans the United States in the current timeline, and future plans call for it to circle the globe. Dylan is travelling to an underground military facility where his experiment takes place.

Shortly after arriving at the Carlsbad Caverns base, Hunt undergoes the suspended animation experiment that is his creation. He is awakened in the same caverns where the experiment began, but instead of a week later it is over two hundred years into the future. Instead of the US military, the caverns are now controlled by an organization that calls itself Pax. Pax is ostensibly a peaceful organization, and is attempting to preserve some of the remnants of the old Earth civilizations after a nuclear holocaust.

Hunt awakens and his care is turned over to Lyra-a, who is a Tyranian. This care takes a turn and becomes very personal. In order to recover from his suspended animation, Dylan requires brain stimulus drugs to return fully to consciousness. Lacking those drugs, Lyra-a takes it upon herself to render a brain stimulant, and there is little doubt what that stimulant is.

The Tyranians are mutants who claim superior intellect and strength to human beings, and also have two hearts and two belly buttons. The Tyranians are also aggressive and hostile. Despite this Lyra-a is trusted by the members of Pax, and has been welcomed into their community as a member of Pax.

It doesn't take long before it's very apparent that the trust placed in Lyra-a was misplaced, and she convinces Dylan that Pax is actually aggressive, and he escapes with her on a sub shuttle and they travel to Tyrania.

Upon arriving at Tyrania, Dylan is greeted by a futuristic city that is populated by Tyranians, and by those that serve them who they refer to as "helpers". Tyrania has great need for Dylan's scientific expertise, as they require his skills to repair their nuclear power source. He is treated well, but soon develops suspicions that all is not as it should be.

Dylan's suspicions are well founded, and he discovers with the help of a Pax rescue team that Tyrania is built upon a slave city, and their captive helpers are treated harshly. The Pax team was in place in order to start a slave rebellion, but they are ordered to rescue Dylan instead as their top priority. Dylan refuses to leave the Tyranian city unless the rescue team proceeds with the planned slave revolt, and the final chapters of this episode begin.

This is a Roddenberry creation, and came to us less than a decade after the network cancellation of Star Trek. That alone created a great deal of anticipation running up to the first airing of the pilot episode. I call it Star Trek Goes Underground. That comparison might be an exaggeration, and I'm not sure it's entirely fair, but there are similarities.

In Star Trek a great part of the allure was the technology, and topping that technology was the star ship Enterprise. Instead of a star ship, Roddenberry gives us a futuristic sub shuttle in Genesis II. Federation phasers are replaced by Pax needle guns, which are non-lethal and put it's intended target to sleep. The Tyranian weapon of choice is a diabolical device called a stim, which can deliver excruciating pain to its intended victim without causing a physical wound.

In Star Trek, the Federation was a peaceful organization that was reaching out in star ships to promote peace across the galaxy. In Genesis II, Pax is a peaceful organization that is reaching out from their caverns across the globe via sub shuttles with the same purpose. Star Trek had Romulans and Klingons. Genesis II starts us out with Tyranians. The Federation represented the best aspirations of humanity and was reaching out across the galaxy in peace. Pax represents the same and is reaching out across the globe with the same intentions.

I don't think Genesis II would have come close to the popularity of Star Trek, but I genuinely wish CBS would have picked this up for at least one season to see where Roddenberry might have taken this. Despite some bumps, the potential was clearly there for a successful run.

As an aside I should mention that one year later ABC aired a second episode called Planet Earth. John Saxon replaced Alex Cord as Dylan Hunt, and most of the original cast does not return. I'm not here to review this second episode, but I will say if you enjoy Genesis II, take a hard pass on this sequel. It doesn't come close to the original pilot and you'll be sorely disappointed.

One final thought. In what is an uncredited role, I believe (unless my eyes deceive me) a very young F Murray Abraham has a brief part as a very menacing Tyranian at about the forty one minute mark. He's easy to spot wearing a blonde wig, red robe, knee high boots, and what looks like a red diaper. Guess he had to start somewhere!

As of this writing, Genesis II is available free of charge on YouTube, and there are at least two episodes that are free of ads except at the beginning. It is also available as a paid rental on Amazon Prime.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey; Produced by Gene Roddenberry, for Warner Brothers TV, broadcast by CBS-TV. Screenplay by Gene Roddenberry; Photography by Gerald Perry Finnerman; Edited by George Watters; Music by Harry Sukman; Makeup by Tom Burman. Starring: Alex Cord, Mariette Hartley, Ted Cassidy, Percy Rodrigues, Harvey Jason, Titos Vandis, Lynn Marta, Majel Barrett and Leon Askin.

Boring, stupid telefilm pilot in which Gene rips off the sillier and more irritating elements which did in his "Star Trek". Listless crud "actor" Cord is transported to a future existence via suspended animation, and the tired premise pits him with superior technological knowledge against fetishistic communities lapsed into primitive cultural patterns and barbarism.

In case you're wondering: this is not a sequel to Genesis I, it is about the re-birth of life and human civilisation after the age of technology collapsed. Watching this, it was never entirely clear to me how seriously the film was taking itself. Some ideas were genuinely wacky, for example that Sigmund Freud was revered as a saint. There were moments when I wanted to smack the scriptwriter right in the face, e.g. when a woman calms her children with "It's only the wind!" while this wind was actually the shockwave of a nuclear explosion.

Without giving too much away: the ending has surprising similarities in structure and motives to endings of many classic westerns, e.g. in the way the boy doesn't get the girl or the problem of the former 'gunfighter' finally joining a peaceful society, a society he helped preserving.

A late 70's suspended animation test at an underground NASA complex goes awry when some kind of earthquake hits and Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord) wakes up 154 years later in a post-apocalyptic world where he finds himself caught between two societies-the underground Pax and the surface-dwelling mutants, the Tyranians.

"Genesis II" (1973) was written/produced by Roddenberry as the pilot to a new sci-fi TV series, but CBS declined to pick it up, wisely opting for the similar Planet of the Apes series. This one has its points of interest, like Mariette Hartley as Lyra-a and Ted Cassidy as Isiah, but it's dramatically meh. The characters aren't fleshed out and there's too little human interest, although Roddenberry obviously planned to improve on this foundation with several episodes in the works.

Unshaken, Gene reworked one of the episodes "Poodle Shop" (which originated from an idea he pitched as "The Pet Shop" in 1964) into a second pilot called "Planet Earth" (1974) with John Saxon in the starring role of Dylan Hunt.

It also failed to be picked up, but Saxon is more charismatic as the lead and the story is more compelling featuring the return of Ted Cassidy as Isiah and a superior female cast with Janet Margolin and Diana Muldaur, not to mention Johana De Winter in a hairstyle reminiscent of Princess Leia three years before Star Wars debuted.

This one plays like an anemic version of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970), just without the apes or the action.

The film runs 1 hours, 14 minutes, and was shot at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios and University of California, Riverside.

GRADE: C-

Genesis II was made for CBS, who turned it down in favor of the Planet of the Apes series, with the thinking that a network could have only one science fiction show on its schedule at a time.

Planet Earth was made for ABC, and it wasn't a sequel, rather, the next episode of the same premise, with a new male lead and a lighter tone.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture's script was written to be an episode of Genesis II. (and was in turn, stolen from an older episode of Star Trek! (Earth satellite comes back looking for its maker))

Andromeda uses two of the characters' names (Dylan Hunt and Harper Smythe)though it has little to do with the original concept. By using the names I suppose the producers could call it "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda") I really wish they would have made a Genesis II series instead,

IMHO: I liked that Mariette Hartley was set up to be a recurring, love-interest/villain for Dylan. It could have been a good show, though I have to agree with the poster who said it probably would have only lasted one season. Still, 26 episodes would have been great to have.

This is embarrassingly bad. A second rate hero who is needlessly shirtless at every opportunity, and makes misogynistic statements to one woman after another, like a clueless drunk idiot at a disco. Leftover wigs from Gene's of Hollywood used as part of the costumes for nearly every bit player and extra, and the costumes themselves are cheap prototypes. So science is so wonderful the can use nuclear laser beams to burn underground tunnels for thousands of miles, but have to have the secret underground NASA facility in Carlsbad Caverns? A key character who is a "white Comanche warrior". Half of humanity are post-apocalyptic mutants with two navels, two hearts, and half a brain, but cute deer and squirrels and bunnies roam everywhere as we hear birds singing in the sunny post-apocalyptic blue skies.

First: if you're interested in this because Gene Roddenberry created it, congratulations; you've found what you were looking for. Star Trek connections abound, with no less than three actors who appeared in that venerable series (four, if you count the location). Plus we've got Finnerman on camera and Theiss on costumes. So that's the good news.

Then there's the actual movie. It's terrible in the way that most sci-fi movies tended to be terrible: not enough budget, plot-heavy script, too much time creating and/or explaining the premise. The plot can be summarized as: accident brings protagonist into the future, where two groups vie for supremacy; this takes ten minute to begin. Our protagonist teeters between them while Mariette Hartley changes costumes.

This isn't to say there aren't good spots. It's certainly high-concept, with some decent effects. Percy Rodrigues gives his scenes a great dignity; Ted Cassidy does the same, if more reserved. Once in a while, Mariette Hartley almost shows some sort of feeling, but largely confined to same stony quality which en-deadened Earth II. Fortunately, support actor Lynne Marta has a bit more charisma, though we don't see her much. Leon Askin's voice enlivens his two or three scenes, for those who spent too much time watching Hogan's Heroes.

Ultimately a movie which competently fills 70 minutes of time -- no mean feat -- but accomplishes little else.

Gene Roddenberry did for TV science fiction what Rod Serling did for fantasy -- he choked it full of pretentious, self-aware social commentary.

Roddenberry was never interested in simply telling a good story and letting the critique of contemporary society remain implicit. Instead, the "satire" was brought to the forefront and unsubtly shoved down the viewer's throat.

Genesis II is Gene Roddenberry at his preachy, pompous, pontificating worst. Recommended only if you want to see Majel Barret with two navels.

unfortunately, it wasn't to memorable at that. it might have developed into something viable, all things considered for the 70's, but didn't. i love roddenberry's work, but the characters in this series given the relationship between time of the catastrophic event and the changes in the world and rather unbelievable acting lead to a very lukewarm movie at the least. Alex Cord just barely carries off the role of Dylan Hunt. Almost all the undergrounders are rather forced and unbelievable. Mariett Hartley does not do the concept of Terran any good, neither do any of the others portraying this unrealistic and unbelievable mutated race. it just didn't work for me. i'll be adding it to my collection if i can ever find it only because of roddenberry, not for anyother reason!

Amazingly bad even for its time, "Genesis II" featured some very good actors with clunky dialog and exposition. The premise itself isn't bad just poorly written. Roddenberry's ability as a dramatist could good At times but this strikes me as one of the worst pilots I've seen for a series even if it is from 1973.

It's not a surprise that the show wasn't ordered to series. The second pilot had the same flaws as this one as did the third try "Earth II