Danger Island

When I watched the NBC airing of DANGER ISLAND, I was fascinated by what a well-stocked premise the show had. First, a well-hidden lush jungle island. Add a local mysterious (but not evil, no matter what the earlier poster thought) tribe. And finally, the mysterious government black op, "Project Naomi", a well-stocked laboratory apparently handling a disturbingly wide variety of experiments. Which caused any number of mutants and mutagens to be released to roam the island.

Heck, as a former role playing game designer, I was envious I had not come up with such a setting. It would make a heck of an RPG!

The characters covered a wide variety of types, including apparently an ex-CIA type who knew about Project Naomi.... And a hero who, upon being exposed to a mysterious mutagen, is starting to become something other than human....

Man, I would love to see the writers' guidelines for this series!

The basic format of DANGER ISLAND has been revisited by two other TV series.

The mid-90s syndicated series PETER BENCHLEY'S AMAZON had an airliner crash in the remote jungle, stranding a few dozen passengers in an unexplored valley filled with mysterious threats..... And in fall 2004, ABC brings us LOST. An airline crash on a mysterious uncharted island filled with mysterious threats......

Postscript, January 2005-- It's funny watching LOST and DANGER ISLAND and seeing some of the same photogenic areas being used by the two similar shows a decade apart. LOST is definitely the better written show but still, it would have been nice for DANGER ISLAND to have had a better chance!

POST-postscript, January 2006-- A year later and it looks even more like DANGER ISLAND was a parallel world counterpart to LOST. Especially now that we know DI's "Project Naomi" has a counterpart in LOST's "Dharma Institute."

I first watched this movie back in 1998, in a late night slot on the UK's Channel 5. I had never heard of the movie or read about it and just happened to start watching it. In the first few minutes, I assumed it would be a romantic drama on a tropical island. Swiss Family Robinson meets Blue Lagoon, maybe? Oh, how I was wrong.

After they arrive safely upon the island we get the view from under the water and the eerie music comes on. So its not a modern day Swiss Family Robinson after all. More like Demon Seed. I become even more intrigued in to what mysteries the island possesses, with references to the mutated fruit, 'fish like people' and hallucinations that Vic (Graham) has. I had to keep watching this movie, even though some of the acting was cringe worthy.

In to the latter part of the movie when they move in to the ''Habitat'', the group start to discover what truths there are behind the islands military past. A lot of the action takes place around this part of the movie, some it quite entertaining and exiting. When it came to an end I was shocked, I wanted more. Looking back though, there are painful reminders that Danger Island was not meant to end like this, but made to pave the way for a TV series, which never took off unfortunately (unless you can count Lost).

A good and entertaining film, with a relatively unknown cast and poor scripting, but good acting from Gary Graham and June Lockhart. In all though very intriguing characters and all work well together as a group. Would have been great to found out the answers that were never given especially if they were ever rescued. Oh well, a worthy 7/10

My main problem with "Danger Island", also known as "The Presence" is that it tries to accomplish way too much. It is part airline disaster/ island survival, and then morphs into a quite intricate biological laboratory experiment gone horribly wrong horror movie. The whole thing seems overly ambitious for a TV movie, and indeed it collapses under the weight of the underdeveloped script. Logic is gone for good, when the laboratory which has been abandoned since 1976, seems to have a miraculous and unlimited source of electricity. The monster transformations are not bad, but they're not worth sitting through 90 minutes of this scrambled mess. - MERK

Yet another guilty pleasure. If you're looking for state-of-the-art special effects, snappy dialogue, or a plot that's original or logical, you'll have to look elsewhere. Otherwise, Danger Island is a best watched for its lush locations, a little suspense and leggy lovelies Kathy Ireland and Beth Toussaint. Future sex kitten Nikki Cox is also here, but won't reach her potential for another three years. There are worse ways to kill two hours, as long as you turn your brain off.

Danger Island follows in the grand tradition of campy shows with a group of people marooned on a isolated tropical island. Sort of like Gilligan's Island meets Lost In Space. As if to reinforce the analogy, here's June Lockhart reprising her sweet, motherly role from Lost In Space. With Kathy Ireland as a Gingeresque supermodel who presumably would never run out of cosmetics even after years on the island. Lisa Banes is a female "Professor." Vic the Marine stands in for Major Don West. Christopher Pettiet is the Will Robinson replacement. And Richard Beymer's oily, enigmatic Ben is reminiscent of the early, not very cowardly Dr. Smith. Irwin Allen would have been proud. Or he would have sued for plagiarism.

Interestingly, the music is quite similar to the original score for "Nightmare Cafe." What makes it uncanny is that this was written by Peter Manning Robinson while that was written by J. Peter Robinson. (No relation as far as I can tell.)

This was made by NBC as a pilot for a series that never materialized. Danger Island bears more than a passing resemblance to the 1951 movie Mysterious Island, from the motley crew thrown together by circumstance to the fateful flight through a violent storm to the abandoned habitat they find and make their own and the monsters they have to fight. During the 1992 TV season, NBC seemed to like sci-fi groaners, as four months later they showed Journey to the Center of the Earth, a remake of another movie based on a Jules Verne story. That also never found a spot on NBC's regular schedule.

As a failed pilot, Danger Island laid out numerous loose ends meant to be tied up in later episodes. What tentacled menace attacked Rick and Frank? What was done to the island's natives? Who was watching them when they first made it to the beach? What does Ben know about the MK-Naomi project? The secrets of Danger Island were limitless. Perhaps it's best that they remain hidden. This way, the MK-Naomi research station will be forever shrouded in mystery, as it should be.

The movie was cute. I caught it on the Family Channel at the end of July. Most of the actors were familiar. I like Sci-Fi and I always enjoy watching a Joe Lara show or movie. Check this one out.