Strange New World
Entry updated 16 February 2017. Tagged: Film, TV.
Made-for-tv film (1975). Warner Bros. TV/ABC. Directed by Robert Butler. Written by Walon Green, Ronald F Graham, Al Ramrus. Cast includes Martine Beswick, Keene Curtis, Gerrit Graham, Kathleen Miller, James Olson and John Saxon. 100 minutes. Colour.
The 1970s are littered with television movies representing Gene Roddenberry's repeated attempts at pilot episodes for new television series, though in this case he is not credited. This editing together of two never-aired episodes is a sort of sequel to Genesis II (1973) and Planet Earth (1974), sharing the same star, Saxon, with the latter. Three astronauts, after 180 years in Suspended Animation, return to an Earth devastated by a meteor storm. What is left of civilization is balkanized, each group differing. The astronauts encounter two such groups. Eterna is a sterile utopia, with an obsession for cleanliness, that has conquered death; the wholesome travellers ensure that death makes a cleansing return to Eterna before they leave. They go on to restore peace in Arboria, a land divided by the Hunters and the Zookeepers, the latter being fanatical conservationists ready to kill to achieve their aims. [JB/PN]
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