As with the Babylon 5 Universe, much interest surrounded the Star Trek franchise with regards to gaming. The TV series alone features large set piece battles in deep space between Federation ships and alien vessels, so it comes as no surprise that fans would eventually want to recreate these battles in game form.
For this look at gaming in the Star Trek universe, I will not be looking at video game adaptations, as there have been a lot made over the years and warrant a piece of their own, instead, I am going to have a look at some of the more notable entries in the tabletop gaming and CCG aspect.
Star Fleet Battles - 1979
First produced by Task Force games in the U.S.A, Star Fleet Battles is a follow on work to the unlicensed 1972 "Star Trek Battle Manual".
Using miniatures or counters, this was the first real attempt to produce a space combat game set in the Star Trek universe as it was prior to the release of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979 (essentially including everything featured in the Original series, plus the animated series)
The game follows the usual premise of having the players make a fleet for whichever race they choose (the game also contains rules for creating your own unique race and designing their spacecraft) , designing a scenario, and then fighting it out to see who is best.
The rules themselves are quite complex, leaning more towards fleet level actions and stressing the importance of looking after ships and using equipment and tactics as opposed to just charging in guns blazing, but game play can sometimes get bogged down with the more RPG aspects, requiring dice rolling to see which sub systems on ships are affected and applying modifiers to dice rolls etc.
Nonetheless, Star Fleet Battles continues to be one of the most, if not THE most popular Star Trek based tabletop miniatures game on the market, with various source books, rules updates and rejigged editions of the core rule book being released at semi regular intervals.
Although numerous "official" SFB miniatures have been released over the years, numerous miniatures companies make ships which are compatible with the system, and, with the advent of generally available 3d printers and 3d computer design, just about any ship can be made available for your fleet, all you need is some minis, a few hex bases, and you're off!.
Star Trek: The Customizable Card Game - 1994
Published by Decipher inc, this CCG is unusual as it is one of the few licenced Star Trek products to use imagery and plot lines from the TNG and movie era.
Using a play system which would later be adapted for their "Star Wars" card game, like all CCGs it requires players to purchase packs of cards to build gaming decks with.
In terms of actual game play, players would begin by placing cards from their "seed deck" which would take the form of locations and/or objectives to form a "spaceline", which they would then use cards from their "main deck" to travel along to complete missions, partake in ship and land battles or to fulfill some objective to secure victory points in order to become the winner.
Although the game enjoyed considerable popularity, with over 15 complete booster sets being released, as well as several different editions of the game and numerous variant methods of play being officially sanctioned, many players criticised the game play, citing that it was excessively complicated, especially so when a mechanic was introduced that meant that players would find themselves needing to construct additional side decks to accommodate "Q continuum" or "tribble" cards.
In many respects, ST:ccg played like a hybrid of a CCG and an RPG, many players found this a refreshing change, however those who were used to games such as Magic: The Gathering disliked the games various RPG like mechanics, which tended to make games somewhat long to play, especially in multiplayer games. That said, at its peak, ST:ccg was the third most popular ccg on the market, behind M:TG and Pokemon tcg.
The end came somewhat unexpectedly in 2007, when Decipher inc announced that they were discontinuing their ccg systems to concentrate more on their RPG and board game products, within a year they had disposed of their entire range of ccg products and had removed any mentions of "Star Trek" from their website.
The game still enjoys a cult following to this day though, with numerous "virtual" sets and rule updates being created by fans.
Federation Commander - 2005
Produced by the Amarillo Design Bureau, Federation Commander is essentially a simplified version of Star Fleet Battles, intended to make games quicker and simpler for those who do not have the time or patience to get to grips with SFBs somewhat complex rules and play style.
Using many of the same rules as SFB, FC is again set in the Star Trek universe as it was before 1979 and refers to itself as taking place during the non-canon "General War" period, thus providing a handy-dandy "get out" clause as to why everyone wants to kill each other.
FC uses the same miniatures and set up as SFB, and enjoys some popularity, with regular expansion books, boxed games, scenario packs and a thriving fan based home brew community providing feedback to the developers. The game is also somewhat unique in that it releases "booster packs" of cards containing ship tracking cards and equipment add ons, at the time of writing, there have been about 30 different booster sets for players to add variation to their fleets with.
Star Trek: A Call To Arms - 2011
Coming out at roughly the same time as their "Babylon 5: A Call To Arms" gaming system, and riding the wave of interest following the release of the "reimagined" 2009 Star Trek movie, Mongoose publishing had a stab at using their established "ActA" system with Star Trek.
Almost identical in gameplay to the B5 game, again players would build a fleet and using measuring tapes, dice and miniatures, fight a battle in the Star Trek universe.
Like its B5 counterpart though, Star Trek: ActA vapourised when Mongoose decided to cease production of miniatures wargames in order to concentrate on their much more successful (and cheaper to produce) paper and pencil RPG systems.
That said, ST:ActA was never as popular as B5:ActA, but still enjoys a lot of online fan interest, with "official" minitures changing hands on ebay for good prices now that they have been long discontinued.
Star Trek: Tactics - 2012
The Star Trek licence was next picked up by miniatures game manufacturers Wizkids.
Star Trek: Tactics was essentially a version of their highly successful "Heroclix" game, using ships from the Star Trek universe coupled with their "clixbase" game mechanic to produce a quick to play starship combat game.
Over the course of its run, Tactics had three distinct versions, numbered one to three (Tactics I, Tactics II and Tactics III) all of which added additional rules, races and ships. As standard, the game was available in "boxed" format, containing all the game play essentials, with additional ships being purchased in "blind bag" format, in the same way as Heroclix is sold.
Although the game enjoyed a small level of popularity, it never really took off, as most players saw the game system as being too simple and too similar to Heroclix to accurately represent a space combat game.
Officially, ST:Tactics has not been discontinued, however no new releases for it have been made since 2013.
Star Trek: Attack Wing - 2013
Wizkids were not done withe the Star Trek licence just yet, and, following on from their successful "Star Wars: X-wing" game, they adapted the rule set to produce this game.
ST:AW allows players to use a points system to build fleets and give the individual ships crews and equipment. Generally a fleet will consist of about 3 or 4 ships, and uses Wizkids' proprietary "FlightPath" manoeuvre system (a series of bespoke movement templates to represent sharp turns, shallow turns and straight manoeuvres, used in conjunction with "manoeuver dials" to plot ship courses for the turn) as well as red and green D8s to represent ships firepower and defensive abilities.
Numerous cardboard tokens are included with the games starter sets and expansion packs which are used in game to represent shields, targeting markers, sensor pings and alert conditions, all of which are used in relation to actions performed by ships.
What makes this game unique is the use of semi-collectable playing cards containing ship, crew and equipment data. Each card is allocated a faction and a point value, which players must choose when building their fleets, in this sense, it eliminates the need for record sheets etc as used by other similar space combat games. Many cards used in this war will have different versions, either using different artwork, or representing different versions of the same characters/ships from different points in the universe history.
The game comes as a "Boxed" starter kit, and players can purchase "Expansion" packs containing a single ship, plus cards, tokens and scenarios for use with that ship. Wizkids have also made special "Prize" ships and items available through Organized play events, which are usually based on episodes or storylines from the various TV series.
This game still enjoys some popularity, with new ships being released on a rough 3-monthly basis, however some players (myself included) have criticised the games system for not following the "feel" of the Star Trek universe. Many of the problems with the game system include numerous "grey areas" created by new items and characters being released which cause problems or conflicts with existing basic game play mechanics, leading to unbalanced game play and unbeatable combinations of ships and equipment. most notable in the games failures is the fact that the rules, although perfectly ok for X-wing type "dogfights", do not lend themselves terribly well to being a fleet/squadron level capital ship combat simulation. For example, there is little to nothing by way of combined actions or fleet bonuses, aside from the aforementioned "unbeatable card combos" that crop up and spoil it for everyone.
Nevertheless, when played "as intended" ST:AW can be an enjoyable game, albeit one in desperate need of an overhauled "2nd edition" rule set.
Showing posts with label gene roddenberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gene roddenberry. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Pilot erroR - Roddenberrys Fails...
TV Writer/Producer Gene Roddenberry is best known as the man who created Star Trek, which, although initially not thought of too highly, went on to become one of the most successful sci-fi franchises of all time.
Star Trek was not Roddenberrys only attempt at creating a Sci-Fi universe though, and during the 1970s he had many ideas for other TV shows, most of which were given the go ahead for a pilot to be filmed....Unfortunately, it is difficult to beleive that the creator of Star Treks subsequent TV projects all ended in failure, as all of them failed to recapture the recognition that Star Trek had garnered for itself, and thus, most of them ended up being put down as mere footnotes in TV history.
It wasn't until the 1990s that any of Roddenberrys ideas hit the small screen again, and then only airing after his death in 1991.
Genesis II (CBS 1973)
Its a bit like - Buck Rogers in the 24th Century, Stargate SG-1
Premise -
In 1979, scientist Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord ) volunteers to be the first human to undergo an experimental suspended animation procedure, intended to be used for deep space flights at some point in the future.
He is successfully placed in stasis, however rather than being asleep for a mere 7 days, he instead awakens to find it is the year 2133, and the Earth as he knew it has ceased to exist following a global nuclear war.
Plot of Pilot -
Following his awakening, Dylan finds himself amongst a community of people who call themselves "Pax", who are the descendants of scientific personnel that managed to escape the war by hiding in underground bunkers. The people of Pax tell Dylan that they dedicate their lives to rediscovering the knowledge of the past and using it for peaceful exploratory purposes.
The people of Pax are strange to Hunt, as they live in a true meritocracy with full equality between males and females, to the point at which there are literally no distinctions between them (this is referred to in the show as "unisex"). This has led to a decreased birth rate amongst them, however some of the older members of the society note that the younger members have begun returning to "the old ways" (that is, to pursue heterosexual relationships and begin reproduction via sexual means).
Hunt is persuaded by Lyra-A, a woman who comes from an area which was formerly known as Phoenix, Arizona (The people of Pax are said to occasionally allow "outsiders" to enter their society, provided that they adhere to Pax's strict laws regarding non-violence), to leave Pax and travel with her via sub-shuttle, a series of underground high speed trains constructed in the 1970s to counter air terrorism, back to her homeland to repair their failing nuclear fission reactor, as none of her people know how to fix it, but do know that if it breaks down completely, it will cause a disaster. Lyra-A explains that her people, the Tyranians, pleaded with Pax to assist them, as Pax is the only place that has the right knowledge to fix it, but they refused, Lyra then lies to Hunt and tells him that the people of Pax are tyrants who want to conquer the world using their advanced science and knowledge of ancient weapons.
Dylan fixes the reactor, but is then horrified to learn that the rulers of Tyrania intend to use the power generated from it to reactivate and launch several ICBMs they have in their posession. Hunt manages to escape and sabotages the reactor so it explodes before the mutants can begin attacking their enemies, but the ruling council of Pax, whom he returns to once he has learned the error of his ways, explain that they knew that the Tyranians had access to the weapons, and they knew that should their reactor be fixed, they would immediately begin attacking people, thus setting in motion another war which would finally kill everyone on Earth. Knowing that Hunt was unaware of this, and had been tricked, they make him promise to never again use his knowledge of science or the past to harm another life form, to which he agrees. Hunt is then assigned to an exploration team and begins his new life rediscovering the reborn Earth.
Why did it fail?
This project failed quite simply because the TV people didn't like it, both because they found the storyline to be uninteresting, and because the series special effects budget would have been quite high.
The premise of this series is similar to Star Trek in many ways, as each week we would have seen Dylans exploration team visit a different region of Earth and interact with any people they found there. Roddenberry had already created several draft ideas for episodes when he submitted his original idea for consideration, but many of the plots were pretty much samey-wamey with the only variations being that each "new" people that the team met would be similar to but different from civilisations we are already familiar with.
Although I quite liked Genesis II, It didnt really have enough entertainment factor for it to be considered for a full series. The limitation placed on it by having Pax be a totally pacifist society would seriously hamper the chances of any action scenes, and, like Star Trek Voyager ended up being, most of the series' "drama" would come from long scientific and/or philosophical discussions between the main cast members, something which 1970s television wasn't really interested in.
Overall - 5/10
Planet Earth (ABC 1974)
Its a bit like - Genesis II, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek
Premise -
In the year 2133, the people of Pax, one of the few cities to have survived world war 3, send out teams of explorers to make peaceful contact with other surviving communities so they can rebuild and reacquire scientific knowledge. One of these teams is led by Dylan Hunt, a man who was revived by Pax after being placed in stasis in the late 20th century, the series follows their adventures in the post apocalyptic Earth.
Plot of pilot -
Dylan Hunt (now played by John Saxon ) leads his team into the wilderness in search of a missing doctor, whom they need to perform a very delicate operation on a high ranking member of Paxs ruling council, who was injured during a conflict with the Kreegs, a race of warlike mutant humans descended from the military survivors of the war.
They find the trail leads to a small country which calls itself "The Confederacy of Ruth", a society which has adopted a matriarchal model and where men are treated as little more than beasts of burden.
Two members of Dylans team, The former savage Isiah (Ted Cassidy), and field medic Baylock go missing while attempting to make contact with the people of the Confederacy, so, Dylan and his remaining team member, the woman Harper-Smythe, infiltrate the settlement by masquerading as a woman with her male property looking to leave Pax and settle in Ruth.
The pair run in to Marg, one of the rulers of the Confederacy, who challenges Harper-Smythe to a fight and wins, thus taking possession of Hunt.
Hunt is placed into a slave pen, where all the males, referred to by the women as "Dinks", are kept prior too being sold to other mistresses. Hunt finds Isiah and Baylock, but they seem to be drugged in some fashion, being absolutely terrified whenever he tries to speak to them, it is only by way of using Baylocks latent telepathic ability that he finds that the food the men are given is drugged with something that induces terror in the men, this way Hunt manages to avoid eating any of the drugged food he is later served, and manages to fool the mistresses into thinking he has been "trained".
Marg decides to keep Hunt for use as breeding stock, as for several year snow, the Confederacy of Ruth has suffered from a decline in the number of pregnancies, as more and more of the men they have there become sterile for some unknown reason, Hunt notices that one of Margs slaves is the man they are looking for, and finds out from him that the reason the men are becoming sterile is because of the drug they are given to keep them docile, but, he has found an antidote for it but has as yet had no opportunity to be able to distribute it amongst the men.
Hunt tricks Marg into getting drunk and passing out while she is attempting to seduce him, having led her to believe that back in Pax, he has several wives and has fathered over a dozen children. Hunt then assists in putting the antidote into the food intended for the men, so that all the men are no longer in a permanent state of terror.
Meanwhile, Harper-Smythe has managed to ingratiate herself into Confederate society, and wins Hunt back after challenging Marg to a duel. Hunt explains what he has learned and they agree to organise a mass break out the next day, however it doesnt go according to plan as the Confederacy comes under attack by a group of marauding Kreegs, who decided to pick on the town because they knew that the men wouldn't fight back, and the women were too few in number to effect any resistance.
By the time they launch their attack though, all of the towns men have received the antidote, and much to the Kreegs surprise, they find themselves being attacked by the towns men, while most of the women stand back surprised as they never thought the men would fight for them, seeing them only as being savages fit only for work or breeding.
The Kreegs are successfully repelled, Hunt manages to get the doctor back to Pax, where he carries out the surgery, and the men of the Confederacy decide to stay and continue their lives, but this time free from being drugged or abused.
Why did it Fail?
Roddenberry, still smarting from being told that "Genesis II" was boring, reworked one of his draft scripts, titled "Poodle Parlour", into this show, adding on more action oriented scenes and even including the Klingon-like Kreegs to act as an enemy for Dylan and his team.
Unfortunately though this change did little to increase the shows charm. Dylan Hunt was changed from being an "action-scientist" to being "budget Captain Kirk", and the remainder of his team were of little significance, except maybe Isiah, who did get a little bit of backstory thrown in in the opening scenes to explain why he, a "savage" was welcome amongst the people of Pax.
At the time the show aired, the "Womens Liberation" movement was quite vocal in their campaign for gender equality in the western world, and many viewers sort of objected to womens depiction on screen as being little more than ignorant tyrants who treated men as indentured slaves. Hunts famous line "Is this womens lib?, or womens lib gone mad?", which was seen by many as being an insult to women and supporters of gender equality, while some pointed out that the Kreegs spoke and acted in a way that seemed to mimic a stereotypical "African savage", as the Kreegs would speak in a series of gutteral grunts and were completely obsessed with destruction.
Another factor in its downfall was again, a high budget required for special effects and makeup appliances, as actors playing the Kreegs would all require to have bony headpieces applied and their skin darkened.
All in all though, the show wasn't too bad, but would never have really worked as a TV series for the same reason that its earlier incarnation, Genesis II, wouldn't have worked, but it was better than Genesis II insofar as it is actually entertaining to watch in places, and not scene after scene of science bits and philosophical dilemmas and so on.
Overall - 7/10
Strange New World (Warner Brothers TV - 1975)
Premise -
In the late 20th century, a scientific organisation named "Pax" launches a space station into orbit, its purpose, to test a suspended animation process by placing 3 people into stasis for 18 days.
3 days into the mission, Pax observers spot a swarm of meteors heading directly for Earth, so they move the space station into a deeper orbit, lasting 180 years, and extend the stasis period to cover that time. The meteors impact the planet, causing the worst natural disaster to ever occur during human history, however, some people, including the families of the three people in space, are placed into stasis in Paxs underground bunker, to await the return of the three space travellers.
Plot of Pilot -
Astronaut Anthony Vico (John Saxon), together with navigator/communications officer Alison Crowley and medical Doctor William Scott are revived and informed as to what has happened while they have been in stasis. They are given the instructions to return to Earth and make their way to the Pax headquarters to revive the survivors, if any, that they find there.
The disaster has left Earth a changed planet, completely wiping out all civilisations and countries that occupied it previously, and leaving only a handful of survivors.
After landing, the three travellers begin their journey using an advanced 6 wheeled all terrain vehicle, and come across a society of people who model themselves somewhat on ancient Rome, who also claim to have discovered the secret of eternal youth. They are however, much more sinister as they have perfected cloning, thus allowing them to replace organs at will, not only that, but they also use their own clones as slave labour.
The next people they meet on their travels are people descended from zookeepers, who now worship and protect the animals their ancestors watched over from tribes of marauding humans who hunt animals for food and sport.
Why did it fail?
Of the three "Pax Trilogy" pilots, this was the only one which Gene Roddenberry had no direct involvement in creating. Warner Brothers, who now owned the "Pax" series concept, decided to give it one last go and completely reworked the format, keeping very little from the original premise.
What remained, and what eventually aired was a poorly conceived "adventure" type show in which the team of "heroes" searched for the "lost" Pax HQ, encountering a new adversary each week, pretty similar to any number of other shows that were on at the time.
The production itself was riddled with cheapo special effects, poor acting, terrible dialogue and flimsy formulaic plots which were neither interesting nor entertaining to watch.
Its a shame that a solid concept as this ended up as a simple run of the mill TV show full of cliches, bargain basement effects and boring plots. After this show aired, the Pax concept was discarded completely by Roddenberry as "unworkable", although many people have noted that the subsequent "Logans Run" TV series did indeed have many similarities to "Strange New World".
Overall - 3/10
The Questor Tapes (NBC 1974)
Premise -
Dr. Vaslovik had a dream to build the worlds first super realistic android, however, just as his dream was reaching fruition, he disappeared without trace.
His team complete the assembly of the android, however their inability to understand the robots programming causes them to erase most of the data left behind on a series of program tapes.
They try and activate the robot using a substitute program they wrote themselves, but are unsuccessful, so in a last ditch attempt to get it working, they input the remains of the original tape, which again appears to fail, causing them to abandon the project.
However, when the android is left alone, it suddenly activates, and, after making cosmetic changes to itself so that it can pass for human, it begins to wonder what its purpose is.
Plot of pilot -
Questor, as the android names itself, has fragmented memories of what it is supposed to do, left over from its original programming. It knows it must find Dr. Vaslovik, and that his location has something to do with a boat. The problem is that Questors nuclear power source, located in his stomach, will explode within a week if he is not reunited with his creator.
Questors investigations eventually lead him to mount Ararat, where he is reunited with Vaslovik, who reveals himself to be another android, one of many in a line left behind by "The Masters" to act as a guardian of mankind. Each android has a lifespan measured in centuries, and at the end of its lifetime, it must build a replacement and "pass on the torch" of responsibility, as it were. Questor takes on the mantle and begins his quest to help mankind move towards a peaceful existence.
Why did it fail?
Oddly, "The Questor Tapes" was actually greenlit for a full series before the pilot had even aired on TV, however, the series never happened, simply because NBC demanded numerous changes be made to the shows format, and then further causing insult by saying that the show was scheduled to air on friday nights at 10pm, a time slot which is considered to be a "death slot" for any TV program put in it (the 3rd series of Star Trek was placed in this time slot, and suffered horribly because of it).Roddenberry refused to make any of the changed demanded by the networks and after the timeslot was announced, he quit the production. Without him at the helm, the series fell through.
Although the premise itself was sound, the formula of having an "outsider" shepard mankind towards its destiny had already been tried out in the backdoor pilot episode of Star Trek named "Assignment: Earth" and had similarities to Doctor Who.
Overall - 6/10
Spectre (1977)
Premise -
William Sebastian is a Criminologist who during one of his cases ends up being cursed by the demon Asmodeus. The result of this curse is that he requires constant medical attention. Lucklily, Sebastians friend Dr. Hamilton is on hand to provide him with medical assistance whenever he needs it, thus leaving Sebastian free to continue solving cases related to the occult in the hopes that he will find a cure for the curse.
Plot of pilot -
While investigating a case on behalf of the Cyon family, Sebastian is attacked by a succubus, whom he defeats. This leads him to further investigate the family in their ancestral home in London.
Every step of the way, Sebastian and Hamilton are beseeched by supernatural entities who commit several murders in order to stop anyone investigating the family.
The pair eventually find a hidden temple dedicated to the demon Asmodeus and defeat him, thus removing Sebastians curse.
Why did it fail?
At the time the pilot was proposed, occult detective fiction was quite popular, however, due to this, numerous other pitches were made in a similar vein, many of which never made it into production.
By the time the filming of a pilot had been greenlit, it was already obvious that the pilot wouldnt be picked up for series, so instead the script was reworked into a standalone film, with the hopes that maybe it would become a series. Although the finished film was released at cinemas, it didnt do too well, being as that the main characters were basically Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in everything but name, and the story was bland and uninteresting, having pretty much been done to death before.
One item of note is that the UK theatrical release of the film featured a "black mass" scene at the end of the film, which included full frontal nudity, this section of the film was edited out for US release.
Overall - 5/10
Star Trek was not Roddenberrys only attempt at creating a Sci-Fi universe though, and during the 1970s he had many ideas for other TV shows, most of which were given the go ahead for a pilot to be filmed....Unfortunately, it is difficult to beleive that the creator of Star Treks subsequent TV projects all ended in failure, as all of them failed to recapture the recognition that Star Trek had garnered for itself, and thus, most of them ended up being put down as mere footnotes in TV history.
It wasn't until the 1990s that any of Roddenberrys ideas hit the small screen again, and then only airing after his death in 1991.
Genesis II (CBS 1973)
Its a bit like - Buck Rogers in the 24th Century, Stargate SG-1
Premise -
In 1979, scientist Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord ) volunteers to be the first human to undergo an experimental suspended animation procedure, intended to be used for deep space flights at some point in the future.
He is successfully placed in stasis, however rather than being asleep for a mere 7 days, he instead awakens to find it is the year 2133, and the Earth as he knew it has ceased to exist following a global nuclear war.
Plot of Pilot -
Following his awakening, Dylan finds himself amongst a community of people who call themselves "Pax", who are the descendants of scientific personnel that managed to escape the war by hiding in underground bunkers. The people of Pax tell Dylan that they dedicate their lives to rediscovering the knowledge of the past and using it for peaceful exploratory purposes.
The people of Pax are strange to Hunt, as they live in a true meritocracy with full equality between males and females, to the point at which there are literally no distinctions between them (this is referred to in the show as "unisex"). This has led to a decreased birth rate amongst them, however some of the older members of the society note that the younger members have begun returning to "the old ways" (that is, to pursue heterosexual relationships and begin reproduction via sexual means).
Hunt is persuaded by Lyra-A, a woman who comes from an area which was formerly known as Phoenix, Arizona (The people of Pax are said to occasionally allow "outsiders" to enter their society, provided that they adhere to Pax's strict laws regarding non-violence), to leave Pax and travel with her via sub-shuttle, a series of underground high speed trains constructed in the 1970s to counter air terrorism, back to her homeland to repair their failing nuclear fission reactor, as none of her people know how to fix it, but do know that if it breaks down completely, it will cause a disaster. Lyra-A explains that her people, the Tyranians, pleaded with Pax to assist them, as Pax is the only place that has the right knowledge to fix it, but they refused, Lyra then lies to Hunt and tells him that the people of Pax are tyrants who want to conquer the world using their advanced science and knowledge of ancient weapons.
Dylan fixes the reactor, but is then horrified to learn that the rulers of Tyrania intend to use the power generated from it to reactivate and launch several ICBMs they have in their posession. Hunt manages to escape and sabotages the reactor so it explodes before the mutants can begin attacking their enemies, but the ruling council of Pax, whom he returns to once he has learned the error of his ways, explain that they knew that the Tyranians had access to the weapons, and they knew that should their reactor be fixed, they would immediately begin attacking people, thus setting in motion another war which would finally kill everyone on Earth. Knowing that Hunt was unaware of this, and had been tricked, they make him promise to never again use his knowledge of science or the past to harm another life form, to which he agrees. Hunt is then assigned to an exploration team and begins his new life rediscovering the reborn Earth.
Why did it fail?
This project failed quite simply because the TV people didn't like it, both because they found the storyline to be uninteresting, and because the series special effects budget would have been quite high.
The premise of this series is similar to Star Trek in many ways, as each week we would have seen Dylans exploration team visit a different region of Earth and interact with any people they found there. Roddenberry had already created several draft ideas for episodes when he submitted his original idea for consideration, but many of the plots were pretty much samey-wamey with the only variations being that each "new" people that the team met would be similar to but different from civilisations we are already familiar with.
Although I quite liked Genesis II, It didnt really have enough entertainment factor for it to be considered for a full series. The limitation placed on it by having Pax be a totally pacifist society would seriously hamper the chances of any action scenes, and, like Star Trek Voyager ended up being, most of the series' "drama" would come from long scientific and/or philosophical discussions between the main cast members, something which 1970s television wasn't really interested in.
Overall - 5/10
Planet Earth (ABC 1974)
Its a bit like - Genesis II, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek
Premise -
In the year 2133, the people of Pax, one of the few cities to have survived world war 3, send out teams of explorers to make peaceful contact with other surviving communities so they can rebuild and reacquire scientific knowledge. One of these teams is led by Dylan Hunt, a man who was revived by Pax after being placed in stasis in the late 20th century, the series follows their adventures in the post apocalyptic Earth.
Plot of pilot -
Dylan Hunt (now played by John Saxon ) leads his team into the wilderness in search of a missing doctor, whom they need to perform a very delicate operation on a high ranking member of Paxs ruling council, who was injured during a conflict with the Kreegs, a race of warlike mutant humans descended from the military survivors of the war.
They find the trail leads to a small country which calls itself "The Confederacy of Ruth", a society which has adopted a matriarchal model and where men are treated as little more than beasts of burden.
Two members of Dylans team, The former savage Isiah (Ted Cassidy), and field medic Baylock go missing while attempting to make contact with the people of the Confederacy, so, Dylan and his remaining team member, the woman Harper-Smythe, infiltrate the settlement by masquerading as a woman with her male property looking to leave Pax and settle in Ruth.
The pair run in to Marg, one of the rulers of the Confederacy, who challenges Harper-Smythe to a fight and wins, thus taking possession of Hunt.
Hunt is placed into a slave pen, where all the males, referred to by the women as "Dinks", are kept prior too being sold to other mistresses. Hunt finds Isiah and Baylock, but they seem to be drugged in some fashion, being absolutely terrified whenever he tries to speak to them, it is only by way of using Baylocks latent telepathic ability that he finds that the food the men are given is drugged with something that induces terror in the men, this way Hunt manages to avoid eating any of the drugged food he is later served, and manages to fool the mistresses into thinking he has been "trained".
Marg decides to keep Hunt for use as breeding stock, as for several year snow, the Confederacy of Ruth has suffered from a decline in the number of pregnancies, as more and more of the men they have there become sterile for some unknown reason, Hunt notices that one of Margs slaves is the man they are looking for, and finds out from him that the reason the men are becoming sterile is because of the drug they are given to keep them docile, but, he has found an antidote for it but has as yet had no opportunity to be able to distribute it amongst the men.
Hunt tricks Marg into getting drunk and passing out while she is attempting to seduce him, having led her to believe that back in Pax, he has several wives and has fathered over a dozen children. Hunt then assists in putting the antidote into the food intended for the men, so that all the men are no longer in a permanent state of terror.
Meanwhile, Harper-Smythe has managed to ingratiate herself into Confederate society, and wins Hunt back after challenging Marg to a duel. Hunt explains what he has learned and they agree to organise a mass break out the next day, however it doesnt go according to plan as the Confederacy comes under attack by a group of marauding Kreegs, who decided to pick on the town because they knew that the men wouldn't fight back, and the women were too few in number to effect any resistance.
By the time they launch their attack though, all of the towns men have received the antidote, and much to the Kreegs surprise, they find themselves being attacked by the towns men, while most of the women stand back surprised as they never thought the men would fight for them, seeing them only as being savages fit only for work or breeding.
The Kreegs are successfully repelled, Hunt manages to get the doctor back to Pax, where he carries out the surgery, and the men of the Confederacy decide to stay and continue their lives, but this time free from being drugged or abused.
Why did it Fail?
Roddenberry, still smarting from being told that "Genesis II" was boring, reworked one of his draft scripts, titled "Poodle Parlour", into this show, adding on more action oriented scenes and even including the Klingon-like Kreegs to act as an enemy for Dylan and his team.
Unfortunately though this change did little to increase the shows charm. Dylan Hunt was changed from being an "action-scientist" to being "budget Captain Kirk", and the remainder of his team were of little significance, except maybe Isiah, who did get a little bit of backstory thrown in in the opening scenes to explain why he, a "savage" was welcome amongst the people of Pax.
At the time the show aired, the "Womens Liberation" movement was quite vocal in their campaign for gender equality in the western world, and many viewers sort of objected to womens depiction on screen as being little more than ignorant tyrants who treated men as indentured slaves. Hunts famous line "Is this womens lib?, or womens lib gone mad?", which was seen by many as being an insult to women and supporters of gender equality, while some pointed out that the Kreegs spoke and acted in a way that seemed to mimic a stereotypical "African savage", as the Kreegs would speak in a series of gutteral grunts and were completely obsessed with destruction.
Another factor in its downfall was again, a high budget required for special effects and makeup appliances, as actors playing the Kreegs would all require to have bony headpieces applied and their skin darkened.
All in all though, the show wasn't too bad, but would never have really worked as a TV series for the same reason that its earlier incarnation, Genesis II, wouldn't have worked, but it was better than Genesis II insofar as it is actually entertaining to watch in places, and not scene after scene of science bits and philosophical dilemmas and so on.
Overall - 7/10
Strange New World (Warner Brothers TV - 1975)
In the late 20th century, a scientific organisation named "Pax" launches a space station into orbit, its purpose, to test a suspended animation process by placing 3 people into stasis for 18 days.
3 days into the mission, Pax observers spot a swarm of meteors heading directly for Earth, so they move the space station into a deeper orbit, lasting 180 years, and extend the stasis period to cover that time. The meteors impact the planet, causing the worst natural disaster to ever occur during human history, however, some people, including the families of the three people in space, are placed into stasis in Paxs underground bunker, to await the return of the three space travellers.
Plot of Pilot -
Astronaut Anthony Vico (John Saxon), together with navigator/communications officer Alison Crowley and medical Doctor William Scott are revived and informed as to what has happened while they have been in stasis. They are given the instructions to return to Earth and make their way to the Pax headquarters to revive the survivors, if any, that they find there.
The disaster has left Earth a changed planet, completely wiping out all civilisations and countries that occupied it previously, and leaving only a handful of survivors.
After landing, the three travellers begin their journey using an advanced 6 wheeled all terrain vehicle, and come across a society of people who model themselves somewhat on ancient Rome, who also claim to have discovered the secret of eternal youth. They are however, much more sinister as they have perfected cloning, thus allowing them to replace organs at will, not only that, but they also use their own clones as slave labour.
The next people they meet on their travels are people descended from zookeepers, who now worship and protect the animals their ancestors watched over from tribes of marauding humans who hunt animals for food and sport.
Why did it fail?
Of the three "Pax Trilogy" pilots, this was the only one which Gene Roddenberry had no direct involvement in creating. Warner Brothers, who now owned the "Pax" series concept, decided to give it one last go and completely reworked the format, keeping very little from the original premise.
What remained, and what eventually aired was a poorly conceived "adventure" type show in which the team of "heroes" searched for the "lost" Pax HQ, encountering a new adversary each week, pretty similar to any number of other shows that were on at the time.
The production itself was riddled with cheapo special effects, poor acting, terrible dialogue and flimsy formulaic plots which were neither interesting nor entertaining to watch.
Its a shame that a solid concept as this ended up as a simple run of the mill TV show full of cliches, bargain basement effects and boring plots. After this show aired, the Pax concept was discarded completely by Roddenberry as "unworkable", although many people have noted that the subsequent "Logans Run" TV series did indeed have many similarities to "Strange New World".
Overall - 3/10
The Questor Tapes (NBC 1974)
Premise -
Dr. Vaslovik had a dream to build the worlds first super realistic android, however, just as his dream was reaching fruition, he disappeared without trace.
His team complete the assembly of the android, however their inability to understand the robots programming causes them to erase most of the data left behind on a series of program tapes.
They try and activate the robot using a substitute program they wrote themselves, but are unsuccessful, so in a last ditch attempt to get it working, they input the remains of the original tape, which again appears to fail, causing them to abandon the project.
However, when the android is left alone, it suddenly activates, and, after making cosmetic changes to itself so that it can pass for human, it begins to wonder what its purpose is.
Plot of pilot -
Questor, as the android names itself, has fragmented memories of what it is supposed to do, left over from its original programming. It knows it must find Dr. Vaslovik, and that his location has something to do with a boat. The problem is that Questors nuclear power source, located in his stomach, will explode within a week if he is not reunited with his creator.
Questors investigations eventually lead him to mount Ararat, where he is reunited with Vaslovik, who reveals himself to be another android, one of many in a line left behind by "The Masters" to act as a guardian of mankind. Each android has a lifespan measured in centuries, and at the end of its lifetime, it must build a replacement and "pass on the torch" of responsibility, as it were. Questor takes on the mantle and begins his quest to help mankind move towards a peaceful existence.
Why did it fail?
Oddly, "The Questor Tapes" was actually greenlit for a full series before the pilot had even aired on TV, however, the series never happened, simply because NBC demanded numerous changes be made to the shows format, and then further causing insult by saying that the show was scheduled to air on friday nights at 10pm, a time slot which is considered to be a "death slot" for any TV program put in it (the 3rd series of Star Trek was placed in this time slot, and suffered horribly because of it).Roddenberry refused to make any of the changed demanded by the networks and after the timeslot was announced, he quit the production. Without him at the helm, the series fell through.
Although the premise itself was sound, the formula of having an "outsider" shepard mankind towards its destiny had already been tried out in the backdoor pilot episode of Star Trek named "Assignment: Earth" and had similarities to Doctor Who.
Overall - 6/10
Spectre (1977)
Premise -
William Sebastian is a Criminologist who during one of his cases ends up being cursed by the demon Asmodeus. The result of this curse is that he requires constant medical attention. Lucklily, Sebastians friend Dr. Hamilton is on hand to provide him with medical assistance whenever he needs it, thus leaving Sebastian free to continue solving cases related to the occult in the hopes that he will find a cure for the curse.
Plot of pilot -
While investigating a case on behalf of the Cyon family, Sebastian is attacked by a succubus, whom he defeats. This leads him to further investigate the family in their ancestral home in London.
Every step of the way, Sebastian and Hamilton are beseeched by supernatural entities who commit several murders in order to stop anyone investigating the family.
The pair eventually find a hidden temple dedicated to the demon Asmodeus and defeat him, thus removing Sebastians curse.
Why did it fail?
At the time the pilot was proposed, occult detective fiction was quite popular, however, due to this, numerous other pitches were made in a similar vein, many of which never made it into production.
By the time the filming of a pilot had been greenlit, it was already obvious that the pilot wouldnt be picked up for series, so instead the script was reworked into a standalone film, with the hopes that maybe it would become a series. Although the finished film was released at cinemas, it didnt do too well, being as that the main characters were basically Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in everything but name, and the story was bland and uninteresting, having pretty much been done to death before.
One item of note is that the UK theatrical release of the film featured a "black mass" scene at the end of the film, which included full frontal nudity, this section of the film was edited out for US release.
Overall - 5/10
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