Earth II

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic “2001: A Space Odyssey” set new standards for scientific accuracy in the portrayal of space travel in motion pictures. Gene Roddenberry’s 1966-69 television series “Star Trek” offered an idealistic and optimistic vision of what the future might be like. Producers Allan Balter and William Read Woodfield proposed a television series to the ABC network that would combine a convincingly realistic presentation of an orbiting space colony with a positive outlook on mankind’s continuing development. The star of this program would be actor Gary Lockwood, who had appeared in both Kubrick’s film and Roddenberry’s series.

This week’s made-for-television movie was “Earth Ⅱ” from MGM, directed by Tom Gries from a script by Allan Balter and William Read Woodfield. It was broadcast by ABC on November 28, 1971. Gary Lockwood stars as American astronaut “David Seville,” who is a liberal progressive. Seville is the commander of an enormous space station built by the United States. With the support of “President Charles Carter Durant,” (Lew Ayres), Earth Ⅱ declares itself an independent nation so that the scientists aboard can serve all mankind. The conservative aerospace engineer “Frank Karger,” (Tony Franciosa), believes that Seville is blinded by his idealism to the realities of international affairs. Karger and his family move to the space colony so he can work on a Mars spacecraft. The two soon face a deadly crisis. The People’s Republic of China places a satellite in a nearby orbit that is equipped with three nuclear warheads. Earth Ⅱ must intervene to destroy the threat.

For those of us who are interested in space technology this movie has a lot to offer. The special effects are quite good for the time, and the designs of the vehicles are entirely plausible. Unfortunately the story dramatics are not nearly so well handled. The cast is good, but the script is rather heavy-handed and lacking in subtlety. Gries’ direction is somewhat flat, and the movie is a bit slow-moving and overly talky. ABC decided not to proceed further with the series. MGM gave the movie a theatrical release overseas to help recover the production costs.

If the show had been produced it is pretty clear that Fred Karger was being set up to be proven wrong in almost every episode. Even the character name “Karger” means “trickster” in German.

The character name of “David Seville” was an unusual choice. Ross Bagdasarian, (1919-72), creator of “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” performed under the stage name of “David Seville,” including on “The Alvin Show,” (CBS, 1961-62). He was very well-known when this film was produced.

One important plot point in the script is that Red China does not feel bound by international agreements banning nuclear weapons in space because the country is not a member of the United Nations. By the time this movie was broadcast those circumstances had changed. The People’s Republic of China took its seat in the United Nations on November 15, 1971, less than two weeks before the movie’s airdate. 

This movie is not to be confused with the imaginative science fiction television series “Earth 2,” (NBC, 1994-95), which was similar in many respects to the early episodes of “Lost in Space,” (1965-68).