Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9412140020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It also could be argued that sci-fi movies and TV shows of the '50s required more of a viewer's imagination, because the special effects were not nearly as sophisticated as they are now. Spaceships flew on visible wires and monsters were stuntmen in rubber suits. It was wonderful.
``Science Fiction: A Journey Into the Unknown,'' a new Museum of Television & Radio special airing Tuesday on the Fox network, looks back fondly at the more primitive sci-fi shows of TV's first decades. But unfortunately the special spends just as much time, if not more, on recent programs like ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and that horrible ``Quantum Leap.''
Why would the producers of the special think we are dying to see clips from shows only a few years old? Much more intriguing are the glimpses into barely remembered or long forgotten shows like ``Tom Corbett, Space Cadet'' (``the world beyond tomorrow!'') or an oddity from 1961 called ``Way Out.'' There's even a clip from a charming antique called ``Captain Z-Ro,'' a kiddie space show from 1955 in which the hero summons forth Leonardo da Vinci to look at modern air travel.
These moments are priceless and the show could use a lot more of them. Instead we get more than five minutes of long, long clips from ``Leap,'' one of the hokiest and least plausible sci-fi shows ever, and even a tribute to Steven Spielberg's notorious flop ``Amazing Stories,'' which should have called ``Embarrassing Mistakes.'' Producer Scott Goldstein's choices are capricious at best.
Since the special was produced for Fox, the Fox series ``X-Files'' (still running) and ``Alien Nation'' (canceled) get more attention than they deserve, and it isn't noted that ``Alien Nation'' was based on the movie of the same name. Curiously, too, when ``Star Trek'' is brought up, there's no mention of the fact that NBC turned the show from a cult hit into a legend by canceling it. Instead, the script says curtly, the ``mission ended.''
William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, those two veteran Treksters, co-host the special with assists from Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia of ``Star Wars,'' and Dean Cain, handsome Superman of ABC's ``Lois and Clark.'' Various kinds of sci-fi shows are lumped under categorical headings (``Time Travel,'' ``Nightmare Worlds,'' ``Outer Space'') and the clips dutifully trotted by.
Rod Serling's classic ``The Twilight Zone'' was really a fantasy series, not a sci-fi series, but it's good to see some of those fabulous Zonian moments again. The special does a great job of condensing such standout episodes as ``Time Enough At Last,'' ``Eye of the Beholder,'' ``The After Hours'' and ``Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,'' in which a very young Shatner plays a passenger who thinks he sees a gremlin hopping around on the wing of an airplane.
Another great series, ``The Outer Limits,'' is recalled with a medley of some of its memorable monsters, including the title creatures of ``The Zanti Misfits'' episodes - big-headed, pop-eyed bugs. But strangely absent are the super-creepy walking fish of another ``Outer Limits'' show. ``Limits'' was, of course, the program that warned it was taking control of your television set.
Other shows recalled: ``Lost in Space'' (with Robby the Robot from ``Forbidden Planet'' doing a guest shot), ``Max Headroom,'' ``The Time Tunnel,'' ``The Invaders,'' and, going way back, ``Captain Video and His Video Rangers.'' As an ex-Video Ranger myself, I am always happy to see the Captain greeting us again from fakey space in his clunky headgear.
The Fox special leaves a lot to be desired, but it does contain time-warping reminders of fantasies past, remnants of an era in which we thought the future would be wondrous and that technology would be our salvation. Now we know better - but we still like to dream.
by CNB