Questor Tapes and other old pilots

[cb31]

I just finished watching the Questor Tapes for the first time. It had its flaws but overall it would have been interesting to see where the series would have gone if it had been picked up.

Does anyone know of any other lost scifi pilots from the last few decades that were decent but never given a chance at a series run?

I myself would have liked to see Lost in Space given a shot.

Aquaman was another with some promise.

 

[Kelso]

The Robinsons: Lost in Space was vile. That pilot deserved to die. Global Frequency, on the other hand, had potential.

Of course, I would have loved to see what Irwin Allen could have done with City Beneath the Sea on a weekly basis.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

I was absolutely dazzled by the 1971 television movie Earth II - which was originally produced as the pilot for a series entitled The Olympians - when I first saw it as a little kid circa 1977. The titular space station was actually based on a real-world proposal by the late, great astronautical engineer Krafft Ehricke, who along with Buckminster Fuller also served as the film's technical advisor.

TGT

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ I wonder if I've ever seen that, I always thought so but I think I was confusing it between Genesis II and Planet Earth maybe combining them in my head to get Earth II plus according to IMDB Mariette Hartley was in both Genesis II and Earth II.

 

[cb31]

"I-Man" with Scott Bakula was another good one! It probably would have gotten stale pretty quickly though.

 

[V]

the world wasn't ready for "Global Frequency"...

 

[js]

I still love watching "Baffled" with Leonard Nimoy - have it on VHS somewhere. He plays an American race car driver with psychic visions who goes to England and helps unravel a gothic mystery. Cheesy, but awesome 70's gothic Brit fun! Would have loved to have seen what kind of series it could have been.

 

[AJBryant]

I always thought Rodenberry's "Spectre" had interesting potential. Sigh.

 

[Greg Cox]

I always thought Rodenberry's "Spectre" had interesting potential. Sigh.

Agreed.

And let's not forget the "Assignment: Earth" episode of TOS, which was basically a backdoor pilot for a Gary Seven tv show . . . .

 

[Vendikarr]

I just finished watching the Questor Tapes for the first time. It had its flaws but overall it would have been interesting to see where the series would have gone if it had been picked up.

Actually it was picked up, but the network wanted changes, such as the removal of Mike Farrell's character, and having the android on the run each week, ala like the Fugitive.

Roddenberry didn't agree to the changes and folded the show.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

I wonder if I've ever seen that, I always thought so but I think I was confusing it between Genesis II and Planet Earth maybe combining them in my head to get Earth II plus according to IMDB Mariette Hartley was in both Genesis II and Earth II.

It may be worth acquiring a copy of Earth II from one of the sources mentioned on the film's IMDB Message Board.

TGT

 

[Steve Roby]

I still love watching "Baffled" with Leonard Nimoy - have it on VHS somewhere. He plays an American race car driver with psychic visions who goes to England and helps unravel a gothic mystery. Cheesy, but awesome 70's gothic Brit fun! Would have loved to have seen what kind of series it could have been.

Saw part of that on TV not too long ago. Coming in halfway through, it was impossible to tell what the hell was supposed to be going on. But I think I'm okay with not seeing any more of it.

I always thought Rodenberry's "Spectre" had interesting potential. Sigh.

I think I read the novelization first, because I remember liking it better than the actual TV movie. It had some potential, sure, but that potential was borrowed from Sherlock Holmes, '70s horror like The Exorcist, and (for the sexual undertones) possibly Frank Lauria's Dr Owen Orient novels. It would have taken a better writer than Gene Roddenberry to make it more than the sum of its parts.

 

[Dark Gilligan]

Questor survived in an altered form, of course. Roddenberry retooled him into Data, the android in "quest" of his humanity.

 

[Praetor]

I wonder if I've ever seen that, I always thought so but I think I was confusing it between Genesis II and Planet Earth maybe combining them in my head to get Earth II plus according to IMDB Mariette Hartley was in both Genesis II and Earth II.

It may be worth acquiring a copy of Earth II from one of the sources mentioned on the film's IMDB Message Board.

TGT

I recall seeing 'Earth II' as a movie of the week around ten years ago. Granted I was 13 at the time, but I was pretty impressed too.

 

[Maurice]

What always strikes me about the Planet Earth (1974) pilot is that the Kreeg mutants have the same head bumps as the Klingons in TMP. Likely Roddenberry borrowed from himself again.

Click for video of Kreegs!

 

[Christopher]

Does anyone know of any other lost scifi pilots from the last few decades that were decent but never given a chance at a series run?

There was one in the late '80s or early '90s that was very similar to Questor, but that I thought was rather good. It was called Project: Tinman and was about an android that was built to be a weapon but developed a conscience, went rogue from the government, etc. Pretty cliched, but I liked the execution. Except the biggest mistake the pilot made was to kill off Catherine Mary Stewart's character, who was the lead android character's guide to humanity, a role that every series like that needs. Questor had Jerry, Starman had Jenny Hayden in the movie and Scott in the show, etc.

I always thought Rodenberry's "Spectre" had interesting potential. Sigh.

I think that's the one '70s Roddenberry genre pilot I've never seen.

 

[Candlelight]

Red Dwarf US.

Meh, can't get enough of Red Dwarf. Still haven't been able to find the Terry Farrell pilot, have only seen the other one.

 

[Steve Roby]

I don't remember now which US pilot I've seen, but it was not good.

As for the Terry Farrell version: a big part of the series dynamic early on was that there were no women. It wasn't sexism, it was an ongoing story point. Having the Cat be a woman was a clear sign that someone wasn't actually watching the series they were trying to remake.

 

[Christopher]

As for the Terry Farrell version: a big part of the series dynamic early on was that there were no women. It wasn't sexism, it was an ongoing story point. Having the Cat be a woman was a clear sign that someone wasn't actually watching the series they were trying to remake.

Or else they simply wanted to take it in a different direction. A remake doesn't have to be a slavish copy. It can -- and arguably should -- be a new creation inspired by the original but bringing a fresh approach, exploring different potentials of the core idea. Personally, I've never seen the point in remaking anything if you don't contribute something new and different to it. Yes, the last man alive having no female companionship is one valid approach to take, but that doesn't mean it's the only one worth exploring.

Indeed, a version with a female Cat might be interesting. I mean, she wouldn't be a human, appearances notwithstanding. There'd be no possibility of procreation, and she might not even be interested or compatible. Plenty of prospects for unresolved sexual tension, comedy of errors and misunderstanding, etc. From what I gather, it was handled poorly in the demo film (aside from the inspired decision of casting Terry Farrell as a hypersexualized cat-woman -- I'm breathing hard just from writing that sentence), but that doesn't mean the concept is intrinsically wrong. People are always blaming the concept when they don't like something, but it's the execution that matters. The same concept that one filmmaker would handle dismally can be handled brilliantly by another.

 

[Gov Kodos]

The Robinsons: Lost in Space was vile. That pilot deserved to die. Global Frequency, on the other hand, had potential.

Of course, I would have loved to see what Irwin Allen could have done with City Beneath the Sea on a weekly basis.

I would have loved a continuation of "City Beneath the Sea" as well. I have a great love of ocean based adventures. Another favorite was "Man from Atlantis" with Patrick Duffy.