Genesis II is a 1973 American television film pilot created and produced by Gene Roddenberry and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. The film, which opens with the line, "My name is Dylan Hunt. My story begins the day on which I died", is the story of a 20th-century man thrown forward in time, to a post-apocalyptic future, by an accident in suspended animation.
It all began with mustachioed Alex Cord as Dylan Hunt: swaggering NASA astronaut, adventuring into infinite possibilities. Somewhere within the Carlsbad Caverns, he was leading a team of scientists on a mission to achieve suspended animation. As fun would have it, the pressurized chamber holding Mr. Hunt forces the unknown fault lines above to shift and buries he and his team for over a sesquicentennial (somebody got a thesaurus for Christmas!). Unearthed by explorers from the future society, PAX, and a deserter from a supreme race of mutated humans (sexy fallout from WWIII, apparently) known as Tyrannians, Dylan must work his way through lies, lust, and multiple navels to uncover the truth about these warring factions. Who is on the side of righteousness?
It’s great! The filmmakers squeezed as much life into this thing as their clearly slim budget would allow. It has a lot of goofy charm, fun performances, and it achieves a fully fleshed-out vision of a new planet earth. The movie takes us on an adventure across new, but familiar terrain, and into new, but familiar conflicts. The Tyrannians need Hunt to repair their nuclear facility, but for what purpose? Do they need energy or weapons? Director John Llewellyn Moxey lives up to his surname in creating a surprisingly energetic movie, culminating in a cool climactic action sequence (at one point, they tackle a horse), as well as a classic Roddenberry big-picture message about violence. Check it out. - Cinapse
Trivia:
The science fiction justification for Lyra-a (Mariette Hartley) and other Tyranians having two navels is that they have redundant circulatory systems. However, Gene Roddenberry joked that the behind-the-scenes reason was to make up for the covered navels mandated by network and studio censors during the production of the original Star Trek (1966). - IMDB
Episode concepts
The following are story concepts that were in development during the production of Genesis II that would have become individual episodes had the network approved the series.
"Company B" — A "Trojan Horse" suicide squad from the days of the great conflict comes out of suspended animation and attacks PAX. They represent the 1995 A.D. ideal of a perfect soldier.
"London Express" — A hair raising journey through submerged portions of the North Atlantic subshuttle tube to mysterious London of 2133 A.D. Dylan Hunt and Team-21 meet Lyra-A there and the mad monarch King Charles X.
"Robots Return" — The advanced computers and sophisticated machinery left on a moon of Jupiter by a 1992 NASA expedition have evolved into a new form of robot life and visit Earth in search of the "God" which created their life. They meet Hunt, formerly of NASA, and consider him a messiah. This story idea was later developed into the script for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and shares that work's thematic similarities to the Star Trek episode "The Changeling", written by John Meredyth Lucas.
"Poodle Shop" — Dylan Hunt is captured and put on sale by the females in a strange society where men are treated as domestic pets and often traded back and forth for breeding purposes. This story idea would later turn into the second pilot, Planet Earth.
"The Apartment" — Trapped inside 20th century ruins by a mysterious force field, Hunt is catapulted through a time continuum back to 1975 where he can be seen as a "transparent ghost" by the girl living in the apartment there. A bizarre love affair with a surprise twist ending ensues. The basic plot appears later as an unused Star Trek: Phase II episode "Tomorrow and the Stars".
"The Electric Company" — Dylan Hunt and his PAX team encounter a place where a strong priesthood holds a society in bondage through the clever use of electricity. The simple inhabitants see the flashes of light and the amplified voices as the sight and sound of "God", but Dylan's team ends the dominance of the priesthood when they come up with still better tricks. This episode superficially resembles the Star Trek episode "Return of the Archons".
Source: - Lincoln Enterprises Catalog No. 6
Cast
Alex Cord as Dylan Hunt
Mariette Hartley as Lyra-a
Ted Cassidy as Isiah
Percy Rodrigues as Primus Isaac Kimbridge
Harvey Jason as Singh
Titos Vandis as Yuloff
Bill Striglos as Dr. Kellum
Lynne Marta as Harper-Smythe
Harry Raybould as Slan-n
Majel Barrett as Primus Dominic
Leon Askin as Overseer
Liam Dunn as Janos
Scott Graham as Tyranian Teacher
Ed Ashley as Wehr-r
Linda Grant as Astrid
Robert Swan as Lahyn-n
Beulah Quo as Primus Lu-Chan
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