Logan's Run (TV Series) Capture (1977) User Reviews

The Hunting Of The Sandmen

[ShadeGrenade · 8/10 · 28 October 2006]

Francis finally catches up with Logan, Jessica, and Rem. Leaving Rem in the company of fellow Sandman Benjamin, Francis takes the Runners back to the City Of Domes for reprogramming. En route, Jessica is abducted by James Borden, a big game hunter who lives in a gadget-packed house protected by a force field.

Borden has grown tired of hunting Runners and is after bigger game - Sandmen. Equipped with a laser rifle, he stalks Logan and Francis through the forest, while his wife Irene goes after Jessica...

Richard Connell's 'The Most Dangerous Game' provided the inspiration for several T.V. sci-fi plots, such as 'The Incredible Hulk' episode 'The Snare', here it is pressed into service for 'Logan's Run' and makes a welcome respite from the normal pattern of the series.

Horst Bucholz, who plays 'Borden', was the youngest member of the original - and best - 'Magnificent Seven', while Mary Woronov is mouth-wateringly sexy ( especially in a tiger skin dress ) as Irene.

Logan and Francis work as a team for once. Episode could have been better directed, though; the hunt consists of little else but people running through sunny forests. A few more death traps ( like the pit and the phantom cage ) would have been nice. Francis saves the day by shooting Borden. Logan lost his Gun near the pit, though Rem retrieves it later on. Sandmen are useless without their Guns, aren't they?

Capture

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 10 June 2012]

Practically every sci-fi show I can think of has had a plot taken from The Most Dangerous Game (its influence in television and film is tremendous) and "Capture", early into the only season of Logan's Run, is no different. Logan and Jessica are taken prisoner by Francis and fellow Sandman Benjamin, but this is short-lived: while Benjamin is unsuccessful in "doing away with" Rem, Jessica is kidnapped by human hunters, Borden (Horst Bucholz) and wife Irene (Mary Woronov!) while Francis and Logan are asleep. Having them believe that mutants kidnapped Jessica, taking her to a fictitious swamp for slave labor, Borden prepares Francis and Logan for the great hunt on his wilderness property. Irene says she will hunt Jessica after hubby is finished with the Sandmen. Let's just say that it doesn't go according to Borden and Irene's plans. This premise of "humans hunting humans" always has appealed to me because it usually delivers plenty of action and suspense. You always wonder how those being hunted will figure out ways to escape what seem like impossible odds. The hunter knows the property in every way while the quarry is on unfamiliar terrain. Traps present themselves and the quarry must determine how to escape them. The hunter has superior firepower so those hunted will have to use ingenuity and smarts to outmaneuver him. The hunters need to be well cast with the right kind of cold-bloodedness and desire for the thrill of the hunt, totally immune to the immorality of their bloodshed. Bucholz and especially Woronov (as sexy and deliciously devious as you could ask for) fit the bill; you can see that they thrive on their victims' fear and/ belief in a possible survival. Important also is that Francis and Logan once again (as they in future episodes) address Carousel and Sanctuary, both sharing differing views on the philosophy of the City of Domes and freedom on the outside. Logan and Jessica both know that if they are returned to the Dome City, they will be reprogrammed and forced by control to tell the citizenry that there is no Sanctuary and that outside is too dangerous for habitation. You know, time and again, the show would establish, as it does in "Capture", how often runners meet gruesome fates on the outside, finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time (Irene shows Jessica "trophies" kept of their kills of runners; a delight shows in Irene's eyes as she presents the necklace crosses to Jessica). It does prove that Francis is correct in saying that outside does produce challenges and danger to anyone who ventures out of the confines of the Domed City. Regarding the plot of the hunt, it all goes as expected with Logan and Francis (with eventual help from Jessica and Rem) using cunning and brains to escape pit and cage traps, while also using their strength in numbers to advantage even though Borden has knowledge of the area: Borden's ego and eventually his rage (Irene suffers a tragic fate by his own gun) get the best of him. The run continues

Episode 3 of the ill-fated TV extension of the 1976 box-office hit

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 15 March 2024]

Episode 3 mimics "The Most Dangerous Game" as Logan (Gregory Harrison), Jessica (Heather Menzies) and their android companion Rem (British actor Donald Moffat, who sometimes sounds Irish) are captured in the mountains by Francis (Randy Powell), the Sandman who refuses to give up! Writer D. C. Fontana (using the pseudonym 'Michael Edwards') drags all the characters deep into the woods where they become prey for human hunters Horst Buchholz and his wife Mary Woronov, which might've proved suspenseful had Fontana put some sting into this routine script. Was there anything good about this series? Yes, the vehicles, though never shown travelling very far, and the costumes, patterned after the movie version, look fine; also, Harrison is a terrific Logan and Moffat offers pithy wisdom and cogency for a lightly comic effect. Powell, dark and brooding like Richard Jordan in the film, looks too much like Harrison from a distance (it's visually dull), while Menzies is akin to a kid sister and tag-along. I didn't recognize Buchholz--not even his voice--but Woronov brings her salacious smile and slithery walk to the proceedings and livens things up.

The Most Dangerous Game...

[mhorg2018 · 3/10 · 16 February 2022]

... done on the cheap and poorly. The best part of this episode is Mary Woronov, who came to fame in Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 and later got more notoriety in Eating Raoul. This is a tepid episode with a hunter (if there had been a nuclear war that ended civilization, how are there so many leftovers with so much technology? Anyhow, if one has read The Most Dangerous Game or seen the 1932 film (whose sets were later used in King Kong), move along. Nothing really interesting to see here.