The Man from the 25th Century (1968) (TV)

Director:

Irwin Allen

Writer:

Irwin Allen (teleplay & story)

Release Date:

1968 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

Cast

James Darren
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Crawford
Patrick Culliton
John Napier
Ford Rainey

Runtime:

17 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

CBS Television

Trivia:

This unsold pilot was originally meant to be a spin-off of _"Lost in Space" (1965) _ but that idea was scrapped.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen (1995) (TV)

Wacko from the 25th Century

Irwin Allen was running out of ideas for series after "Land of the Giants", because all he came up with was "City Beneath the Sea", a kind of sequel to his "Voyage" series, and "Man from the 25th Century," the latter being a sort-of retread of "The Invaders" with a bit of Gerry Anderson's "Captain Scarlet" thrown in for good measure.

"The Man from the 25th Century" went no further than a 10-minute presentation film (similar to a theatrical trailer), that depicted the basic premise of the series for the purpose of getting an OK by studio execs. I'm sure the suits were as confused as I was over this hokey and disjointed film.

First, we see James Darren -- the title character -- a human taken to an alien planet as a infant being trained by his 'elders' for a mission involving the destruction of the earth's alien-defense installations. He displays nice martial-arts skills and disposes of his opponent. He is then sent to earth in one of their flying saucers (the Jupiter 2 from "Lost in Space") and lands in Glacier National Park where one of the installations is located. Why the defense installation did not notice his ship coming down and landing is one of the first in a series of head-scratching moments in this mess. After being accepted as "Robert Prentice" (the human he is impersonating), Darren is given a guided tour of the complex. Given a moment to be alone, he gains access to the complex's atomic-core control-room (a cleverly re-dressed Jupiter 2 upper-deck) and begins to wreck havoc in a typical Irwin Allenish fight scene complete with short-circuiting control panels. Darren is overpowered and taken into custody, but it soon becomes apparent that the aliens must do away with Darren now that he's caught. So, what do they do? The alien leader sends a robot/duplicate(?) of Darren and we soon have yet ANOTHER well-choreographed fight scene with sparking and exploding computer equipment whenever someone leans against them! All the while, the humans in the complex have MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED in typical "Lost in Space" 'pop-out' effect, only to REAPPEAR after the human James Darren has eliminated his opponent. The military leader of the complex asks Darren 'What happened?' and all Dareen can say is "You couldn't begin to comprehend......this is only the beginning." And the film ends with that line! No wonder it was never picked up as a series!

Oddly, Irwin did not give up on the concept as he had two of his trusted writers, Anthony Wilson (LIS), and Arthur Weiss ("Time Tunnel"), write a two-hour made-for-TV version of "Man from the 25th Century" in May of 1970. This time around Allen's intentions were likely to try and sell the concept to ABC to use "Man" as a possible series for the Sunday night time slot in Sept. 1970, a spot vacated by recently canceled LOTG. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Allen only had the funds for one project that year and NBC okayed "City Beneath the Sea" as a TV film and that's the project that got the green-light.