I was remember old sci-fi TV shows and saw a funny phrase coined for some of them, “Land Trek.” These are those (mostly 1970s) shows set in the apocalyptic wasteland where our characters went from weird community to weird community either looking for something or running from somebody, or both.
Here’s a good article and round-up of the examples: Genesis II/Planet Earth, Planet of the Apes (1974), Ark II, Fantastic Journey, Logan’s Run and Otherworld.
The only one I was the right age to watch as a kid was Otherworld, which had some boss theme music by Airwolf’s Sylvester Levay:
Sadly, the truth about all these shows...is that they weren’t very good. The technology wasn’t there to do more than rudimentary visual effects, and they tended to feature warmed-over, rehashed sci-fi plots with a lot of stock props and costumes from Hollywood vaults.
They kinda gave sci-fi a bad name.
If there’s one main reason they didn’t work—besides the fact they just weren’t well executed—it’s that they weren’t “office shows.”
Star Trek is the ultimate office show—the Enterprise is the office. And kind of the coolest and most fantastic office of all time, that warps from place to place and represents home, community, friendship, safety, defense, etc.
I realize some Land Trek shows had vehicles, but they just weren’t the same as the Enterprise. The Fugitive format—good guy on the run—works with a compelling star in the contemporary world. But not in the postapocalyptic wasteland.
When we did the Logan’s Run TV CD at FSM, I got a hold of all the episodes on VHS and I think I watched them all, too. It was quite the chore. I’m proud of the CD, though!
All of the Otherworld episodes can be found on YouTube, and while watching the credits give me a kick of nostalgia, I’ve found the shows themselves far too dull to sit through.
They do have a cool performance by Jonathan Banks of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, though.
I watched "Otherworld" when I was living in Barbados in the 1980s. The only episode I really kinda liked was the one where the teenage children introduced rock music to the part of that world there in that episode. Leading to predictable outrage from the stuffed shirts Which brings the family's nemesis.. and he LIKED their music instead of outraged. Which was one of the show's few nice touches. (Along with being cancelled before the annoying kid from "The Last Starfighter" (who played the youngest kid) could get his own episode.) And "Planet Of The Apes" was better-received in the UK than at home. (Unto getting a repeat run in the 1990s. (That's said, Ron Harper said "Land Of Th…