Land Of The Giants S1 E4: Undergound

"The series was a plot show rather than a character show. The characters were supposed to be simple and therefore didin't allow for philosophical depth."

-Sheldon Stark, Starlog Magazine #159, p.65-



We plunge headlong into bird's eye shots and ground level point of views for Land Of The Giants, Season One, Episode 4, Underground.

Sadly, the series looks impressive with strong production values, but the main characters are fairly one dimensional to this point. They are nearly as nameless and faceless as the giants from which they run from and survive. In fact some giants may have more character.



What's missing is the kind of dramatic character interaction that made Lost In Space (1965-1968) work so well between all of the imaginative adventure. There were dark moments and sweet moments that pulled you into the ensemble cast. Here, oddly, the series seems almost entirely devoid of character beats.

We know nothing about Steve, Mark, Dan, Barry, Valerie, Betty and Alexander. They interact like they've known each other for years, but do they? We don't know. We don't know a thing about any of them save for a little about the Alexander character mentioned in the series opener The Crash.



Their action is driven by survival and efforts to repair the air craft known as the Spindrift. And as it stands it's simply easier to identify the characters as the crew of the Spindrift until they become more multi-dimensional to one another and to us. But a show about survival you might feel would lend itself to some wonderfully emotional moments. It worked well for Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007), but Land Of The Giants is more interested in running its characters through a giant-sized obstacle course.

Four episodes in and we are waiting for the kind of character depth that make a series more dramatically engaging. This writer's patience is wearing thin waiting for it.



As a visual exercise Land Of The Giants is mildly plot interesting and at times fun, but certainly empty as a Giant's opened vegetable can. One of the most amusing aspects of the series is how the crew of the Spindrift seems to be quite conveniently located to just about anything. All of the characters appear to get to any number of places on foot rather expeditiously despite their small size. The giants have no great leg up on these fleet of foot little fellows. Also, all sorts of giants are constantly walking about their little forest as a cut through to any manner of buildings, homes and so on. This is pure fantasy indeed.



What Land Of The Giants does wisely consider in Underground is what a giant would do with the control of small people to utilize to their benefit. Who wouldn't want to be the size of Ant-Man or the Lilliputians to gain access to areas normal sized humans can't go? So, we find the giants using these small Earthlings to great advantage as helpless pawns in their game. And why exactly is everything on this planet of Giants exactly the same as Earth right down to the police officers? It's a very close, sometimes totalitarian-like, alternate Earth, but not particularly interesting as alternate worlds go.



The real trick for Land Of The Giants is its production flair which is special. The fantasy worlds of Irwin Allen continue to astound on a visual level. This much is certain, but it is sadly absent of character depth. There is a kind of fantasy, science fiction adventure element charm about all of the visuals that reminisce of the more comedic island adventures of Gilligan's Island (1964-1967), but the latter series was skilled at exploring character and the exchanges between the ensemble cast.

The cast for Land Of The Giants is sound, but they need more scripting meat with which to work outside of the conflict/resolution visuals that populate the plotlines for these stories so far.



I have BIG hopes they could be just around the corner, but alas our small sample size devoid of character thus far indicates something quite to contrary.

Understanding that Land Of The Giants was basically an adventure series geared toward kids makes one wonder how it is something like Space:1999 (1975-1977), also geared toward kids, could manage to walk the line of adventure and ideas and character (plot and character) so much more adroitly than a show like Land Of The Giants. Though I suspect that has more to do with the leadership of Gerry Anderson on the former over the forceful drive of the master of disaster Irwin Allen on the latter.

Writer: Ellis St. Joseph
Director: Sobey Martin (well known for falling asleep in his director's chair directed 14 episodes of Lost In Space; Martin would direct 21 episodes of Land Of The Giants)