LAND OF GIANTS

Production: USA, 1968-69
Cast: Gary Conway, Don Marshall, Stefan Arngrim, Heather Young, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, Kevin Hagen, Kurt Kasznar.

Irwin Allen’s last serie before turning to catastrophic movies.
During the years the american producer had made other three series quite appreciated by viewers like “Voyage to the bottom of the sea”, “Lost in Space” and “The time tunnel”, which all featured interesting stories, good visual effects and, on the contrary, rather low quality scripts.

The story takes place in year 1983 (which seemed very far), when, during a commercial sub-orbital flight from New York to London the aircraft (called “Spindrift”) is diverted by a mysterious cloud and crashes on a planet very similar to Earth.
But there’s a nasty difference from our planet: all things, first of all living beings (humans included) and plants, is 12 times bigger.
So begin the adventures of Spindrift’s crew and passengers, who have a double purpose: to fix their craft to go back to Earth and escape from the various menaces of that world, like hungry animals and ruthless people who wish to use them as circus attractions.
There’s another reason for giants’ interest in humans: Earth technology is 50 years

forward confronted to giants’one, so their dictatorial government would like to handle it in order to reach Earth and conquer it (also if they don’t know how to get there).
So in many cases Captain Steve Burton (Gary Conway) is forced to destroy devices and inventions which could repair the Spindrift, to prevent giants from getting them.
Other crewmembers are second pilot Dan Erickson (Don Marshall) and stewardess Betty Hamilton (Heather Young).
Passengers are Mark Wilson (Don Matheson), an arrogant engineer, Valerie Scott (Deanna Lund), an high society girl, Barry Lockridge (Stefan Arngrim), a boy with his dog, and “Commander” Alexander Fitzhugh (Kurt kasznar), a mysterious man

wearing a uniform, who has unknown purposes.
Taking often care of these (for the inhabitants) “micro-aliens” there’s inspector Kobick (Kevin Hagen), a member of security service S.I.D.
In many episode a passenger or a crewman of Spindrift is kidnapped by giants, and we see the struggle of his companions to free him, often with the help of a friendly giant or a member of the mysterious resistance movement which fights against the dictatorship.
During the serie the earthmen discover that other crafts have crashed on the planet but nobody has survived; sometimes they meet some survivors which die in the end of the episode.
There are some similarities with “Lost in Space”: the story about a crash on an

alien planet and the struggle to leave it, and also the contrasts between young Barry and ambiguous Commander Fitzhugh, quite similar to what happened between young Will Robinson and Dr. Zachary Smith.
The serie was quite a success, two seasons were produced, and Allen thought he would make a third season, but the serie was cancelled by one of those strange decisions often made by television managers.
A curiosity: in the end of the serie two of the actors, Don Matheson and Deanna Lund, got married in the real life.

51 episodes, color, 60’

First season

1) The Crash
2) Ghost Town
3) Framed
4) Underground
5) Terror-Go-Round
6) The Flight Plan
7) Manhunt
8) The Trap
9) The Creed

10) Double-Cross
11) The Weird World
12) The Golden Cage
13) The Lost Ones
14) Brainwash
15) The Bounty Hunter
16) On A Clear Night You Can See Earth
17) Deadly Lodestone
18) The Night of the Thrombeldinbar
19) Seven Little Indians
20) Target ... Earth

21) Genius at Work
22) Return of Inidu
23) Rescue
24) Sabotage
25) Shell Game
26) The Chase

Second season

27) The Mechanical Man
28) Six Hours to Live

29) The Inside Rail
30) Deadly Pawn
31) The Unsuspected
32) Giants and All That Jazz
33) Collector's Item
34) Every Dog Needs A Boy
35) Chamber of Fear
36) Comeback
37) The Clones
38) A Place Called Earth
39) Land of the Lost

40) Home Sweet Home
41) Our Man O'Reilly
42) Nightmare
43) Pay the Piper
44) The Secret City of Limbo
45) Panic
46) The Deadly Dart
47) Doomsday
48) A Small War
49) The Marionettes
50) Wild Journey