EARTH II (1971)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 98 Minutes 13 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Tom Gries
Cast: Gary Lockwood, Scott Hylands, Hari Rhodes
Earth II (1971) was a made-for-TV series pilot about an Earth colony that lives in a space station that orbits the Earth, dubbed Earth II. The film starts of with a the launch of the manned Apollo space rocket that will prove to be the initial building block of the planned space station. Moments before launch a "Red Chinese" spy is killed by the Coast Guard after attempting to destroy the mission with a sniper rifle during the launch. The film jumps ahead a few years an Earth II is fully operational and has been declared a member United Nations. Earth II's administrator David Seville (Gary Lockwood, Night of the Scarecrow) is made aware of a a orbiting nuclear warhead that The People's Republic of China have launched into orbit, which comes within 150 miles of Earth II every few hours. They have to decide whether they will tolerate the threat or proactively launch a mission to disarm and dispose of the weapon, and opinion differ on the matter with Deville wanting to tolerate it and stay true to the core principals of peace on the Earth II, while Frank Karger (Anthony Franciosa, Tenebrae) feels they should disarm it. The hold a D&D, which is a televised voting process, known as Discussion and Decision, wherein the vote is made to disarm the weapon, even with the threat that if they tamper with it China has indicated that they will detonate the nuclear device, potentially causing World War III. There's a casualty during the disarming mission and an alternate plan, involving towing the warhead back to the space station, which causes unrest when Karger decides they should hold a vote to see if the Earth II should keep the weapon and utilize it as a nuclear deterrent weapon, abandoning Earth II's peaceful mission for the sake of security. While the D&D debate is underway for that vote Karger's wife Lisa (Mariette Hartley, The Return of Count Yorga) decides to take matters into her own hands and launch the warhead into the sun, accidentally causing it to get caught up in the Earth's gravitational pull, with the Earth II having to scramble a new mission to stop it from detonating in Earth's atmosphere near the Great Lakes region.
This early 70's slice of sci-fi was meant as a pilot, but it ever took to series, and for the most part I quite liked it, even though there are long stretches of debate and political discussion that to drag this one down quite a bit. There are interesting elements though, we get some cool anti-gravity scenarios like an operating room where they doctor work on the floor while the nurses move around on the ceiling, a young kid's fascination with how water reacts without gravity, and some of the political discussion are semi-interesting, but pretty cliche. Another interesting aspect was the voting process, to vote whether or not to build the Earth II space station they hold a vote by saying that if you agree with building the space station to leave more lights on that night that you normally would, and that the orbiting Apollo rocket ship will read the light intensity as it passes over Earth at night with a light meter...um what? That's such a weird way to vote, and how east would it be to cheat the system? Anyway, the aforementioned D&D voting style seems much more efficient and accurate, though there 30-min time limit seems a bit rushed.
The big take away for me here are the terrific miniature work used to achieve the space station and various shuttles, the space walks, these look terrific, heavily inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, these look cool and as a sci-fi kids who grew up on vintage sci-fi these scenes were total catnip. Not all the effects are amazing, and some are truly dated, this was a made-for-TV after all.
As I said before this was originally produced as a telefilm/pilot for a television series that never manifested, but it was show theatrically in other countries just like Salem's Lot, and this new remastered Blu-ray from Warner Archive features additional footage intended for International distribution.
Audio/Video: Earth II (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray in 1080p HD framed in the original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This new restoration looks marvelous, grain is nicely resolved, fine detail and textures look excellent, and the colors and black levels are spot-on. I was surprised at the amount of depth and clarity to the image, and how spotless the source looked. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The track is clean and well-balanced, dialogue sounds wonderful, as does the theme music by Lalo Schifrin (Charley Varrick). The only extras is a 3-minute trailer that will certainly make you appreciate the restoration and clean-up. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided wrap.
Special Features:
- Trailer (2:57)
Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray:
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