Land of the Giants

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Land of the Giants is an American television show of the 1960s which tells the tale of the crew and passengers of a sub-orbital transport plane (the Spindrift) which is accidentally transported to a world in which all life forms are huge in comparison to them.

These giants are in form entirely human, but their society is a dictatorship of which not too many details are given, and which employs no symbols. Episodes often have the plot of giant scientists capturing one of the passengers or crew, with the rest having to rescue them.

It was created by Irwin Allen on the template of his Lost in Space. There is a foolish, greedy traitor in an American uniform who continually tries to deceive the boy in the cast, just like Doctor Zachary Smith. The co-pilot is notably an African-American.

With a 250,000 US$ budget per episode, Land of the Giants set a new record. The actors had to be in top shape, as they had to do many stunts themselves, such as climbing giant curbs, phone cords, ropes and such. The series ran from September 1968 to September 1970 on ABC.

[edit] Land of the Giants

No name has ever been established for the mysterious planet, but the inhabitants seem to know of Earth, Venus and Mars, referring to them by name in one episode. Exactly where this planet is located is never made clear, but it can be supposed that it is a natural part of the Earth's solar system, but is also, by some quirk of nature, unknown to Earth. It has been speculated that this unnamed world actually is some parallel universe version of Earth itself. The inhabitants of the planet do not possess manned space flight, and so Earth is spared an invasion.

In the episode, "On a Clear Night You Can See Earth", the character Steve Burton claims to have seen Earth through a set of infrared goggles invented by the giants, implying that the two worlds are indeed different but near enough to each other to be able to see one from the other. There is the possibility that the show takes place on a Counter-Earth.

The only established method by which Earth people may reach the planet is some sort of high-altitude aircraft, interacting with a poorly-defined "time warp" which seems to act more as a space warp or wormhole. However, if one postulates the notion that it is in the same orbit as Earth, and if the time warp operates coincidentally to propel objects forward or backward six months, Earth would have exchanged positions with this planet. Although several episodes show that at least two other flights have landed on the planet, no episode shows that anyone ever successfully returned to Earth.

One continent or hemisphere is wholly dominated by an authoritarian government which, however, tolerates the existence of entrepreneurs and businessmen; it simply does not tolerate any effort to effect political change. Exactly what the political situation is on other continents is not known, although at least one overseas land has a despotic ruler. The Air Traffic Control will tell those who venture far out to sea that they should turn back, that nothing beyond that sea has been explored nor is there current contact; whether this is an official government line or the truth is not known.

In spite of the authoritarian government, there are several dissident movements at work that either help other dissenters (such as the Earth people) or are actively working to unseat the government. The government has established the SID, Special Investigations Department, to deal with assorted dissidence, but it also has taken the lead in dealing with the Earth people.

The technology largely resembles 1950s and 1960s Earth, slightly more advanced in some respects (e.g. cloning, radio controlled toys, small nuclear reactors) and slightly behind in others (does not have microelectronics, hearing aids, or manned space flight). Culturally, the society resembles the United States. The Earth people find themselves able to cope at a cultural level, dealing with movie studios, musicians, hobos, nuclear families, orphanages, folklore, jealousies and rivalries, law-breakers and patriots, criminals and honest people, poor and rich, sympathetic and hostile. Their efforts to get around are facilitated by the ubiquity of large drains directly from interior rooms to the pavement level at an outside wall of most buildings. The fact that English is the local language no doubt adds to these conveniences.

The first few episodes had the Earth people completely unable to understand the giants, except through use of a complicated listening device. However, the writers quickly realized how much this limited story potential, and so with no explanation the situation was changed so that the Earth people and giants could understand each other perfectly.

The Earth people's objectives are: (1) survival, by obtaining food and by avoiding capture by the native people or menace from small animals like cats and dogs; (2) repair of their spacecraft so they may take off and attempt a return to Earth. They largely manage survival with the help of their stunning ingenuity, their small size (enabling them to, e.g., sneak around and hide), the occasional giant sympathizer, and, of course, their technology, which (per dialogue spoken in one of the episodes) is about fifty years' ahead of the giants' technology.

They do not achieve the second objective, however, since the primary systems of their craft, the Spindrift, are heavily damaged. The secondary systems are insufficient to allow take-off and the sub-orbital flight required. They are unable to successfully integrate the native technology as it is bulky and less advanced; in one episode, an experimental nuclear reactor provided by an engineering student produces dangerous side effects and is prone to overload. They also cannot implicitly trust the giants who might be able to offer the Earth people a ride home in exchange for technical assistance.

Although there are DVD episodes available of the series Amazon.com has the first 26 shows available as digital downloads for $1.99.

[edit] The cast

• Gary Conway as Captain Steve Burton
• Don Marshall as Dan Erickson
• Don Matheson as Mark Wilson
• Kurt Kasznar as Alexander Fitzhugh
• Stefan Arngrim as Barry Lockridge
• Deanna Lund as Valerie Scott
• Heather Young as Betty Hamilton

Recurring characters

• Kevin Hagen as Kobick

Land of the Giants guest stars include many familiar faces from other 1960s (and, for that matter, late 1950s) sci-fi/fantasy and adventure series (e.g., Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Gilligan's Island, Lost in Space, I Dream of Jeannie). These popular, well-known character actors include the likes of Michael Ansara, Warren Stevens, John Carradine, David Opatoshu, Charles Drake, Jonathan Harris, and Alan Hale Jr.