Friday, October 10, 2014

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: First Men on the Moon (Fantastic Voyage, 1968)

Nothing, to me, says "jump the shark" about Fantastic Voyage than this episode, "First Men on the Moon". A government suit, Selwyn Upjohn (Ted Knight), wants to disband the CMDF, and brings along an unexpected aide in his son, Alvin, who supposedly is a scientific genius, but is really the worst kind of brat, as you'll see. Personally, I think Upjohn has a hidden agenda, but we'll see.........



The artistic department at Filmation wasn't exactly original with Erica Lane (Jane Webb). Her hair suggests a grown-up version of Betty Cooper from The Archie Show, while Webb didn't exactly go out of her way to make Erica sound any different than Betty or Batgirl. Maybe that, too, would explain why this show was ceased production after 1 season.

Rating: B-.

4 comments:

magicdog said...

More than 45 years after his reign of terror and I still want to strangle Alvin!

It's been forever since I've seen this ep and adult eyes and sensibilities make it hard to enjoy it. Funny how one needs only a fishbowl to breathe on the fake moon setup! Or that Busby's lungs didn't just burst with the lack of oxygen since the group was supposed to mimic the atmosphere of the moon.

What also bugs is Alvin's dad. CMDF based on this show's intro, is an group open only to those with "highest clearance", yet Selwyn Upjohn seems to be a lower level bean counter. Otherwise he'd know about the program and not think being able to shrink people to microscopic size to fight evil was a waste of funds.

Believe it or not, I'd like to see a reboot of this series. I think more mature and cool stories could be told with a modern sensibility.

hobbyfan said...

Provided Fox finds someone willing to take a shot at it.

Unknown said...

Oh, I still remember that brat---Alvin !

Remember the part at the beginning where he calls Birdwell "birdbrain" ? He's told to apologize, and so he extends his hand to Birdwell, saying, "I'm sorry I made fun of your name, sir." But if you look carefully for a second, you'll see that Alvin has an electric "shock buzzer" around one of his fingers....

hobbyfan said...

Typical brat of the era, no?