TV Recap: Land of the Giants ep 1, “The Crash”

Hulu’s most enduring legacy may well turn out to be the treasure trove of classic American television from the 50s, 60s and 70s that tell tales of a world far different than ours. I loved Irwin Allen’s kid-friendly science fiction shows; Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and the effervescent Land of the Giants.
I hadn’t seen Land of the Giants since I was a kid. Hulu has the complete run. I’m happy to present after only 42 years, a recap of the pilot episode, “The Crash“.

OPENING: The Saul Bass-influenced opening credits show a silhouette of a man avoiding a spotlight stabbing at him above. He runs into a giant hand that clenches him in a fist and lifts him up. Cut to the logo — “Land of the Giants”. Theme music by “Star Wars” composer John Williams and “Star Trek” theme composer Alexander Courage.
Credits: Garry Conway as the Captain. Don Matheson as the Villainous Businessman. Stefan Angrim as Zlitek, a boy-like humanoid alien seen digesting a stunned and paralyzed dog throughout the first episode. Don Marshall as the Co-Pilot. Deanna Lund as the Sex Interest. Heather Young as the Stewardess. Kurt Kasznar as the Peter Lorre-esque Terrorist. Created and Produced by Irwin Allen.
ACT I: June 12, 1983 — THE FUTURE.
FADE IN — a small suborbital ballistic spacecraft, the Spindrift, en route from Los Angeles to London, UK, encounters a mysterious ‘solar turbulence area’ as it re-enters Earth atmosphere. Inside the control room, the Captain tries to contact London ground control as the Co-Pilot attempts to keep the ship on course. There is no response to their repeated hails.
Cut to the cabin, a large room with a half dozen plush leather chairs set up in the middle. These chairs are not bolted to the floor. The camera rolls past the passengers. Zlitek idly devours the stunned and paralyzed dog. The Terrorist, disguised in a naval uniform, clutches a large case suspiciously to his chest. The Stewardess looks out the window, terrified. The Villainous Businessman looks forward to a meeting. The Sex Interest is thinking about her purple mascara.
Back in the control room, the Captain and Co-Pilot are thrashing violently from side to side. Back in the cabin, the passengers immediately leave their seats and rush over to one side of the cabin. Outside the window, they can see a glowing sphere — the Dimension Lock — pulling them in. Zlitek demands to know what it is. The Stewardess has no idea. The Terrorist then repeats the question. The Stewardess urges everyone to return to their seats and fasten their seat belts (the chairs do not actually have seat belts).
In the control room, the Captain and Co-Pilot struggle to keep the Spindrift out of the Dimension Lock, but their efforts are fruitless. The ship is engulfed by the Lock, the Spindrift comes out the other side into clear sky, with the lights of a city below. The Captain is unable to reach London ground control. Without energy to the power cells, the Spindrift is forced to crash, knocking over several chairs in the cabin.
There is no sign that the outside world has noticed the Spindrift’s crash. The Captain and Co-Pilot leave Spindrift to see if they can find out just where they are.
Back in the cabin, the Stewardess discusses Zlitek’s reception by his cousins, with whom he is going to live. The Stewardess jokes that she will adopt the creature if his cousins are not there to meet him. Zlitek’s dinner shifts slightly. The Terrorist attempts to debark the ship, but are prevented by the Stewardess. The Terrorist reacts violently when the Stewardess accidentally touches his case. The Sex Interest and the Villainous Businessman both make their cases for debarking the ship immediately. The Stewardess tries to keep the situation from spiraling out of control.
Outside the ship, the Captain and the Co-Pilot wander through impenetrable fog. They are suddenly illuminated by twin lights, and seconds later, an enormous Buick passes over them, narrowly missing them with its tires. The echoing sound of immense footsteps forces them to flee back to the ship. Inside, the Captain urges everyone to strap in — they are going to be taking off immediately. Outside the ship, a giant human-like creature picks up the Spindrift and peers at the crew through the front window as the Captain struggles to take the ship aloft.
ACT 2: THE CRASH. Teleplay by ANTHONY WILSON. Story by IRWIN ALLEN. Directed by IRWIN ALLEN.
The giant stares into the Spindrift as the Captain continues to wrestle the ship out of his grasp. They finally break free and rise rapidly; 1000 feet, 5000 feet, but no matter how high they go, incredibly tall buildings surround them. “It can’t be!” gasps the Stewardess. With no power to reach orbital velocity, the Captain crash-lands the Spindrift in a forest just outside the city, there to wait a day while the ship’s reactor recharges the power cells.
In the cabin, the Captain tries to explain why the Spindrift has crashed and why they will have to wait a day to continue. The Villainous Businessman insists he needs to be in London by the opening of business in order to secure a $50,000,000 deal. He attempts to bribe the Captain to let him leave while the Terrorist looks on, clutching his case and nervously toying with his hat. The Villainous Businessman insists the Captain will answer to the police. The Terrorist looks stricken at this.
As the Terrorist sneaks out of the ship, he hears the Captain and Co-Pilot discussing the police waiting for him in London. “He just doesn’t look the type to steal a million dollars,” says the Captain. The Terrorist leaves the ship, followed by Zlitek, partially-devoured dog clutched in his forelimbs. The camera pulls back to show giant plant life. Zlitek urges the Terrorist to obey the Captain’s orders to remain in the craft. The Terrorist attempts to convince Zlitek that he is on a secret government mission. Zlitek is not convinced.
(Now that they are out of the ship, it’s clear the effects people weren’t able to keep a consistent scale between the Spindrift survivors and the outside world; the Giant world is created using forced perspective, green screen, giant props and in-camera compositing so the cast appear to switch between being from a fraction of an inch to about six inches tall depending on the scene; the characters are meant to be approximately an inch tall in the Giant world. The forest scenes are somewhat jarring in that close-ups of the characters show the undergrowth to be normal sized, while in distant shots, the plants are much closer to the camera than the actors (forced perspective), making them appear much larger).
Zlitek and the Terrorist wander further into the jungle. Hearing noise from behind, the Terrorist and Zlitek fear pursuers have come to capture the Terrorist, but find the noise is an immense hooded lizard. They run further into the forest.
Back in the Spindrift, the Stewardess informs the bridge crew of the disappearance of the Terrorist and Zlitek. The Co-Pilot turns on the outside floodlights in order to help the escapees find their way back to the ship. The Sex Interest enters the control room and offers to accompany the Captain on a rescue mission. She has obviously been drinking. The Captain leaves, carrying a radio, followed by the Sex Interest.
Unable to find the escapees, the Captain radios back to the ship and asks the Co-Pilot to scan for life-forms. He turns on a display of a sine wave, and reports many large, moving objects in the area. The Captain hears a loud hissing, which turns out to be two giant tarantulas. He flees, makes a quick report to the ship, then ducks behind a rock as he sees the Sex Interest catch up to him. The Captain, accompanied now by the Sex interest, continues his search for Zlitek and the Terrorist.
Cut to Zlitek and the Terrorist, who stumble into a giant domestic cat, which slashes an immense paw at the Terrorist’s case, emptying it of the million dollars of cash. Zlitek and the Terrorist run back to the ship with the cat in pursuit. The Terrorist locks the door behind him. The Co-Pilot, shouting that there are more people outside, opens it again. The door frames the terrifying image of the giant cat, who proceeds to attack the Spindrift, severely damaging its engines. Sparks fly from all the consoles, and the craft goes dead.
The Captain and the Sex Interest stumble upon some huge drop-gate traps. The Captain urges the Sex Interest to avoid the traps as he tries to contact the Spindrift. The Sex Interest, consumed with curiosity, begins to enter a trap. The Captain tells her to stay out of the trap. The Sex Interest blows him off and enters the trap when the Captain’s back is turned. Running in to drag her out, the trap shuts, capturing them both. The Sex Interest demands the Captain get her free. “Now what!” she asks. As the Captain tries to open the trap with a knife, a lab-cloaked, bearded giant gathers up the traps and departs into the forest, not knowing what he has captured.
ACT 3:
Back on the Spindrift, the Co-Pilot sees from the scanners that the Captain and the Sex Interest are moving out of range of the scope in the company of something huge. The Terrorist makes gloomy predictions of their fates. The survivors begin to realize that they are no longer on Earth. The Terrorist urges the Villainous Businessman to fix the engines (apparently he is an engineer, something not mentioned until now) after which they will depart. The Co-Pilot swears they will not leave until the Captain and the Sex Interest return to the ship.
Zlitek discovers the Terrorist readying a small pistol, which he calls his “survival kit”.
The Scientist Giant enters a small laboratory, placing the trap with the survivors on a lab bench and taking the other traps into a room where a lab assistant is conducting an experiment. The Captain pries open a side of the trap and he and the Sex Interest escape. They hide behind the trap as the Scientist enters the room and takes a jar of fluid from the bench. The Sex Interest urges the Captain to make contact with the Scientist, considering him a civilized person, but the Captain has no interest in being a lab experiment.
The floor is far too far away. They explore the bench; on it is a leather book, a painted set of wooden drawers with a glass test tube leaned against it, a sawdust-filled jar, a spool of thread with a needle stuck in it, and another book stood against the wall. The two hide behind the jar as the scientist returns. When he leaves, the Captain sticks the needle into the top of the drawers and begins to lower himself to the floor with the thread. The Sex Interest accidentally knocks the glass test tube down, shattering it. The Scientist and the Lab Assistant, hearing this, capture them both and put them in the jar. The Scientist does not seem surprised at their existence, but he is very curious.
ACT 4:
The Co-Pilot and the Stewardess have fashioned a grappling hook from a giant safety pin and some knotted string. The Terrorist ridicules them for attempting to stage a rescue in a world of giants. The camera pulls back to show the Villainous Businessman and Zlitek sitting on a rock. Zlitek is toying with a club-sized burned match stick while the Businessman has fashioned an axe from a twig and part of a razor blade. Zlitek points out that they do have an additional weapon — the Terrorist’s gun.
“What gun!?” shouts the Co-Pilot. “This gun!” answers the Terrorist, who threatens the Businessman to fix the ship so that they can escape — without the Captain and the Sex Interest. The Co-Pilot and the Villainous Businessman ignore the Terrorist and leave to rescue the missing crew members. Zlitek shames the Terrorist into admitting his cowardice.
Back in the lab, the Captain and the Sex Interest are taped to the bench as the Scientist examines them with a magnifying glass. The Scientist pokes the Sex Interest’s belly with a pencil and studies her reaction. She cries and struggles. The Lab Assistant continues to prod the Sex Interest while the Scientist menaces the Captain with a scalpel.
The Co-Pilot and the Villainous Businessman hear the Sex Interest’s screams through an open door. The boost each other over the step and rush in. The Scientist and Lab Assistant continue prodding the captives as the Co-Pilot and Businessman sneak to the table. The Co-Pilot begins to climb to the top of the table via conveniently piled boxes and his handmade grappling hook while the Businessman creates a distraction by cutting a gas line and setting it ablaze with a match. The Scientist and the Lab Assistant hurry to put out the flame. The Co-Pilot, now atop the desk, uses the discarded scalpel to cut the Sex Interest and the Captain free of the tape. The four descend to the floor with the grappling hook, but the Scientist sees them running across the floor and, butterfly net in hand, runs to recapture them.
ACT 5:
Still coughing from the gas, the four make their escape into the forest. Unknown to them, the Stewardess, Zlitek and the Terrorist are on the way to make their own, separate rescue attempt. Just in time, as the Scientist is about to recapture the Co-Pilot. The Terrorist fires his gun into the Scientist’s leg and the survivors escape into a drain pipe. The Scientist urges them to “come back!”, the first words spoken by any of the Giants, and reaches into the drain pipe to try and grab one. The Terrorist fires several more shots into the Scientist’s hand, and they complete their escape.
They stumble through a garbage dump filled with giant trash. Zlitek’s dog makes its own feeble escape attempt, but is thwarted by a huge hound, who harries them into an egg carton. The crew distract the hound with a lit match and a discarded flashbulb. The Captain finally finishes the job by improvising a Molotov cocktail from his uniform jacket and a bottle of cleaning fluid.
The Terrorist chews the scenery with his best Jonathan Harris imitation as the survivors of the Spindrift return to the ship.
And… END CREDITS.

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