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CRITIQUE: Le coffret se
présente sous une forme absolument originale, une cage en bois
permettant d'attraper et de conserver ses propres mini-humains. N'est-ce
pas mignon? Au niveau marketing, les concepteurs sont les maîtres
mais si on doit revenir au produit lui-même, la série télévisée,
je vais devoir faire cette critique en deux parties. D'une part, l'aspect
technique et la numérisation est parfaite, excellente et les
images sont splendides, pas une seule mouche qui passe, aucun défaut
même si on remarque dans une des émissions que le mixage
sonore a été raté par les techniciens d'origine
en oubliant d'ajouter la bande sonore des bruits de pas et de feuilles
d'arbres déplacées, un petit hic qui ne dure que quelques
minutes mais qui enlève malheureusement de la crédibilité
à la mise en scène.
D'autre part, si on doit
parler du scénario et de la mise en scène, je suis surpris
à l'écoute du coffret de mon amour d'antant pour la série.
J"en avais de formidables souvenirs mais à l'écoute
aujourd'hui, je n'arrive pas à comprendre ce que j'ai pu tant
aimer de cette émission. J'étais peut-être bien
jeune (environ 5 ans au moment de la diffusion de la série originale),
bref, j'ai eu beaucoup de mal à terminer l'écoute du coffret
tellement les histoires sont toujours les mêmes et le scénario
franchement répétitif pour ne pas dire minable.
Je pourrais résumer
la série en entier par les éléments suivants: Ils
sont toujours prisonniers quelque part, ils se servent d'une épingle
à couche avec du fil pour sortir de tous leurs pétrins
et ils sont toujours en train de fuir quelque chose. La série
semble être considérée comme une référence
aux États-Unis, je ne vois pas exactement pourquoi si on doit
comparer avec d'autres séries faites par Irwin Allen comme Perdus
dans l'Espace qui était de loin supérieure en termes de
scénario, mais Au Pays des Géants ne peut faire autrement
que de vous ramener vers une époque lointaine où les hommes
croyaient qu'en 1984, tout allait être spatial...
Résumé
et présentation (D'après Wikipédia)
Au pays des géants (Land of the Giants) est une
série télévisée américaine en 51
épisodes de 48 minutes, créée par Irwin Allen et
diffusée entre le 22 septembre 1968 et le 22 mai 1970 sur le
réseau ABC. En France, la série a été diffusée
au début des années 70 sur TMC et en 1993 sur Série
Club.
Sommaire
* 1 Synopsis
* 2 Distribution
* 3 Épisodes
o 3.1 Première saison (1968-1969)
o 3.2 Deuxième saison (1969-1970)
* 4 Voir aussi
o 4.1 Liens externes
Synopsis [modifier]
Lors d'un vol suborbital entre New York et Londres, trois membres d'équipage
et quatre passagers sont projetés sur une planète semblable
à la Terre, à la différence qu'elle est peuplée
d'humains et d'animaux douze fois plus grands qu'eux. Tandis qu'ils
tentent de réparer leur vaisseau endommagé afin de regagner
la Terre, ils doivent faire face à la menace permanente que représentent
les habitants de cette planète.
Distribution [modifier]
* Gary Conway : Capitaine Steve Burton
* Don Matheson : Mark Wilson
* Stefan Arngrim : Barry Lockridge
* Don Marshall : Dan Erickson
* Deanna Lund : Valerie Scott
* Heather Young : Betty Hamilton
* Kurt Kasznar : Alexander Fitzhugh
Épisodes [modifier]
Première saison (1968-1969) [modifier]
1. Atterrissage forcé (The Crash)
2. La Ville fantôme (Ghost Town)
3. Le Bouc émissaire (Framed)
4. Le Maquisard (Underground)
5. Le Manège de la peur (Terror-Go-Round)
6. Plan De Vol (The Flight Plan)
7. La Chasse Aux Géants (Manhunt)
8. Le Réveil Matin (The Trap)
9. Titre français inconnu (The Creed)
10. Titre français inconnu (Double-Cross)
11. Titre français inconnu (The Weird World)
12. Titre français inconnu (The Golden Cage)
13. Titre français inconnu (The Lost Ones)
14. Titre français inconnu (Brainwash)
15. Titre français inconnu (The Bounty Hunter)
16. Titre français inconnu (On A Clear Day You Can See Earth)
17. Titre français inconnu (Deadly Lodestone)
18. Titre français inconnu (Night of Thrombeldinbar)
19. Titre français inconnu (Seven Little Indians)
20. Titre français inconnu (Target: Earth)
21. Titre français inconnu (Genius At Work)
22. Titre français inconnu (Return of Inidu)
23. Titre français inconnu (Rescue)
24. Titre français inconnu (Sabotage)
25. Titre français inconnu (Shell Game)
26. Titre français inconnu (The Chase)
Deuxième saison (1969-1970) [modifier]
1. Titre français inconnu (The Mechanical Man)
2. Titre français inconnu (Six Hours To Live)
3. Titre français inconnu (The Inside Rail)
4. Titre français inconnu (Deadly Pawn)
5. Titre français inconnu (The Unsuspected)
6. Titre français inconnu (Giants and All That Jazz)
7. Titre français inconnu (Collector's Item)
8. Titre français inconnu (Every Dog Needs A Boy)
9. Titre français inconnu (Chamber Of Fear)
10. Titre français inconnu (Comeback)
11. Titre français inconnu (The Clones)
12. Titre français inconnu (A Place Called Earth)
13. Titre français inconnu (Land Of The Lost)
14. Titre français inconnu (Home Sweet Home)
15. Titre français inconnu (Our Man O'Reilly)
16. Titre français inconnu (Nightmare)
17. Titre français inconnu (Pay The Piper)
18. Titre français inconnu (The Secret City Of Limbo)
19. Titre français inconnu (Panic)
20. Titre français inconnu (The Deadly Dart)
21. Titre français inconnu (Doomsday)
22. Titre français inconnu (A Small War)
23. Titre français inconnu (The Marionettes)
24. Titre français inconnu (Wild Journey)
25. Titre français inconnu (Graveyard Of Fools)
VERSION ANGLAISE
(d'après Wikipedia)
Land of the Giants is an hour-long American science fiction
television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968
and ending in March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin
Allen. Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen's science fiction
tv series. The show was aired on ABC and released by Fox Television.
The series was filmed entirely in color and ran for 51 episodes. The
show starred Gary Conway and Don Marshall. Author Murray Leinster also
wrote three novels in 1968 and 1969 based on the television series.[2]
It currently airs on AmericanLife TV Network.[citation needed]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Show premise
* 2 Production
* 3 Series setting
* 4 Cast
* 5 DVD
* 6 References
* 7 External links
[edit] Show premise
Set in the then-future year of 1983, the series tells the tale of the
crew and passengers of a sub-orbital transport spaceship called the
Spindrift. In the pilot episode,The Spindrift, a space tourism vehicle,
is en route from Los Angeles to London via the ultra-fast route of Earth
orbit. Just beyond Earth's boundary with space, the Spindrift encounters
a strange space storm or wormhole, and is transported to a mysterious
planet where everything is twelve times larger than its counterpart
on Earth. The Spindrift crew calls the inhabitants "the giants".
If an average Earth human is about six feet tall, an average "giant"
would be about 72 feet tall. Everything on their planet is built to
their scale — buildings, cars, animals, etc. The Spindrift crashes
on this planet and becomes inoperable.
These giants are humanoid in form, but their society is a dictatorship
of which not too many details are given, and that employs no symbols.
The giant government has offered a reward for the capture of the tiny
Earth people, presumably because of the Earth people's superior technology.
Episodes often have the plot of giants capturing one of the passengers
or crew, with the rest having to rescue the captured one. The Earth
people avoid capture most of the time because their spaceship is hidden
in a forest outside the city.
[edit] Production
It was created by Irwin Allen using his earlier Lost in Space series
as the template. For instance, there is a foolish, greedy traitor named
Alexander B. Fitzhugh (Kurt Kasznar), in a United States military uniform
who continually tries to deceive the young character, Barry Lockridge
(portrayed by Stefan Arngrim), paralleling the relationship in Lost
in Space between Doctor Zachary Smith and the young Will Robinson.
With a budget of US$250,000 per episode, Land of the Giants set a new
record.[1] The actors had to be physically fit, as they had to do many
stunts themselves, such as climbing giant curbs, phone cords and ropes.
[edit] Series setting
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007)
Very little is known about the home planet of the Giants. That is partially
because the Spindrift crew very seldom leaves the "City of the
Giants" where their spaceship crashed in the pilot. Only two other
societies are ever seen: they are "The Land of the Lost" and
"Secret City of Limbo" both of which are glimpsed only briefly.
Both are descriptive phrases rather than names. No name is ever given
for either of these societies.
No name has ever even 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. (The first mention of Earth by the giants
was in the second episode, and was matter of factly mentioned.) This
may be because of prior crashes of ships from Earth. Exactly where this
planet is located is also never made clear. However it can be supposed
that it is a natural part of the Earth's solar system, but is, by some
quirk of nature/parallel universe, unknown to Earth, perhaps the natural
warp that transits ships from Earth also prevents the passage of light
and perhaps even gravity perturbations. In the episode, "On a Clear
Night You Can See Earth", the character Captain Steve Burton (Gary
Conway) 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.
Whether or not he is telling the truth is unclear.
The only established method by which Earth people may reach the planet
is some sort of high-altitude spacecraft, passing through what one giant
calls a "dimension lock" which seems to act more as a space
warp or wormhole. The first (and only) mention of the phrase "dimension
lock," by a giant in the second episode of the first season ("Ghost
Town"). The giant refers to the space warp as "our dimension
lock," as if it were built or at least known by the inhabitants
of the giant planet. The Spindrift crew just calls it a space warp.
The term wormhole is never used. It is not entirely clear what the term
dimension lock means. It is possible that the "dimension lock"
is a peculiarity of the Giants' planet that keeps it from causing gravity
perturbations that would betray its existence such as altering the trajectories
of planets, asteroids, comets and Earth space probes.
Although several episodes show that at least six other flights have
landed on the planet, no episode shows that anyone ever successfully
returned to Earth. The first mention of other visitors from Earth was
in episode 2 ("Ghost Town"), where another ship was described
as crashing long ago without any survivors. In episode 4 ("Underground")
another Earth ship is described as crashing three years prior with no
survivors.
Several episodes show crews surviving the initial crash, only to be
killed later. The episode "Brainwash" has a crew of little
people surviving long enough to build a radio station that can communicate
with Earth. They are killed shortly thereafter. The episodes "Golden
Cage" and "The Lost Ones" show survivors of other crashes,
where only certain crew members have survived. Only the Spindrift crew
seems to have survived long term, with its party intact. The impression
given is that Earth people do not do well for long in giant captivity.
One country or continent or hemisphere is wholly dominated by an authoritarian
government which, however, tolerates the existence of entrepreneurs
and businessmen. Giant society does not seem very militarized nor is
day-to-day life restricted with curfews and other regulations; it simply
does not tolerate any effort to effect political change. In the episode
"Doomsday" it is mentioned that there are many nations on
this giant planet. Exactly what the political situation is on other
continents is not known, although at least one overseas land ("The
Land of the Lost") 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. It should be noted that the Air Traffic Controller has behind
him what appears to be a map of the giant planet.
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. Whether or
not these dissidents are any better than the government is not known.
In later episodes the Earth people end up fighting with these dissidents.
They do this to stop efforts to disrupt giant society. The government
has established the SID, Special Investigations Department, to deal
with assorted dissidents, 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. (In the first few episodes
a made-up language is used for signage but this is quickly dropped.
English is spoken throughout)
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 ingenuity, their small size (enabling them to 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, and they
may have had to use precious resources in order to safeguard themselves
from capture. 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 trust the giants who might be able to offer the Earth people
a ride home in exchange for technical assistance.
They are aided in the first goal, and at least somewhat hindered in
the second, by the leadership of Captain Steve Burton. He behaves as
leader, protector to the passengers and crew and his leadership has
rescued them from a number of difficulties. However on the other hand,
Captain Burton also functions as a guardian of the gate who tries to
keep the giants from ever reaching Earth. In the episode "Brainwash",
giant police officer Ashim (Warren Stevens) says "Maybe we can
find the home planet of these little people. It may be a very tiny planet,
but rich beyond our dreams." It is not entirely clear what that
means. Nor is it entirely clear what the giants would do if they ever
reached Earth. In several episodes Captain Burton puts keeping the giants
away from Earth above the need to get his people home. At the end of
those episodes he destroys devices that would get the Spindrift back
to Earth but would probably also enable the giants to journey there
as well.
[edit] 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
* Kevin Hagen as Inspector Kobick (recurring character)
Land of the Giants guest stars included many familiar faces from other
1950s and 1960s 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 included Michael Ansara,
Warren Stevens, John Carradine, David Opatoshu, Charles Drake, Jonathan
Harris, Jack Albertson, and Alan Hale, Jr.
[edit] DVD
All 51 episodes were released on DVD in a limited-edition 9-disc Complete
Series release on July 24, 2007 from Fox Home Entertainment. This includes
the un-aired original pilot, which has some differences (extra scenes
but not others later added to the aired version) and score music familiar
to Lost In Space fans.
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