When I watched the NBC airing of DANGER ISLAND, I was fascinated by what a well-stocked premise the show had. First, a well-hidden lush jungle island. Add a local mysterious (but not evil, no matter what the earlier poster thought) tribe. And finally, the mysterious government black op, "Project Naomi", a well-stocked laboratory apparently handling a disturbingly wide variety of experiments. Which caused any number of mutants and mutagens to be released to roam the island.
Heck, as a former role playing game designer, I was envious I had not come up with such a setting. It would make a heck of an RPG!
The characters covered a wide variety of types, including apparently an ex-CIA type who knew about Project Naomi.... And a hero who, upon being exposed to a mysterious mutagen, is starting to become something other than human....
Man, I would love to see the writers' guidelines for this series!
The basic format of DANGER ISLAND has been revisited by two other TV series.
The mid-90s syndicated series PETER BENCHLEY'S AMAZON had an airliner crash in the remote jungle, stranding a few dozen passengers in an unexplored valley filled with mysterious threats..... And in fall 2004, ABC brings us LOST. An airline crash on a mysterious uncharted island filled with mysterious threats......
Postscript, January 2005-- It's funny watching LOST and DANGER ISLAND and seeing some of the same photogenic areas being used by the two similar shows a decade apart. LOST is definitely the better written show but still, it would have been nice for DANGER ISLAND to have had a better chance!
POST-postscript, January 2006-- A year later and it looks even more like DANGER ISLAND was a parallel world counterpart to LOST. Especially now that we know DI's "Project Naomi" has a counterpart in LOST's "Dharma Institute."
