Earth II

TV film about a space station.

This should have been so much better than it is. It had the effects budget, it had the great cast, it had the quality writers (who also worked on TV's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) and even some of the music cues were good - so what happened??

About half way into it all anyone can talk about is a bomb in space.

Such a waste of great talent and effects. Towards the end I was so bored I was looking at my phone half the time. Don't bother with Earth II.

This was sort of a cross between 2001 and Marooned. It made a very early attempt to make a scientifically accurate sci-fi series. The station was populated by people from all nations. They set up thier own government, and they led very politically correct lives. Any adult could disagree with the station's government and put the disagreement to a vote via an interactive TV. The show had some very interesting ideas about the future development of technology. Early in the show, a national election takes place by people turning on their home lights, and an spaceship in orbit counts the votes. Worth seeing if you can.

Everyone is talking about how EARTH II was ahead of its time with special effects, scientific imaginings, and the like. I was, however, a little more down to earth. The people who worked up this film did not have their feet on the ground.

Here's the premise: An international project sends up a huge space station and populates it with about a hundred people from various nations. The USSR is represented but not China - because the Chinese had a bad attitude about it. Instantly the US President (Lew Ayres) tells the inmates of this space station that they are now a new and independent nation, he (evidently without the advice and consent of Congress) is recognizing it as a new nation and he's going to have the UN make it a member state. This is absurd on a number of levels include any business about the exchange of ambassadors.

Additionally, the technology pretty much does their thinking for them. In a ship-wide video discussion of a crucial problem of international relations, the ship's computers analyze each person's argument and put subtitles on the screen with disparaging labels about their contribution -- e.g. "Appeal to authority".

Apart from this, the interesting stuff (the special effects) is about a Chinese nuclear satellite that is being used to the homelands of the inmates of this space station.

So, comic book logic, impressive special effects.

This was one of the most expensive TV movies of its day. It is heavily indebted to 2001: a Space Odyssey. The action takes place on Earth II which is a space station which orbits Earth and has been designated an independent nation. Its denizens are peace loving and anti-violence but this is thrown into disarray when the Chinese send out a vessel carrying nuclear warheads. For the most part this is a pretty interesting bit of sci-fi, with the Earth II itself making for an interesting setting - I guess the producers thought this too given it was intended for a TV series. The story does get a little too bogged down with the nefarious Chinese vessel though, with the attention of the narrative switching solely onto this for the second half. The set design and model work is the strength here, with the story and dramatics under-cooked. Still, despite its flaws, it still made for a pleasing bit of serious-minded TV sci-fi from the post-2001 days.

This is a very rare made for TV movie with a great story and excellent special effects. The only thing that might be considered wrong about this film is that even though it is supposedly set in the future, this film is now very much dated. This film was made during the height of the Cold War and at a time relations between The U.S., the then Soviet Union and China were not very good. In fact, the U.S. is almost looked at as a pawn in the struggle between the other two super powers. However, this film does provide a good glimpse at the future and how space travel could eventually be routine and the possibilities of global cooperation in outer space.