Conference noted::sf

    
    The Immortal ???????????
    Never heard of it.
    Could you please give a quick idea as to plot, etc.
    
    						Mike N.
    

Chistofer George is a man who works for an old 'rich' man. The old man has
a plane crash and needs blood, Chris gives him some and old dying man gets 
invigorated (younger) for a few days/weeks. It seems christofer george (I forgot
his character name) has a special 'stuff' in his blood that heals super fast
etc. He is now on the run because the old man wants to get transfutions every
couple of days to stay young. The plot thickens because Christfer has a long
lost brother that also might have the 'stuff' so while running he has to try
to find his brother to warn him of the old man. 

Just your basic man on the run drama. He helps people, gets hurt, heals, moves
on etc. 

    "The Immortal" (as best I remember) was a not-too-well-done cross
    between "The Fugative" and "The Omega Man." It involved a guy who
    is in his 50s but looks like he's in his 30s and never gets sick. For
    some reason he's never questioned the fact that he has never been ill
    and recovers from the most devastating injuries overnight. he's a race
    car driver and is always cracking up (not too good a driver, I guess).
    
    In a sequence I can't remember, he comes to the attention of a
    Bad Guy Big Businessman (why are businessmen on TV almost always Bad
    Guys?), who determines that, with regular transfusions from the
    Immortal, the Bad Guy will drop about 40 years and be perpetually
    healthy. Being a Bad Guy, he then plots to kidnap the Immortal and keep
    him in permanent confinement so he can use the guy's blood to stay
    young and healthy. Of course, this does not thrill the Immortal, so the
    show becomes one in which the Immortal is endlessly pursued and
    endangered by Bad Businessman.
    
    That's about it.
    
    ksn                                                                   
    

    
    um, wasnt the scifi channel launched a while back?  ive wateched it on
    several occasions over the past couple of months at friends' houses.  i
    dont have it yet though :'(.  

    see also "The Immortals" by James Gunn
    
    Richard

This weekend was the first 'sci-fi' channel pilot showcase. They 
showed the pilots of

	Lost in Space (never before seen - No Dr Smith or Robot)
	The Immortal
	The Time Tunnel
	Dark Shadows	
	The Invaders
	Kolchack
	
I guess they will do this again sometime with other pilots

re: -1

Pilot of Lost in Space with no Dr. Smith or Robot ?? What gives ? Was this
some previously un-aired pilot. If so, what was the premise, and did they
finish it with the same type of stupid cliff-hanger as the pilot I have seen,
i.e. Dr. Smith reprogramming the robot for sabotage etc..

thanks
	Mike

RE: lost in space
	The pilot was the same basic stuff. Pioneer family of super smart 
science types. Suspended animation for 100 years as they cruise at the speed of
light to Alpha Centri (4 light years away..).. Somewhere along the way they 
run into a meteor shower that damages the ship. Somehow the special self repair
systems are able to keep everyone from dieing but communications are lost back
to earth (funny that in the 60's they could make self repairing space ships
but we can't make a space toilet that works :-).. )

	The ship runs aground on the shore of a tropical desert island (i mean
planet). They do flash back's via Dr Robinson's log.. They are on the planet
for 6 months since we last saw them. Winter is coming. They have to move to 
a warmer climate. 

	Basicly here we have the first 4 or 5 weeks of the original series with
the giant men, finding judy the chimp with a huge head, the adventures in the
plastic land rover, etc. BUT all this happens in the 1 hour pilot.

    Errr,
    
    this all sounds like a plasticised version of Swiss Family Robinson
    !?!?!? ;-)
    
    thanks
    	Mike

re: .9

It was deliberately and quite publicly a space version of Swiss Family 
Robinson, even to the family name.  Somewhere along the way, before
it really hit the airwaves, Dr. Smith was introduced and became a
dominating factor in the plot lines.

   Gary

    There used to be a Gold Key comic called "Space Family Robinson," that
    seemed to be somehow related to the tv show.  I don't know what the
    connection was.
    
    -Stephen

    Re .11:
    
    The comic book seemed to me to be the obvious inspiration for the TV
    series.  The only difference was that the comic book was much better.
    
    There were only four continuing characters: mom and dad, sis and
    brother.  They wree the crew of a ship with an experimental hyperdrive.
    It worked too well and *whoosh*, they were Elsewhere, and spent the
    rest of the series looking for our solar system.
    
    They encountered a new intelligent species every episode, and though
    many were somewhat humanoid, none were mistakeable for human, and none
    spoke English.  Attention was paid to basic science facts much more
    than in the TV series, and they sandwiched in little bits of education.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    Although I don't remember which network offhand, one of the networks
    took LIS over Star Trek because they thought Star Trek was based more
    in fantasy!
    
    Wonder what happened to that exec?
    

    >Although I don't remember which network offhand, one of the networks
    >took LIS over Star Trek because they thought Star Trek was based more
    >in fantasy!
    
    When Roddenberry was trying to sell "Star Trek" to the networks,
    somebody at CBS told him "No, we're not interested, we already have
    a science fiction show -- _Lost_in_Space_."

    	I remember the comic book series (should that be "graphic novel"
    now? :^)) fondly and agree it surpassed the TV series.  In fact I
    remember they did find our solar system in several adventures:  The
    "catch" was that at one time they landed on Atlantis just before it 
    sunk instead of their own time; the other time they landed on Mars
    several billion years in the past, when it apparently had forests
    just like those found in North America now.  If anyone can tell me
    what happened with the Mars story line I would be most grateful.
    
    	Oh yes, Mr. Robinson was also able to send an image of himself
    to Earth in their time via some alien device to tell the project
    members that he and his family were okay and would not return until
    the end of their series contracts. :^)  The first part of this is
    true.  All the above are from my limited memories of past comic-
    reading days.
    
    	Larry
    

The first year of the Lost in Space TV show was much more SF related than
the rest (these are the B&W episodes). If I had to look at the first few
scripts for both ST-TOS and LIS I would proably put a more 'realistic' stamp
on LIS. Here is a space ship marooned on a distant planet and the family
fights to survive against the strange things they find on this planet and
against an evil spy out to crush their attempts at survival (if it doesn't
cost him his life). The orginal Dr Smith was not a nice person he was evil
and tried several times to kill Don and Prof Robinson with/without the
robot. Star Trek was 'too' far in the future with aliens, equality, ESP, 
etc.