Posted:
01:45:29 on March 07
By: GustavoLeao
Dept: General Genre/SciFi
The latest issue of Cinescape magazine features an exclusive interview with Majel Barrett Roddenberry, in which she talks about her hopes to revisit 'Genesis II', a failed 1973 TV pilot created and written by the late Gene Roddenberry, which starred Alex Cord as 'Dylan Hunt', a 20th Century scientist who was put in suspended animation and revived in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Hunt hooks up with a group of scientists called PAX in a mission to rebuild civilization by reaching out to the isolated pockets of humanity scattered along the globe.
After CBS reject the pilot, Roddenberry produced a second pilot for ABC titled 'Planet Earth', now with actor John Saxon in the role of 'Dylan Hunt'. Former 'Babylon 5' star Bruce Boxleitner has been hired to star in the upcoming third version.
"It's not very up to date" Roddenberry told Cinescape "But it has an extremely good setting and there is no reason why it shouldn't continue. I have a lot of scripts for that particular show that takes place on Earth after the holocaust, so we retain PAX and the other elements."
One element that will not be retained is the name of 'Genesis II' scientist hero : since Kevin Sorbo character in Gene Roddenbery's Andromeda has also been dubbed 'Dylan Hunt', Boxleitner's character in the new version will be renamed.
"I am not sure we mentioned to Kevin that his namesake come from a previous series idea" Barrett Roddenberry told the magazine "But Gene liked the name 'Dylan Hunt' so we thought 'Why not use it ?'"
From more info on the original 'Genesis II' pilots and synopsis of the un-produced scripts, go to
http://home.att.net/~bfox/g2.html
Below : Alex Cord as the first 'Dylan Hunt' in the first 'Genesis II' pilot (1973)...
...and John Saxon as the second 'Dylan Hunt' in the second unsold pilot, 'Planet Earth' (1974)
