Tag Archives: man-from-atlantis

Man from Atlantis S1 E15

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“Imp”

Pat Morita guest starred as a strange little man named Moby, a being from another world whose touch causes people to regress to a childhood state and laugh without a care in the world. While that sounds like fun, the humans wind up in dangerous situations.

In fact, Moby told some of the crew of the submarine that discovered him to go swimming and they happily climbed into the air lock and drowned. We did not see their eventual fates, but that is absolutely what happened.

The idea behind Moby is clearly someone like Mr. Mxyzptlk from DC Comics or a story similar to “Naked Time” from the original Star Trek series. However, this was a little annoying at times.

The ending where Mark shows Moby the dangers of his actions was a solid ending to this story. Mark continues to be the most noblest character on the show.

It was interesting that Moby’s powers did not work on Mark and that Moby knew that they would not because Moby recognized Mark as from “down there.” This was never explored but it was a intriguing nod to the differences of the character of Mark Harris.

This is the final episode of the series for Belinda Montgomery, who played Elizabeth. To be fair, the character of Elizabeth neve really got her due from this series. I am sure that she will be missed over the final couple of episodes.

Man from Atlantis S1 E11

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“Crystal Water, Sudden Death”

Another weird world and the return of Mr. Schubert highlight the next episode of Man from Atlantis. Schubert has been searching for powerful crystals that will help him control the communications on the earth. and he needs Mark’s inadvertent help to get them.

It appears as if Man from Atlantis is not that concerned with continuity as Schubert, who the last time we saw him, had been struggling with finances. That does not seem to be a concern this episode.

We also got a new lackey/henchman for Schubert, played by René Auberjonois, who appeared on Benson and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Auberjonois’s character, Havergal, on Man from Atlantis was much angrier and meaner.

Mark Harris is truly unlike any character I have seen on TV. His calmness and heroic nature is always right on point. He does not respond with violence and he is constantly the diplomat. His manner with the people of Killsboro’s Deep, the underwater land found inside a bubble created by the crystals, was so different than other action/sci-fi heroes that it makes him wholly original.

I mean, Mark has super strength, as we have seen before, but he never uses the strength in opposition to others. He uses his words and his aura to create a peaceful nature that is cool to see.

This was another episode of Man from Atlantis that made me think about Land of the Lost, specifically with the crystals and the Sleestaks. This was some top notch science fiction television, a nice return after the Western parts from the previous episode.

Man from Atlantis S1 E10

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“Shoot-Out at Land’s End”

Man from Atlantis meets the Old West.

According to IMDB, “While investigating an underwater volcano, Mark is stricken with sudden pain in the shoulder. This is not the first time he’s felt pain for no reason, and his instincts lead him to a deserted beach and, inexplicably, to a frontier town of the old west called Land’s End. There he meets his identical twin, Billy, another water-breather who washed up on a beach with no knowledge of his true identity. Billy takes Mark’s place aboard the Cetacean, leaving the Man from Atlantis to face the villains of Land’s End.”

Mark in a fish-out-of-water story that sees much of the science fiction elements replaced by those of a Western. Science fiction shows like Star Trek have done this type of episode many times, traveling to a different land, specifically a Western motif.

The twin aspect of the show was intriguing. It truly speaks to the mysterious past of Mark Harris. Billy did not have the strength of Mark, nor did Billy have the webbed-fingers. I am not sure why there were the differences. When we first met Billy, I wondered about the webbed-fingers and why people didn’t wonder about them, but the show made a point to show that Billy did not have them. Still, he was a water-breather and got strength from getting wet. I am not sure if the show has an idea of the overall story or if this is just a fun idea that they had, connecting it to a mysterious past that they never intended to flesh out.

Pernell Roberts from Bonanza appeared as the villainous Clint Hollister, the man who hired Billy as a hired gun.

It did seem that Billy made a turn from the bad guy to the heroic character quickly, but there was only a limited amount of time in the episode. This would have been a better story with a two-parter or if this were like one of the TV movies that started the show.

The show did a decent j0b of shooting the two Patrick Duffys during the scenes that Billy and Mark were together. Most of the shots looked really good, but there was one at the sheriff station that was not as strong.

They never even tried to figure out how Mark wound up in the Old West. I can only assume it was the same type of manner in which happened in “Giant.”

Man from Atlantis S1 E8

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“Giant”

This was a really fun episode of Man from Atlantis. I had been hoping for a break from Mr. Schubert, as played by Victor Buono, for awhile now. He had been in all of the run of the series, since the end of the TV movies. This was the episode that finally gave us a break from Schubert. And in his place, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!

The former Lakers star appeared as a giant named Thark. Water from the ocean was being drained through a vortex into another world where Thark was mining gold. Another person named Muldoon was trying to steal the giant’s gold.

This was a weird episode, but I did like it quite a bit. At first, it looked as if Kareem’s giant character was monstrous, but he turned out to be friendly and helped Mark stop the flow of water. When Thark learned that the water, which was invisible in this world, was a danger to Mark’s world, he immediately went to help him.

I really like how Mark deals with his conflicts. Many action heroes would head into a confrontation with the giant using physical threats, but, even after getting thrown around by Thark, Mark just spoke to him and used his words to convince him that he meant him no harm.

There was an ironic lesson to be learned for Muldoon too as he wound up stranded in this odd location with Thark. Muldoon had come back after deserting Mark to help them close the vortex, but the show still had him pay for his greed. I felt bad for Muldoon.

This was a step up from last episode’s offering. I thought Kareem did a good job in his role, which was admittedly fairly simple. The sci-fi concept of the ocean containing portals to different dimensions is an intriguing idea. I wonder if they were going to use this idea eventually to deal with the origin of Mark Harris and where he came from had the series continued.

Man from Atlantis S1 E4

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“The Disappearances”

This is the fourth and final TV movie of the series, which was actually entitled “Man from Atlantis IV: The Disappearances.”

It is interesting that I remember this being one of my favorite TV shows when it was on back in the 1970s, but after watching the first four TV movies, I do not remember anything about them.

I enjoyed this fourth movie of Man from Atlantis quite a bit. In fact, it might be my favorite of the four.

According to IMDB, “Elizabeth is kidnapped, one of dozens of scientists held prisoner on the island of Felicitos, controlled by special mineral springs that render their victims completely happy and compliant. Dr. Smith is using them to build a rocket to take her away from our troubled planet in search of some better world, and Mark must find a way to counter the brain-washing and free the captives“

I really do like this show. There are problems, of course. The acting is not what I would call great, but for the 1970s TV, it is acceptable. They have the most conveniently placed cameras around the sub and areas where people can watch what is happening on monitors. That is just a weird bit that doesn’t really affect anything. In a show about a man with webbed fingers who can breathe underwater, having cameras in places that make no sense should not be the biggest drawback.

I did like the Dr. Smith villain of this episode. She was quite brutal and cruel, yet I could understand why she was doing what she was doing. It could be an episode that features a debate on climate change, even before it became a real thing.

Mark was a real hero in this episode. He came up with solutions for everything from the torpedo to the mind-control. I thought the look of Mark when he was trapped in the shed without water was great for the special effects of the time. His underwater scenes were excellent as they always are for this show. Those scenes underwater were well done and looked great. I am not a huge fan of the manner in which Mark always swam, but that would be the way a real person would swim. Today, he would be more CGI and could look like he was swimming faster. Still, I liked the realism of the shots.

Moving ahead, the show starts its regular series run of 13 episodes, which was all the show would get. This is actually a pretty decent sci-fi series and, despite some flaws, has been a fun watch so far.

Man from Atlantis S1 E3

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“Killer Spores”

This TV movie was actually titled Man from Atlantis III: Killer Spores. It is the third of four TV movie prior to the debut of the short-lived TV series.

For the second TV movie in a row, Mark, Elizabeth and Miller have to deal with something extraterrestrial as they were assigned to recover a space probe from the military. Mark can hear a horrible screeching sound that the others could not. When he arrived at the site of the space probe, Mark discovered  strange, blue, intelligent spores covering it. They started spreading across the city, causing panic and problems.

This is a pretty good sci-fi episode. The spores are able to take over people’s minds and make them do what they want. The spores use the people to learn. Meanwhile, Mark is conflicted by his desire to not destroy the spores and trying to save his friends.

The best science fiction leads to moral quandaries and “Killer Spores” seemed to have that very conundrum.

This episode was better than the previous one, though the conclusion with the spores hopping a ride on a launching rocket back to space was iffy. There were a whole bunch of these spores, but it seemed as if Mark only transported a couple to the rocket. I got a feel of a hive-type group from the spores. It made me think about the Borg from Star Trek: A New Generation.

Man from Atlantis S1 E2

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“Death Scouts”

The second of the Man from Atlantis television movies was actually entitled “Man from Atlantis II: Death Scouts.”

According to Wikipedia, “Mark investigates the disappearance of three scuba divers, two of whom are ‘replaced’ by waterborne aliens (Tiffany Bolling as Lioa / Dilly and Burr DeBenning as Xos / Chazz). The aliens assignment is to scout Earth and check its defense capabilities. They also give the impression that Mark may also be one of them, specially bred for Earth infiltration.“

I was not wild about this story. While I appreciate them trying to tie Lioa and Xos to Mark’s background, it all felt kind of muddied. It seemed to indicate that they were lying about Mark when they informed him that he was from their planet, but at the end, it sounded as if Lioa had confirmed that he was from earth.

It was a messy story. If Mark did not have a connection to these two, why did they both have the webbed fingers? The symbol on Mark’s trunks, was I to understand that it is not the same as he saw in the spaceship?

I hope that this was a lie because I feel as if making Mark an alien from another planet is just lazy writing. I do not know if they will ever go into further details on his past in the short season one, but I’m sure it could be handled more deftly.

There were just too many plot holes for this tv movie. There were some decent sci-fi shots, several of which actually reminded me of The Land of the Lost, but the writing of the story felt off.

However, the shots of Patrick Duffy underwater continue to just amaze me. I am curious how they shot these, especially those that seem to have Mark in a tank of water for extended periods of time while on screen. How much did Patrick Duffy do on his own? I would love to know the specifics of these shots because they are the best underwater shots I think I have seen and this was 1977.

Man From Atlantis S1 E1

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“Pilot”

I recently purchased the entire run of comics of a short-lived series from the late 1970s called Man from Atlantis on eBay. I remembered being a fan of the series when it was on TV back in the 70s. Honestly, the comic was not great, but I was happy to have it in my collection.

As I was writing about it today in the EYG Comic Cavalcade #87, I mused about what I might think about the show if I could see it today. That sent me to Google to see if it was streaming anywhere I might be able to watch it. Amazingly, I found that the entire series was available for purchase on Amazon Prime.

The series included four television movies to start in 1977 and then a weekly show ran 13 more episodes. The show was canceled after the 13 episodes because of a dwindling viewership and high cost.

The series starred Patrick Duffy as Mark Harris, a mysterious man who had gills, webbed fingers and feet, but who could not remember anything about where he was from. Duffy would go from this series to his iconic role as Bobby Ewing on CBS’ Dallas.

The first of the movies, entitled “Pilot” featured the discovery of the mysterious man washed up on the beach, entangled in a fishing net. He was gasping and having terrible difficulties breathing. No matter what was done, no one seemed to be able to help him.

When Dr. Elizabeth Merrill was called in, she discovered his gills and took him to the ocean, where she had him placed face down in the water. This did the trick and he was taken back to the  Foundation for Oceanic Research. Elizabeth named him ‘Mark Harris’ and the military became very intrigued by the possibilities of the water-breathing man.

I was very impressed by the swimming/underwater scenes. I am not sure how these were filmed because Patrick Duffy spent what seemed to be plenty of time under water. These scenes looked really well done.

Victor Buono, who was known as Batman villain King Tut in the 1960’s series, played the villain of the pilot, Mr. Schubert, who was set up as a reoccurring antagonist for the future of the series. Buono was a solid villain, with his line delivery.

I liked the pilot enough. I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy the pilot and that I would not be happy doing this watch/rewatch (I know I used to watch the show, but I can’t say that I saw every episode), but I think things will be okay.