Tag Archives: mark-harris

Man from Atlantis S1 E16, E17

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“Siren”

“Deadly Carnival”

This brings to an end the rewatch (although I do not remember any of these specific episodes, so we could consider it a watch instead) of the late 1970s TV show Man from Atlantis starring Patrick Duffy, who left from this show after its cancelation and moved to Dallas where he had some huge success as the brother of J.R. Ewing, Bobby.

These were the two episodes that did not have Dr. Elizabeth Merrill, as played by Belinda J. Montgomery. In “Siren,” they did make a reference to her being gone because she was doing something with the Senate, giving a nice little touch to continuity. They did not mention her at all in “Deadly Carnival.”

There was a mermaid in the first of these two episode who could sing a song that could cause pain or mesmerize people. Billy Barty guest starred in the second episode as our main villain, a midget who, along with a man who can conduct electricity, were planning a heist and Mark wound up in the middle of it.

Both of these episodes are definitely watchable. Neither of them are great, but neither are bad either. That kind of describes Man from Atlantis’ entire run. It was fine. Nothing great, nothing offensive. I don’t know if I would ever go out of my way to watch any of the episodes again, but I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing some of them if they just happened to be on.

I do like the fact that they had new villains in each of the last several episodes. Not that I disliked Mister Schubert. I did like him and I always liked Victor Buono, but he was just overused, particularly early in the season.

It is a shame that they never went into the secret of Mark Harris’ past more. They barely mentioned it. I would think that someone like Mark would be very driven to discover what was out there in his background, to see if he could trigger any memories of where he had come from. Maybe they had intended on doing this later on, but with the single season being all they got, it was not done.

Patrick Duffy actually wrote a book about the backstory and the history of Mark Harris and Atlantis. I just ordered it on Amazon because Mark Harris is a character that I really loved, despite some of the flaws of the series, this character was unlike many on TV, then or now.

I am pleased to have completed Man from Atlantis on Amazon Prime.

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.