A good landing is any one that you can walk away from, right?
Well, the crash landings in cult-tv history would definitely not qualify as "good landings," even if some survivors manage to escape them relatively intact.
A crash landing might also be termed an "emergency" landing, but generally a crash landing is defined as a descent that ends with an air craft or space craft reaching terra firma...indelicately.
In terms of sci-fi TV, a crash landing is also an opportunity for special effects artists to strut their stuff.
One of the greatest "crash landing" stories in cult-TV history, unsurprisingly, comes from The Twilight Zone (1959-1964).
In "Death Ship," a spaceship crew led by Jack Klugman makes the startling discovery that their ship has already crashed on a desolate planetary surface. Now, they must unmake that particular (and terminal...) future.
The Robinsons' Jupiter 2 spaceship crashed on a near-regular basis in the fifty-year old Lost in Space (1965-1968): once in black-and-white, and at least twice in color.
The Planet of the Apes (1974) TV series commenced with the crash of a spaceship, as human astronauts Virdon and Burke passed through a time warp and arrived on Earth of the distant future...an Earth populated by intelligent simians.
Space:1999 (1975 - 1977) visualized some of the greatest crash scenes in cult-TV history. Eagles came to unfortunate, and violent, ends in episodes such as "Breakaway" "Missing Link," "The Last Sunset" and "Devil's Planet," to name just a few.
Sometimes Eagles went down on the moon, and other times they plowed through planetary surfaces, but the effects always were spectacular.
The Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981) episode "Journey to Oasis" commences with a shuttle fro the Searcher going down on a barren world, far short of its destination.
In Galactica: 1980 (1980), the final episode, "Return of Starbuck" tells of Lt. Starbuck's final mission, and crash landing on a distant world.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), the first season episode "Skin of Evil" involves the rescue of Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) from a downed shuttle-crafted "guarded" by a malevolent entity called Armus. A fourth season episode of the same series, "Final Mission" also involves a crash landing as a key narrative element.
Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999) features plenty of Runabout crash landings. The first season episode "Battle Lines" is one example. A later episode, "The Ascent" also involves such a crash.
In Star Trek: Voyager (1995 - 2001), one spectacular scene in "Timeless" features the crash of the Voyager on an alien arctic shelf.
The X-Files (1993 - 2002) episode "Biogenesis" involves the discovery of an ancient alien saucer that presumably crash-landed on the South African beach at the beginning of life on Earth.
In Futurama the Planet Express ship crashed in the opening credits - and in a lot of the episodes come to think of it!
ReplyDeleteI always wondered just how many Eagles Moonbase Alpha had in the hangars. They must have had a lot on hand if they were planning a third season.
Loved the romance of crash-landing since I first saw one as a five-year old boy watching LOST IN SPACE. Also saw a good one on the lip-synchro cartoon SPACE ANGEL.
ReplyDeleteHere is an account of an unusual crash landing occurring on Earth in the 17th century - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYo02BoIDVc