Dr.
Elizabeth Merrill (Belinda J. Montgomery) is abducted and taken to the “Island
of Blessings” in the Pacific.
There,
she is brainwashed into compliance (thanks to an apparently magical spa bath…) to work with renegade scientist Dr.
Mary Smith (Darleen Carr) on a top-secret project.
Mark
(Patrick Duffy), C.W. Crawford (Alan Fudge) and Dr. Simon (Kenneth Tigar) track
their missing friend to the faraway island, but Dr. Smith is not glad to see
them. She launches a deadly torpedo to destroy the ship but Mark is able to
detach it before it explodes.
Mark
heads to the island, and discovers that Mary has kidnapped 20 of the world’s
finest scientists, and has built a space ark, called Ararat.
She intends to leave behind the “failed”
Earth and start life on a new green planet with only the best of the best at her side.
She
offers Mark a berth on the ark…
The
Disappearances
is a ninety minute movie, not two hours, and as a result of the abbreviated length moves a whole lot more
efficiently than either The Deadly Scouts or Killer
Spores did. There
are fewer distractions here, the characters are more crisply drawn, and the
story stays on point well.
After
the pilot, this might be the best of the Man from Atlantis telefilms if for no other reason than the improved pace. In terms of artistry this telefilm also plays as a book-end
to Mayo Simon’s original teleplay.
There, as you recall, Buono’s Mr. Schubert exhibited that “Burn it all
down” mentality. He was going to destroy
the world to save it; to start over. He had to nuke the world to save it.
Instead
of contending with alien life forms (like the previous two telefilms), The
Disappearances introduces another scientist who has lost faith in the
world as it is: Dr. Mary Smith.
But she doesn’t want to burn it all down. She wants to “tune out,” essentially, with the
world’s greatest minds. She wants to recreate Noah’s Ark and leave the corrupt
Earth behind forever. Dr. Smith claims Terra will be destroyed
either through pollution or greed, and the best of the best have a
responsibility to take “the seed” of life to another planet.
Once
more, a veritable innocent, Mark Harris, is asked to combat this brand of
cynicism. He is asked to stand up and defend mankind, even though he is an
outsider. But, in that coveted spot of outsider he can see not just the “bad”
of mankind but the good as well...like Mary’s sister, Jane, who helps him free
Elizabeth.
Again, I must note how much I enjoy the character of Mark Harris, and Patrick Duffy's portrayal. Not for a second is Mark tempted to join Dr. Smith on her odyssey to the stars. There is too much to see and learn, right here on terra firma.
The
Disappearances
moves at a brisk pace and features a suspenseful set-piece involving a guided
torpedo stalking the Cetacean. There is
some real tension here as Mark uses another one of his “water breather” powers
(the ability to detect minerals and know what they are...) to figure out how to
de-tach the torpedo from the sub’s hull.
The
Disappearances
is not without some camp-like touches.
All of Mary’s male bodyguards/security
guards go topless around the underground compound, for instance.
And the lighting in the psychedelic spa
suggests a seedy swinger’s party from the seventies. The scenes set there -- with bodybuilder men stripped down to their chests and women bathers in the pool -- suggest a disco
orgy about to start.
Tomorrow, I’ll begin my look at Man
from Atlantis as it transitioned to regular hour-long series.
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