Call me a geek, but I was 13 years old when I first saw this pilot, at a pre-release screening at a Star Trek convention.It exhibits numerous elements characteristic of Roddenberry's finest, including a compelling premise, focus on recognizable human interactions, and some light, thoughtful humor: e.g. a reference to the teachings of "Saint Freud".Sadly, it didn't have quite the kick of some of his better work, but rather plays like one of the weaker episodes of one of them. That is to say the story is pretty good, some of the characters display a potential for significant depth, but it drags a bit. I see it as kind of a "Star Trek - The Motion Picture", without the million dollar light show, or the established relationship with the characters that would have brought us back for Star Trek II no matter how excruciating it was.It ain't easy maintaining the emotional pacing necessary for a "human adventure" while interspersing enough action (and scifi eye candy/gadgetry) to keep the plot moving. I thought it was not just watchable, but endearing in it's way... which is more than I could say for "Planet Earth"; which I thought came across as a rather superficial remake, dumbed down a bit for the masses.

I enjoyed this movie. Alex Cord and Mariette Hartley were rather good. The underground people trying to avoid capture, and fight for their freedom, were quite believable. The mutant people with the stun sticks, were wickedly tyrannical. *************************Spoiler************************************ The exchange between Dylan Hunt and Primus, is quite remarkable. (he took lives destroying the old missile silo). And discussing the unisex discipline, with the underground women, was amusing. While this was not an Oscar winner, I thought it was pretty good, for a TV movie. I also thought Ted Cassidy, was good in this. This would have made a good movie, or mini-series.

unfortunately, it wasn't to memorable at that. it might have developed into something viable, all things considered for the 70's, but didn't. i love roddenberry's work, but the characters in this series given the relationship between time of the catastrophic event and the changes in the world and rather unbelievable acting lead to a very lukewarm movie at the least. Alex Cord just barely carries off the role of Dylan Hunt. Almost all the undergrounders are rather forced and unbelievable. Mariett Hartley does not do the concept of Terran any good, neither do any of the others portraying this unrealistic and unbelievable mutated race. it just didn't work for me. i'll be adding it to my collection if i can ever find it only because of roddenberry, not for anyother reason!

In case you're wondering: this is not a sequel to Genesis I, it is about the re-birth of life and human civilisation after the age of technology collapsed. Watching this, it was never entirely clear to me how seriously the film was taking itself. Some ideas were genuinely wacky, for example that Sigmund Freud was revered as a saint. There were moments when I wanted to smack the scriptwriter right in the face, e.g. when a woman calms her children with "It's only the wind!" while this wind was actually the shockwave of a nuclear explosion.Without giving too much away: the ending has surprising similarities in structure and motives to endings of many classic westerns, e.g. in the way the boy doesn't get the girl or the problem of the former 'gunfighter' finally joining a peaceful society, a society he helped preserving.