Land of the Giants, or maybe that should be world of giants, as this series is set upon another planet, is a planet that mirrors our own society, except that everything is twelve times the size it would be upon earth. The series centers around the crew and passengers aboard the Spindrift, Flight 612 (or 703 depending on whether you watch the first episode or read the novelized version), which while on its scheduled flight between Los Angeles and London, passes through a violent atmospheric storm where a strange cloud formation is encountered. This circular cloud formation draws the Spindrift into its center, which has the effect of transporting them to this planet of giants.
Unaware that they are no longer over their intended destination, with power cells running low, Steve Burton (Gary Conway) the pilot of this ill-fated craft decides to take them in for an emergency landing as they are unable to raise London upon the radio. Landing in dense fog and still unable to obtain any communication both Steve and his co-pilot, Dan Erickson (Don Marshall) decide to investigate outside, it is here that they first discover that things are no longer quite how they should be, though it is never made clear in this first episode whether they are no longer on earth, or whether they may have been reduced in size somehow by the cloud formation.
On venturing outside into the fog the two men are nearly run over by the approach of a giant car, before running back into the relative safety of the Spindrift and attempting an emergency take-off. This is hindered by the arrival of a “small” boy who picks up the tiny craft to examine it, peering curiously in at the windows before the straining engines manage to summon enough power to break free, but with low power reserves the Spindrift soon has to land, leaving our group trapped in this strange “Land of the Giants”.
The other members of this group are Betty Hamilton (Heather Young) their stewardess, whilst the passengers consisted of Mark Wilson (Don Matheson), an engineer / businessman of some type, Commander Fitzhugh, (Kurt Kasnar) a navy officer of some description, who appears to be wanted by the police in connection with the theft of one million dollars, the police apparently awaiting his arrival in London, Valerie Scott (Denna Lund) a socialite, (whose only contribution to the series seems to be the possession of a fine pair of lungs), whilst the youngest member of the group was Barry Lockridge (Stefan Arngrim) an orphan, from a military family on his way to live with relatives, and his dog Chipper.
During the series run of 51 episodes, made to the American one-hour format, so in plain English 50 minutes, the group were pitted against many different perils, from all the expected sources from giant cats to experimenting scientists. I’ve never quite understood the appeal of Irwin Allen’s show, which despite the relatively high budgets ($250,000 an episode) always seemed to look cheap. Largely, I feel, down to the studio bound appearance, and use of stock footage, costumes, etc. The same Alien costumes – amongst other things – turning up in all four of his series. The special effects work is also patchy, from the quite spectacularly convincing to some really quite awful back projection. A common factor also shared with two of his other series is the theme of a small group of people trapped in unfamiliar surroundings looking for a way home. Maybe this was the appeal, the interaction of this small group, how they came together to form a team.
As with many series, this show now seems dated largely due to the unfortunate habit producers have of setting them in the near future, and specifying the year, 1983 in this case, though none of the fashions seem to be much past the late sixties.
The bulk of the items released in connection to this series originated in USA, with very little being issued in the UK.
