episode #01 - The Crash

THE CRASH - pilot episode / Air Date: 9/22/68
story by Irwin Allen; teleplay by Anthony Wilson; Directed by Irwin Allen

This introduced the 7 regular characters and the dog, and depicted how they ended up on a world of giants. It's June 12, 1983 - about 15 years 'in the future.' They are aboard the futuristic aircraft "The Spindrift" on their way to London; there are 3 crew and 4 passengers. The ship hits some kind of "solar turbulence" and loses contact with ground personnel. Then they encounter what looks like a globe of energy which sucks them in; they soon emerge on 'the other side' and still can't make contact with a ground crew. They see city lights and land in the midst of dense fog. The captain (Gary Conway) and co-pilot (Don Marshall) decide to check things out and walk out.
This is when they are clued in as to where they are - not on Earth. An approaching automobile passes over the duo - it's 12 times the size of automobiles which they are accustomed to. They hear something else approaching and run back to the ship; they then see their first giant: it's a kid but, to them, he appears about 60 feet tall. The boy picks up their ship (with the 7 regulars inside) as if it were a large toy. They switch on the ship's engines and fly off; to their amazement, though the readings indicate they are 5,000 feet in the air, they are still surrounded by buildings. The captain then decides to land again.

It was, in many ways, an awesome beginning to a TV series - we were only 15 minutes in. One could argue, however, that the concept might have been better suited to a one-shot film; you can't really improve on the first amazing images and going back to such as these episode after episode is just repetition. But, there we were - on an alien planet much like Earth, just where things are much bigger.

The ship lands in what appears to be a jungle, but may just be a park. One sneaky-looking passenger, Fitzhugh (Kurt Kasznar), decides to sneak out with a briefcase of money; he's followed by the boy passenger, Barry (Stefan Arngrim). Then we see a large lizard, which looks like footage from one of Allen's films (The Lost World) and doesn't make much sense. The captain is chased by a giant tarantula. Then we get the giant cat, which soon attacks the ship itself - a vicious kitty! (as in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), cats always are extra hostile in these situations). Finally, the captain and the female passenger (Deanna Lund) are captured by a giant and taken away for some... experimentation.
The next scenes demonstrate both the strengths and weaknesses of this show, in most of the episodes: the sets are great - giant tables, drawers, pencils, exacto-knives - but to really admire this show you have be entranced by the characters running & climbing over all these huge things repeatedly. The giant entomologist is sinister and doesn't speak much, but he does speak - just not enough to clue us in on what he thinks of these tiny persons. He behaves as if he's mistaken the tiny people for some kind of insects, so he doesn't come across as very bright. What were his ultimate intentions? He prods his two captives as prep for... dissection? (much of this recalls scenes from Dr. Cyclops-1940).
It's frightening and we breathe a sigh of relief for them when the little people manage to escape. There's a final encounter with a giant dog and then the captain makes a statement about how this will be their lot from now on. There's not much discussion or debate about where they are; rather stoic and so very, very melodramatic - the dialog and delivery would be of this sort throughout the series. But, there was a lot going on in this first episode. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10