Logan keeps on running still
Okay,I do have to say right off the bat that the original book was better than the movie which was better than this TV series, but as cheap and cheesy seventies sci-fi shows go (and this one has a zappy electronic disco theme tune that is distinctly emblematic of the time period), "Logan's Run" was still pretty darn good!
Like the versions before it, the series dealt with the post-apocalyptic adventures of a former Sandman (government assassin) named Logan 5 (Gregory Harrison) and the beautiful young rebel Jessica 6 (Heather Menzies) who escaped from the City of Domes because they didn't want to die at the mandatory age of 30 and wanted to find a mysterious place of refuge called Sanctuary, all the time being chased by Logan's black-clad ex-partner Francis 7 (Randy Powell) who wanted to capture the fugitive Runners and drag them back to face the final death ritual of Carousal.
Along the way they picked up a solar-powered hovercraft hidden in the ruins of Washington and, more importantly, a friendly and helpful green-garbed android named Rem who, as played by distinguished character actor Donald Moffat (he of the wonderful bushy white eyebrows!), was the best part of the show.
Kind and gentle, funny and smart, he claimed to know everything except how to predict how humans would react and was, in his way, a much better character than Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was.
Rem never wanted to be human. He just wanted to be himself and be useful, and if he ever occasionally felt sad and lost because he was expected to do something humans could do and he could not (like, say, eating dinner... machines, of course, don't need to eat!) or tended to spark when he felt attracted to a pretty female android, well, there was always soon some new problem to solve or thing to fix and that was what he was built for and in that he was happy and content.
Logan may have been brave and had a cool gun and Jessica kindhearted with a really short skirt (hey, it was the seventies...), but Rem had a computer brain programmed with tons of useful information and an equal amount of common sense plus a toolbox full of handy high tech gadgets that would have made Dr. Who jealous, and it was usually him that saved the day (Trapped in a 24th century haunted house? Rem didn't waste any time saying, "This does not compute!" He just searched his memory banks for any info on ghosts and dealt with the matter according!).
As for the rest, well, the two young leads were likable and attractive and certainly believable enough in their roles, but aside from Moffat and a couple of other exceptions, the acting on the show was for the most part distinctly average, although as a friend of mine once said, "You know, the average is actually pretty good!"
And as for the writing, the 14 episodes included in this "Complete Series" collection ranges from the awful "Capture" (still yet another "Most Dangerous Game" rip-off with that most ancient of cliche plots where a deranged hunter decides to hunt human prey) to the truly excellent "Man Out Of Time" (in it a time traveler comes forward to Logan's era in a desperate attempt to find out what event will finally set off the long-looming global war that threatens his century so that he can prevent it from happening, an action that will also prevent Logan, Jessica and Rem from ever existing... An exceptional episode that I would put up against the best of "Star Trek" or "Twilight Zone" or any other science fiction series you would care to mention!).
All the episodes, though, are quite enjoyable in their own way, and the show's central premise of traveling the wastelands of a future America, running from your past and encountering strange isolated societies while on a quest to find the one perfect place of peace and security you could call your own certainly has its appeal.
While there is no remastering on this DVD set, the picture and audio quality are quite good. There are no extras other than subtitles, but when you consider the discs are factory made and not Manufactured On Demand like MGM and Warners does with so many of their cult classics these days, you have to be thankful it exists at all.
Recommended to those who don't demand CGI effects with their sci-fi.
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