# Blast from the Past: Land of the Giants



## The Master™ (Jun 26, 2005)

There are the adventures of the three crew and four passengers of the sub-orbital spacecraft Spindrift. They are drawn through a space warp that crashes them onto a planet where everything is 12 times normal size. The castaways struggle to repair their damaged craft and somehow get back to Earth while being hunted by the totalitarian government that rule the planet.

Stefan Arngrim 
Role: Barry Lockridge
Don Matheson 
Role: Mark Wilson
Kurt Kasznar 
Role: Commander Alexander B. Fitzhugh
Gary Conway 
Role: Captain Steve Burton 
Deanna Lund 
Role: Valerie Ames Scott
Heather Young 
Role: Betty Hamilton
Don Marshall 
Role: Dan Erickson 
Kevin Hagen
Role: Inspector Kobick


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## Jeffbert (Feb 3, 2012)

This series obviously borrowed heavily from LOST IN SPACE's character chemistry; at least I think that is the way to describe it. The frequent conflicts not only between Fitzhugh & the pilots, but between the others & the pilots. The latter, saw themselves as having authority over the others who were passengers, but those others sometimes resented it, seeing nobody was going anywhere on the SPINDRIFT. 

Fitzhugh, like Dr. Smith, frequently being blinded by greed, in a place where wealth is meaningless, & even worthless, or worse yet, a liability. The boy who was all too often hanging around with Fitzhugh, and all too easily manipulated into becoming a pawn in one of his schemes. 

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The sheer foolishness of these 6 inch people, who occasionally went out of their way to help certain giants. Apparently the writers felt it was a good way to make the young viewers into GOOD SAMARITANS, but from my perspective, personal survival should have come 1st, especially when those you help will turn you in to the police for the reward.

I remember a Wild Wild West episode in which James West was either shrunken or suffering an illusion & threatened by a Mexican-striped tarantula. Though I think this series was before LOTG, at the time, I thought that episode was surely inspired by it.


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## Dave (Feb 3, 2012)

Jeffbert said:


> This series obviously borrowed heavily from LOST IN SPACE's character chemistry...
> ...a Wild Wild West episode in which James West was either shrunken or suffering an illusion & threatened by a Mexican-striped tarantula. Though I think this series was before LOTG, at the time, I thought that episode was surely inspired by it.


I'd also say it was influenced by the films _The Incredible Shrinking Man_ (which ended with man being chased by spider) and _The Fantastic Voyage_ (which featured a miniaturized spaceship.) But the idea is hardly new - _The Borrowers_, _Gulliver's Travels_ - just poor science.

If you accept that it was made for kids then that is alright, but I watched it as a kid, and as I said elsewhere, the idea that the Giants were an allegory for a totalitarian government, or even anti-communist censorship, went way over my head then. And when I watched it again more recently it just seemed silly for the same reasons Jeffbert gave.

They also could have done more to explore the back-story of some of the characters. Maybe it was told in part, but why was the boy alone, where had Fitzhugh stolen the suitcase of money, who did the executive work for. They seemed to be stuck in the same character (and the same clothes) when in reality they would have moved on once they were thrown into such a life-changing situation. And because the characters got little exposition they became these ritual stock characters. I'm probably being unfair since I think the series was hastily cancelled at short notice, which is always the way with US TV series, and as we have also become familiar with, it was shown widely out of order just to make it more confusing.


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## Metryq (Feb 3, 2012)

Dave said:


> where had Fitzhugh stolen the suitcase of money



That made me think of Barnard in _Lost Horizon_, although I'm sure there are plenty of antecedents where a group of people are thrown together and slowly revealed in the course of the story.



> the series was hastily cancelled at *short* notice



[RIMSHOT] Muscling in on Ursa's territory?


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## Jeffbert (Feb 4, 2012)

Dave said:


> and as we have also become familiar with, it was shown widely out of order just to make it more confusing.


I never even considered that it may have been shown in any but the chronological order, as I thought they made the shows weekly.

BTW, I was watching THE DELICATE TOUCH on TCM the other day, & there was a guy I knew I knew, but could not identify. He was the buyer for a stolen painting, & it irked me that I could not place his face. As is my habit, I paused viewing for a day, saw this thread, & knew it was Kurt Kasznar.


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