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''Land of the Giants'' is an hour-long American science fiction television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968, and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. ''Land of the Giants'' was the fourth of Allen's science fiction TV series. The show was aired on ABC and released by 20th Century Fox Television. The series was filmed entirely in color and ran for 51 episodes. The show starred Gary Conway and Don Marshall. Author Murray Leinster also wrote three novels in 1968 and 1969 based on the television series. == Show premise == Set in the then-future year of 1983, the series tells the tale of the crew and passengers of a sub-orbital transport spaceship called the ''Spindrift''. In the pilot episode, the ''Spindrift'' is en route from Los Angeles to London via the ultra-fast route of a parabolic trajectory. Just beyond Earth's boundary with space, the ''Spindrift'' encounters a strange space storm and is transported to a mysterious planet where everything is twelve times larger than its counterpart on Earth. The ''Spindrift'' crew call the inhabitants "the giants". The ''Spindrift'' crashes on this planet and becomes inoperable. Very little is known about the home planet of the Giants. This is partially because the ''Spindrift'' crew very seldom leaves the "City of the Giants" where their spaceship crashed in the pilot. Only two other giant unidentified societies are ever seen, in the episodes "The Land of the Lost" and "Secret City of Limbo". No name has ever even been established for the mysterious planet, but the inhabitants seem to know of Earth, Venus and Mars, referring to them by name in one episode. Exactly where the planet is located is also never made clear. In the episode "On a Clear Night You Can See Earth", the character Captain Steve Burton (Gary Conway) claims to have seen Earth through a set of infrared goggles invented by the giants, implying that the two worlds are indeed different but near enough to be able to see one from the other. Whether he is telling the truth is unclear. The only established method by which Earth people may reach the planet is some sort of high-altitude spacecraft, passing through what one giant calls a "dimension lock". It is not entirely clear what the term dimension lock means. Although several episodes show that at least six other flights have landed on the planet, no episode shows anyone ever successfully returned to Earth. The first mention of other visitors from Earth was in episode 2 ("Ghost Town"), where another ship was described as crashing long ago without any survivors. In episode 4 ("Underground") another Earth ship is described as crashing three years prior with no survivors. Several episodes show crews surviving the initial crash, only to be killed later. The episode "Brainwash" has a crew of little people surviving long enough to build a radio station that can communicate with Earth. They are killed shortly thereafter. The episodes "Golden Cage" and "The Lost Ones" show there have been a few survivors of other crashes. Only the Spindrift crew seems to have survived long term, with its party intact. One continent or hemisphere is wholly dominated by an authoritarian government (or more precisely, like America at the height of 1950's McCarthyism) which, however, tolerates broad freedoms for a capitalist system. It simply does not tolerate any effort to effect political change. Exactly what the political situation is on other continents is not known, although at least one overseas land has a despotic ruler. The Air Traffic Control will tell those who venture far out to sea that they should turn back, that nothing beyond that sea has been explored nor is there current contact; whether this is an official government line or the truth is not known. Culturally, the society resembles in some respects that of 1960s United States of America, The Earth people find themselves able to cope at a cultural level. Their efforts to get around are facilitated by the ubiquity of large drains directly from interior rooms to the pavement level at an outside wall of most buildings. The giant government has offered a reward for the capture of the tiny Earth people. In spite of the authoritarianism, there are several dissident movements at work that either help other dissenters (such as the Earth people) or are actively working to unseat the ruling party. The government has established the SID, Special Investigations Department, to deal with assorted dissidence, but it also has taken the lead in dealing with the Earth people. The technology largely resembles Mid-20th century Earth, though significantly more advanced in other respects (e.g. cloning, force fields, androids and teleporters) and slightly behind in others (does not have microelectronics, hearing aids or manned space flight). The Earth people's objectives are: (1) survival, by obtaining food and by avoiding capture by the native people or menace from small animals like cats and dogs; (2) repair of their spacecraft so they may take off and attempt a return to Earth. They largely manage survival with the help of sympathizers and the stealth of their small size, and ingenuity using the Earth's technology. They do not achieve the second objective, however, since the primary systems of their craft are heavily damaged. The secondary systems are insufficient to allow take-off and the sub-orbital flight required. They are unable to successfully integrate the native technology as it is bulky and less advanced; in one episode, an experimental nuclear reactor provided by an engineering student produces dangerous side effects and is prone to overload. They also cannot trust the giants who might be able to offer the Earth people a ride home in exchange for technical assistance. They are aided in the first goal, and at least somewhat hindered in the second, by the leadership of Captain Steve Burton. He behaves as leader, protector to the passengers and crew and his leadership has rescued them from a number of difficulties. Captain Burton also tries to keep the giants from ever reaching Earth. In the episode "Brainwash", giant police officer Ashim (Warren Stevens) says "Maybe we can find the home planet of these little people. It may be a very tiny planet, but rich beyond our dreams." In several episodes Steve puts keeping the giants away from Earth above the need to get his people home. At the end of those episodes, he destroys devices that would get the ''Spindrift'' back to Earth, but would probably also enable the giants to journey there as well. Episodes often have the plot of giants capturing one of the passengers or crew with the rest having to rescue him or her. The Earth people avoid capture most of the time because their spaceship is hidden in a forest outside the city. They also occasionally form alliances with individual giants to achieve some commonly beneficial purpose. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Land of the Giants」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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