LOGAN'S RUN

   1) Film (1976). MGM/United Artists. Dir Michael Anderson, starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Peter Ustinov, Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Screenplay David Zelag Goodman, based on Logan's Run (1967) by William F. NOLAN and George Clayton JOHNSON. 118 Mins. Colour.

   One of the largest, most "prestigious" sf films of the decade, this was also one of the most sluggish, reducing its lively source, Nolan's and Johnson's novel, to a bland affair whose lavishness is all decoration, nosubstance. Set in a domed city where no one is allowed to pass their 30th birthday - official killers, "Sandmen", disposing of those who refuse their ritual suicide - the film concerns a renegade Sandman and his girlfriend, who attempt to reach the legendary "Sanctuary" outside. But Sanctuary does not exist; instead they find a mildewed Washington DC,inhabited by the only living old man. They decide that old age is a good thing and return to the dome to spread the news. During interrogation, the reformed Sandman confuses the city COMPUTER to the point where it blows itself up, along with the city.LR's youth autocracy exists in a conceptual vacuum and is riddled with contradiction, and the film's attack on its sterile UTOPIA is - typically of much patronizing sf cinema of the period - simplistic to the point of banality. There are livelier film versions ofthe theme, one being GAS-S-S-S (1970).

   2) US tv series (1977-8), based on the film. An MGM TV Production for CBS. Prod Ben Roberts, Ivan Goff. Executive prod Leonard Katzman. Story editor D.C. FONTANA. Writersincluded Fontana, Saul David, Harlan ELLISON. Dirs included Paul Krasny, Curtis Harrington. 1 season, 75min pilot plus 13 50min episodes.Colour.

   The two men who created and produced the popular crime-busting programme Charlie's Angels - both admitted they knew nothing about sf - made this short-lived tv series designed to exploit the film. For budgetary reasons the series was set outside the film's domed city. It concerns the adventures of Logan (Gregory Harrison), Jessica (Heather Menzies) and Rem (Donald Moffat), the latter - a comic ANDROID withnonbiological components - having been hastily introduced to exploit the popularity of the two ROBOTS in STAR WARS (1977). These three characters search for Sanctuary while pursued by deadly Sandmen from the city, moving from one DYSTOPIAN situation to another, all this portrayed at the level of comic-book stereotype.

   JB/PN