Imagine the 23rd century. The world has been decimated by nuclear war and the survivors have been forced to live in a domed city (coincidentally called the City of Domes) where they are only allowed to live until the age of thirty. At that age, they are exterminated in a ceremony known as Carousel. However, there are some who refuse to be exterminated. These rebels are known as Runners and are subsequently hunted down and killed by Sandmen. One Sandman though, a man called Logan, is beginning to question this barbaric system. He has heard of a better place, far beyond the City of Domes, a place called Sanctuary where people can live in freedom. Soon, this former Sandman becomes a Runner himself, alongside a woman, Jessica, and a humanoid android, Rem, and together they escape the City of Domes and embark on a quest to find this Sanctuary and escape the clutches of the Sandmen who pursue them.
Such is the premise of this 1977-78 TV series, which is actually a spin-off of a 1976 movie of the same name, which starred Michael York as Logan. This series follows basically the same plot, only each episode is an adventure that the main characters have in between their escape from the City and the ending of their quest… although the series ends before it can really come to the same conclusion as the film did. As such, Logan’s Run definitely looks and feels dated. The special effects are definitely substandard, even for that time period, and the stories of each episode, while creative, suffer from poor screen-writing.
The three main actors are actually fairly good, considering what they usually have to work with. Gregory Harrison comes across the best as Logan and Donald Moffat, while seeming very much as a “human playing a robot” as well as, say, Brent Spiner in Star Trek did, is certainly fun comic relief as Rem. Heather Menzies, best known as the third oldest Von Trapp child, Louisa, in The Sound of Music, is beautiful as Jessica, although she is given little else to do. All other guest stars are good to mediocre (curiously, Angela Cartwright, who was Louisa Von Trapp, guest stars in the second episode).
However, even good actors need good screen-writing and stories to work with. While the first, ninety-minute long, pilot episode is certainly the strongest, feeling the most like an actual movie, albeit one without an end, the rest of the series eventually fizzles out. So, in conclusion, Logan’s Run is a relatively harmless and reasonably fun and inventive series from the past, but not one that is particularly well-made or memorable.
