This series, which capitalized on the interest in UFOs in the 1970's explored the idea that aliens visited Earth in the early days of human civilization. Bennu (Scott) is found alive in a casket at an archeological dig in Peru. It's discovered that he is an alien being from the planet Eldebran and he possesses special powers of telekinesis, levitation, astral projection and clairvoyance. His goal is to locate his companion Mira, another alien also somewhere on Earth. He has a nemesis from Eldebran, Yago, who also has powers and a human nemesis who thinks he's a fake and a con man. Only the pilot and four episodes were shot and aired, not enough of the story was produced for Bennu to find Mira.
This rare series fused the mystical and scientific in a distinctly new age way that was very much of its era. It was somewhat ahead of its time as entertainment goes, however, and didn't survive the ratings crunch. There's never been a commercial release DVD of the series, though you can find unauthorized copies if you look. Above is the show open, uploaded to YouTube by fschalk.
Obscurity factor: 10 (almost totally forgotten, not on DVD, hard to find)
The O.F. description sounded very interesting ... I was wondering, "How did I miss something like this? It sounds interesting." Then I watched the trailer and thought, "I bet that clip looked as low-end as it does now."
ReplyDeleteWell, it was 1982 - expectations for television sci-fi weren't as high as they are now...
ReplyDeleteVisually speaking the modern audience has become wholly spoiled by CGI. This was a more simple time when imaginative interpretations could be more...imaginative!
ReplyDeleteThere was an episode that was never aired called Star Needle. For the times, this was an excellent series. One of the main reasons, I was told, that it went off air was because of the writers strike.
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