Land of the Giants
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Land of the Giants
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| Episodes: | 51 |
| Year: | 1968-1970 |
| Country: | United States |
| Seasons: | 2 |
| Seasons Breakdown: | (1) 26, (25). |
| Category: | Dimensions |
| Colour: | Yes |
| Format: | Series |
| Company: | Irwin Allen Productions in association with Kent Productions Inc. and 20th Century-Fox Television |
| Creator: | Irwin Allen |
| Run Time (mins): | 60 |
| Language: | English |
| Type of Show: | Live Action |
| Status: | Ended |
| Broadcaster: | ABC |
Summary
Set in 1983, projected at the time of production as fifteen years in the future, the narrative follows the passenger spacecraft Spindrift, which disappears during a suborbital flight from Los Angeles to London. While passing beyond Earth’s atmospheric boundary, the vessel is drawn into a dimension lock and crash‑lands on a planet closely resembling Earth, with the singular distinction that all physical scale is magnified twelvefold. The Spindrift comes to rest in woodland outside a major city inhabited by a humanoid species known to the Earth travellers as the Giants.
Physiologically identical to humans aside from their size, the Giants maintain a society broadly analogous to that of the United States in the 1960s. Their civilisation includes a police force, private medical institutions, prisons, a gubernatorial system, broadcast media, zoological parks, jazz venues and racetracks. They speak English, employ a mixture of alien and Earth‑derived personal names, drive American‑style automobiles, attend vaudeville‑influenced theatres and engage in games such as chess. Despite these familiar cultural markers, the Giants live under an authoritarian political structure that permits personal and economic freedoms while suppressing attempts at systemic reform. Conditions on other continents remain uncertain, though at least one foreign territory is ruled by a despot. Official guidance warns maritime travellers not to venture beyond coastal waters, asserting that regions across the sea remain unexplored, whether this is factual or a state‑imposed restriction is unclear.
The Giants possess prior knowledge of Earth and its “little people,” owing to earlier accidental arrivals of human spacecraft. Their technological development surpasses mid‑20th‑century Earth in several fields, including cloning, cybernetics, force‑field engineering, magnetic stun weaponry, android construction and teleportation. In other areas, however, they lag behind, lacking microelectronics, hearing‑aid technology and crewed spaceflight. Consequently, the stranded Earth travellers cannot readily exploit Giant technology to return to the dimension lock, while the Giants themselves are unable to study humans except by capturing those who become marooned on their world.
Cast
Steve Burton GRAY CONWAY, Dan Erickson DON MARSHALL, Betty Hamilton HEATHER YOUNG, Mark Wilson DON MATHESON, Alexander Fitzhugh KURT KASZNAR, Valerie Scott DEANNA LUND, Barry Lockbridge STEFAN ARNGRIM, Insp. Kobick KEVIN HAGEN.
Tags: Dimensions, United States, 1968, English
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