When we think about 1960s sci-fi TV today, we naturally tend to think about the original Star Trek. Debuting in 1966, Star Trek changed the game insofar as it became the first outer-space-oriented sci-fi TV show created for adults, that featured continuing characters. Socially and culturally, Star Trek broke new ground in many other ways, but logistically, it proved that far-out sci-fi was potentially a mainstream, primetime TV product. That said, there were other great ‘60s sci-fi shows, both right before and right after Star Trek. And now, one person behind the ‘60s nostalgia in Strange New Worlds is rebooting even more vintage sci-fi.
As reported by Deadline, Akiva Goldsman — co-creator of Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — is about to tackle remakes of three different sci-fi series, all of which were created by the late Irwin Allen. For casual sci-fi fans, Allen is probably best remembered as the creator of Lost in Space, which was a classic, campy family sci-fi series that, in some ways, was just as foundational to the genre as Star Trek, Doctor Who, or The Outer Limits. Irwin’s style is probably best remembered as bombastic and over-the-top, which was also somewhat true of three of his other 1960s sci-fi shows, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants, all of which are getting rebooted by Goldsman. (Lost in Space was, of course, very recently rebooted as a brilliant Netflix series that ran from 2018 to 2021.)
Call it the Irwin-verse, but Goldsman’s move to bring back these older sci-fi shows feels like a gamble. The Deadline report notes that “Goldsman and Legendary Television are crafting a unified vision for these stories, bringing modern sensibilities to their appeal and expanding upon his success in revitalizing the Star Trek universe.”
“Unified vision” might not be an outright shared canon, but perhaps that’s exactly what could happen here. However, the comparison to Goldsman’s work on Strange New Worlds — which is very much a 1960s reboot — feels slightly disingenuous. Arguably, the success of Strange New Worlds is very similar to the success of the 2009 Star Trek reboot: there’s mainstream crossover appeal that has little or nothing to do with nostalgia. In other words, SNW isn’t a critical darling because of its ties to the ‘60s Trek, it’s a mainstream hit in spite of those features. Yes, SNW is the rare franchise product that generally pleases the fanbase and the mainstream non-fans at the same time, but it’s that second part that’s crucial.
Meanwhile, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants have a much smaller existing fan base than Trek, and the ‘60s nostalgia is perhaps nonexistent. This means that, basically, these reboots (like Lost in Space in 2018) have to survive on their own merits.
But, here’s the good thing: All three of these shows are fantastic. While Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea began as more of a straightforward submarine show, by the third season you’ve got embodied brains from outer space. The Time Tunnel, which debuted the literal day after Star Trek in 1966, was one of the best time travel series of all time, featuring alternate timelines, and impressive paradoxes to rival Doctor Who.
And finally, Land of the Giants — all about people whose spaceship crashes in a dimension where everything is just bigger — is one of the most underrated sci-fi shows, ever. A mix of Planet of the Apes meets Mission: Impossible, the vibe of Land of the Giants was just serious enough to make you care, and just kitsch enough to be super entertaining.
If we think of all three of these shows as sci-fi fixer-uppers, the truth is, that all three have very good bones. The concepts here could work just as well today as they did six decades ago. And, unlike Goldsman’s work on Trek, there’s little to no pesky canon and timeline problems to speak of.
