I was just out of kindergarten when this was originally broadcast, but someone at my house taped it, and I remember watching it over and over again before the tape was erased. I think this movie must have inspired my long-running interest in science fiction - it had a very strong impression on me when I was young. It had much of the spirit of the novels written by Robert A. Heinlein in the 1950s, which were tight, inspiring futuristic stories about young adults and their adventures in space travel. Like those novels, the future described in this film didn't seem like pulp; it was highly believable. Additionally, this movie has a quality long absent from science fiction: a respect for real scientists and engineers. Unknown to many people, the literary origins of science fiction were attempts to interest young people in science/engineering fields through the medium of fiction. As I read just yesterday, the government is funding a project to promote the sciences in Hollywood films in order to recruit young people to a quickly-dwindling field. Maybe they should re-release "Earth Star Voyager?!"
For years, this was in the back of my head, but I just assumed it a completely lost and forgotten TV film until I found bits and pieces of info. about it recently online. I finally found a bootleg of it on ebay from an original video someone had taped back in '88 and decided to relive a part of my childhood. The result: it holds up surprisingly well 17 years later.
Reading all the reviews here of people with fond memories of this now-forgotten gem, I realize that the central quality of the movie was its writing and characterizations. The writing especially: as I watched it again, I found myself remembering immediately many lines from this movie which I hadn't heard for years - they were that good. I have long maintained that solid writing and strong characters are the keys to great film-making; special effects and other things are important, too, but these two key ingredients were present here, and that is why I believe people remember this so well almost two decades later. The special effects do hold up rather well - probably because they were the work of Hollywood effects veteran Robert Edlund. Also, film composer Lalo Schifrin contributed what, in my opinion, is his best musical score.
In fact, doing some research on IMDb.com, I discovered that the director of this was a seasoned veteran of television going all the way back to "Rawhide" in the 1950s, "The Fugitive", and even a few classic episodes of "Star Trek." The writer was the creator of the TV series "Kung Fu." Obiously, some top-notch talent was involved. It's a shame that none of the actors or actresses went on to significant accomplishments beyond forgettable TV and B-movies - except for Henry Kingi, who played the Borg-like Shell. He is a popular Hollywood stuntman to this day in such films as "Constantine" and "The Matrix Reloaded," and he did display a true presence in ESV.
The creativity at work here was definitely on a par with the original "Star Trek" series - another work which had dozens of visionary ideas in addition to memorable characterizations. "Star Trek" eventually got resurrected times ten, and I think Disney is long overdue in releasing this on DVD in the U.S. (which it never did on VHS, either). It seems to me that a great deal more work went into this than the typical forgettable TV pilot (Disney CEO Michael Eisner even appeared in two television introductions on the set), and yet somehow Disney/Buena Vista just abandoned this. I personally emailed the company requesting a release, and received a reply stating that they are taking it into consideration. Hopefully, this has gotten the ball rolling.
For years, this was in the back of my head, but I just assumed it a completely lost and forgotten TV film until I found bits and pieces of info. about it recently online. I finally found a bootleg of it on ebay from an original video someone had taped back in '88 and decided to relive a part of my childhood. The result: it holds up surprisingly well 17 years later.
Reading all the reviews here of people with fond memories of this now-forgotten gem, I realize that the central quality of the movie was its writing and characterizations. The writing especially: as I watched it again, I found myself remembering immediately many lines from this movie which I hadn't heard for years - they were that good. I have long maintained that solid writing and strong characters are the keys to great film-making; special effects and other things are important, too, but these two key ingredients were present here, and that is why I believe people remember this so well almost two decades later. The special effects do hold up rather well - probably because they were the work of Hollywood effects veteran Robert Edlund. Also, film composer Lalo Schifrin contributed what, in my opinion, is his best musical score.
In fact, doing some research on IMDb.com, I discovered that the director of this was a seasoned veteran of television going all the way back to "Rawhide" in the 1950s, "The Fugitive", and even a few classic episodes of "Star Trek." The writer was the creator of the TV series "Kung Fu." Obiously, some top-notch talent was involved. It's a shame that none of the actors or actresses went on to significant accomplishments beyond forgettable TV and B-movies - except for Henry Kingi, who played the Borg-like Shell. He is a popular Hollywood stuntman to this day in such films as "Constantine" and "The Matrix Reloaded," and he did display a true presence in ESV.
The creativity at work here was definitely on a par with the original "Star Trek" series - another work which had dozens of visionary ideas in addition to memorable characterizations. "Star Trek" eventually got resurrected times ten, and I think Disney is long overdue in releasing this on DVD in the U.S. (which it never did on VHS, either). It seems to me that a great deal more work went into this than the typical forgettable TV pilot (Disney CEO Michael Eisner even appeared in two television introductions on the set), and yet somehow Disney/Buena Vista just abandoned this. I personally emailed the company requesting a release, and received a reply stating that they are taking it into consideration. Hopefully, this has gotten the ball rolling.