User Reviews

There are certain sci-fi series, short-lived as they are, that are able to live on past their expiration date due to specific factors that endear them to a passionate cult audience. Logan's Run, The Series (like Firefly), I believe, has endured because of the fun premise and solid storytelling. I think that "Crypt" benefits from the complexities of the decision, not welcome but thrust upon them, of who lives and dies among a group of special scientists cryogenically frozen and now awakened from their slumber, on Logan, Jessica, and Rem. They pass through a desolate, but still standing, city, finding an installation with an underground room containing scientists, selected based on exemplary achievements, genius, and profit to a world after thermonuclear war by a computer (this, in itself, also examines how a machine, determining who should live and die, can be an imperfect tool to separate the importance of which person deserves to benefit from their potential contribution to a world rising out of the ashes of mankind's inability to get along). A metal box with two flasks containing a serum that will cure a plague coursing through the bodies of all six scientists is damaged by a piece of rocky ceiling after a small earthquake. One of the flasks is destroyed meaning that only three scientists will be spared of the plague. The decision on who lives and who dies fall on Logan and Jessica (the group do not want a "machine" determining which among them lives, much to the three's chagrin; in a funny scene afterward, we see that Rem is "offended" by their demand that he not participate in the choosing process). The rest of the film follows Logan, Jessica, and Rem as they try to come to terms with who should receive the serum. Meanwhile, one among them is not only an impostor, but a killer, as two scientists are murdered. The story gets Sherlock Holmesian when Rem investigates the first murder, that at first appears to be an accident regarding a machine falling on the administrator, selected based on his bureaucratic skills, and then views personal logs that someone used the computer, possibly a technician with motive and opportunity, to become a member of the selected six. I think this episode just proves that some show deserve a longer shelf life than given, but at least we have a season's worth of great adventures and characters to spend time with. Gregory Harrison, Heather Menzies, and Donald Moffit were a fun trio, each contributing in performance how difficult and complicating it can be during their travels across a land once ravaged by war and devastation. The scientists include a medical doctor, one gifted with telekinesis, a "builder of cities", a genius in robotics, and the aforementioned administrator. One character, quite a beauty, stands out as the possible impostor just based on lack of information in what her special skills are. The cocksure and cynical Dr. Pera is portrayed by horror icon, Dee Wallace's husband Christopher Stone (the two met on The Howling just a few years later). The debate on the value of life and the agonizing position on determining a person's worth when compared to others just as deserved to life is what I feel makes for rock solid storytelling. I hope now that this show has a DVD release, newcomers will embrace Logan's Run and see why I have loved this since watching it on Ted Turner's TNT as a kid.

Logan, Jessica and Rem discover six people held in suspended animation in an underground vault. They are there because each possesses the knowledge and abilities to rebuild a post-atomic holocaust world. Unfortunately, they have a terrible disease that can only be cured by vaccine from two phials. En route to the vault, Logan and his friends experience an earthquake and one of the phials is accidentally smashed, leaving enough vaccine for only three people. But which three? One of the revived six thinks it should be him/her - and begins killing the others...

Interesting sci-fi variant on Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' ( alright, that wasn't the name of the book, but I'm not brave enough to write it ), based on a story by Harlan Ellison, though the script is credited to Al Hayes. Rem turns detective, and the only thing he lacks is a deerstalker and meerschaum pipe. Logan seems rather sidelined for the most of the episode, he doesn't even get to carry Jessica when she is wounded. One of the great things about viewing this series in the 21st century is being able to freeze the picture whenever Jessica's underwear comes into view, a pleasure denied to 1977 viewers.

Anyway, frippery aside, its a good little episode, though no 'The City On The Edge Of Forever' or 'Demon With A Glass Hand'. The late Christopher Stone does a nice line in red herrings.