It's Election Day, so for God's sake, get out there and vote. If we don't take charge of the future, it could turn out to be as bleak as depicted in Ark II, the cheeseball mid-seventies kiddie sci-fi show that's out today on DVD.
Yes, if we don't act now, the world will be devastated by pollution and nuclear war, and by the twenty-fifth century, the entire landscape of the continental U.S. will look suspiciously like Bronson Canyon, and the same rocks and bedraggled trees will reappear no matter where you go.
There'll be bands of survivors, sure--and people will be so desperate for a leader they might actually fall under the Fagin-like spell of Jonathan Harris, who essentially recreates his mincing Dr. Smith character from Lost In Space (another futuristic vision that we can't afford to come true--Vote, People!) in two episodes. Plus Robby The Robot might show up, acting confused, probably because he's stuck with a different head than he had in Forbidden Planet.
If--God forbid--these shadows come to pass, can anyone save us? But of course--the plucky denizens of the titular Ark II are there, and in typical mellow seventies style, they care. There's Jonah, our leader, who has a beard and flies around in a goofy-looking jet pack and, um...well, that's about it for distinctive personality traits. And there's Ruth, who's Asian and sort of hot, in a seventies way. And Adam, a Latino kid, who's job is to provide youthful ethnicity. Plus, of course, Adam, a talking chimp. Oh, and there's the Ark II itself, which is a big RV (but, you know, futuristic) that's stuffed full of the twinkling lights and clunky keyboards that in bad seventies sci-fi shows were used to represent computers.
Things happen on this show, though I watched it every week as a kid, and I can't remember a single storyline. Mostly I just remember watching it hoping that maybe someting would blow up, maybe there'd be monsters, maybe something at least resembling an action sequence would erupt, or somebody'd do something, anything, interesting. But no, it was always just vague conflict easily resolved with a few homilies and good vibes of our heroes.
Again, I can't stress enough, that this could be the future--blandly shot, overly familiar SoCal settings, and the most benevolent presence will be a flying surfer dude. Save us from this horrible fate--Vote!
