Underwater man out of his depth

Press, 4 March 1978, Page 13

Underwater man out of his depth

By

KEN COATES

We are being conned. For South Pacific Television to dish up nearly two hours of a mediocre and boring American programme which Popped in the United States two years ago is nothing short of irresponsible. “Man from Atlantis" is built around a single idea — that it is possible for a citizen of an extinct underwater world to exist, and except for gill-like tissue and webbed fingers, look and think like a human. The first episode, on Thursday, followed the familiar pattern of a science-fiction pot-boiler — discovery of a mad

master mind bent on destoying the world and wild explosions which wreck a secret world of superior beings. But once viewers get used to the idea of the hero, played by Patrick Duffy, humping along underwater like an ungainly sea-lion, it all became rather boring. And if you wondered about the strange look in his eyes —it is because he wears specially fitted, g r e e n-painted contact lenses for land scenes, and large lenses which fit over the entire eye, underwater. The long episode was regularly interrupted by commercials — expected certainly, but not to the disruptive extent of every five minutes or so.

The programme was overlaid with the sicklysweet implications of the comely Navy doctor’s growing attachment for the handsome underwater man.

Even in science-fiction terms, the ease with which “Mark Harris” started talking English, clearly and with no difficulty, taxed one’s powers of acceptance. The producer of “Man from Atlantis” is Herb Solow, who also produced “Mission Impossible” and “Star Trek.”

At times the new programme could have been either. No viewer could argue with the channels’ policy of buying American shows, but need we settle for the mediocre pap which does not even achieve consistently high ratings in the country of origin?