RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

bard-32 A previous reviewer compared The Fantastic Journey to shows like Stargate SG-1 and Sliders. He listed 8 similarities between the shows. He should have listed a 9th. Which show, you ask? What about Lost? You have a doctor, (Fred in TFJ, Jack in Lost), a psychic, (Liana in TFJ, Desmond in Lost,) a man of faith, (Varian in TFJ, and Locke, in Lost,) see the similarities? If you don't, I do. In TFJ, you have a scientific expedition lost in the Bermuda Triangle. In Lost, you have 48 survivors from a plane crash on an island somewhere in the South Pacific. In TFJ, our little group of travelers is trying to get back to their times. In Lost, that's not so clear. Jack wants to go home in the first three seasons. Locke doesn't. When you consider the similarities between the two shows, you can't help but recognize the fact that this '70s show was an influence on Lost. J.J. Abrams and Co., say that the game Myst, was one of the influences. Did I leave someone out? I did? Well, my bad. You also have another man of science, in Jonathan Willaway. Did I leave anyone else out? I don't think so. If I did, too late to change it now.

ShadeGrenade 'The Fantastic Journey' was one of several '70's American sci-fi shows that, although not particularly successful in its home country, proved enormously popular abroad, particularly in Britain. Others included 'Planet Of The Apes', 'Logan's Run', 'The Invisible Man' and 'Gemini Man'. They were slickly produced, boasting better special effects ( and lots of flashing lights! ) than our shows. Created by Bruce Lansbury, 'Journey' was based on a most captivating premise. A scientific expedition in the Atlantic Ocean headed by Dr.Paul Jordan ( Scott Thomas ) becomes lost in the legendary Bermuda Triangle, and washes up on an uncharted island. Here past, present and future co-exist, separated by invisible barriers. Most of the group mysteriously disappeared after the pilot episode, leaving trainee doctor Fred Walters ( Carl Franklin ) and Paul's genius son Scott ( Ike Eisenmann ) to team up with Varian ( Jared Martin ), a man from the 23rd century. He carried at all times a tuning fork-like device with a variety of functions. The first episode - 'Atlantium' - brought in the lovely Katie Saylor as Liana, half-human, half-alien, who had a telepathic bond with her cat Sil-L. 'Beyond The Mountain' saw the group completed with the arrival of 'Professor Jonathan Willaway' ( Roddy McDowall ) an eccentric scientist from the '60's, who put one in mind of Jonathan Harris's 'Dr.Zachary Smith' from 'Lost In Space'. Each week, the travellers entered a new zone, and sorted out a local difficulty before moving on, all the time searching for the doorway back to their own times, known as 'Evoland'. Script consultant D.C. Fontana was best known for her work on 'Star Trek'. Joan Collins, Ian McShane, Leif Erickson, Cheryl Ladd, John Saxon, Richard Jaeckel, and Nicholas Hammond all guested. The distinctive theme tune was by Robert Prince. Including the pilot, only ten instalments were made ( the 'Funhouse' episode was not screened by B.B.C. Wales as it was deemed too scary for a Sunday afternoon slot ). We never found out if the travellers made it home or not. Producer Leonard Katzman took the production team onto his next project - the television version of 'Logan's Run'. There were two screenings on the B.B.C. - one in 1977, the other a year later - and one on the 'Bravo' satellite channel in 1994.Hardly Hugo-award winning stuff perhaps, but 'Journey' was lively and entertaining and deserving of a much longer run. It is fondly remembered as a product of a television age when characters were more important than special effects.

Alban I have seen this in reruns in the 1980's and it wasn't too bad. Let me fill you in with more of what I remember.Spoilers. Valerian (I don't remember him being "Varian") had a super crystal tuning fork that could do just about anything. But he wasn't an alien. He was from Atlantis. He was healthy, wise, handsome, took his vitamins, had a clean aura, probably a vegetarian, and he never abused that aardvark in the back yard. Your basic all-around 1970's hero guy. And the tuning fork was really an amplifier that tapped into his spiritual essence to effect change.In the Bermuda triangle, people would get sucked in from various times throughout history. I believe it was the pilot when they ran into pirates. One of them asked if Elizabeth was still Queen of England. Clearly, they meant a previous Elizabeth. They answered yes, which only prolonged their delay in realizing they were in a time vortex.Roddy McDowall was a late-comer, probably to boost sagging ratings. He was from the future but I don't remember from when exactly. I think it was the 2100's.It turned out there were some bad guys running the island from a shiny silver cylindrical tower that looks remarkably like one of the buildings in downtown Los Angeles. They were agents working either for or with "The Source". Valerian defeated The Source, leaving the show with no direction at all. They quickly slapped together a new threat – "The Power". It some kind of artifact gun. The reruns didn't get that far in the 80's so my memory gets hit and miss at that point. I remember them beating The Power also. I think they knew the clock was running out so they were kind enough not to leave the audience hanging.It was a bit simplistic at times, and some of the plots were a bit too obvious, but it was good clean escapist fun. There was a family on the island with Valerian so it was easy enough to identify with someone and pretend you were there also on a wild adventure. I would watch it again if it was on at a convenient hour.

zillabob THE FANTASTIC JOURNEY found some after-life as an edited and syndicated TV film called LOST IN TIME,dated (1980). I saw this once, on a UHF channel in the early to mid-90's on a Sunday afternoon. What they did was edit the first 90 minute pilot, and second hour long show into something like an hour and 45 minute movie to play in two-hour time slots in syndication and thus have a complete movie. It also had a narration of sort at the end, as the group walked off to the usual "time zone" beam-out effect, and as I recall that said something like "And so their quest to find their rightful place in time, is just beginning" or something like that. It was a terrific show in it's day and for the fact we had almost no SF shows at all on TV aside from the re-runs of STAR TREK and SPACE:1999.