Tor stumbled upon a blind hunter from another tribe. Unable to see and desperate, the hunter holds Tor against his will to help lead him back to his village. When Tor doesn't show back up, two of the family go on the hunt to find Tor.
It's written well enough (nothing remarkable, mind you), paced decently, and holds your attention just enough to stick with it. For the premiere episode of the series, it was a decent start.
A highlight is the "Planet of the Apes"-esque (film) score, composed by Hoyt Curtin. Though Curtain is credited as a musical director on it, like tons of other shows he worked on, it's little known knowledge outside of film score circles that Hoyt in fact scored all those episodes and was not merely a musical director. If it wasn't for the cheesy synthesizer sound heard in some cues, the score would be perfect for the episode. Drums, angklung, ethnic horn -- it's not your modern TV series with sound design, synth tone and drum patterns -- it's quality music. It's a shame most of Hoyt's career was spent scoring near countless cartoons, instead of more serious work. But with all those shows and many in constant rotation, he no doubt made himself a bazillionaire on just cartoons.
Capping off the episode is narration by Burgess Meredith. While Meredith is a fine actor and a pleasure to listen to, almost all his narration is redundant and not needed, and kind of out of place. I guess the studio thought the audience needed to be lead by the nose with so much quiet in the episode (he also narrates other episodes).
It's written well enough (nothing remarkable, mind you), paced decently, and holds your attention just enough to stick with it. For the premiere episode of the series, it was a decent start.
A highlight is the "Planet of the Apes"-esque (film) score, composed by Hoyt Curtin. Though Curtain is credited as a musical director on it, like tons of other shows he worked on, it's little known knowledge outside of film score circles that Hoyt in fact scored all those episodes and was not merely a musical director. If it wasn't for the cheesy synthesizer sound heard in some cues, the score would be perfect for the episode. Drums, angklung, ethnic horn -- it's not your modern TV series with sound design, synth tone and drum patterns -- it's quality music. It's a shame most of Hoyt's career was spent scoring near countless cartoons, instead of more serious work. But with all those shows and many in constant rotation, he no doubt made himself a bazillionaire on just cartoons.
Capping off the episode is narration by Burgess Meredith. While Meredith is a fine actor and a pleasure to listen to, almost all his narration is redundant and not needed, and kind of out of place. I guess the studio thought the audience needed to be lead by the nose with so much quiet in the episode (he also narrates other episodes).