New on DVD: Salvage 1, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary and More

Salvage 1: The Golden Orbit and Hard Water

Way back in 1979, this odd little series showed up on television about a salvage man named Harry Broderick (played by Andy Griffith) who gets the crazy idea of building his own spaceship and flying it to the moon to salvage the gear that the Apollo missions left behind (moon buggies, etc.) which is worth millions. And in the pilot episode of the series, he actually does it with the help of former astronaut Skip Carmichael and NASA fuel expert Mel Slozar. Then in subsequent episodes, this team went on wild adventures across the world salvaging crazier and crazier items. It wasn’t quite classic sci fi, but it was a fun and whimsical little show that completely fell off the radar after its short, two-season run. Warner Archives is finally giving the series the DVD treatment, though oddly enough they are currently only offering two of the two-part episodes the showed aired but not the pilot that introduced the series. In the episode “The Golden Orbit”, Skip is called back into service by NASA and sent into space, but Harry must come to his rescue when his mission runs into trouble (note that the synopsis given for the DVD is actually for the pilot episode which would make things that much more confusing for anybody who orders it). In “Hard Water”, Harry and the others (along with an annoyingly cute kid now along for the ride) tow an iceberg to a drought-stricken area. These should provide a blast-from-the-past for fans of the show and also introduce the curious to this series, but it would have been nice if they had included the pilot among the DVD offerings. Maybe that is on the way with a complete series set as well. In the mean time, these should provide some good cheesy fun for those who like their 70’s sci fi on the absurd side.