A story about great men that would come to redefine our civilisation. An event whose impact would reach the "ends of the world and the great outer sea". A cultural revolution had started that would mark the beginning of an epoch. None of these statements describes this made for TV pilot movie, which is a rather turgid retelling of the Battle of Issus with William Shatner in the title role and Adam West playing Robin to his Alexander. The script is horrible, the acting is wooden and thank god this pilot was never picked up. Three years later Shatner and West were free to be cast in their iconic roles and history was made.

A very blonde William Shatner commands attention as Greek emperor Alexander who ruled the world after conquering the Persians who had taken over from the Babylonians who had taken over from the Egyptians. Of course, the Greek empire would be taken over by the Romans, continuing a trend that continued until the establishment of the European continent and multiple countries governed by themselves, not just one world leader. This is of course only one part of Alexander's life, dealing with dissent in his ranks, lead by John Cassavettes. Alexander's right hand man is none other than Batman's Adam West. This appears to have been quickly rushed together, as well as greatly edited. Shatner is commanding, but he is defeated by a rather generic production with little research done outside of an encyclopedia.

In his autobiography, Adam West stated, "May well be the worst hour of TV in history" regarding this pilot for a proposed TV series that he co-stared in. Is it THAT bad? Of course not - I've seen worse pilots and worse TV series. That's not to say that this is a GOOD pilot, however. I will say that it doesn't look bad - some time and expense was put into making or getting a hold of period costumes and props, though it does look some battle footage was taken from a theatrical movie. And there is some amusement from Shatner's sometimes hammy performance as the title figure, and that this great leader is sometimes portrayed as a kind of adolescent goofball. But that is all that is entertaining about this pilot. It's a real dull affair for the most part, with a lot of stiff and dry dialogue. The pilot also fails to provide enough explanation for viewers who know little to nothing about Alexander the Great and his military campaign, so as a result there are some confusing parts. If you do want to watch this pilot despite what I've said, it can be found on the Mill Creek DVD company's 50 movie pack "The Sensational Sixties", which managed to uncover a decent-looking print for this now public domain production.

If I remember correctly, I only saw this flick once, and that was many years ago. Therefore I don't remember much about it except that it was so bad, it was hilarious. First of all was William Shatner in his usual hammy, overacting mode (did he have any other?). As a horse lover, I could not help but notice that Alexander's famous horse, Bucephalus, was played by an American Saddle Horse, which breed was not developed for many centuries after Alexander's time. However, I must recommend "Alexander the Great" mainly because it contains probably my favorite line in motion picture history. Alexander says of Bucephalus, "Did I not tell you that among horses he too is a God?" This stinker is worth seeing for that alone!