Ah, you seek ‘Planet Of The Apes’

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Feb 081968

Planet Of The Apes

Premiered on February 8th, 1968
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Movies, Planet Of The Apes

Planet Of The ApesA crew of four American astronauts, launched in 1972, is en route back to Earth after a deep space exploration mission. Thanks to hibernation and the time-dilation effect of the ship approaching light speed, the astronauts fully expect 700 years to have passed on Earth by the time they return – everyone who was originally associated with the mission will have died long ago by their return. Expedition commander George Taylor is the last to put himself into hibernation for the voyage home, but when he awakens, the ship’s return has gone disastrously wrong. The ship has crash-landed in water, and at some point a breach in a hibernation unit caused the death of Dr. Stewart, the only female member of the crew. With fellow crewmembers Dodge and Landon, Taylor abandons ship; each man has only a backpack of tools and supplies, and the spacesuit on his back, as the three survivors set out to explore whatever planet they’ve landed on. Before bailing out of the ship, however, Taylor takes note of the chronometer: instead of returning to Earth in a few centuries, the astronauts have arrived on an unknown world two millennia later.

The three escape aboard an inflatable life raft and row their way to dry land, finding an arid desert with few signs of plant life. Eventually they cross into a jungle region and find signs of intelligent life, eventually stumbling across a group of primitive humans. But the astronauts are stunned when the humans scatter at the sound of approaching hooves: apes, riding on horseback, clothed and armed, are hunting the humans. Taylor and his crewmates are captured in the brutal hunt, with Dodge taking a fatal shot from an ape’s rifle and Taylor suffering a glancing blow to his throat which robs him of his voice.

Taylor finds himself caged and treated like an animal, in a facility where several of the primitive humans are kept in captivity. Unable to speak, he’s treated no better than any of the barely-civilized humans in the other cages. Dr. Zira, an ape animal behavior expert, is fascinated by Taylor, nicknaming him “Bright Eyes” and closely watching his attempts to communicate with her. She’s unable to convince her superior, Dr. Zaius, of the value of her continued attempts to communicate with the new arrival. She discovers that he can write, and she and her fiancee, an ape archaeologist named Cornelius, learn of his true origins, though they find his story implausible. Taylor decides to make a break for it, escaping from his cell and trying to find his crew. He does find Dodge – stuffed and cleaned up to serve as part of a museum exhibit about primitive humans. The apes catch up with Taylor just as he recovers his ability to speak, rocking every belief the apes hold about the humans they enslave.

A hearing is called in which Dr. Zaius and other elders of the apes’ society not only demand to know more about Taylor, but call Zira and Cornelius to account for the time they’ve spent with him. But since Taylor’s very existence contradicts both the science and the religious beliefs of the apes, he is sentenced to die regardless of what he says to them. Zira and Cornelius quietly break Taylor out of his cell that night to make an escape, but he refuses to leave without a primitive human woman he called Nova, who he has befriended. The two ape scientists are now on the run as well, facing charges of heresy, so they venture with Taylor back to his ship’s landing site, in the desert area the apes know as the Forbidden Zone, where Cornelius once took part in an archaeological dig.

But Dr. Zaius and a group of ape soldiers follow the fugitives. Taylor manages to stave off the imminent hostilities long enough to discover that Cornelius uncovered evidence that the humans on this world were once far more advanced and civilized. Though this contradicts the apes’ belief that they have always been the superior beings by divine birthright, Zaius begrudgingly admits that he has known of this evidence all along. Taylor bargains for his freedom and takes Nova with him to explore further in the Forbidden Zone, and much to everyone’s surprise, Zaius grants him that freedom, knowing that Taylor will soon realize that he’s closer to home than he dared to imagine.

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling
based on the novel by Pierre Boulle
directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
music by Jerry Goldsmith

Cast: Charlton Heston (George Taylor), Roddy McDowall (Cornelius), Kim Hunter (Zira), Maurice Evans (Dr. Zaius), James Whitmore (President of the Assembly), James Daly (Honorious), Linda Harrison (Nova), Robert Gunner (Landon), Lou Wagner (Lucius), Woodrow Parfrey (Maximus), Jeff Burton (Dodge), Buck Kartalian (Julius), Norman Burton (Hunt Leader), Wright King (Dr. Galen), Paul Lambert (Minister)

Notes: Rod Serling, who wrote the first draft of the screenplay in 1964 (and is also famous for creating the influential SF anthology series The Twilight Zone), also contributed ideas to the ultimately short-lived early ’70s television spinoff of the Apes movies. Pierre Boulle, the French author whose 1963 novel formed the basis of the movie, wrote another draft of the screenplay that went unused.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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May 261970

Beneath The Planet Of The Apes

Premiered on May 26th, 1970
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Movies, Planet Of The Apes

Planet Of The ApesTaylor and Nova explore further into the Forbidden Zone, beyond the ruins of the Statue of Liberty, where a gigantic wall of fire stretches across the horizon and sudden earthquakes rip through the ground at their feet. Taylor goes to explore onward, telling Nova to find Dr. Zira if he fails to return. Taylor is unaware that another expedition has been launched to find his missing ship and crew, and that disaster has befallen them as well: astronaut Brent and his crew are sucked into the same time anomaly and arrive on the future Earth. Brent survives the violent landing and discovers Nova roaming on her own, following her back into ape territory. There, he witnesses not only the evolutionary advancements of the apes, but an all-too-familiar sight: the apes are divided over whether to strike into the heart of the Forbidden Zone, or face a famine that threatens their food crops. General Ursus calls for war, and demands support from Dr. Zaius. The scientific elite – mainly evolved chimpanzees – are concerned about the rallying cry for war, while the gorilla military considers calls for peace to be a sign of weakness. Dr. Zaius is cautious: nobody even knows what’s in the Forbidden Zone, or indeed if there’s anything or anyone upon which to declare war. Despite his earlier mistrust of Dr. Zira and Cornelius, Zaius leaves them in charge and reluctantly joins the military advance into the Forbidden Zone.

Brent, still trying to fulfill his mission objective of finding Taylor’s expedition, flees from ape country into the Forbidden Zone. They find a subterranean complex there, filled with the sound of machinery: obviously the product of some kind of intelligent life. While Brent is relieved to finally meet (apparently) human beings underground, he’s horrified by what they tell him: they worship their god – an atomic bomb that survived the Earth-consuming holocaust intact – and they’re not afraid to unleash their god’s fury upon an invading force of apes, even if it leads to a chain reaction that could wipe out the entire world. The final revelation is even more disturbing: despite their outward appearance, these humans have been mutated almost beyond recognition. They throw Brent in a cell with Taylor, but the reunion is anything but a happy one: in order to take out both the apes and the mutants, Taylor is more than ready to detonate the holy bomb himself…

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Paul Dehn
story by Paul Dehn and Mort Abrahams
directed by Ted Post
music by Laurence Rosenthal

Cast: James Franciscus (Brent), Kim Hunter (Zira), Maurice Evans (Dr. Zaius), Linda Harrison (Nova), Paul Richards (Mendez), Victor Buono (Fat Man), James Gregory (General Ursus), Jeff Corey (Caspay), Natalie Trundy (Albina), Thomas Gomez (Minister), David Watson (Cornelius), Don Pedro Colley (Negro), Tod Andrews (Skipper), Gregory Sierra (Verger), Eldon Burke (Gorilla Sergeant), Lou Wagner (Lucius), Charlton Heston (Taylor)

Original title: Planet Of The Apes Revisited

Notes: Charlton Heston wanted the first Planet Of The Apes sequel to be the last – he agreed to appear in only as many scenes as could be shot in a two-week period, and only if the character of Taylor was killed off. If you noticed that new star James Franciscus bore more than a passing physical resemblance to Heston’s appearance in the majority of the first film, it’s no accident: 20th Century Fox hoped that, in trailers and other advertising for Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Franciscus’ strong resemblance would help them conveniently gloss over the fact that Heston was putting in little more than a cameo appearance. Also absent from the cast, due to being booked for other projects, was Roddy McDowall – the only Planet Of The Apes live-action project of the 20th century from which he was absent.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

May 271971

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes

Premiered on May 27th, 1971
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Movies, Planet Of The Apes

Planet Of The ApesWith the danger of an imminent war looming ahead, Cornelius, Dr. Zira and Dr. Milo make their way back to Taylor’s spacecraft and coax it into orbit – just in time to witness the destruction of Earth by the mutants’ holy bomb. This also causes their ship to spiral out of control back through time, reversing the time anomaly that brought Taylor and Brent’s ships to the ape-dominated Earth of the 3900s. The three surviving apes splash down on Earth in 1973. At first reluctant to divulge their identities, their origins or indeed their true intelligence, their trip is not without peril: Dr. Milo is killed when he upsets a caged gorilla, and the humans are initially extremely suspicious.

A Presidential commission is appointed to study Cornelius and Zira, and they quickly become public celebrities as well, but the discovery that Zira is pregnant curtails their public appearances. So too does the overzealous curiosity of Otto Hasslein, a government scientist who, after hearing Zira and Cornelius talk about the future that awaits Earth, thinks that terminating Zira’s pregnancy, sterilizing both apes and perhaps even killing them would be best for the future of humanity. This doesn’t sit well with Dr. Lewis Dixon, an animal behavior expert who has been the apes’ main point of contact, who argues passionately that Zira and Cornelius – and their offspring – should live on, regardless of what it portends for man’s future. It’s only when Hasslein secures an order to abort the offspring that Cornelius finally decides to defend his mate more aggressively. Dixon hides the two apes away at a zoo, where Zira has her child in relative peace, but Hasslein isn’t far behind. Knowing that they can’t stay on the run forever and raise their child, Cornelius and Zira must trust their son’s future to at least one of the humans…

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Paul Dehn
directed by Don Taylor
music by Jerry Goldsmith

Cast: Roddy McDowall (Cornelius), Kim Hunter (Zira), Bradford Dillman (Dr. Lewis Dixon), Natalie Trundy (Dr. Stephanie Branton), Eric Braeden (Dr. Otto Hasslein), William Windom (The President), Sal Mineo (Milo), Albert Salmi (E-1), Jason Evers (E-2), John Randolph (Chairman), Harry Lauter (General Winthrop), M. Emmet Walsh (Aide), Roy E. Glenn Sr. (Lawyer), Peter Forster (Cardinal), Norman Burton (Army Officer), William Woodson (Naval Officer), Tom Lowell (Orderly), Gene Whittington (Marine Captain), Donald Elson (Curator), Bill Bonds (TV Newscaster), Army Archerd (Referee), James Bacon (General Faulkner), Ricardo Montalban (Armando)

Original title: Secret Of The Planet Of The Apes

Notes: Though it may cleverly pick up the story with the only characters who can possibly have survived the carnage at the end of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Escape is actually more of an attempt to “reboot” the Apes movies in a cheaper modern-day setting: not only are contemporary locations cost-effective, but reducing the ape population to only three also eliminates the elaborate makeup needed for the first two films’ hordes of background apes. Though it’s made very clear that Zira, Cornelius and Milo escaped future Earth in Taylor‘s spacecraft, it might have made more sense for them to have used Brent‘s vehicle, which had the benefit of being both relatively intact and not submerged beneath the sea.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Jun 301972

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

Premiered on June 30th, 1972
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Movies, Planet Of The Apes

Planet Of The ApesIn the year 1991, seven years after the death of Cornelius and Dr. Zira, apes have gradually attained the beginnings of the sentience displayed by the displaced apes from the future, only to become the slaves of humanity. While the subservient apes are viewed as a convenience by those who don’t want to perform menial tasks, they have relieved many humans of low-paying jobs and a virtual police state has arisen to deal with the resulting security issues among both species. The child of Cornelius and Zira, has been secretly harbored and raised by circus ringmaster Armando. In public, they still pretend to be human master and simian slave, and his ability to speak and read is carefully kept secret; any indication of this kind of intelligence could doom the evolving ape race, as the government still intends to prevent the rise of ape-kind (and the subsequent fall of man) at all costs. Still, it is known that the child of Cornelius and Zira survived the parents’ deaths, and Armando is still suspected of hiding the child years later – and maintains his innocence and ignorance of the accusations. But that changes when Armando’s charge is unable to contain his disgust at the mistreatment of an ape a pro-human-labor demonstration, shouting “Lousy human bastards!” Armando covers for him and is taken into custody for disturbing the peace. Left alone, Armando’s ape is taken in and becomes just another part of the ape slave trade, this time for real. He witnesses first-hand the torturous conditioning to which his fellow apes are subjected, but he keeps his intelligence hidden, even after he is sold at auction to Governor Breck, who has Armando in custody. Breck amuses himself by allowing the ape to name himself by pointing to a random word in a book; the name he picks for himself is Caesar.

Armando isn’t exactly treated gently either, as his interrogation by Breck’s men becomes more brutal. Finally, faced with the authenticator – a lie detector which will reveal that he was covering for Caesar all along – Armando leaps out of a skyscraper window to his death. This is the last straw for Caesar; he has already been organizing a campaign of deliberate disobedience and property destruction. But with Armando’s death, Caesar rallies the ape slave population toward a more violent form of revolt. Caesar himself is captured and tortured, but he has left an impression on a member of Breck’s staff, who helps him fake his own death and escape. Surviving his “execution” at the hands of Breck’s Ape Management bureau gives Caesar’s followers the push they need: the real revolt begins in earnest, and Ape Management is the first agency to fall. An armed response from the governor’s troops only incites more violence, and Caesar leads his brethren into battle. The overwhelmed human police forces are but the first casualties in an all-out massacre; they’re expecting barely-domesticated animals who will scatter at loud noises, not an organized fighting force. But is the last night of humanity’s rule of the Earth simply going to start the countdown to the inevitable end of the apes?

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Paul Dehn
directed by J. Lee Thompson
music by Tom Scott

Cast: Roddy McDowall (Caesar), Don Murray (Breck), Natalie Trundy (Lisa), Hari Rhodes (MacDonald), Ricardo Montalban (Armando), Severn Darden (Kolp), Lou Wagner (Busboy), John Randolph (Commission Chairman), Asa Maynor (Mrs. Riley), H.M. Wynant (Hoskyns), David Chow (Aldo), Buck Kartalian (Frank – Gorilla), John Dennis (Policeman), Paul Comi (2nd Policeman), Gordon Jump (Auctioneer), Dick Spangler (Announcer), Joyce Haber (Zelda), Hector Soucy (Ape with chain)

Notes: After playing human zoologist in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, Natalie Trundy returns as a different character (in full ape makeup). Where Escape From The Planet Of The Apes had reduced the size of the “ape” cast and rebooted the film series in modern-day settings to save money, Conquest ironically has more extras in full ape makeup than any of the previous Apes films, along with a not-inexpensive “near future” redress of its L.A. locations.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Jun 151973

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes

Premiered on June 15th, 1973
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Movies, Planet Of The Apes

Planet Of The ApesThe riots started by Caesar’s uprising were only the beginning; a bloody war followed in which humanity’s great cities were razed to the ground. Reduced to a primitive state, humans and apes try to co-exist peacefully according to Caesar’s wishes, and according to a simple set of laws: ape must never kill ape, and no human may ever say “no” to an ape again. But the truce is an uneasy one, and Caesar constantly has to keep the peace. With his human confidante MacDonald and an ape scientist named Virgil, Caesar decides to set out for the radioactive ruins of Los Angeles to retrieve archived video recordings of his parents, Cornelius and Zira, who are rumored to have spoken extensively of Earth’s history – effectively revealing the future. But L.A. isn’t unoccupied: Kolp, formerly Governor Breck’s security chief, has taken charge of a city of radiation-scarred human militants. When Caesar’s scouting party trips the alarms, Kolp’s men try to capture them, at first orders to capture them alive, but he then orders his men to shoot to kill. Caesar and his party escape, enraging Kolp. Kolp decides to form his own search party, to find Caesar’s people and wipe them out.

Returning home, though, Caesar is accosted by General Aldo, the gorilla leader of the apes’ security forces. Aldo demands to know where Caesar went and why, and is clearly not satisfied by Caesar’s cryptic explanation. That night, when his pet escapes, Caesar’s son tries to track it down and overhears Aldo rallying the gorillas for a takeover of the ape community; Aldo discovers this and critically injures the boy. While Caesar is distracted, the humans mount their first attack on the apes, and Aldo uses this as an excuse to imprison all of the humans living peacefully in the ape city and seize power by force. Kolp’s attack is routed, but Aldo’s thirst for revenge isn’t satisfied so easily: he wants even the peaceful humans in the city executed. When Caesar learns the truth about what happened to his son, he attacks Aldo, seeking vengeance…but in doing so, has Caesar merely sown the seeds of distrust that will eventually destroy the world?

Order the DVDsstory by Paul Dehn
screenplay by John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington
directed by J. Lee Thompson
music by Leonard Rosenman

Cast: Roddy McDowall (Caesar), Claude Akins (Aldo), Natalie Trundy (Lisa), Severn Darden (Kolp), Law Ayres (Mandemus), Paul Williams (Virgil), Austin Stoker (MacDonald), Noah Keen (Teacher), Richard Eastham (Mutant Captain), France Nuyen (Alma), Paul Stevens (Mendez), Heather Lowe (Doctor), Bobby Porter (Cornelius), Michael Stearns (Jake), Cal Wilson (Soldier), Pat Cardi (Young Chimp), John Landis (Jake’s Friend), Andy Knight (Mutant on motorcycle), John Huston (The Lawgiver)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sep 131974

Escape From Tomorrow

Premiered on September 13th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesA human spacecraft launched in 1980 is captured in a time warp and thrown into the far future. It comes in for a landing on Earth again, over a millennium later in the year 3085; humanity has been reduced to frightened scavengers, with highly evolved apes as their overlords. Of the three crewmen aboard the vehicle, only astronauts Alan Virdon and Pete Burke survive, and they are moved to a place of safety by an old man named Farrow shortly before their ship is found by apes.

Virdon and Burke are captured and brought to trial before the apes’ high council, and while the apes’ leader, Dr. Zaius, believes they must be kept alive to learn the secrets of their technology. Urko, however, feels that the humans are a threat to the ape way of life and wants them executed now – and he demonstrates the use of a human-made grenade to make his point. But the humans’ scientific knowledge intrigues Zauis’ curious assistant, Galen. When he dares to speak on the humans’ behalf, Zaius silences him. Galen then learns that Urko is plotting to kill the humans regardless of Zaius’ wishes; when Galen goes to warn the humans, he winds up in a life-or-death struggle with one of Urko’s guards, and accidentally kills him. Galen is imprisoned, and is stunned when Virdon and Burke arrive to mount a jailbreak.

No longer welcome among his own kind, Galen tags along with the two humans as they try to get their ship ready for a relaunch. The arrival of Urko’s soldiers cuts the repairs short, and when Urko destroys the spaceship, Virdon and Burke are trapped in this time – with only Galen as their guide.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Roddy McDowall (Galen), Ron Harper (Alan Virdon), James Naughton (Pete Burke)

Order the DVDswritten by Art Wallace
directed by Don Weis
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: Royal Dano (Farrow), Woodrow Parfrey (Veska), Mark Lenard (Urko), Booth Colman (Zaius), Biff Elliot (Ullman), Bobby Porter (Arno), Jerome Thor (Proto), William Beckley (Grundig), Alvin Hammer (Man)

Notes: Where the TV series fits into the continuity of the films is uncertain; Zaius mentions a previous visit from human astronauts “10 years ago,” an adventure in which the astronauts were killed, almost certainly referring to the original film. However, since Beneath The Planet Of The Apes takes place immediately after that film, and ends with the destruction of all life on Earth, there are two possibilities: the nuclear holocaust from which Cornelius and Zira escapes in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes may have been overstated, or, as strongly hinted in Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, history has been changed as a result of Cornelius and Zira going into the past. This latter theory is strongly reinforced by the fact that humans have the power of speech and the English language has survived. While that is likely dictated by production realities – the series would’ve been boring at best if Virdon and Burke were the only humans capable of speaking – it would seem to indicate that, while the incident with Taylor did happen, it took place in a parallel timeline in which humans had retained their intelligence; as Zaius later says that the last human visitors didn’t live long enough for him to learn their names, it would seem that Taylor’s visit unfolded even more violently than chronicled in the first movie, again suggesting an alternate timeline.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sep 201974

The Gladiators

Premiered on September 20th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesAs Virdon, Burke and Galen explore their world, stopping to sample the local fruit until the hear the sounds of fighting nearby. The two astronauts intervene when they find two men apparently intent on beating each other to a pulp. Burke intervenes, but instead of finding a victim grateful that his attacker has been beaten off, he finds himself targeted by both combatants. Virdon joins in until the sound of approaching ape soldiers drives the astronauts into hiding. Virdon realizes that his most prized possession – a disc from the spaceship’s flight recorder that might prove useful in reconstructing the events leading up to the time warp – was dropped during the fight, and is now in the hands of the local ape prefect. Virdon, Burke and Galen go to retrieve the disc, and Galen offers to take the point, as he’ll have less trouble blending into an ape community. Virdon and Burke, on the other hand, are arrested for trying to steal horses. Burke is singled out to participate in gladiatorial games against another human – Tolar, the older of the two men they spotted fighting before. Burke beats Tolar in hand-to-hand combat, but refuses to kill him when a sword is thrown into the arena. Rather than inspiring humans and apes alike with this act of mercy, Burke has merely made a new human enemy by violating a primitive code of honor – and they’re no closer to retrieving the disc.

Order the DVDswritten by Art Wallace
directed by Don McDougall
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: William Smith (Tolar), John Hoyt (Barlow), Marc Singer (Dalton), Mark Lenard (General Urko), Pat Renell (Jason), Andy Albin (Man), Eddie Fontaine (Gorilla Sergeant), Nick Dimitri (A Gorilla), Ron Stein (1st Gorilla), Jim Stader (2nd Gorilla)

Notes: A number of past and future SF TV veterans appear here, most notably Mark Lenard – best known for playing the part of Spock’s father Sarek in the original Star Trek – shows up again as the astronauts’ recurring arch-rival General Urko. John Hoyt also puts in an appearance; he had played the part of the Enterprise’s original chief medical officer, Dr. Boyce, in the Star Trek pilot The Cage. And future V veteran Marc Singer can be seen here as well, putting in an early-career guest appearance.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Sep 271974

The Trap

Premiered on September 27th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesGeneral Urko intensifies his search for Virdon, Burke and Galen – he’s taken it on as his personal mission. He pursues them into a territory stricken by frequent earthquakes…and a village known for sheltering humans on the run from their ape masters. Virdon is less interested in the earthquakes than he is in artifacts which are unknown to the humans of this era…but he recognizes them as pieces of a computer. Over Burke’s protests, Virdon and company set out to the ruins of a city where the pieces were found – a place which also happens to be the epicenter of the earthquakes. Urko and his troops follow, and just as Urko captures Burke, a violent quake sends both of them tumbling into an underground chamber which is then sealed off by debris. When Burke comes to, he recognizes it as a subway station. Burke does his best to convince Urko to let him stay alive: the ape doesn’t know enough about the “ancient” subway to find his way back to freedom, so he needs Burke’s help. But with the already-stale air running out underground, Urko’s patience is also running out…and with it, Burke’s time.

Order the DVDswritten by Edward J. Lasko
directed by Arnold Laven
music by Richard LaSalle

Guest Cast: Mark Lenard (Urko), Norm Alden (Zako), John Milford (Miller), Cindy Eilbacher (Lisa Miller), Mickey LeClair (Jick Miller), Wallace Earl (Mary Miller), Gail Bonney (Old Woman)

Notes: The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) subway station pinpoints The Trap’s location as the ruins of San Francisco, but Burke is obviously from a more advanced future San Francisco: his talks about nuclear-powered subway trains, meals in a pill and replacement organs as commonplace items.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Oct 041974

The Good Seeds

Premiered on October 4th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesUrko’s troops pursue the fugitives to the point of exhaustion – and that leads to clumsy missteps. Virdon and Burke have to carry Galen on a stretcher to the nearest settlement, where they’re met with the usual stares of distrust. There is one bit of good luck: they’ve stumbled into an ape farming settlement, and one that needs extra laborers, in exchange for which the apes – though still suspicious – are willing to hide them from Urko’s patrols. Virdon’s own experiences growing up on a farm lead him to start giving advice on how to make the farm run much more smoothly, from the use of simple machines to better methods of planting crops. But are Virdon’s improvements – completely unorthodox in this primitive era – going to buy Galen time to heal…or will they draw too much attention from the patrols?

Order the DVDswritten by Robert W. Lenski
directed by Don Weis
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: Geoffrey Deuel (Anto), Lonny Chapman (Polar), Jacqueline Scott (Zantes), Mark Lenard (Urko), Bobby Porter (Remus), Eileen Dietz Elber (Jillia), John Garwood (Police Gorilla), Dennis Cross (Gorilla Officer), Michael Carr (Patrol Rider), Fred Lerner (Police Gorilla)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Oct 111974

The Legacy

Premiered on October 11th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesVirdon, Burke and Galen find the ruins of a city – once known to them as Oakland – and find it inhabited by humans, though the approach of an ape patrol on horseback is enough to scatter anyone who might welcome the travelers. They take refuge in a building that was once the Oakland Science Institute – a place that Virdon remembers as a government think tank – where they discover a piece of equipment locked away for centuries, intact and functional: a hologram promising the sum total of human knowledge at the time of the then-approaching apocalypse. It needs a new battery before it will divulge any of that knowledge, however, and Virdon becomes nearly obsessed with constructing a new battery; even just before his capture, he tells Burke that extracting the information is more important than the lives of any one of the group. Virdon is captured by Urko’s troops, but while Urko is eager to torture his prisoner, Dr. Zaius arrives to conduct the interrogation by far subtler means. Virdon may not even realize that he is betraying his fellow fugitives…or that he’s handing over the sum of human knowledge to the apes.

Order the DVDswritten by Robert Hamner
directed by Bernard McEveety
music by Earle Hagen

Guest Cast: Zina Bethune (Arn), Jackie Earle Haley (Kraik), Robert Phillips (Gorilla Captain), Mark Lenard (Urko), Booth Colman (Zaius), Jon Lormer (Scientist), Wayne Foster (Gorilla Sergeant), Victor Kilian (Human)

Notes: Director Bernard McEveety (1924-2004) was the brother of Star Trek director Victor McEveety, whose six turns in the director’s chair on that series included some of its more memorable episodes; both brothers also directed episodes of Buck Rogers. Bernard McEveety’s other genre credits include episodes of Airwolf, Blue Thunder, Voyagers!, The Incredible Hulk, and Knight Rider, but he may be best remembered as the director of the miniseries How The West Was Won. The city ruins seen in The Legacy look remarkably like those seen in The Trap, aired mere weeks earlier.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Oct 181974

Tomorrow’s Tide

Premiered on October 18th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesVirdon, Burke and Galen are making good time along a shoreline, with the humans actually traveling on foot in the water as much as possible so the tide will cover their tracks; Galen is having none of it, preferring to stay well away from the water. They spot what appears to be a damaged raft adrift, and Burke and Virdon swim out to retrieve it, finding a man lashed helplessly to it: someone tied him to it and left him for dead at sea. The exhausted man wears a metal band indicating that he was a slave from a forced labor camp. Virdon and Burke scout out the nearby labor camp, where humans are forced to spear-fish at gunpoint by their ape masters, but they are captured by the guards and brought before Hurton, the camp’s commandant. They prove their ability to fish under fire – literally – but in order to prevent them from becoming trapped at Hurton’s camp, Galen appears, claiming that Virdon and Burke are his wayward slaves. But instead of releasing them, Hurton decides they should answer for their crimes to the “gods of the sea” – the plentiful sharks that have claimed many a fisherman in these waters. But even after thwarting this attempt to kill them, the two astronauts face a new threat: the man they rescued has been discovered…and Hurton’s over-eager security chief is more than happy to blame the newcomers for this, and punish them accordingly.

Order the DVDswritten by Robert W. Lenski
directed by Don McDougall
music by Earle Hagen

Guest Cast: Roscoe Lee Browne (Hurton), Jay Robinson (Bandor), John McLiam (Gahto), Jim Storm (Romar), Kathleen Bracken (Soma), Larry Ellis (Drayman #2)

Notes: Actor Roscoe Lee Browne is well-known in genre circles for two other genre appearances in the 1970s: he appeared as the gleaming robot Box in Logan’s Run (1976), and later narrated the best-selling storybook record The Story Of Star Wars in the wake of that film’s success. While the episode boasts some beautiful location filming and impressive underwater scenes for a TV budget, the “shark” props used (usually before a glimpse of stock footage of real sharks) are, perhaps, a little bit less than convincing.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Oct 251974

The Surgeon

Premiered on October 25th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesAn ape ambush catches the fugitives off-guard; Virdon takes a bullet. They go into hiding before they can be found, and Galen decides to return to the ape hospital in the outskirts of the central city. His ex-fiancee, an ape surgeon named Kira, should be able to help, and Galen believes he can come up with a cover story to get Virdon into the hospital without immediately being arrested by Urko’s security forces. But even once Virdon is in the hospital, Dr. Kira can’t help him: she knows nothing about human medicine. Galen knows where to find a text on that subject…but it means venturing into the heart of the city and breaking into Dr. Zaius’ secret stash of human artifacts – right under the nose of General Urko.

Order the DVDswritten by Barry Oringer
directed by Arnold Laven
music not credited

Guest Cast: Jacqueline Scott (Kira), Michael Strong (Travin), Martin Brooks (Leander), Mark Lenard (Urko), Booth Colman (Zaius), Jamie Smith Jackson (Girl), David Naughton (Dr. Stole), Raymond Mayo (Human), Diana Hale (Brigid), Phil Montgomery (Jordo)

Notes: There is no incidental music score credit for this episode, only a theme music credit for composer Lalo Schifrin. Library music pieces may have been used.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Nov 011974

The Deception

Premiered on November 1st, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesAfter narrowly escaping an unusually savage attack on the home of a fellow human who is helping them hide, Virdon and Burke follow Galen along a stretch of shoreline until their meet another ape, Fauna, who is blind. But even here, they must be careful: Fauna’s father was recently killed, and her uncle, Sestus, insists that humans were the killers. Virdon and Burke carefully conceal their identities, but just from talking to him, Fauna finds herself falling in love with Burke. In the meantime, Galen goes undercover to infiltrate a group called the Dragoons, who devote themselves to ridding their area of humans – by any and all means. Sestus is one of them, and Galen learns that even the local branch of General Urko’s forces do not approve of the Dragoons’ extreme methods. Worse yet, as part of his initiation, Galen is expected kill humans himself.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Anthony Lawrence and Ken Spears & Joe Ruby
story by Anthony Lawrence
directed by Don McDougall
music by Earle Hagen

Guest Cast: Jane Actman (Fauna), Pat Renella (Zon), John Milford (Sestus), Hal Baylor (Jasko), Baynes Barron (Perdix)

Notes: The writing/producing team of Joe Ruby and Ken Spears – also story consultant for the Planet Of The Apes TV series as a whole – is the same Ruby & Spears team behind countless children’s series and specials. For Sid & Marty Krofft, the Ruby/Spears team wrote many episodes of Wonderbug and Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, and later they wrote and produced animated series such as Thundarr the Barbarian, Mr. T, Alvin & The Chipmunks, and even animated shows based on video games such as Dragon’s Lair and Donkey Kong. Joe Ruby had been a music editor on such genre series as Time Tunnel and Lost In Space. The Deception is actually a very-thinly-veiled allegorical condemnation of the methodology and philosophy of the Ku Klux Klan.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Nov 081974

The Horse Race

Premiered on November 8th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesDuring a visit with the ape prefect of an outlying town, General Urko is irked when his rider loses in a seemingly friendly horse race – one which Urko was clearly expecting his rider to win (so he could win the bet). But Urko doesn’t know that the local prefect has two new humans working in his stables: Virdon and Burke. When Galen is stung by a particularly venomous scorpion, the son of the blacksmith with whom the refugees are staying offers to ride into town to the clinic for an antidote. But the prefect has made it a crime for humans to ride horses, and the boy is spotted by an ape patrol and followed back to the stables, where he surrenders to save Virdon’s life. Galen knows the prefect of the town from where the boy was pursued, and goes to barter with him: Virdon, an expert horseman, will saddle-break and ride a particularly troublesome but promising horse in the next race. The prize for crossing the finish line is freedom – but when Urko takes that bet, the race is sure to be anything but fair.

Order the DVDswritten by David P. Lewis and Booker Bradshaw
directed by Jack Starrett
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: Morgan Woodward (Martin), John Hoyt (Barlow), Richard Devon (Zandar), Henry Levin (Prefect), Russ Marin (Damon), Meegan King (Gregor)

Notes: More well-known Star Trek guest stars show up here; John Hoyt was the original Enterprise doctor in the first Star Trek pilot, The Cage, and he appears here under ape makeup, reprising the role of Barlow from the second Planet Of The Apes TV episode, The Gladiators. Morgan Woodward was a staple of ’60s and ’70s TV guest spots, including multiple episodes of the original Star Trek and the TV spinoff of Logan’s Run. Just before the final race begins, Virdon winds up covered with mud – which conveniently hides that fact that the stunt rider in the race scenes clearly isn’t Ron Harper.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Nov 151974

The Interrogation

Premiered on November 15th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesThe travelers’ luck runs out as an ape patrol catches up with them; Burke is captured while Virdon and Galen are able to go into hiding. Dr. Zaius sees Burke’s capture as an opportunity to test a brainwashing technique devised by Wanda, one of his science ministers; General Urko is upset, since any interrogation falls under his jurisdiction. In Wanda’s hands, Burke’s brainwashing becomes something more like torture, as he is repeatedly asked to divulge the name and location of every human who has helped him evade capture until now. Though disappointed that he’s not the one interrogating Burke, Urko knows that Galen and Virdon are certain to come to the ape city to free their friend, and lays a trap. Galen seeks shelter from his parents, but Urko’s troops aren’t far behind them – and Urko’s parents, who hold positions of importance in the apes’ government, can’t be seen to help fugitives from justice. Can Burke be rescued before his mind is broken, and what will that rescue cost Galen’s family?

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Collins
directed by Alf Kjellin
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: Beverly Garland (Wanda), Anne Seymour (Ann), Normann Burton (Yalu), Booth Colman (Zaius), Lee Delano (Officer Gorilla), Wayne Foster (Lt. Gorilla), Lynn Benesch (Susan), Harry Townes (Dr. Malthus)

Notes: ’50s and ’60s movie mainstay Beverly Garland appears here, oddly enough, both in and out of ape makeup, while ’70s TV mainstay Anne Seymour puts in a prerequisite ’70s TV appearance. Her future genre appearances would include a short stint in the original Battlestar Galactica. Wanda mentions the “common” practice of removing the frontal lobes of humans’ brains to keep them docile, a practice depicted in the first Planet Of The Apes movie.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Nov 221974

The Tyrant

Premiered on November 22nd, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesBurke, Virdon and Galen are helping out in a human village, but have to take shelter when an ape garrison rolls into town to shake down the residents for a “tax” payment: the village’s entire crop of grains for the year. The three travelers offer their help, but the older humans in the settlement are too accustomed to being beaten down for the frequent payments. Only one villager’s brash young son is willing to help mount a resistance against the apes: in a fierce attack, the grain is hijacked and brought back to the villagers. The retaliation is swift and vicious: the young man who helped Virdon and Burke is gunned down in cold blood, and his father is injured, but left alive. News of the commotion draws Urko’s attention, but the local garrison commander is an old rival of his. That rivalry may be their key to escaping with their skin intact.

Order the DVDswritten by Walter Black
directed by Ralph Senensky
music by Lalo Schifrin

Planet Of The ApesGuest Cast: Percy Rodrigues (Aboro), Michael Conrad (Janor), Joseph Ruskin (Daku), Klair Bybee (Sam), Arlen Stuart (Gola), James Daughton (Mikal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Nov 291974

The Cure

Premiered on November 29th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesGetting the feeling that they’ve outstayed their welcome at the most recent human village they’ve visited, the three travelers journey on before Urko catches word of their presence. But not long after they leave, they hear that the village they just left has been quarantined by apes, with a fatal disease spreading rapidly among the humans. Virdon recognizes the symptoms immediately: malaria has taken hold. Zoran, an ape doctor dispatched by Dr. Zaius and the apes’ science council, arrives to take charge of the scene, only to find that Virdon is already directing the effort to ease human suffering and cure those affected. Worse yet for Zoran, Virdon’s attempt to contain the disease seems to be working. He takes credit for Virdon’s efforts when he reports back to Zaius – and Urko immediately suspects that Zoran has help from the runaway astronauts.

Order the DVDswritten by Edward J. Lasko
directed by Bernard McEveety
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: Sondra Locke (Amy), David Sheiner (Zoran), Ron Soble (Kava), George Wallace (Talbert), Mark Lenard (Urko), Booth Colman (Zaius), Biff Elliot (Orangutan), Albert Cole (Mason), Ron Stein (Neesa), Charles Leland (Dying Man)

Planet Of The ApesNotes: Though she’s generally better known for her movie roles, particularly those in which she appeared alongside her real-life love interest Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke was a familiar face on early ’70s TV, also appearing in Night Gallery, Kung Fu and Barnaby Jones, among others. The medical infomation in the story – battling malaria by deriving quinine from the bark of cinchona trees – is actually accurate, though that method of battling malaria was phased out in the 1940s with the advent of more reliable medicines.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Dec 061974

Up Above The World So High

Premiered on December 6th, 1974
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, Season 1

Planet Of The ApesVirdon, Burke and Galen spot something unusually large flying overhead; the two humans immediately recognize it as a primitive hang glider, which would represent a huge step forward for humans. The glider has also attracted the interest of the apes, however: Dr. Zaius sees great potential to enforce ape law from the air, while General Urko dismisses the glider as a toy. Its inventor is determined to keep developing it regardless of the risk, but when Virdon and Burke demonstrate some knowledge of flight, he instantly regards them with suspicion. And there’s someone else involved too – someone who sees the glider as the perfect way to drop bombs on the apes.

Order the DVDsteleplay by S. Bar-David and Arthur Browne Jr.
story by S. Bar-David
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: Joanna Barnes (Carsia), Frank Aletter (Leuric), Martin Brooks (Konag), Mark Lenard (Urko), Booth Colman (Zaius), William Beckley (Council Orang), Ron Stein (Gorilla Guard), Eldon Burke (2nd Trooper), Glenn Wilder (Human Driver)

Planet Of The ApesNotes: This was the final live-action Planet Of The Apes project until the 2001 remake movie directed by Tim Burton, and the last Planet Of The Apes media to feature Roddy McDowall (1928-1998). With declining ratings, and the show’s increasing tendency toward controversial subject matter (including an entire completed episode that CBS deemed unsuitable for air), CBS opted not to order further episodes of the series.

S. Bar-David is a pseudonym frequently used by writer Shimon Wincelberg; he also used this pseudonym on episodes of the original Star Trek. Director John Meredyth Lucas was a frequent writer and director on that show as well, and was a name often seen in one of those capacities in 1960s TV credits. He also wrote episodes of The Starlost and Logan’s Run.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sep 061975

Flames Of Doom

Premiered on September 6th, 1975
Series: Planet Of The Apes, Planet Of The Apes, The Animated Series

Planet Of The ApesThe spaceship Ventura, with its crew of three astronauts, plunges through a time warp as it returns to Earth from a deep space mission to find the whereabouts of a lost expedition (which was itself launched to search for Taylor’s crew). Though it still lands on Earth, its crew has arrived nearly two millennia after they expected to return. The world is now ruled by intelligent apes, and a heated debate rages over whether human beings are dangerous to the dominant ape species, or if they can be preserved as harmless pets. Astronauts Hudson, Franklin and Carter find a settlement of humans, but these humans are primitive at best. The contrast between the native humans and the astronauts attracts the attention of the new rulers of Earth, who consider a more modern human race a threat to their existence, and they set out to capture the three astronauts.

Order the DVDswritten by Larry Spiegel
directed by Cullen Houghtaling
music by Dean Elliott

Voice Cast: Tom Williams (Bill Hudson), Claudette Nevins (Judy Franklin), Austin Stoker (Jeff Carter), Henry Corden (Dr. Cornelius), Tress MacNeille (Dr. Zira), Henry Corden (General Urko)

Notes: It’s nearly impossible to reconcile Return To The Planet Of The Apes with either the movies that started the saga, or the short-lived live-action series that attempted to continue it. It’s probably wisest to view Return as a retelling of the Apes saga for a younger audience, rather than any kind of continuation. The depiction of humans at a stone-age level, the inclusion of Cornelius, Zira and Dr. Zaius, and the mentions of Brent and Nova from Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, are appropriated from the films, but the apes in Return have far more advanced technology, including motorized vehicles and television. The character of General Urko is borrowed from the live-action television series, again serving as a persistent nemesis for the humans. The exterior of the three-parson Ventura is represented by artwork of the single-seater Mercury capsules of the 1960s, rather than a depiction that’s anywhere near the vehicles seen in the Apes movies or live-action TV series; the design of the American space shuttle was finalized by the time Return To The Planet Of The Apes went into production, but wasn’t used.

LogBook entry by Earl Green