Tag: CBS

Virdon, 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.

written 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

An 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.

written 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

After 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.

teleplay 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

During 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.

written 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

The 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?

written 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

Burke, 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.

written by Walter Black
directed by Ralph Senensky
music by Lalo Schifrin

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

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Getting 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.

written 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)

Notes: 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