Year: 1973

Devon, Garth and Rachel enter a biosphere that’s been left in prime condition – fresh food everywhere, clean quarters…and no people to be found, at least until Garth discovers a young woman named Lethe, who appears to be in shock after the rest of her people suddenly abandoned her – or so she says. She seems to make a remarkable recovery and begins to say things that cause the three travelers to doubt one another. Devon eventually finds the other former inhabitants of this dome, discovering that they’re paranoid to the point of being fully prepared to kill any strangers in their midst. Devon protests, but is sentenced to death – and Lethe has turned Garth against him, so he refuses to save him. But in a secret observation room, a cynical scientist is pulling Lethe’s strings – using all of these events to prove his belief that the descendants of the Ark’s original residents are too soft to survive.

written by Shimon Wincelberg
directed by Ed Richardson
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Simon Oakland (Dr. Asgard), Irena Mayeska (Dr. Diana Tabor), Trudy Young (Lethe), Tim Whelan (Village Elder), John Bethune (Villager “A”)

Notes: The “ancient poem” Devon remembers is the hymn “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”, written by Reginald Heber in 1819. The section quoted on the obelisk at the beginning of the episode – which also gives this episode its title – is “Though every prospect pleases / And only man is vile / In vain with lavish kindness / The gifts of God are strown / The heathen in his blindness / Bows down to wood and stone.”

LogBook entry by Earl Green

An alarm sounds, alerting anyone listening to the presence of intruders on the bridge’s circuit room – intruders who are bypassing the failsafes on the Ark’s self-destruct system. Though Devon doesn’t understand the technical terminology, he, Garth and Rachel know that it’s reason enough to race back to the bridge. They find an electronics tech named Richards, along with his daughter Valerie, tampering with the circuitry, and Richards cons them into helping him load an escape vehicle supposedly intended for dumping the Ark’s logs in the event of a catastrophic emergency. But while Devon and his friends are from a relatively backward society, they’re not fools – an unmanned log dump wouldn’t require food and supplies. Richards and his daughter, fleeing from political oppression, are planning to destroy the Ark and make their own escape. But when the escape vehicle proves to be as damaged as the rest of the Ark, Richards is stuck – and now he has to undo the damage he’s done to the failsafe systems to initiate self-destruct, and he only has a “primitive” like Devon to help him.

written by Norman Klenman
directed by Peter Levin
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Percy Rodrigues (I.A. Richards), Nerene Virgin (Valerie), Calvin Butler (Cort), William Osler (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

As they continue to explore the Ark, Devon and his friends are driven to the safety of another biosphere by what appears to be a windstorm in one of the ship’s corridors. Once inside, they find themselves in a gallery of abstract art that reshapes itself depending on their moods. A woman called Daphne appears, telling the travelers that they are guests of Magnus – but evading any kind of question Devon asks about who Magnus is. After Rachel and Garth see illusions of their parents, they’re more than convinced of Magnus’ impressive powers, but Devon isn’t swayed so easily. He demands to meet Magnus personally, and has to fight to regain his friends’ loyalty. But when Daphne finally agrees to escort Devon to his audience with Magnus, it becomes clear that Magnus is a supercomputer, not a living being. Even the Ark’s usually-helpful sphere projectors can’t clear up the mystery of why Magnus is here, warning Devon that whoever built Magnus, they had the highest security clearance on the Ark, since it seems to supercede even the ship’s computer itself. It finally emerges that Magnus was a computer designed to help the bridge crew make life-or-death decisions – and that it was taken offline due to mechanical delusions of granduer even before the accident that left the Ark adrift. But why is it online again now?

written by Alfred Harris and George Ghent
from a story by Alfred Harris
directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Angel Tompkins (Daphne), Allen Stewart-Coates (Magnus), Jim Barron (Garth’s Father), Aileen Seaton (Rachel’s Mother), William Clune (Admiral Austin), Danny Hodgkins (Monster), William Osler (Computer Voice)

Notes: Series star Keir Dullea is an old hand at dismantling supercomputers that have decided they’re superior to humans, having participated in arguably the best-known version of that basic plotline in 2001: a space odyssey. Aileen Seaton and Jim Barron reprise their roles here from the pilot episode, Voyage Of Discovery.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Devon, Garth and Rachel are captured as they explore another biosphere, which turns out to be an industrial wasteland with toxic polluted air, and brought before Mr. Smith, the dome’s self-proclaimed leader. Believing them to be agent of an enemy force trying to infiltrate his biosphere, Smith has the travelers brutally interrogated, only to find out that his interrogation equipment can’t detect any lies in their statements. Believing them to be spies whose memories and personalities have been reprogrammed, he orders his second-in-command, a woman named Trent, to keep a close eye on them…but when she expresses her doubts about Smith’s leadership to Devon in an unguarded moment, her comment is overhead by one of Smith’s omnipresent surveillance systems and she’s rounded up for questioning herself. Since he thinks Trent is a traitor, Smith has her tortured as well, and this changes Devon’s mind about what course of action to take. Instead of just securing an escape route for himself and his friends, Devon is now determined to do what he can to topple Smith’s regime before he moves on elsewhere in the Ark.

written by Arthur Heinemann and Norman Klenman
from a story by Arthur Heinemann
directed by Ed Richardson
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Ed Ames (Mr. Smith), Pat Galloway (Trent), Doris Petrie (Nurse), Pattie Elsasser (Secretary), Nina Weintraub (Girl), Les Ruby (City Man), William Osler (Computer Voice)

Notes: Mr. Smith mentions the “first dome war” which, while he doesn’t elaborate much further, hints at the possibility of past conflicts between biospheres.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A spaceship traveling at high speed fails to detect the presence of the Ark in its path, and its pilot loses control. Devon, Garth and Rachel suit up for a spacewalk to examine damage that they don’t realize has been caused by the collision of the smaller ship with the Ark. They find two visitors who at least appear human, a man named Oro and a woman named Idona, but their guests seem to be very elusive about where they came from, where they’re going, and why they’re making the journey in the first place. For the most part, Oro and Idona conduct repairs to their own ship, and quietly dismiss any discussion of using their expertise to save the Ark by changing its course. Oro even claims to know of the accident that left the ship adrift, but isn’t discussing any specifics. To try to convince Oro to help, Devon attempts to play on his uncertainty: with the Ark adrift, how can Oro even be sure of where he is now, much less whether he’ll be able to get home if he can even repair his craft? To complicate things even more, Idona quietly asks Rachel and Garth for asylum: she wants to remain on the Ark – with Garth – instead of continuing her journey with Oro. Oro is displeased with the request, arguing that Idona’s health is fragile and that her well-being has been entrusted to him alone. He claims that she won’t survive unless she leaves the Ark with him. But a mishap during the repair of Oro’s ship may settle the question of whether anyone is leaving – or whether Idona will live or die.

written by Mort Forer and Marian Waldman
directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Walter Koenig (Oro), Alexandra Bastedo (Idona)

LogBook entry by Earl Green