Year: 1977

Unusual activity at sea is a sure sign that Schubert is up to something, and C.W. (at the behest of the Navy) sends the Cetacean to investigate. Mark discovers a crystalline membrane on the sea floor, which can be penetrated to reveal dry land beneath. There, a race of peaceful beings preserve their shrinking, ancient society, and they’re powerless to stop Schubert from enslaving them to mine a valuable crystal indigenous to their island. But as a fellow form of ocean life, Mark may be powerless to stand up to Schubert’s weapons this time.

written by Larry Alexander
directed by David Moessinger
music by Fred Karlin

Cast: Patrick Duffy (Mark Harris), Belinda J. Montgomery (Dr. Elizabeth Merrill), Alan Fudge (C.W. Crawford), Victor Buono (Mr. Schubert), Rene Auberjonois (Mr. Havergal), Tina Lenert (Click One), Flip Reade (Click Two), Whitney Rydbeck (Click Three), Richard Laurance Williams (Jomo), J. Victor Lopez (Chuey), Penelope Willis (Cetacean Crew), Brandyn Artise (Cetacean Crew), Rozelle Gayle (Conrad)

Notes: Director David Moessinger later became a showrunner on numerous popular 1980s TV series, including In The Heat Of The Night, Jake And The Fatman, and Murder, She Wrote; he is the husband of Star Trek: Voyager co-creator Jeri Taylor. Rene Auberjonois was, at this point, one of those “shows up in everything” frequent-flyer guest stars of ’70s series TV; in just three years, he’d land a series regular role on Benson, a decade after which he’d be a regular on a far more coherent SF series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

After placing a seismic sensor on the ocean floor, Mark returns to the Cetacean, warning that the sea life is scattering: a sign that a huge earthquake is about to strike. Mark returns to the water to investigate the resulting new rift in the seafloor, only to be trapped by a rockslide. He awakens on dry land, and meets a man named Romeo, who is embroiled in a conflict with the family of the girl he intends to marry. Anyone else from the Cetacean would know how this struggle will play out, but Mark doesn’t…and perhaps Shakespeare got it all wrong.

written by Stephen Kandel
directed by Robert Douglas
music by Fred Karlin

Cast: Patrick Duffy (Mark Harris), Belinda J. Montgomery (Dr. Elizabeth Merrill), Alan Fudge (C.W. Crawford), Lisa Eilbacher (Juliet), John Shea (Romeo), Ahna Capri (Cordelia), Norman Snow (Tybalt), Lewis Arquette (Friar Laurence), Scott Porter (Mercutio), William Glover (Guard), David Gautreaux (Guard), Richard Laurance Williams (Jomo), J. Victor Lopez (Chuey), Jean Marie Hon (Jane), Anson Downes (Allen)

Notes: Writer Stephen Kandel, a veteran of dozens of ’60s and ’70s TV scripts (including all of Harry Mudd’s appearances on the original Star Trek), might have given Shakespeare a co-writing credit here. John Shea would later gain some genre fame for appearing as Lex Luthor in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman, while Norman Snow would menace the universe as The Last Starfighter‘s arch-nemesis, Xur, before guest starring on such series as Quantum Leap and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ahna Capri (1944-2010) was already a veteran of TV guest appearances, including I Spy, The Man From UNCLE, and had perhaps made her greatest impression as Tania in Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon (1973). Actor David Gautreaux’s greatest claim to genre fame is a role that never made it to the screen: he was cast, earlier in 1977, as Lt. Commander Xon, a full-blooded Vulcan science officer intended to replace Spock in a TV revival of Star Trek, but that series was cancelled before an episode was ever shot, and its pilot script was rewritten to become Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a 1979 movie in which Gautreaux was given what amounted to a bit part as the commander of a doomed space station.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A substance recently retrieved from the ocean floor is stored at the Institute, with Mark and Dr. Merrill warning that it could have psychotropic effects, altering (at least temporarily) the personality of anyone who comes into contact with it, and that there may be physical manifestations of contact with the substance as well. C.W. accidentally comes into contact with it, and becomes more hirsute and less reserved, treating himself to a night on the town and bedding the consort of a mob boss. When C.W. awakens, the transformation has reversed…and he has suddenly drawn himself, his work, and the entire Institute to the attention of a crime lord.

written by Stephen Kandel
directed by Dann Cahn
music by Fred Karlin

Cast: Patrick Duffy (Mark Harris), Belinda J. Montgomery (Dr. Elizabeth Merrill), Alan Fudge (C.W. Crawford), Michele Carey (Belle), Val Avery (Lew), Pamela Peters Solow (Sarah), Michael Alaimo (Henchman), Frank Bonner (Bartender), Ralph Mauro (Henchman), Garrett Craig (Henchman), Nancy Dalziel (Patron), Ed Penny (Patron), Richard Laurance Williams (Jomo), J. Victor Lopez (Chuey), Jean Marie Hon (Jane)

LogBook entry by Earl Green