EPISODE 12

Above:  Oro and Devon

A Screen Capture

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Aired December 15, 1973

0:49:23

The episode is available here.

STARRING

Keir Dullea as Devon

Gay Rowan as Rachel

Robin Ward as Garth

GUEST STARRING

Walter Koenig as Oro

Henry Beckman as Williams

Philip Stevens as Tau Zeta (Operator)

Patricia Moffatt as Tau Zeta (Voice)

Jim Barron as Computer Voice

William Osler as Computer Host and Voice

BEHIND THE CAMERAS

Series created by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison)

Episode written by Alex C. James (Credited)

Episode written by Norman Klenman (Uncredited)

Story Consultant = Norman Klenman

Director = Francis Chapman

Producer = William Davidson

Executive Producers = Douglas Trumbull and Jerry Zeitman

Above:  Williams, Outside Master Control

A Screen Capture

SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE

Williams is trying to break into Master Control.  (He keeps trying to break into secure facilities on the Earth Ship Ark; it is what he does.)  He screams that he must get into Master Control.  He sets off the alarm, just in time for Devon to come around the corner.  Rachel and Garth are not far behind, of course.  Williams somehow suffers from claustrophobia on the Ark.  He thinks that the way to deal with that problem is to get into smaller rooms.  The security system shoots Williams with a stun ray.

Devon visits the nearest sphere projector and asks who can help the injured man.  Devon has amnesia; Astro-Medics was two episodes ago.  The sphere projector informs Devon that the man will revive soon.  Devon also requests and receives a summons from Tau Zeta to Master Control.  Devon returns to the area immediately outside Master Control.  He enters.  Rachel and Garth watch over the unconscious Williams.

Devon meets a robot, Tau Zeta, Vice Admiral, Computer Monitoring Section.  He also learns that Oro (from The Alien Oro) is the new Ark commander, and that Oro’s explorer craft is docking.

Little time has passed in-universe since The Alien Oro.

Devon, Rachel, Garth, and the revived Williams meet Oro in the docking bay.  Williams thinks that he can resolve his claustrophobia by entering Oro’s small spacecraft.  Oro has orders to restart the thermonuclear reactors of the Ark and navigate the vast starship into orbit over Exar.  Devon is immediately suspicious.  However, Rachel, Garth, and Williams favor this plan.

Oro lies.  He lies so much that sometimes one cannot tell when he tells the truth.  Oro lies when he passes off historical images of the verdant Earth for pictures of Exar.  Oro also lies when he insists he would never force anyone to go to Exar.  Oro lies when he tells Devon that Rachel is injured.  Does Oro lie when he tells Garth that Idona is receiving medical attention and doing well?  And does Oro lide when he mentions the existence of “the main medical biosphere”?

Oro certainly tells the truth when he says that the only non-automated systems on the Ark are propulsion and navigation, and that all the information required to restart those is in the computers.   This is consistent with Lazarus from the Mist.

Exar is barely suitable for human life.  The climate is cold and the atmosphere has low levels of oxygen.  Yet, somehow, Oro, outwardly indistinguishable from human beings, thrives there.

Oro’s superiors recognize the Ark as superior to their technology.  Exar command wants the Ark and does not care about the humans onboard.

Pardon me, O reader, but writing a play-by-play summary of this episode is pointless.

To make a long story short, Oro tries to kill Devon, but Tau Zeta prevents that.  Then Devon and Oro debate the merits of who should command the Ark.  Each debater stands inside a recycling tube in Master Control.  The terms of the debate are that the winner will become the Ark commander and that the loser will die.  Tau Zeta assigns point values for arguments.  The basis of the point values is not clear.  Devon wins, becomes the Ark commander, lets Oro live, and orders him to leave the Ark.

Oh, Devon sends Garth to rescue Williams, who has fallen in a service shaft and broken foot.  Then Williams hobbles off.

Exar command remotely blows up Oro’s ship.  Oro becomes a fugitive on the Ark.

In the next episode, Devon will not be the Ark commander, of course.  This is episodic television.  There is a giant reset button at the end of each episode.

Le fin.

Above:  Tau Zeta

A Screen Capture

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Where is the laundry in the tubes and corridors of the Earth Ship Ark?

Where are the bathrooms and showers in tubes and corridors of the Earth Ship Ark?

How does Garth maintain that early 1970s haircut while on the run in the tubes and corridors of the Earth Ship Ark?

Given that Devon, Rachel, and Garth have been to the Bridge, why do they need to find the backup Bridge?

Who is Williams?

What is his home biosphere?

Why does Williams want to enter Master Control?

How is Master Control different from the backup Bridge?

How many other people, like Williams, are wandering around the Ark and carrying door keys?

How can Williams be claustrophobic on the Earth Ship Ark?

Would live on cold Exar be worse that colliding with a “Class-G solar star”?

How old is Tau Zeta?

Why does Devon, now the Ark commander, not get help to restart the reactors and navigate away from that pesky “solar star”?

How did Tau Zeta anticipate Williams’s curse words and bleep them?

Above:  Recycling Tubes

A Screen Capture

OTHER COMMENTS

The Return of Oro is the sequel to The Alien Oro.

I get the impression that most of the people behind the scenes cared about this series about as much as Devon cared about avoiding the “solar star”–very little.

Presumably, had The Starlost succeeded, Oro would have been a recurring antagonist.

Williams is a plot element, not a character.

Next Episode:  Farthing’s Comet

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 COMMON ERA

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All images in this post are screen captures from a series that is freely available at archive.org and YouTube.

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