EPISODE 15

Above:  Dr. Heather Marshall, Devon, and Ron Calisher

A Screen Capture

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Aired December 29, 1973

0:49:27

The episode is available here.

STARRING

Keir Dullea as Devon

Gay Rowan as Rachel

Robin Ward as Garth

GUEST STARRING

William Hutt as Dr. Pete Marshall, Director of Station C100

Antoinette Bower as Dr. Heather Marshall

Alan McRae as Ron Calisher

John Friesen as Harry Keeble

William Osler as Computer Host and Voice

BEHIND THE CAMERAS

Series created by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison)

Episode written by Norman Klenman

Story Consultant = Norman Klenman

Director (Credited) = Bill Davis

Director (Uncredited) = George McCowan

Producer = William Davidson

Executive Producers = Douglas Trumbull and Jerry Zeitman

Above:  Dr. Pete Marshall

A Screen Capture

SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE

Devon, Rachel, and Garth have cast aside their usual wardrobe in favor of brown outfits with white trim.  They had “worn” imaginary outfits of this sort in Gallery of Fear.

Reena, a humanoid alien, wears the same outfit in the next and final episode, Space Precinct.

Maybe the Cypress Corners clothes are in a laundry facility.

The trio arrives in a biosphere, Station C100, because of an alarm they heard in a bounce tube.  There is apparently an emergency.

Drs. Pete and Heather Marshall (husband and wife) have just walked a colleague, Ron Calisher, out of a bee-infested area.  The swarm has stung Calisher.  Could this be the emergency?  No; Calisher recovers quickly.  And “Dr. Pete,” as people call him, is belligerent; he orders Devon, Rachel, and Garth to leave.  His wife, “Dr. Heather,” as people call her, cooperates with the trio, though.

Some 27 years ago, the Marshalls found this biosphere, abandoned and rundown.   Dr. Pete apparently appointed himself the Director of Station C100 and built it up into the best-run zoological laboratory in the Earth Ship Ark.  x

Station C100 specializes in honeybees.

Devon, apparently having forgotten that he is the Ark commander (The Return of Oro), does not use his authority.

To simplify and abbreviate a long story….

Ron Calisher is obsessed with understanding the communications of bees.  Dr. Pete is under the control of the mutant queen bee, one of a few giant bees.  The mutant bees–the queen, in particular–want to convert all the other biospheres into hives.  They are willing, however, to let the bee scientists and our trio live, in exchange for service.  The mutant bees control the regular bees.  Harry Keeble dies of a combination of insecticide and bee stings.  Dr. Heather plots to kill the mutant bees and liberate her husband from the queen’s control.  The mutant bees can mimic Dr. Pete’s voice.  Garth kills the queen mutant bee with freezing spray and liberates Dr. Pete from her control.

Garth no longer likes honey.

Unfortunately, some mutant bees have survived.

Le fin.

Above:  Dr. Heather Marshall

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?

Why are so many people on the Ark fatalistic?

Why does Devon not invoke his authority as the Ark commander?  (The Return of Oro)

Why does Devon’s level of interest in saving the Ark vary from episode to episode, and sometimes within an episode?

How many zoological laboratories are on the Earth Ship Ark?

Why do the Marshalls, who have long known about the impending doom of the Ark, tried to do nothing to save it?

How much time will pass until the surviving mutant bees cause more trouble for the bee scientists?

Above:  Harry Keble

A Screen Capture

OTHER COMMENTS

The less I write about The Beehive, the better.  This episode is tedious and irrelevant.

Harlan Ellison, in his introduction to Edward Bryant’s novelization of Phoenix Without Ashes (the original title of Voyage of Discovery), described most of those responsible for the production and writing of The Starlost as “the inept, the untalented, the venal, and the corrupt.”  The Beehive provides ample evidence for ineptness and lack of talent.

Next Episode:  Space Precinct

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 COMMON ERA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is post #2350 of SUNDRY THOUGHTS.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++