EPISODE 14

Above:  Avatars in the Microcircuit

A Screen Capture

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

Aired November 10, 1973

0:49:22

The episode is available here.

STARRING

Keir Dullea as Devon

Gay Rowan as Rachel

Robin Ward as Garth

GUEST STARRING

Percy Rodrigues as Electronics Specialist First Class I. A. Richards

Nerene Virgin as Valerie Richards

Calvin Butler as Cort

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 = Peter Levin

Science Consultant = Ben Bova

Producer = William Davidson

Executive Producers = Douglas Trumbull and Jerry Zeitman

Above:  Valerie and I. A. Richards

A Screen Capture

SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE

I. A. Richards and his daughter Valerie walk onto the main Bridge of the Earth Ship Ark.  They notice that someone has cleaned up the Bridge and removed the human remains.  I. A. Richards has a plan of which Valerie is dubious.  She alternates between cooperating with him and arguing with him.  The Richardses enter the Circuit Rome, adjacent to the Bridge.  They do this without authorization, so they set off the alarm. which Devon, Rachel, and Garth hear nearby, in tunnel.  The trio still wears the silver-and-red space suits from Farthing’s Comet.

I. A. Richards, who has known of the impending collision of the Ark with a “Class-G solar star” for years and has given into hopelessness, intends to blow up the Ark immediately.  This, in his mind, will be a quick and merciful end to the suffering of the people of the Ark.  Before he can activate the self-destruct sequence, he needs to bypass the fail-safe circuit.  He succeeds in bypassing the fail-safe circuit before Devon, Rachel, and Garth arrive on the scene.

Devon, who has been the Ark commander since The Return of Oro, seems not to recall this fact.  Later, when I. A. Richards tells him that there is no crew, Devon does not contradict him.

Biosphere Alpha Five, the home of the Richardses, used to be a mature democracy.  There were two political parties.  The Citizens’ Party favored freedom.  The Control Party, which won an election and formed the new government, thought of discipline and thought control as essential to the maintenance of peace and social order.  The Control Party outlawed the Citizens’ Party, which I. A. Richards led.  Then the Control Party imprisoned I. A. Richards in a psychiatric institution.  Furthermore, Alpha Five is biodegrading, and the Control Party is doing nothing to address that problem.

Back to the narrative….

Shortly after Devon, Rachel, and Garth arrive on the main Bridge, so does Cort.  He, Valerie’s boyfriend, is a security agent from Alpha Five.  Cort must wait with Devon, Rachel, and Garth, who are locked outside the Circuit Room.  Cort has an arrest warrant for I. A. Richards.  Inside the Circuit Room, I. A. Richards initiates the Ark‘s self-destruct sequence.  He and Valerie try to escape in the escape rocket, but the rocket does not launch.  Cort and the trio get into the Circuit Room and let the Richardses out of the escape rocket.

Then I. A. Richards initiates his plan to save the Ark he just tried to blow up.  This plan entails he and Devon projecting their minds into miniature avatars, to reinstitute the fail-safe in the microcircuit.  They have fifteen minutes yet waste time engaging in expository dialogue.  Eventually, I. A. Richards falls ill.  So does Valerie.  Garth, after getting a massive exposition dump from the nearest sphere projector, sends his avatar into the microcircuit, to assist Devon.  I. A. Richards sends the Devon and Garth avatars away in time to save the Ark by sacrificing himself.

Valerie mourns her dead father.  Devon, who had confronted I. A. Richards a few minutes prior, tells Valerie that her father was a brave and great man.    Valerie and Cort depart for Alpha Five.  Devon laments that he had not met I. A. Richards before that day; Richards could have restored the Ark‘s navigation system.

Above:  Cort

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 people know where the main Bridge is?

Who cleaned up the main Bridge and removed the human remains?

Where were I. A. Richards and Valerie Richards last on the main Bridge?

What will happen to Valerie Richards on Alpha Five?

Will Alpha Five continue to biodegrade?

How long will Alpha Five remain a police state?

Above:  Repairing the Microcircuit

A Screen Capture

OTHER COMMENTS

IMDB lists the name of the character Percy Rodrigues portrayed as “Sakharov Richards.”  However, dialogue names that character as “I. A. Richards.”  “Sakharov” hearkens back to the Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989).

This episode originally aired as the seventh episode, between And Only Man is Vile and Gallery of Fear.  However, the wardrobe of Devon, Rachel, and Garth places it immediately after Farthing’s Comet.

The storytelling in this episode is subpar.  Much of the dialogue is redundant.  Two badly-done special effects sequences take up time.  Too much background comes out via amateurish exposition.   During the plotline about the miniature avatars in the microcircuit, the passage of time contradicts the times given in time checks.

The background of biosphere Alpha Five and its Control Party is obviously based on Germany (from the Weimar Republic to the Third Reich) and the Soviet Union.  The Control Party, modeled mainly on the Nazi Party, is fascistic.  The government’s policy of incarcerating dissidents in psychiatric institutions is a nod to that policy of the Soviet government.

I. A. Richards is correct in his contemptuous evaluation of Cypress Corners as “that place.”  Devon does not mention the crew-in-training, from Children of Methuseleh.  He has met the doctors of the Institute for Reeducation, in And Only Man is Vile.  Devon has met the Astro-Medics, in Astro-Medics.  Devon recently–in the previous episode–encountered the two astronomers in Farthing’s Comet.  Does the robot Tau Zeta, from The Return of Oro, count as a member of the crew?

Would not abandoning the premise of the series been so hard for those who made The Starlost?

Cort is a plot element, not a character.

Next Episode:  The Beehive

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 COMMON ERA

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

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

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