EPISODE 2

Above:  The Sergeant of the Tunnel Dwellers

A Screen Capture

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Aired September 29, 1973

0:49:35

The episode is available here.

STARRING

Keir Dullea as Devon

Gay Rowan as Rachel

Robin Ward as Garth

GUEST STARRING

Frank Converse as Dr. Gerald W. Aaron

Vivian Reis as Dr. Jane Gregory Aaron

William Osler as Computer Voice and Host

Doug McGrath as The Sergeant

Clive Endersby as First Tunnel Dweller

Alan Blevins as Second Tunnel Dweller

BEHIND THE CAMERAS

Series created by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison)

Episode written by Douglas Hall and Don Wallace

Story Consultant = Norman Klenman

Director = Leo Orenstein

Science Consultant = Ben Bova

Producer = William Davidson

Executive Producers = Douglas Trumbull and Jerry Zeitman

Above:  The Original Concept of the Earth Ship Ark

Scanned from the back cover of Edward Bryant and Harlan Ellison, Phoenix Without Ashes (1975)

ESSENTIAL FACTS ABOUT THE EARTH SHIP ARK

Harlan Ellison’s original concept for the Earth Ship Ark was that it would resemble a cluster of grapes.  The version that went to screen, as seen in the previous post in this series, did not resemble a cluster of grapes.

In Ellison’s plan, the Earth Ship Ark‘s original course was for the solar system of Alpha Centauri.  The accident, however, sent the vessel off-course.

The shipboard computers contain all the information required to save the Earth Ship Ark and its inhabitants.

Schematic plans of the vessel are in some tubes and corridors.

Some of the domes contain books, blueprints, and construction manuals that will prove useful in saving the vessel and its inhabitants.

Half of the chambers in the cryonic vault in Command Medical Center are vacant.

Command Medical Center is on Level G.

The Earth Ship Ark has thermonuclear reactors.

The ship’s medics (from episode #11, Astro-Medics) and police force (from episode #16, Space Precinct) are not in evidence.  The police could have dealt with the the tunnel dwellers.  The medics could have handled the medical emergency, whatever it was.

Above:  Rachel, Devon, and Dr. Gerald W. Aaron in the Cryonic Vault

A Screen Capture

SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY (DESPITE BEN BOVA’S NOTES TO THE PRODUCERS)

The infamous “Class-G solar star”

“Radiation virus”

Above:  Primitives Dwelling in the Tunnels Outside the Cryonic Vault

A Screen Capture

SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE

Lazarus from the Mist opens at the end of Voyage of Discovery.  Devon, Rachel, and Garth stand on the Bridge of the Earth Ship Ark.  Garth wants to return to Cypress Corners, but Devon disagrees.  Garth finds a message from the annoying computer:  There is a medical emergency in the Command Medical Center, on Level G.

Outside the Command Medical Center, our trio encounters a small band of primitives dwelling in the tunnel–corridor–whatever.  They are the remaining descendants of the security personnel (and their families) who lived near and guarded the cryonic vault in the Command Medical Center.  The gnarly primitives accuse Devon, Rachel, and Garth (armed with his crossbow) of being thieves and robbers trying to enter the “forbidden place.”  Garth holds off the primitives, permitting Devon and Rachel to enter the Command Medical Center.  Unfortunately, the primitives capture Garth.  They look at him as if he will be their dinner.  The primitives do hunt and kill, after all.  (Wasn’t The Starlost supposed to be a family program?)

The Command Medical Center is vacant, except for a sphere projector and a some engineers in cryonic suspension.  The sphere projector has to explain to Devon and Rachel what cryonic suspension, but Rachel is slow to catch on.  Even after the explanation, she thinks that the people in cryonic suspension are dead.  The sphere projector explains that seventeen engineers responsible for the planning and construction of the Earth Ship Ark are in cryonic suspension.  The sphere projector gets two names into the list, in alphabetical order, when Devon, like an idiot, chooses the first name:  Dr. Gerald W. Aaron.  Devon asks no questions about Dr. Aaron’s specialty and medical condition, for example.

Devon and Rachel manage to stumble their way into reviving Dr. Gerald W. Aaron, a communications engineer, who has terminal “radiation virus.”  Dr. Aaron will die within two hours without medical attention–a cure, which does not exist.  He is initially angry, predictably.  But Dr. Aaron is a mensch, after all, so he does his best, as time and circumstances will allow.  Meanwhile, the primitives, with Garth in tow, are trying to break into the cryonic vault.  They keep doing this throughout the episode.

Dr. Gerald W. Aaron, aged 40 years, went into cryonic suspension on June 29, 2291, after the Earth Ship Ark had left Earth.  His wife, Dr. Jane Gregory Aaron, was a nuclear engineer.  She had begged the germane authorities to put her in cyronic suspension, too, but they had denied request.  Only one Dr. Aaron was going into cryonic suspension, despite the availability of space for two of them.  Jane recorded a farewell video for her husband.  He watched it after reviving.

Above:  Dr. Jane Gregory Aaron’s Farewell Video

A Screen Capture

Rachel, who had opposed reviving Dr. Aaron, makes a good suggestion:  Return him to cyronic suspension and revive other engineers.

The primitives, upon learning about Cypress Corners, plot to go there, probably to hunt, kill, and eat.  But they have to bang down the door to the Command Medical Center first.

Dr. Aaron helps Devon and Rachel rescue Garth and capture the Sergeant, as a hostage.  Devon ties up the Sergeant.  The barbarians, who have Garth’s crossbow, remain at the gates, so to speak.  The Sergeant eventually unties himself, in time for one of the primitives to shoot him accidentally with Garth’s crossbow.  Devon, Rachel, and Garth tend to the Sergeant’s injury.  They have a new ally.

Dr. Aaron, weakening, must return to cryonic suspension.  Before the gets there, he tells Devon, Rachel, and Garth some useful information.  One immediately useful tidbit is that a vacant agricultural dome, once used for retired crew members, is nearby.  The trio leads the primitives there and locks them in.

Devon, Rachel, and Garth do not revive any other engineers.

The trio embarks for another dome.

Above:  A New Home for the Primitives

A Screen Capture

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

What was the medical emergency in the Command Medical Center?

How many “strangers” have previously tried to enter the Command Medical Center?  From which domes have they come?

Why did Devon, Rachel, and Garth not heed Rachel’s suggestion and revive more engineers?  Who knows how soon the ship will hurdle into that “Class-G solar star”?

Next Episode:  The Goddess Calabra

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 COMMON ERA

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All images in this post (except for the scan) are screen captures from a series that is freely available at archive.org and YouTube.

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