episode #12 - The Cure

Air Date: 11/29/74 / Production #B-506 written by Edward J. Lasko Directed by Bernard McEveety

This episode begins in the middle of an on-going story: the trio of fugitives have been staying in a peaceful human village for the past week and Virdon has become emotionally involved with a local girl (Sondra Locke). Though life in this village has been pleasant enough, the trio are preparing to leave and, in a moment of weakness, Virdon tries to explain where/when he's really from to the girl (and that he still considers himself to be married - an odd side-effect of time travel). The girl doesn't take the news very well. In any case, the trio depart. Just after they leave, malaria strikes the village. The apes believe this to be an old falling sickness which affects only humans but, very soon, gorillas begin to fall victim to it. This sets up a familiar conflict between Zaius and Urko: Zaius is more cautious in reaction by allowing a chimp doctor (David Sheiner) to study the situation, while Urko wants a quick resolution by burning everything down. The returned astronauts know of a possible cure and allow the chimp doc to take the credit (there's no choice in this really, since the fugitives are still hiding from Zaius and Urko). But, impatient Urko may not wait long enough to see if the cure works.
This episode was interesting in that it allowed the ever-present conflict between Zaius and Urko to escalate to new levels by the conclusion of the episode. By the end, it almost looked as though Urko was willing to defy Zaius and the council, perhaps go so far as to shoot Zaius as a means to an end. It offered a familiar view of our own society, in which civilian authority supersedes the military, yet with the cautionary note of the ever-present danger that the status quo might change if we're not careful. There's also some brief conflict among the trio of regulars, with Galen becoming frustrated by the emotional drives of his human companions; it suggests that apes are in more control of their emotions, a radical thought. Besides all this, the two astronauts are once again depicted as experts in some field, this time in medicine. Virdon apparently knows all the details in concocting a cure for malaria - perhaps he has an M.D. degree..? In all, this was typical of many other TV episodes and films about some kind of plague to drive the plot; it becomes a question of running out of time and which characters will survive to the end. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10