episode #13 - The Liberator

Production #B-507 written by Howard Dimsdale Directed by Arnold Laven

This was the rather unique episode which never aired during the original run of the series in 1974. In the story, we are introduced to a strange human settlement (strange even by the standards of this 31st century) officiated by an older man named Brun (John Ireland). This conclave captures humans from another section of land - "the meadowlands" - and turns them over to gorilla soldiers who come by once a week, as an endless supply of slave labor. This turncoat village also makes use of a huge temple for their worship of some gods, with Brun functioning as some kind of high priest. The trio of fugitives get acquainted with this set-up when they run across a young male member who had attempted to escape his fate as one of those turned over to the gorillas. If there aren't enough Meadowland captures, the difference needs to be made up from among the villagers. This fellow fugitive then promptly attempts to turn over his new friends to save himself; but, he ends up sacrificed to the gods at the temple. Galen witnesses this, and the young man seems to die without being touched. Though Galen is an ape, he finds his powers to be limited here, as Brun mostly ignores his commands. Virdon & Burke are slated to be turned over to the gorillas with the next group, unless they can convince Brun's son (Ben Andrews) to change things around.

This was an ambitious yet at the same time muddled episode. For most of the episode, we are presented with the worst example of humans blindly obeying an ape doctrine and also following primitive religious customs. Yet, in the final act, there are sudden revelations about a plot to destroy all of the apes by one of these humans, the one who has been the primary enforcer of ape appeasement. For years, humans have been captured by this traitorous sect and turned over as slaves to the apes, but suddenly we are asked to believe that it was all an act? That it was part of some grand scheme to wipe out all apes? In addition, only the top man was planning this genocide against the apes; the rest of this human society would have continued to willingly betray their fellow men, so I had little use for this village of ape appeasers and superstitious dolts who practice truly barbaric customs such as killing their own in sacrificial rituals. I found it tough to buy into their sudden enlightenment at the end. In addition, Virdon & Burke seem to dismiss all possibility of ever striking a serious blow against the ape society, thereby tacitly approving the continuing status quo of ape overlords and human slaves. This episode needed another rewrite. BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10