episode #07 - O.B.I.T.

Air Date: 11/4/63 writer: Meyer Dolinsky Director: Gerd Oswald

This one was really slow - a courtroom drama in which a senator (Peter Breck) questions several key personnel at a military base after a captain is killed (in the first minutes, the audience sees this guy getting strangled by an alien being - sort of a cyclops-like alien). The plot hinges on the existence of a surveillance device - this gizmo was actually developed by aliens and will be instrumental in their eventual takeover; the device heightens a person's paranoia. One of the administrators there (Jeff Corey) behaves very suspect and has a hairy hand - yes, that's a clue.
Maybe this episode was ahead of its time - it reminded me of all those televised senate hearings that we can't get away from in the past couple of decades; or, maybe, it's a commentary on television itself, that perhaps such a device or similar screens (like computer screens) are more insidious than we realize. But, I just couldn't get into this one. There's a last minute revelation which is not really a surprise and the rest is a real slog. BoG's Score: 3 out of 10



Outer Trivia:
Star Trek TOS actor alert - Corey appeared in The Cloud Minders; also billed as guest star here is Harry Townes, as another troubled administrator; he appeared in Return of the Archons.