episode #11 - The Tyrant

Air Date: 11/22/74 / Production #B-513 written by Walter Black Directed by Ralph Senensky

While the trio of fugitives are briefly staying with a couple of human brothers (Michael Conrad and James Daughton), a troop of gorilla soldiers ride in and take most of the brothers' grain. The trio find out that the local gorilla sheriff, named Aboro (Percy Rodriguez), is corrupt, even by the standards of ape society; he regularly steals in this manner. After an action to take the grain back goes wrong, the trio develop a more cunning plan to get back at Aboro, using their nemesis Urko (Mark Lenard). It turns out that Urko and Aboro are old classmates, but Aboro's career never took off due to some mishap at the academy and this also explains why Aboro cheats - he is still disgruntled and angry over his derailed career.
This episode delved a bit more into the structure of the ape society and its politics. We learn, for example, that chimpanzees are usually assigned as prefects for their administrative abilities. When Aboro - a gorilla - is suddenly promoted to prefect, it's remarked upon how unusual this is. The heroic trio, especially Galen, do some role playing in this one, as if they are professional con artists. Galen acts out the role of a limping bigwig from Zaius' office, conning Aboro into some inadvisable moves. This continues the shift started a couple of episodes earlier, in which the regulars are no longer just fugitives but some kind of latter-day moral vigilantes or crime-busters. It's fairly entertaining, because we wonder how they will cause the comeuppance of their target. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
Star Trek TOS actor alert: Percy Rodriguez played a commodore in Court Martial; also, Joe Ruskin plays Aboro's 2nd-in-command; he appeared as an alien in The Gamesters of Triskelion