episode #48 - Mutiny in Space

episode #48 / Air Date: 2/1/67 (episode #19 of 2nd season)
written by Peter Packer; Directed by Don Richardson

After Smith is ostracized by the rest of the group for his latest near-calamitous blunder (wrecking their weather station with a missile), he comes across another weird small ship. This one is captained by a British admiral from space, Zahrk (Ronald Long). Like the previous pirate from space, cowboy from space & knight from space, this simply transplants a well-known historical iconic figure to a loopy sci-fi setting. The actor, Long (not to be confused with Richard Long), seems to channel Bligh/Charles Laughton from Mutiny on the Bounty or similar films and does a fair impression, but listening to this guy ramble on for long minutes is deadly dull.
In the plot, Zahrk kidnaps Will for some reason, though Smith & the Robot also end up along for the ride. Much of Zahrk's ramblings make little sense - it's all sort of a stream of consciousness ranting as Zahrk keeps referring to someone named Mr. Kidnoh, who may have been a mutineer. Then he mistakes Smith for Kidnoh, which makes Zahrk addled on top of everything else. His quest is to trackdown the scurvy mutineers - but this story seems very padded at 50 minutes; there's story here for only about half of that time. BoG's Score: 2.5 out of 10

NOTE: shots of Zahrk's ship moving look like stock footage of a NASA rocket lifting to the upper atmosphere.
Epilogue Tag: Smith is rehearsing his new play about Norse gods with Will & Penny when a storm strikes; then, a pair of gloves descend on Smith... freeze frame!