episode #70 - Death Probe
Base of Galactic Science Fiction :: SCIENCE FICTION in TELEVISION :: Bronze Age of TV Science Fiction
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episode #70 - Death Probe
BoG Sun Jul 03, 2011 5:57 pm
episode #13 of 4th season / Air Date: 1/9/77 
written by Steven E. de Souza directed by Richard Moder
The show wanted to, I surmise, come up with a foe for Austin that would outclass him in power and they came up with this Death Probe - actually a Venus Probe machine. It's an invention of the Russians (based on real probes sent to Venus by the Soviet Union in the seventies) but, instead of going to Venus, it lands in Wyoming, US; the Russians have goofed up. The first half of this episode comes across like spy thriller films such as Telefon (1977), the one about Soviet sleeper agents in the U.S. There are Soviet agents similar to that concept here; they work as typical Americans until they receive a coded phone call. They're commanded by an agent named Popov (Nehemiah Persoff). The first one to encounter the probe is a farmer; unfortunately, he takes a shot at it and this causes it to go into "override" - which means the Russian's commands will no longer work. Oops. And... the thing's heading for a town.
written by Steven E. de Souza directed by Richard ModerThe show wanted to, I surmise, come up with a foe for Austin that would outclass him in power and they came up with this Death Probe - actually a Venus Probe machine. It's an invention of the Russians (based on real probes sent to Venus by the Soviet Union in the seventies) but, instead of going to Venus, it lands in Wyoming, US; the Russians have goofed up. The first half of this episode comes across like spy thriller films such as Telefon (1977), the one about Soviet sleeper agents in the U.S. There are Soviet agents similar to that concept here; they work as typical Americans until they receive a coded phone call. They're commanded by an agent named Popov (Nehemiah Persoff). The first one to encounter the probe is a farmer; unfortunately, he takes a shot at it and this causes it to go into "override" - which means the Russian's commands will no longer work. Oops. And... the thing's heading for a town.