episode #17 - On a Clear Night You Can See Earth

ON A CLEAR NIGHT YOU CAN SEE EARTH episode #17 / prod.#13 / Air Date:1/26/69
teleplay by Sheldon Stark; story by Anthony Wilson; Directed by Sobey Martin

It was mentioned in a previous episode that the giants have poor night vision. Here, the little people encounter a sinister giant scientist (Michael Ansara, cackling shamelessly so that we know he is sinister) who uses some special goggles. The little people are still after lenses (see Framed, when they tried to get lenses off a camera) for their solar batteries. Fitzhugh & Capt. Steve are captured by Murtrah (another in a line of strange, comic book-styled names in this series), who threatens them with his Doberman. Steve tricks Murtrah into believing that his goggles can see Earth at proper moments.

ABOVE: Ansara as Murtrah does his best Dr. Cyclops impression

Ansara as Murtrah is way over the top; Ansara really hams it up here, as if his character is addled or on some giant drugs. He's obsessed with some other scientist named Professor Kalor and has a hair-trigger temper (Fitzhugh, as usual, makes the mistake of antagonizing Murtrah and later calls him "a veritable madman!"). Murtrah reveals a bit of backstory on himself and definitely has issues - he reminded me of a caricature version of the neurotic Daystrom scientist in the TOS episode, The Ultimate Computer. Things get intense near the end as Murtrah is one giant who is not above killing little people - he's not about money as other giants. BoG's Score: 4 out of 10

Giant Threat: a dog (a Doberman)



Giants Trivia: Star Trek TOS actor alert! Ansara, of course, played Kang the Klingon in Day of the Dove, plus an episode of DS9 and another on Voyager at some point.