Back to the Planet of the Apes: ep 14 "Up Above the World So High"

 "Up Above the World So High"
Airdate: December 20, 1974

Written by Shimon Wincelberg
Directed by John Meredyth Lucas
Synopsis: Virdon, Burke and Galen help an eccentric human inventor, Leuric, to build a hang glider, but things get more complicated when he is captured by the apes and a scheming chimpanzee scientist, Carsia, plans to use the completed glider in a coup against the Ape Council.

Trey: Here we are, the final episode!

Jason: It's all over but the cobbled together TV movie repeats to come.

Trey: This episode comes with a stronger science fiction pedigree than most. It was directed by John Meredyth Lucas who directed 3 episodes of Star Trek among other genre shows and wrote 4 episodes, and its script is by Shimon Wincelberg who wrote 7 episodes of Lost in Space, 2 episodes of Star Trek, 2 of Wild Wild West, and 1 of Logan's Run, among others.

Jason: Well, the pedigree is there, but is it SF? I'll say that there is some speculative content present, mostly by implication and of the "soft science" cultural variety. The ape society gains a new wrinkle or two of complexity. 

Trey: Yes, we see chimpanzee sedition! More on that in a moment, but first, this episode is a kind of humorous note to end the series on. Not that the show has been devoid of humor, but this one plays more toward humor than most--certainly more than the last two. 

Jason: The tongue seems to be slightly in cheek this time around, but only slightly. I think this episode stands as a solid example of what made the network execs pull the plug -- a show with seriously adult themes but written with an all-ages audience in mind, essentially at cross purposes with itself. 

Trey: Well, I'm not sure. I feel like somewhat humorous episodes are a classic TV staple, but I would agree it works against the typical themes of the franchise. It is quite possible fans don't tune in for "lighthearted romps" without strong messages.

Anyway, again the Renaissance nature of the late 20th Century astronaut is in evidence! At least this time the skill they are displaying is aviation related.

Jason: It was no stretch this time, and Virdon seems like the kind of guy to have subscribed to Hang Glider Magazine in the years prior to his ill-fated 1980 space mission. 

Trey: Back to chimp sedition, I'm trying not to think the show has a sexist view of ambitious women, but two out of three of the driven, career-minded female apes we've seen (and female chimpanzees are the only female apes we get in the series!) are kind of sociopaths! And 100% of the ones that seem to have political ambition are.

Jason: I don't want to do the math on all the male apes presented as sociopaths, but they appear plentiful. What we definitely don't have is a representative sample. Galen's mom was cool, but for the most part, female apes are invisible. We never see a single example of a female gorilla or orangutan, so far as I recall. That said, ape society is definitely a highly stratified retrograde patriarchy and this is the first episode to address intra-ape resentments and prejudices. 

Is Carsia the most openly and wildly evil of the many villainous apes we've seen in the series? 

Trey: Well, probably not, but the only other female chimpanzee related to the Ape Council (Wanda in "The Interrogation") is similarly callous and career-minded. Compare them to the more benign chimpanzee Prefects our heroes have run across. For all his credit-hogging the chimp doctor in the "The Cure" is less evil.

For all Carsia's scheming though, she gives up really easily. I mean, the crashed glider was right there in the water. She could have tried to salvage it. At least attempt to reverse engineer it. But nope, time to move on.

Jason: The ape mind is a curious thing -- mercurial even among dedicated apes of science. Is "Monkey see, monkey do" merely a horrible piece of specist hate speech or does it have a grain of truth? Don't make me bring up the "Problem of the Use of Nets!"

 

Virdon and Burke seem confident enough of such an outcome to slip off unconcerned about any further ramifications.

Trey: For the record, I've never made you bring up nets. Maybe Galen sussed out she had an utter inability to adapt? Otherwise it seems like they should be concerned about all the bombs she has!

Jason: Galen really had to work hard to ignore the many red flags she hoisted during their semi-intimate encounters. He was like putty in her hands right up until the moment he realized the majority of her luggage was composed of cluster bombs.

Trey: Anyway, it was an enjoyable episode enlivened by good performances from the guest cast, though perhaps slightly sillier than most, but only slightly. It might have been better earlier, though. One might have hoped for Urko playing a bigger role in a final episode!

Jason: Urko gets enough screen time to spew his typical "kill 'em all and let the ape gods sort 'em out" attitudes, so as a fan of his over-the-top villainy, I'm at least placated.

I liked the episode as well, despite some of the TV clunkiness one must expect from fare of this kind. The final shot of our heroes floating off to extremely temporary freedom almost feels like a kind of ending to the series.  

Trey: All right, well, I'll give you a week to collect your thoughts and mull it over, and we'll deliver our final thoughts on the series.