Back to the Planet of the Apes: ep 12 "The Cure"

 "The Tyrant"
Airdate: November 22, 1974

Written by Walter Black
Directed by Ralph Senensky
Synopsis: When a human village is quarantined due to a malaria outbreak, a disease ape science doesn't understand, Virdon and Burke race to concoct a cure and convince a skeptical ape doctor to use it. If they don't succeed, Urko will implement his own version of infection control by burning the village to the ground with everyone in it.

Jason: Well, this episode bummed me out. I don't think it was particularly bad, especially in the context of the series as a whole, but after what we both thought was a particularly good episode, "The Cure" seemed to me perhaps worse than it actually was.

Trey: I can see that. I found it merely middling. This episode was written by Edward Lasko who also wrote "The Trap." It's inferior to that episode, I think, but still shows good craft. Malaria creates a credible and genuine danger and it's a logical place for "knowledge of the past" to be legitimately helpful, but it continues the trend mostly of endings just being a bit too pat, and the apes too neatly separated into "good" and "bad." What these sorts of episodes remind me most of are Westerns of the era that want to acknowledge mistreatment of Indians while being very careful to put the blame only on a few bad actors.

But we got to our summations early! Let's get into the details.

Jason: I know, highly irregular, but I had to get that off my chest! Sondra Locke guest stars in this episode, looking her youngest and most innocent. I was hoping against hope her character would escape from the trauma and misery that would become her stock and trade in future collaborations with Clint Eastwood, but alas! 

Trey: Nope. Jilted here by an as-tro-naut after a bout with malaria.

Jason: How about that mosquito SFX?

Trey: Gilligan's Island level! But I guess we can't expect much more from 70s TV.

Jason: It's now established canon that Virdon can do anything. But did this one seem like more of a stretch than usual, or was brewing quinine part of standard ss-tro-naut training? I don't remember seeing this information in the Boy Scout Handbook.

Trey: I've got a theory for that. Obviously astronauts of the future--well, past for us--in this alternate history are given comprehensive training much like the elite scout protagonist, Adam Reith, of Jack Vance's "Planet of Adventure" series. 

But that theory aside, at the very least they could have kept the unexpected skills consistent. Previously, Virdon was the farmboy with animal handling skills and Burke had the medical knowledge.

Jason: I enjoyed getting a bit more of Zaius and the ape council this episode, weighing in on the fate of the unfortunate village. It will come as no surprise that Urko served up some of my favorite lines advocating for a scorched earth approach to the problem. 

Trey: Urko's the kind of leader you can believe in! In a political context one wonders why Zaius doesn't maneuver Urko out. Maybe he feels all the alternatives are worse?

Jason: Maybe! Or maybe it serves Zaius' purposes to let Urko squander his reputation by mishandling everything. I don't know if they have some kind of 'no confidence' provision in the Ape High Council, but it's time to invoke it!

So, in these post-pandemic times, did you find any entertaining parallels in this episode? 

Trey: I can't think of any direct parallels, but I liked the realism of the ape researcher viewing this crisis as an opportunity to increase his prestige. Also, in their only nod toward a systemic view of anti-human prejudice, he seems to bare the astronauts no personal animus, but he's going to turn them over to Zaius because "that's his duty" which really seems to be a cover for "because that's least like to get me in trouble."

Jason: Okay, maybe I dislike it less in retrospect, but I'll say the middling ones are less fun than the spectacularly bad ones (I'm looking straight at you, Stock Footage Shark). 

Trey: In the next episode religion again rears its head, and we finally see a human with a plan of resistance. We'll see how that turns out!

Jason: I've been waiting for this! Human dignity must triumph! Right? Right?