A 50 million year old spider gives a young scientist a clue as to how to produce synthetic oil. I had high hopes for a plot involving an arachnid embedded in amber (having seen what Michael Crichton did with a mosquito) but the idea that somehow the conditions in the amber could mimic the heat and pressure that produced petroleum is/was just silly. There is also a tedious secondary plot about a rock dealer and an expecting wife who doesn't understand her husband's dedication to science. Truman Bradley opens the story with an explanation of carbon dating followed by a couple of ridiculous 'demonstrations' involving instantaneous dating from beeping machine and what appears to be the skull of a rodent being passed off as that of an 'ancient flying reptile', which is then dated to 20 million years ago - 40 million years after the passing of the last flying reptiles. One of the worst episodes of the primal sci-fi anthology that I have watched - both the science and the fiction.
3 Reviews
"Basements Fascinate Me! That's Where Edison Started!!"
richardchatten10 June 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Truman Bradley's introduction to this episode begins with the subject of radiation; and the fact that the plot involves a 50 million year old spider preserved in a piece of amber raises hopes that scientist Gene Barry is on the verge of unleashing a radioactive spider upon a hapless human race (especially as the director is Jack Arnold, who the same year made 'Tarantula').
What we actually get is a cozy little domestic drama in colour in which the spider proves a red herring. The plot instead hinges upon the analysis of an air bubble also encased within the amber, from which Barry deduces that he can use electricity in his basement to synthetically create petroleum and at a stroke end his and wifey Audrey Totter's financial problems. The End.
What we actually get is a cozy little domestic drama in colour in which the spider proves a red herring. The plot instead hinges upon the analysis of an air bubble also encased within the amber, from which Barry deduces that he can use electricity in his basement to synthetically create petroleum and at a stroke end his and wifey Audrey Totter's financial problems. The End.
I Never Really Got the Petroleum Thing
Hitchcoc10 July 2013
This silly episode begins with the silly 1950's thing about childbirth. When a woman becomes pregnant, everything is supposed to stop. The husband is an insensitive, myopic nerd who can't see past the end of his nose. The wife tells him how his research is ruining their lives--at least from a financial standpoint. Into his life comes a piece of petrified amber with a spider fossil in it. Somehow, this is going to provide a breakthrough for him and his new family. The kindly old science shop guy wants to sell it to him or 1500 dollars. A lot of goofy stuff happens in a kind of "It's a Wonderful LIfe" way, and his creditors get together and form a corporation. All that stuff aside, I still don't know what they discovered at the end. Watch it and see if you understand.
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