The Implant People (8 Dec. 1973)

Director:

Joseph L. Scanlan

Writers:

Harlan Ellison (creator), Martin Lager,

Stars:

Keir Dullea, Gay Rowan, Robin Ward

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Keir Dullea	...	Devon
Gay Rowan	...	Rachel
Robin Ward	...	Garth
Donnelly Rhodes	...	Roloff
Pat Collins	...	Serina
Leo Leyden	...	Brant
Dino Narizzano	...	Domal
Jeff Toner	...	Jardy
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Osler	...	Host / Computer (voice)

Storyline

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

8 December 1973 (Canada)

Filming Locations:

CFTO-TV Studios, Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company Credits

User Reviews

A Complete Waste of Donnelly Rhodes & Patricia Collins

Garth (Robin Ward) is crankier than usual. He, Devon (Keir Dullea) & Rachel (Gay Rowan) have made their way to a particularly run-down and odious part of the Ark - the massive starship housing the remaining people of Earth. Devon is still searching for the elusive back-up bridge.

As the viewers of previous episodes know an accident knocked the Ark off course and into the path of a class 'G' solar star.The back-up bridge is thought to be the key to putting the Ark on proper course - away from collision with a sun and toward life-sustaining planets for the biosphere communities to colonize.

While they are trying to sleep a kid steals Garth's crossbow. He chases the boy through piles of garbage inadvertently finding his way in to yet another biosphere distinct from the others he has been in and certainly different from his home biosphere Cypress Corners. The laboratory-style room houses the manufacturing hub for the 'Implant People' - a community with electronic devices implanted in the sides of their heads which supposedly maximizes brain efficiency.

The reclusive Queen Serina (Patricia Collins) has allowed the standard of living to deteriorate by listening to the advice of self-serving policy guru Rolloff (Donnelly Rhodes). Though Rolloff is not the mastermind behind the implants he wants to make them mandatory for the inhabitants.

He has found a way to use the technology to his advantage. With the click of a button on a remote he carries with him he can give anyone with an implant a killer headache. He can also use it to track people with an implant wherever they go.

When he meets Devon, Garth & Rachel, Rolloff appears genuinely concerned about the problem of the Ark's course but can offer no solutions beyond offering each of them an implant. Serina is clueless. Essentially a figurehead ruler Rolloff has manoeuvred her out of the loop for years. The poverty and misery are shaping an insurrection but the people with leadership skills seemingly all have implants.

The cheap and cheesy attempt at presenting an artificial cityscape in this episode was among the most comically bad of the series. What we see looks like a pile of kids toy blocks inside the centre-piece of a train-set and we get multiple views of it. Each time the absurd display is shown it utterly pulverizes whatever suspension of disbelief audiences might have.

The storyline of the Serena character refusing to tour the community and mingle amongst the populous she governs was evidently a necessity. Whenever a biosphere community was depicted on this show the audience would see maybe twelve people representing an entire civilization.