I really loved this show as an 11 year old boy back in 1974. So when I bought the whole series on DVD for less than $20 I was really happy!
Well, memories are funny things. I remembered this episode mostly for the high spots, the eerie recording of the long-dead scientist ("the destruction of our world is imminent") and the thoughtful dialog between Dr. Zaius and General Urko about the dangers of human knowledge at the end of the episode. ("Burn it all!") What I didn't remember is that most of the episode actually turns on the big blonde astronaut's maudlin attack of homesickness and his highly questionable attempt to "adopt" a human family starving in the rubble.
Note to blonde astronaut: rat-faced lying little boys who snitch are poor candidates for adoption. You can bribe them with food, or you can bribe them with hand-made model airplanes, but the minute your back is turned they rat you out all over again!
Loved the father-son moments, too.
"Families love each other! Families respect each other!"
Uh, sure. But more to the point might have been something like, "Families never rat on each other, no matter what. You know what rats get, don't you Zaik? This is what rats get!"
An episode like this really makes you wish the swinging bachelor astronaut had taken his buddy aside and told him, "Alan, the kid looks like a rat. I mean, just look at that skinny face, and those beady little eyes. We're talking major rat action here. The blonde on the other hand . . . maybe she'd like to be the meat in an astronaut sandwich!"
