Saturday, August 11, 2012

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Ark II: "Don Quixote" (December 11, 1976)


This week’s episode of the Filmation 1970s series Ark II, called “Don Quixote,” follows roughly the same outline as the episode “Robin Hood.” Only here, the crew of the titular vehicle encounters literary and mythic personalities who are not merry men, but rather based on Cervantes’ The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605). 

Specifically, Jonah, Ruth, Samuel and Adam cross paths with two post-apocalyptic personalities who knowingly have cast themselves as the chivalric Quixote and his loyal squire, Sancho.

The conflict of the week occurs when this (confused) new age Quixote sees Jonah not as a hero, but as his most dangerous nemesis, the Black Knight himself.  Thus Quixote seeks to interfere with Jonah’s mission to detonate two unexploded pre-apocalypse bombs in an ancient battle area. 

Adding some comic relief to the episode, Quixote also sees the talking chimpanzee, Adam, as a damsel he can protect and love, Lady Marguerite. 

Finally, Quixote is recruited to the Ark II’s noble cause when the crew contextualizes the un-exploded bomb as a “serpent” the knight must defeat in combat.  Quixote actually proves helpful too, during the climax, because his metal knight’s armor can help to limit the range and power of an explosion, if one should occur.

Played more lightly than “Omega,” and “Robot,” and without the sharp social commentary of “The Cryogenic Man,” this installment of the Saturday morning series wouldn’t rank amongst the show’s best.  

Nor is it the worst, however. 

The final message of “Don Quixote is something akin to “use your imagination, but also see things through the eyes of others.”  That’s appropriately didactic for children. Yet it’s probably even more commendable that Ark II would name-check Don Quixote in the first place, no doubt causing a spate of little ones to ask their parents about the character and his story, or perhaps even visit a nearby library to find out even more about him. 

I must say, I appreciate the fact that over its run, Ark II has showcased a very literary, cerebral bent, alluding to Scripture, Dickens, the Robin Hood legends and Cervantes.  That’s an unexpected (adult) pleasure of revisiting the Saturday morning series today.

Next week, the final Ark II episode: “Orkus.”

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:10 PM

    John nice review of Ark II “Don Quixote” episode. As a boy watching this in 1976 seeing Adam being the damsel Lady Marguerite made me wonder why Ruth was not chosen instead. However, I did think it was funny like season 2 Lost In Space humor with Doctor Smith. In 1976, even as a boy, I fortunately was aware of Don Quixote from “Man Of La Mancha” and a rerun of the Hanna-Barbera Productions 1968-69 series The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “Huck Of La Mancha”.

    SGB

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  2. I would love to see this episode. Quixote makes a few appearances in shows like this--even those who have never read Cervantes are given mini-lessons on the character.

    And, to SGB, I have read about the episode from Huck Finn but never seen it either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:50 AM

      Hugh,

      Here is a link to The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “Huck Of La Mancha” episode that you can watch on Youtube.[This link is part 1, part 2 and part 3 are all there to see the complete half hour episode] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0OZWyjwkno

      SGB

      Delete

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