This week on Filmation's Ark II, Jonah records log entries numbered 74 and 75 in Sector 18, Area 93. They crew has heard rumors of an "old battleground" nearby, and their mission is to "check it out" and make certain that "nothing dangerous still exists."
While Adam navigates the vehicle (yeah, he's the monkey...), he spots a girl, Jewel (Bonnie Van Dyke) being captured by Scavengers. "Man chase girl. Girl run away," Adam croaks. This gives me the creeps.
But anyway, the Ark II team also spies a World War I era tank in this "Valley of Machines," and it is being driven by Zachery (Chris Nelson), a villager who - like all his people - has been forbidden from using machinery.
In the agrarian village, Jonah and the others tell the Village leader (Marshall Thompson) about his daughter's abduction. He is distrustful of machines, but Jonah tries to set him straight. "Machines are just tools," he says. "Good and bad exists in the men who use those tools."
Indeed, Jonah. Indeed.
So Jonah, Ruth, Adam and Samuel, with Zachery and the old tank, set about to rescue Jewel, and succeed in doing so. When asked why Jonah didn't just use the Ark II to save the captured girl, he replies that he wanted the village leader to see that other machines -- those in the valley - have value in the right hands.
And that's the sermon for the day. So what do we learn about the Ark II universe this week? Well, Ruth declares, "We don't carry weapons....we don't believe in them." This is interesting, because even the Star Trek crews carry defensive weaponry - phasers - in landing party excursions. The Ark II crew really sticks to the philosophy of non-violence. Their tools include a force field on the Ark II, but no guns. And the only "device" they carry (other than wrist communicators) is a mirror that can "blind" opponents at appropriate times. Very interesting.
Also, for some reason, that damn monkey is always depicted cooking the meals for the crew. You gotta wonder why such an advanced group of youngsters allow an unwashed chimpanzee handle the foodstuffs, but who am I to quibble? Personally, I don't think this is really a sanitary practice, but then it isn't my ship.
One other fact: the Ark II lab is able to synthesize gasoline and other fuels, as we learn in this episode of the series. Which would make it very dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands.
While Adam navigates the vehicle (yeah, he's the monkey...), he spots a girl, Jewel (Bonnie Van Dyke) being captured by Scavengers. "Man chase girl. Girl run away," Adam croaks. This gives me the creeps.
But anyway, the Ark II team also spies a World War I era tank in this "Valley of Machines," and it is being driven by Zachery (Chris Nelson), a villager who - like all his people - has been forbidden from using machinery.
In the agrarian village, Jonah and the others tell the Village leader (Marshall Thompson) about his daughter's abduction. He is distrustful of machines, but Jonah tries to set him straight. "Machines are just tools," he says. "Good and bad exists in the men who use those tools."
Indeed, Jonah. Indeed.
So Jonah, Ruth, Adam and Samuel, with Zachery and the old tank, set about to rescue Jewel, and succeed in doing so. When asked why Jonah didn't just use the Ark II to save the captured girl, he replies that he wanted the village leader to see that other machines -- those in the valley - have value in the right hands.
And that's the sermon for the day. So what do we learn about the Ark II universe this week? Well, Ruth declares, "We don't carry weapons....we don't believe in them." This is interesting, because even the Star Trek crews carry defensive weaponry - phasers - in landing party excursions. The Ark II crew really sticks to the philosophy of non-violence. Their tools include a force field on the Ark II, but no guns. And the only "device" they carry (other than wrist communicators) is a mirror that can "blind" opponents at appropriate times. Very interesting.
Also, for some reason, that damn monkey is always depicted cooking the meals for the crew. You gotta wonder why such an advanced group of youngsters allow an unwashed chimpanzee handle the foodstuffs, but who am I to quibble? Personally, I don't think this is really a sanitary practice, but then it isn't my ship.
One other fact: the Ark II lab is able to synthesize gasoline and other fuels, as we learn in this episode of the series. Which would make it very dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands.
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