Sunday, February 17, 2013

Cult-TV Blogging: The Starlost: "The Beehive" (December 29, 1973)



“The Beehive” is another baffling, weird and ultimately pointless entry in The Starlost (1973 – 1974) episode canon.  It’s yet another example of a story that doesn’t really need to be told, and is dramatized poorly by the production team.

In “The Beehive,” Devon (Keir Dullea), Garth (Robin Ward) and Rachel (Gay Rowan) have already responded to an Earth ship Ark alarm klaxon when the episode commences.  The story starts with them -- wearing copper and white uniforms we’ve seen just once before -- standing  in a Zoological Dome devoted to the study of bees.  Devon is worried that the bees might escape, but the lead scientist there, Dr. Pete Marshall (William Hutt) will brook no interference with his beloved insects.

Marshall’s sensible wife Heather (Antoinette Bower), however, has begun to realize that her husband is acting strangely and may actually be under the thrall of the bees.  Another scientist attempting to chart the bee “language” is also convinced that Peter is under the influence of a mutant queen.  His theory is borne out when Garth and Rachel see giant mutant bees in one of the hives.  The bees soon swarm out into corridors around the dome threatening everyone.

Before long, the humans realize that the bees plan to escape from the dome and colonize every biosphere on the Ark.  This invasion can only be stopped by Garth, who attempts to freeze the Queen Bee before she can convert another human mind to her cause…Devon’s!




This is another Starlost episode where the cheapness of the whole affair just sinks the thing.  Killer bees were a favorite story subject in the 1970s (as movies such as The Swarm [1979] attest…), but the idea is handled in cheap-jack and dull fashion here.  Virtually the entire episode is set in a laboratory set as various human factions bicker with one another over what to do.  Occasionally we also see regular bees -- enlarged to appear giant -- on chroma-key backgrounds.  The final battle is especially lame.  Garth picks up a regular, 20th century fire extinguisher painted white and blasts the mutant queen (still seen on chroma key background) with it.

There’s no reason he couldn’t have done it thirty minutes earlier.



As usual, logistical questions abound.  Why is there an entire dome – on a spaceship of limited space -- devoted to bees on The Earth Ship Ark?  Dr. Marshall claims to have been managing the lab for some twenty eight years, so once more, we must assume that he was educated, trained and mentored after the accident which scuttled the Ark and separated all the domes hundreds of years earlier.  If that’s the case, it seems like matters other than bee-keeping (like repairing a damaged reactor) would take precedence for a scientist.

More to the point, why can’t Devon, Garth and Rachel find the hierarchy that is training scientists such as the Marshalls, or McBride and Farthing (from “Farthing’s Comet?”) Somewhere on the ark – forever unseen – seems to be a thriving, functional highly-advanced civilization.

This episode is also one of the dullest of the catalog because the three main characters have little to do but stand around and listen to exposition about bees, or contemplate reports about what the mutant bees are planning.  Accordingly, Dullea, Ward and Rowan all seem checked out.

Rachel seems to have almost new lines in the entire episode.  She is reduced to offering a vacant stare for most of the show, and it’s a sad development for the character.  She started out as one of the stars of the program, but is now little more than a glorified extra.

Next week: the last episode of The Starlost: “Space Precinct.”

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:52 PM

    "The Beehive" episode of Starlost, albeit ill-conceived, did make sense because of the fact that bees are an extremely important part of Earth's ecology for pollinating food crops. When the Ark gets to the new planet they brought them along as part of the agricultural needs of the colony.

    SGB

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  2. While I agree with all your criticisms, I found this story to be somewhat engaging because it plays out like a 50s monster movie. You have the deluded mad scientist, the eager-beaver young assistant, and the concerned but loyal wife. Unfortunately, our three main characters are superfluous to this construct. Once again, we have our three farmers walking into a highly sophisticated environment and trying to force their will on people who know far more about the situation than they do. Devon, in particular, comes off as a pompous jerk in most of these stories.

    As your previous commenter pointed out, a dome devoted to bees could be plausible since they are essential to all farming, so I was okay with that. Also, the claustrophobic environment created a sense of tension missing from other stories. Still, it was pretty sloppy. Did you catch the scene where the TV camera is clearly visible over Devon's shoulder? Ugh.

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  3. Granted "The Starlost" is a seriously flawed series. However, John, in repeatedly complaining about the failure to course-correct the Ark, I think you're missing the point of the series. The Ark is like Europe in the Middle Ages, completely localized, no sense of common purpose. It's also a comment on our modern world, since we have the experts and resources to solve hunger, war, global warming, etc., but do we? Usually not, because like those on the Ark we suffer from apathy, rivalries, and hopelessness. Again, the series is flawed, and the theme could've been more elegant, but it is there.

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