“Devil’s Planet”

Koenig is trapped on a prison planet where the inmates don’t know that everyone on their home world is dead.

Writer: Michael Winder

Director: Tom Clegg

Guest Cast

Hildegard Neil as Elizia

Roy Marsden as Crael

At this point, we arrive at the “Final Three” sequence of episodes. Alan Carter and Sandra Benes are gone for good, replaced by Bill Fraser (John Hug) and a character known only as “Alibe” (named for Alibe Parsons, the actress who played her). The part of Helena’s assistant medical officer, or “Dr. Du Jour,” will fall to Dr. Ed Spencer (Sam Dastor) for what little is left of the series’ run.

Few if any of these characters figure into this episode, however: we only see Koenig and a couple of minor semi-regulars in this episode, which was filmed at the same time as “Dorzak,” an episode in which Koenig does not appear. In this case, it was very obvious, as this late in the season production values had begun to break down. I think Martin Landau probably resented the fact that he was stuck making this turkey while back on the set, everyone else got to be in a good episode. Then there’s Blake Maine, a pilot who, albeit a cutie, must have been a freshman in high school when the moon broke orbit. What’s he doing flying an eagle?

A popular argument against this episode was that its ending was too abrupt, leaving too many questions unanswered. Mary Bloemker attempted to fill this void in the 70s with a short story published in Alpha Chronicle. The story, unfortunately, suffered from bad editing.

The ending image of Koenig walking amidst a sea of dead bodies to the strains of light mariachi music was too much for me. But the image of Elizia’s girls with their tight leotards and cracking whips is enough to send my friend the S&M submissive from England off for a cold shower.