Ark II - The Robot

To me, “The Robot” has all the good stuff the show could offer really. The plot is really, really simple but it gives us the chance to a refurbished Robby the Robot (not the same as The Forbidden Planet or the Lost in Space episode, “War of the Robots” but the memory of what he was still remains just “with a few modifications”) saving the day, and a colony of zonked landers (my nickname for those nomads who live on the land in areas living off what they can in ragged clothes just looking for that next good meal) tossing rocks at Jonah (Terry Lester) due to this toxic gas causing wacked out behavior. The jet pack that allows Jonah to travel by air to destinations the Ark II is unable makes an appearance (he’s in the air when the landers causing him to fall to the earth with their tossed boulders!) as does the land roamer that resides in an additional section of Ark II. Yep the roamers rolls off and Jonah and Ruth (Jean Hon) take a ride in it looking for signs of the gas. With no luck, Jonah disregards “Alfie” much to Samuel’s (Jose Flores) disappointment, even though the robot (built by Samuel) is actually on to something if it would just get the chance. Due to the robot’s jaded programming and amateurish circuitry, certain clumsy mistakes were made threatening the inner workings of the Ark II. But Alfie did develop some artificial intelligence even some feelings for those on the Ark II. Jonah just felt he was more of a liability than help. That is until the robot actually does help, sacrificing itself for those in danger as a pit containing the highly explosive gas needed to be sealed.

With Robby befriending a little girl and sacrificing itself for others is a pleasant way to use the beloved iconic robot of classic sci-fi. Although made to look buffoonish at the beginning, urging Jonah to give up on the robot, it must prove its worth to him. And it does. Samuel, who built him from scratch, eventually could be proud of the robot he always had to defend. With all the toys fans of the show jived to, this episode includes all of them and has Robby as the added bonus. Lasers blasting a pit of toxic gas and landers tossing rocks and bellowing, “devil’s work” are also added riches to the episode, compensating for its so-so plot. Adam, the chimp, doesn’t get a lot to do in this episode, though. But, who would I be fooling…this is Robby’s show. How Robby made it from one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time to the barren wastelands of Ark II is quite a journey indeed. Props were often mishandled, misused, given to disrepair and disregard, and Robby would eventually need a makeup job unfortunately. Director Malone ultimately securing Robby, holding onto such a genre treasure.