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Land of the Lost
"The Stranger"
TV episode
Written by Walter Koenig
Directed by Bob Lally
Original airdate: October
12, 1974 |
The Marshalls meet a time traveling being related
to the Sleestak.
Read the complete story summary by Nels Olsen
Notes from the
Marshall Timeline
I've placed "The Stranger" earlier in the
timeline than its airdate simply to 1) allow more time to pass before the Marshalls
attempt to mess with the matrix time-table themselves in "The Hole" and 2) at
the beginning of this episode, the Marshalls are still searching for food and wary of
which plants might be poisonous, suggesting an adventure early in their time in the Land
of the Lost.
Didja Know?
This episode was written by Walter Koenig, best
known as the actor who portrayed Ensign Chekov on the original
Star Trek
TV series.
The actor portraying Enik, Walker Edmiston, is
the same actor who played Collie in
"Downstream".
The Sleestak appear in daylight in this episode,
despite past and future episodes depicting them as intolerant of
bright light.
Didja Notice?
Several different fruits are visible growing on
plants at 1:37 on the DVD, what appear to be: pears; green,
yellow, red, and purple grapes; red apples; and giant
strawberries as seen in "Dopey". Holly
picks up a green melon with yellow stripes.
At 2:46 on the DVD, Holly appears to pick a
suinaku fruit...not named until the LOTL90 episode
"Heat Wave"
(although this fruit also bears a suspicious resemblance to eggplant).
In
LOTL90, the fruit grew from a vine on the ground; here, Holly
picks it from an upright-growing plant.
Enik is able to make the Sleestak leave the
crystal cave, presumably with his telepathic abilities. He is
also able to read human thoughts.
Enik wears a bracelet on his left wrist composed
of about 6 small red jewels. As an Altrusian, he has three
fingers/claws as opposed to the Sleestaks' two. Both species
have just two claws for toes on their feet.
Enik tells the Marshalls it is conceivable the
Mageti could help return to Earth, but he doesn't know the
coordinates/combination to
their world.
Enik says the Altrusians created the
Mageti to locate and fix the doorways so that time-dimensional
journeys may be undertaken. This seems to imply that the
doorways were not created by the Altrusians, but exist naturally
or were created earlier by some other civilization.
It kind of seems as if the
Mageti not only channels emotions into
paraphysical action, but may also amplify the emotions of nearby
individuals. Will and Holly (particularly Will) seem to be angry
or frightened than their usual personalities would manifest.
Enik states that Altrusians are incapable of
lying. This sounds similar to the concept on
Star Trek that
Vulcans could not lie (though that is not quite true of the
Vulcan species).
Enik talks about the "failure of the human
race...they are quick to do battle...quick to destroy..." What
were the circumstances that Enik has met or learned about humans
before?
Enik says there was a disturbance during his
journey through the dimensional doorway, casting him to this
time in the Land.
When Holly refers to the crystals as "jewels",
Enik is quick to inform her they are not jewels, but
fourth-dimensional nodes. Yet, he then refers to them as jewels
a few times himself later in the episode! As far as
fourth-dimensional nodes goes, in modern physics, time is
often considered the fourth dimension.
At 12:00 minutes on the DVD, notice that the
Sleestak crossbow bolt is already embedded in the tree before
the offscreen Sleestak fires it at 12:08!
At 12:18 on the DVD, it appears that actor Walker
Edmiston (as Enik) knocks down a fern set piece as he heads off
screen to send the attacking Sleestak away.
For some reason, the Sleestak stop obeying Enik's
commands to leave him and the Marshalls in peace after they
leave the crystal cave. Enik is confused about this, denying
that they could be so vicious and warlike; Rick sarcastically
responds, "...next you'll be telling me that those arrows are
Cupid's darts." Enik is not aware of Cupid. Cupid is the Roman
god of love.
Enik tells the Marshalls that the power crystals
must be arranged in a special sequence, a most complex formula.
Presumably, he is referring to the physical arrangement of
crystals on the matrix table of the time-dimensional doorway and
possibly also to the pattern in which they must be touched to
activate the doorway and open it to the desired time-space
coordinates.
At 16:23 on the DVD, Enik says, "There is only
one doorway. Either you shall return or I shall." What does he
mean by only one doorway? In later episodes, we see the portal
open to various times and places, with the possibility that
someone could step through to it, still leaving the doorway for
later use by others.
At 17:05 on the DVD, you can hear Walker
Edmiston's breathing through the Enik mask.
Enik says the effort to try to find the
coordinates of the Marshalls' world would exhaust the power of
the crystals, implying the crystals have a fairly limited amount
of power.
How is Enik able to summon a mist that makes
the Marshalls see their greatest fears? One might argue that his
telepathic abilities enable him to see their fears, but what
does the mist have to do with it (other than being a visual cue
to the audience that something is happening!)?
When the
Marshalls see their greatest fears, Holly's fear is about
falling, another early glimpse of her acrophobia, fully revealed
in "Elsewhen" (and hinted at earlier
in "The Sleestak God").
Enik instructs the Marshalls to take two crystals
from the wall, a blue and a green. When combined, these crystals
create an electrical force field that shocks the Sleestak and
drives them away from the matrix chamber.
Memorable Dialog
elementary deduction.wav
my
antecedents.wav
the
Mageti.wav
keepers of the time portal.wav
the
Mageti 2.wav
incapable of lying.wav
foolish human.wav
failure of the human race.wav
not
jewels.wav
lost
city.wav
great, great grandparents.wav
cupid's darts.wav
lousy
shots.wav
grave
error.wav
my
future.wav
complete concentration.wav
non-refutable.wav
not
even Enik.wav
the presence of compassion.wav
aren't so inferior.wav
People, Places and Things
(Provided by Michael Taylor)
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