The Questor Tapes!

The Questor Tapes is regarded by many as the best non-Star Trek sci-fi project Gene Roddenberry ever concocted. And I'd likely have to agree. One of my favorite Trek episodes is "Assignment: Earth" which has a human trained by aliens over many centuries return to the planet to oversee our entry into the regions beyond our atmosphere. This show has a similar premise. 

The story begins showing us the creation of an android, one whose components were built by a vanished genius named Emil Vaslovik (Lew Ayres). The android's construction is overseen by Jerry Robinson (Mike Farrell) and a team led by Geoffrey Darrow (John Vernon), but the due to interference with the final plans it seems the android did not activate. Later when everyone is gone from the lab, Questor (Robert Foxworth) does indeed activate and goes in search of Jerry who he hopes will help him find Vaslovik. The two become international fugitives and seek the help of Lady Helena Trimble (Dany Wynter) a notorious information broker in England. With her help they get a clue which does indeed lead them to Vaslovik and the full secret of Questor's creation. 

This is a dandy show, especially the beginning in the lab where Questor is created. Some outstanding effects really help sell his creation. The ending is equally impressive with a fantastic final location for the finale. The problem with this above average effort is the stuff in between, the stuff which frankly would likely resemble the proposed series episodes. Questor and Jerry fumble around as cops look for them, using Questor's talents to cheat at gambling (if that's possible), and gain access to forbidden places. This might well have been a decent show, given half a chance. Robert Foxworth was very impressive as Questor and while I'm not a Farrell fan, he did good work here as well. The show did create one relic in The Questor Tapes novelization by D.C. Fontana. 

But based on my readings about the show, the network once again injected itself unwisely into the development of a Gene Roddenberry project, eventually driving him away and alienating one of the key cast members. Mike Farrell was at one point written out of the show and given little heads up about it, and then was asked to return later which he wisely declined. The saga of how NBC stifled and eventually killed off this Roddenberry offering is a tragic tale, one repeated all too often in the heyday of network television. Roddenberry's TV experience had been a tad woeful, but he'd eventually find solace and success when he retooled Star Trek for syndication. He also got to revisit his ideas about androids by including in that "Next Generation" cast a character named "Data". Perhaps you've heard of him. 

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