LAND OF THE GIANTS-THE CHASE

THE CHASE
Production Number: (26th) 
Filmed:
First Aired: 4-20-69 (26th)
Writer: Arthur Weiss, William Welch
Director: Sobey Martin
Music: Leith Stevens
SYNOPSIS
Teaser
During the day, Mark tells Steve and Dan that SID men caught Fitzhugh, Valerie, and Betty. He managed to get Barry away and back to the ship. Mark heard the SID men talk about taking to the three to the Supreme Council first, then bringing them to SID headquarters-Kobick's office. In a truck, young Nalor tells his father Golan that he will get the little people and destroy the incriminating files in Kobick's office wall safe. Inside, Kobick explains to the girls and Fitz that he has full approval of the Council to make an offer but as Val points out they didn't say what type of offer. Kobick finishes with, "And I assure you, you have no reason to fear me." Sarcastically, Betty says, "Oh, I'm sure we haven't." Kobick starts with, "Young lady, let me prove it to you..." Just then Nalor confronts him with a gun which Kobick knocks from his hand. Nalor, not to be outdone, tosses a small device onto the table where the others are behind some kind of force field device. Kobick throws it off the table, yelling, "Down! A bomb!" It blows up.
Act One
After the smoke clears, revealing one entire damaged area of Kobick's office, Kobick seems to sincerely care when it looked as though Betty is hurt. The criminals escape in their stolen Laundry Van, during which a shootout with the SID occurs---causing a fleeing Mark to hit his head on a giant fire hydrant. A bag the three men are near is shot apart. Steve and Dan get a nearly unconscious Mark back to camp. Kobick instructs Val to bring a note back to camp, addressed to Steve. It asks Steve to come to his office immediately, which they the men scoff at. Val seems to believe the giant will release Betty and Fitz and guarantee their future safety. The three men go to an empty house and use a phone to contact Kobick, who tells them the safety of his government relies on their cooperation. Mark tells Steve to "lay it on him" and let him meet their demands first. Nalor and brother Trilling take their wounded father, Golan, to a hideout. A doctor told Trilling that Golan will live. They are counterfeiters trying to ruin the government financially. They monitor calls from and to SID. Steve keeps hanging up on Kobick to avoid phone traces. Nevertheless, Kobick, outside, gets a phone trace. To prove it he calls Steve back at 947-037.
Act Two
At camp, Dan tells Val that Kobick was satisfied once he got Steve and Mark; Dan hid until the SID left. Callously, Kobick drops Mark and Steve to the tabletop but warns them about the three poled electrode type force field--a lethal one. He needs the two men to follow luminous ink in the city drains to the counterfeiters' hideout. Kobick allows Fitzhugh to go free even though Fitz asks Steve if Betty can go free instead. Steve wants Fitz to help Dan free Betty (why couldn't Betty help Dan free Fitz?). Mark will not tell Kobick their radio frequency but he and Kobick will keep in touch on 100 kilocycles. When Kobick asks, "Oh, do you want me to take the fat one back to your spaceship?" Steve repeats him and laughs, "Kobick, you're too much." In front of a gazebo, an SID man lowers Mark and Steve into the drain via ropes. Kobick tells to locate the hideout or something regrettable will happen to Betty. Nalor, against his father and brother's wishes and sermons, will use a bug spray to kill the two Earth men. He may not have to---a giant white, red eyed rat blocks their entrance to the first new drain!
Act Three
Steve freezes, "You can stare a dog or cat down but how about one of these?" Mark murmurs it will be on them in two jumps. The sound a cat drives it away. To get Kobick out of his office, Steve tells him they found two ink trails going two ways. Dan thanks Steve; he, Val, and Fitz had slipped under the door and were trying to start to free Betty. Dan hooks up a cable to wires and a safety handle to blow the electrodes. He warns Fitz to hold the handle and not to plug it in until he says to or until Val signals from the tabletop--if Fitz does, Dan will go up in smoke. On the table, Dan has to remind Val about the forcefield--she was so happy to see Betty, she almost ran to her. At Steve's orders, Mark tries to stall Kobick further so the Inspector will not leave after his chemist arrives to analyze the ink. Steve doesn't want to push it so he tells Kobick they found the real trail, the other one just stops, and the chemist isn't needed. Nalor and Trilling plant bug spray devices at various streets. Steve tells Mark he doesn't want to think about whether or not Kobick will keep his word when Mark asks him about it. Kobick returns to his office again when he hears about the exterminating gas. Steve and Mark are almost enveloped and overcome in it.
Act Four
Dan's electrode wire explosive device doesn't work. Val wonders if Steve made the gas up as an excuse to get Kobick "out of here." Betty frowns, "Well, how about getting me out of here?" Kobick's men knock out the gas machines with Kobick himself helping. He finds one at third and Agar; his sergeant tells him from the radio set up that another was found 8th and Odin. Mark goes off to check the crooks' drain grill while Steve calls Val. Dan and Fitz hit the electrode with a giant pencil but the blast knocks them down. Kobick walks in and puts them all into the forcefield prison. Val dropped her radio, accidentally allowing Steve to overhear Kobick's plan: "Well, you didn't trust me to turn your friend loose. Well, you were right--I have plans for all of you and they don't include letting you go free." Steve is doubtful that the crooks will help but Mark thinks they are not really criminals. The two, admitting they are desperate, contact the giants. Nalor wants to hammer (nailer-hammer, get it?) their heads in but the convince the three giants to join them in a raid on Kobick's office. After callously dropping the other three to Betty, Kobick questions Dan. Steve's call about the hideout gets Kobick and mobile units out of HQ. Steve and Mark sneak in, plant explosives on the wall lock of the safe. Nalor, in sync with Steve's timing on his watch, throws a smoke bomb down a drain to distract the SID guards. Steve and Mark climb up to the others. One of Nalor's bombs is set to blow up the evidence in the safe---but before it does, the sergeant comes in, his gun aimed at the giants.
Tag
The giants knock the gun from the sergeant and punch him down. Steve, not sure if the giants will help get them all out, calls to them--the forcefield lock is on the wall. The giants shoot it and carry the little people out in their shirts, shooting it out with the returned Kobick and men. Using an SID car, they drive off, stop quickly, and drop the six little people out onto the pavement. Dan asks Steve, "Whatever happened to that rule of yours about trusting no giant?" Steve thought they could have trusted him for one minute, "Yea, we'll find us a friend someday." They walk off.
Review: This fast paced episode is somewhat reminiscent of UNDERGROUND where the group team up with a resistance fighter. The little people here though are more or less pawns for both groups of giants--who all treat them badly--the giants carelessly drop them onto tables and don't seem too concerned if they get hurt. Kobick did seem almost trustworthy and for the first time he uses two of the little people's first and last names (Mark and Steve). Kevin Hagen is flawless as Kobick and especially so here. As Kobick he was not overused in the series but somewhat under used--only 12 episodes. Yet in every scene, Hagen acts to perfection. Barry doesn't appear at all in this episode; while an explanation is given to his whereabouts at the beginning of the episode there is none to his absence during the entire hour. Leith Steven's new scores were added to his older ones as well as a few tunes from previous Williams and Harry Geller music. They all fit perfectly together. The new music is atmospheric, slow at times, energetic at other spots. It is used again in CHAMBER OF FEAR, EVERY DOG NEEDS A BOY, and other second season segments. This episode used many outdoor locations and took place entirely in the daytime with no night shots. Several scenes appear to be the suburbs with a few parks and lots of tree lined streets with little traffic. The SID HQ is, for once, a large adequate looking building. Kobick's offices in all of his appearances seem to be all slightly different from one another. The story, nothing earth shattering, hold interest. Weiss again incorporates some of the same themes from the series THE FUGITIVE--the pawns of the government, the criminals as aides or companions to the main heroes, the betrayal by the one time enemy trying to fool the heroes, the uncertainty of trusting anyone on either side, and finally the chase title itself (although in this episode there is really not a traditional chase). We never find out what the evidence in the safe was. One annoyance with the dialogue in THE CHASE, SEVEN LITTLE INDIANS, and a few others, is that Fitzhugh is referred to as "the fat one" or "the old one" by the giants. While this is in character, it can be quite irritating that being old or-and fat is something negative and terrible to be pointed out--usually but not exclusively, by Kobick. Going against Murray Leinster's rationale that LAND OF THE GIANTS couldn't have airplanes, the TV LAND OF THE GIANTS has them. One flies past Kobick's head briefly sometime during the last 20 minutes of the show. Later, in LAND OF THE LOST, we would see planes and a giant airport. As far as Spindrift, it still has brown leaves hanging on it and vines caress it. A new canopy is up and the two step stool is outside again (after SHELL GAME).