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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com |
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"Circle" Written by Larry Niven and David Gerrold Directed by Dennis Steinmetz Enik
discovers a time-loop in the time doorway caused by the Read the complete story summary by Nels Olsen Notes from the Marshall Timeline I've placed "Circle" significantly out of its airdate order. In "Circle" the Marshalls are depicted as discovering, for the first time, the Sleestak in their dormant season, hence it seems only logical that it should take place sometime before "Follow That Dinosaur" in which the Marshalls are already aware of the Sleestaks' hibernation status and actually witness the end of their dormancy when the lava rises in the Devil's Cauldron. Didja Notice? Rick swims with a t-shirt on. Maybe Spencer Milligan didn't want to show off his gut?The Sleestak emerging from the lagoon when he's chasing Holly may have been inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon. It's a great, creepy shot. If you freeze-frame it, you can see lots of water rushing out of the mask's nostrils and mouth. It must have been an uncomfortable situation for the actor! There are Sleestak scenes in several of the episodes, including this one, in which there appears to be a problem with the Sleestak eyes; there seems to be a partial covering or something showing through the plastic lenses of the mask, possibly the shiny, patterned stickers that David Gerrold says were placed inside the sockets to create a multi-faceted impression to the eyes. To me the No-Prize answer to this inconsistency to the Sleestak eyes is that they have a nictitating membrane that occasionally covers the eye. Why do the Triceratops, Coelophysis and Brontosaurus all rush to drink from the lagoon at the same time? And leave at the same time? Are they a gang? At 7:53 on the DVD, Enik says, "They cannot harm you, Will Human." Will Human? Listen: Will human.wav After the Marshalls step through the time doorway and Enik watches their arrival in the Land, we are shown the scene of them taking refuge in the cave at High Bluff and we see Grumpy start to walk away. And though we don't see it, we get to hear the roar he makes as he "looks into the camera" from the last shot of the weekly opening credits. Something must happen to undue/prevent the events of "Circle" since the Marshalls continue to exist in the Land of the Lost and never mention the events in any subsequent episode. Notes from the audio commentary by David Gerrold and Larry Niven Gerrold reveals that the idea for the crystals found in the Land of the Lost were inspired by Harlan Ellison's original script for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever". Gerrold says the idea behind the Land of the Lost is that it is a staging area for travelling between worlds. Rick Marshall was written as Gerrold's idea of a role-model father. Gerrold remarks that whenever fire is used on the show they always had one of the characters telling the others to be careful. He didn't want kids watching the show to be inspired to play with fire. (In my case the "carefuls" didn't make much of an impression...my friend Casey and I used to run around with makeshift torches inside an old mine tunnel near my house as if it were the Lost City!) Memorable Dialog
Will human.wav People, Places and Things (Provided by Michael Taylor)
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