Monday, January 15, 2007

SATURDAY MORNING CULT TV BLOGGING: Ark II: "The Balloon"

This week on Ark II, the Ark is on "automatic pilot," (*ahem*), as Jonah and the others explore Sector 14, Area 12. Jonah describes (in Log Entry # 51), the new mission. They are trying to open communication with people "who refuse to communicate with the outside world."

North Korea..

No, just kidding. There's another isolated village in the California desert, this one fearful of an epidemic that is claiming lives left and right. The Ark runs across several message balloons which describe the situation, and the crew meets up with young Ben and his grandfather, who are trying to save the village from extermination.

But then Jonah gets sick. And no, it's not because Adam the chimpanzee is again fixing lunch for the Ark II crew. (Would you let the monkey handle food? Even a talking monkey...). Anyway, in this episode, Adam fixes Samuel lunch, using a device to turn a pill into a plate of bacon and eggs.

Back to the main story: Ruth is able to fix a vaccine for the epidemic in - literally - seconds, and then inoculate all the villages. Message: "To block progress only stops growth."

Also, the myth that Ark II carries no offensive weaponry is quashed this week when the Ark fires a front-mounted laser to demolish several boulders blocking the path to the village. Oopsy.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:51 PM

    John, as you mentioned in the episode description, this story is from an earlier log entry than any of the previous episodes. Maybe the Ark II started out with weapons, but by the time it got to the later log entries, the laser was removed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damn, Howard. You got me there. That might be the explanation.

    Now, let's see how good you really are: Why do they keep letting the monkey handle the food?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:02 PM

    Well, maybe it's a variation on the current GEICO ad campaign involving cavemen. Food preparation in the 25th century is so easy, even a monkey can do it (especially if the monkey is sentient, and the food is in pill form to start).

    ReplyDelete

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