Post by Lunkhead on Nov 8, 2010 17:58:58 GMT -8
Original airdate: September 23, 1963
Having viewed the series during its initial run, the only childhood memory I have of “Dragon” is “Hey, where’s the monster?” After the spectacular “Galaxy Being” debut, I was more than ready to see another cool creature. This ep kinda threw me and I wondered what the series was really going to be like.
In this case, the “bear” is replaced with the ability to reshape flesh through a new molecular plasticity process. The effects hold up well and the close-ups of the deliberate mangling of a human face are still creepy. A funny sidenote: In the Robin Williams film, “Mrs. Doubtfire”, there is a quick scene of his children watching TV. What they’re viewing is that particular OL face-squishing moment. The little girl murmurs, “That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.”
The drama itself is well done and the idea of having our leaders replaced with identical imposters is unsettling – a little twist on the body snatcher theme. A sad coincidence is the fact that JFK was assassinated just 2 months after this episode aired. Sydney Blackmer delivers a good performance as the president and I especially like the scenes where his facial expressions revert back to the oriental origin. – a nice touch. The theme music by Dominic Frontiere is awesome here. As the series progresses, various musical themes get re-cycled. However in this instance, the main recurring ‘Dragon’ theme is only heard in this episode. A minor sidenote: While watching tonight, I realized that the orchestrated music that the president and his daughter dance to is the exact same music that Eddie Phillips was playing when he decided to crank up the transmitter power in “The Galaxy Being”.
To sum up, even today I feel this is a bit of an oddity for the second ep. It’s a quality production, but it feels more like a spy show than a dark, eerie OL nightmare. When I think of the series as a whole, this one seems out of place. Maybe that’s ok. - Because in the next entry, we get our first serving of the real meat and potatoes.
