Airdate: 4/9/81
While in earth’s orbit, the Searcher is boarded by an
intergalactic consulate, hell-bent on arresting and tying for treason – none
other than Buck! Apparently, they have a 500-year old videotape unearthed from
an ancient air force base showing Buck scheming, in 1987, a preemptive nuclear
attack on U.S. enemies – most likely leading to the nuclear holocaust that
occurred later that year. Yes, the tape is pretty damining, but Goodfellow
suggests Buck undergo a mind probe to prove his innocence. It winds up doing
more harm than good as the memory scan seems to reveal Buck’s further
compliance in the plot, and everyone prepares for the worst; in this case –
execution, the mandatory penalty for treason. But Buck keeps getting strong
memory flashes of Mt. Rushmore, so Hawk and Wilma fly him to earth to actually
see the monument in hopes of jogging his memory. It works; one final courtroom brainscan
reveals the president, at his secret base in Rushmore, had made Buck the inside man
to investigate renegade activities within the air force. (They had to hypnotize
him for such a top secret job so he could never remember what he was part of.)
Another great job by Buck’s
writers – it cobbles together parts of The
Wrong Man and The Manchurian
Candidate to fashion one hell of a potboiler. Of course, even if Buck is
guilty, there must be some kind of statute of limitations to keep him from
getting charged with something that happened 500 years earlier, but we’re not
to ask such questions. (Never mind that that tape is in pretty good condition
for its age – I have tapes less than 20 years old that are unplayable!) Not bad
for Buck’s penultimate adventure. On to the finale!
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