Wonder Woman 3.12: Gault’s Brain

Airdate: 12/29/78

A government-contracted defense missile company, whose founder, Gault, has just died, is experiencing mysterious acts of sabotage. When Diana investigates, she is rebuffed by the current CEO, Stryker, who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge any problem exists, and so she follows a trail of attempted murder, falsified college records and odd goings-on to Gault’s old estate, managed by a woman named Tara Landon, who had just “hired” a supremely physically fit man named Morton for a bodyguard position. Steve and Diana/WW pursue further investigation to reveal the sinister plot behind the curtain: Tara and a mad doctor plan to transplant Gault’s preserved brain into Moron’s body so he can take over his own company.

These plots are really starting to get silly now, but the odd part is they’re takenmore seriously. Gone are the campy villainous costumes and scenery chewing; now we have storylines so boringly byzantine any average ten-year would tune out within the first 10 minutes (like I did). This probably explains he ratings dip and CBS’s rescheduling of the show in February, resulting in its ultimate cancellation. But I mean, really, when your had bad guy is a latex brain with one tentacled eyeball, voiced by John Carradine and able to psychokinetically move stuff around the room, you’re in Ed Wood country now, and the tone ought to match accordingly! Peter Mark Richman as the mad doctor gives it the old college try, though; he’s almost reason enough to get through this.

Celebrity sighting: Beefy David Mason Daniels (as Morton) is a dead ringer for a young Tom Cruise.