Airdate: 1/29/81
While exploring
a supposedly lifeless planet, Buck and Hawk come across a
dying old man, whose
last request to his visitors is to be the “guardian” of a small, green-light
emanating chest and deliver it safely to an undisclosed location. Honoring the
request, Buck brings it back aboard the Searcher, and from there his troubles begin.
It seems as though anyone who looks inside the weird object has disturbing
visions – for Buck it’s a dream/memory of his last hours before the ill-fated
journey that froze him for 500 years. The admiral hallucinates that the entire
ship’s crew is starving to death, Hawk sees a vision of his deceased wife, and
Derring catches a glimpse of herself… as a blind woman. What do all these
dreams have in common? Well it’s something to do with the space-time continuum,
which has now been thrown out of whack thanks to the emerald enigma.
Ultimately, Buck decides to have the ship follow the course the chest seems to
have set for them – and the wind up on a strange planet where the object
they’ve vouchsafed to the natives makes wise old men appear. Their line has
been restored – and many thanks are paid to Buck for his fearless delivery.
 |
| Anyone got a protein bar? |
Interesting premise is mostly successful once it gets going.
Some of the folkish backstory involving the line of Guardians is little hokey,
but the supernatural qualities of the chest, and the dreams those afflicted
have, are quite eerie. I’m always a sucker for sci-fi works that deal with
time-twisting, so this was up my alley. Most interesting scene: Buck’s
flashback to his life before his trip, which we’ve seen only once before (“A
Dream of Jennifer”).
Show has found its more cerebral, babe-less groove, but
those pubescent boys that were the core of Buck’s first-season audience vacated
the show in droves. No more ratings, no renewal, and so Buck has only 8 more shows left.
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