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O.B.I.T.
Peter Breck, Jeff Corey, Joanne Gilbert, Alan Baxter,
Sam Reese, Harry Townes, Robert Beneveds, Jason Wingreen.
The government uses a top secret device to spy on scientists and civilians,
with bizarre repercussions.
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QUICK SCAN...
If you want to get into an entertainingly paranoid mood, this
is the episode for you. The episode's premise is that you're being
spied on, and you don't know about it. AND, the folks doing the
watching are aliens. Boy, It's enough to get anybody twitchy!
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SYNOPSIS...
An ambitious senator conducts an investigation into the murder of
a technician at a top security military research lab.
It turns out that the military has a device, called O.B.I.T., which
allows it to secretly spy on and videotape people. The senator visits
a top lab official, who has been confined to a mental institution
for seeing "monsters" on the O.B.I.T. screen. He agrees
to appear at the senator's investigatory hearing.
It turns out that O.B.I.T. was developed by, and is being operated
by, aliens. The research facility's head is revealed to be an alien.
The alien beams out, disappearing.
REVIEW...
Director Gerd Oswald's ,"O.B.I.T.",
is a gripping, paranoid tale of secret snooping and subversive alien
plots.
Peter Breck is dynamic as a senator, conducting an investigation into
a death at a top security military installation. A few year later
he scored big, on "The Big Valley," and his confidence and
command of the screen are apparent here.
Actor and acting teacher, Jeff Corey, ("Star Trek"), owlish
behind black horn rimmed glasses, is quirky as the head of the military/scientific
research center which operates a secret device, called O.B.I.T. As
he explains it, "...every living organism is a transmitter operating
twenty four hours a day. That, of course, is true of human beings
too." The O.B.I.T., (Outer Band Individuated Teletracer), picks
up these frequencies and turns them into images on a video monitor.
The weakest aspect of this episode are the images we see on the O.B.I.T.
video monitor. They are wobbly, staticy images, like bad TV reception.
I guess these hi-tech types could have used a pair of "rabbit
ears". Project Unlimited, Inc., and M.B. Paul of the Optical
Effects Unit, are apparently the guilty parties responsible for the
unimpressive imagery/FX.
Towards the end of the episode, a military guy talks about getting
hung up peering into other people's lives, via the O.B.I.T. He excitedly
states, "It's like a drug, a horrible drug. You can't resist
it. It's an addiction." Could Director Oswald, and screenwriter
Meyer Dolinsky, have been commenting about television, in an allegorical
way? Food for thought. This is my favorite scene.
Director of Photography, Conrad Hall , does very clever work here.
Particularly effective is an extreme close up of Corey, from his eyebrows
to the tip of his nose.
The music, by Dominic Frontiere, is mysterious and moody. It accents
the tone and mood of the episode, without overwhelming it.
O.B.I.T. should be rather watchable for most Sci-Fi viewers. "1984"
fans and TV addicts should particularly enjoy this episode. By the
way, when you watch TV, does it watch you as well? Here's looking
at you!
 
 
 
 
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