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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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