In
“Secrets of the Hexagon,” the space nuts’ lander is broken once more, and
Junior (Bob Denver) feels useless because he can’t do anything to help. The lander
is out of fuel.
A
strange alien named Flam, however, soon appears near Junior, and makes a trade:
a useless hexagon device for the lander. Junior accidentally agrees, and must
explain to Barney (Chuck McCann) how he has traded away their only ticket back
home, to Earth.
Soon,
however, the space nuts learn how to operate the Hexagon. It is actually a
talking key that leads them to a mysterious lost city, and the strange
duplication device housed there. If
Barney and Junior can just reclaim their lander, they can duplicate all the
fuel they need to return home.
Unfortunately,
Flam stole the hexagon device from two hostile aliens, who wish to reacquire
it.
Another
week, another ridiculous episode of Sid and Marty Krofft’s 1975 live-action
romp, Far Out Space Nuts. “Secrets
of the Hexagon” features alien beings who look like humanoid moles, a lost city, and a
blooper that reveals just how low-budget the production must have been.
In
that blooper, we see Barney and Junior driving their rover vehicle in a circle over the landscape.
The camera moves just a little to one side, and the capsule, or lunar lander, is visible
behind them. At this point in the story, however, Flam has taken the lander -- it has de-materialized -- and they are going off to the lost city in an effort to recover it. The lunar
lander mock-up is moved from its normal position…by about three feet, and just
by moving the camera a tiny bit, it is still visible. The sound-stage where the
episode was shot must have been tiny!
As
usual, the strangeness of the series is evident in this episode. In the lost
city, Barney and Junior happen across a cosmic barbershop and pretend to be
barbers, so they can put on patches of hair, and masquerade as the space mole
people. Miraculously, the gambit works.
But a barbershop on an alien planet? Why do the mole people even stop to
get their hair cut in the first place, in a city they know to be abandoned? When they are looking for their missing technology! ("Oh let's stop here, I need a trim.")
The
alien villain of the week is named “Flam” (as in the word “flim flam,), but
forget that term, which means confidence game, or swindle.
These old episodes aren’t “flim flam,” but they sure seem to have been made on a wing and
a prayer.
Next
week: “Captain Torque, Space Pirate.”
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