User Reviews

The humans face a boy maniac who thinks they're toy soldiers controlled by the boy's enemy, Falco. In the beginning, the boy's dad helps the kid bring his radio controlled toy soldiers, tank, jeep, airplane and a toy POW camp into the woods to "play". Dad warns son - if Falco shows up, pack the toys and go home. But the kid convinces dad it's OK to fight.

This kid talks to an injured, he has a bloody bandage on his head, toy general. The bad part is, it seems the general talks back.

At this point I imagined the dad running home to pack up the family and move before the demonic boy returns home. The kid must have killed a few small animals, maybe the family dog, and a sibling or two while holding war games with his toys.

But that's not what happened. After the humans destroy some of the soldiers, fight off the jeep, use the gun on the jeep to flatten a tank tire, and disable the tank, Dan gets shot with wooden pellets while trying to destroy the gas can - so the kid can't fuel his war toys. At this point the kid spots Dan's blood, which seems to awaken his humanity.

(BTW, the tank was threatening everyone with some sparks it shot from it's big gun. Valerie is even burned in the neck. It's so bad, Steve comments "I don't like the look of that burn". But the next second the burn seems forgotten as Valerie is fine. Mark jumps up on the tank, taking the spark shot at point blank range, as he and Steve work to disable the tank. Looks like the spark gun wasn't so dangerous after all.) Dad returns. Realizing Falco's "toys" are little people, he gets a taste for the reward money. Dad tries to capture some little people. Steve goes up in the toy plane, which oddly includes manual controls, to try to get the dad away from where the others are hiding. At this point, it turns into King Kong. Steve buzzes the giant, and the giant swats at the plane then pelts it with rocks which knock our Steve.

The boy saves the day by grabbing the remote to bring Steve in for a safe landing.

In the end, all is well. The boy decides he doesn't want dad to replace the expensive toys. He smiles and waves goodbye to the humans.

But what of Falco? Indeed! What of Falco!!!??? (Nothing is hinted. But, I pretend something sinister was left unresolved.)

This was actually one of the more believable episodes where a child named Alek thinks he is playing with toys until he realizes that Dan is bleeding as Betty finally gets the child to comprehend that they are living creatures like himself but only smaller.

At one point, Captain Burton decides that the castaways should camouflage the Sprindrift with leaves and vines. Sure, you have an orange colored spaceship, and NOW you decide to try to camouflage it? That is a weak plot point that should have been put into play at the start of the series. Wouldn't that have made logical sense to protect the location of their only source of safety?

At the end of the episode, the father accepts way too quickly that he will never catch the little people. He also gives up trying to catch Steve who had been flying the plane as well. I can suspend my disbelief as often as anyone, but plot holes like these amaze me, even for a 1970 episode of television. There always has to be a logic behind a script.

As always, it is fun to see other science fiction actors like Charles Drake pop up in this series. He was in the Star Trek episode "The Deadly Years."