The Questor Tapes
Gene Roddenberry, (1921-1991), is best-known as the creator of the television series “Star Trek,” (1966-1969). Following the cancellation of that program Roddenberry made several very interesting efforts to create a follow-up series, but ultimately none were successful. In 1973 the NBC network agreed to finance a pilot movie about an android dedicated to helping mankind survive through the dangerous years of the modern age. Roddenberry sought the aid of his old friend Gene L. Coon, (1924-1973), who had helped to create and develop “Star Trek.” Coon co-wrote the script with Roddenberry, but passed away before the movie was shown on television.
This week’s made-for-tv movie was “The Questor Tapes” from Universal Studios, broadcast the night of January 23, 1974 on the NBC network. It was directed by Richard A. Colla, (1936-2021), from a script by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon. The movie opens at “Project Questor” on a university campus in Pasadena, California. A team of scientists are attempting to complete the construction of a humanoid android that was begun by the mysterious “Dr. Emil Vaslovik,” (Lew Ayres), a genius who has disappeared and is presumed dead. The lead technician is “Jerry Robinson,” (Mike Farrell), but the project is being overseen by the authoritarian “Geoffrey Darrow,” (John Vernon). The scientists attempted to read Vaslovik’s programming tapes for the android and accidentally erased some of the contents. Their efforts to activate the android appear to have failed, and the researchers leave the laboratory. In their absence the android awakens and completes his own construction, giving himself a human appearance. He adopts the name “Questor,” (Robert Foxworth). Questor kidnaps Robinson and convinces him to help search for the missing Vaslovik so he can supply the information missing from the programming tapes. They travel to London to contact an associate of Vaslovik’s named “Lady Helena Trimble,” (Dana Wynter). She reveals a hidden information center used by Vaslovik but doesn’t know where the missing scientist can be found. Questor has a memory fragment suggesting that Vaslovik’s whereabouts involve a boat or a ship. Seeing a replica of Noah’s Ark at a children’s playground helps Questor to realize that Vaslovik is hiding in a secret chamber inside Mt. Ararat! When they find him the aged scientist reveals that he is himself an android. Thousands of years ago a benevolent alien race deposited an android on Earth to help humanity through difficult times. After a few hundred years that android built his own replacement, and that process has continued for millennia. Questor is the latest of the series, and the last. If mankind does not mature in the next 200 years the race will be allowed to go extinct!
This is a wonderful film! Foxworth gives a flawless performance as the machine struggling to become more like the humans he is trying to save. Farrell is fine as Questor’s only friend and connection with humanity. Vernon plays the menacing bureaucrat who proves to be capable of nobility and self-sacrifice.
NBC agreed to develop this pilot into a regular television series before it even aired the pilot movie. But then the network started tampering with the idea. Eventually the changes they demanded were too extreme for Roddenberry. He backed away from the project and reluctantly let it die.
Questor was the inspiration for the android “Data,” (Brent Spiner), in Roddenberry’s later television series “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” (1987-1994).
The idea of a benevolent alien race putting a representative on Earth to help humanity survive difficult times was not new. Roddenberry had introduced the character of “Gary Seven,” (Robert Lansing), in the “Star Trek” episode “Assignment: Earth,” (March 29, 1968). The episode was intended as a backdoor pilot for a new series that was never developed by the network.
D.C. Fontana, (1939-2019), had served as the story editor for the original “Star Trek.” She published a novelization of “The Questor Tapes” in 1974. Fontana dedicated the book to the memory of Gene L. Coon.