"Questor" Searches For Answers

Gene Roddenberry is best known for creating Star Trek, the enduring science-fiction franchise that’s been part of the pop culture landscape for over 50 years now. But back in the 1970s, the original series had been cancelled, and its fandom was just starting to gain momentum. As Trek was finding a second life in syndication. Roddenberry was trying to get a new series off the ground. His first attempt was Genesis II, a story about a 20^th century scientist named Dylan Hunt (played by Alex Cord) who gets trapped in suspended animation, and is then revived in the 22^nd century. The movie aired on CBS in 1973. The network didn’t go forward with a series, and Roddenberry re-worked the concept in 1974 for ABC as Planet Earth, with John Saxon taking over the role of Hunt. That version also didn’t get green-lit to series. ABC tried re-tooling the idea yet again in 1975, as Strange New World, also starring Saxon. That attempt was once again unsuccessful.

One of Roddenberry’s most intriguing television films is the telefilm The Questor Tapes, which was originally broadcast by NBC in 1974. The story concerns Project Questor, a government team that is trying to create a super-intelligent, self-sufficient android. The guiding force of the project, Dr. Vaslovik, has disappeared, and the rest of the group is trying to complete the project in his absence. They’re having issues activating the android, and decide to abandon the unfinished programming left by Vaslovik, and substitute their own. Jerry Robinson, a team member who is loyal to Vaslovik, objects, but Geoffrey Darrow, the director of the project, overrules him. When they try using their own programming, nothing happens.

Robinson argues for re-instating Vaslovik’s programming, even though it’s incomplete. Darrow agrees, and the android still doesn’t work. When the team leaves the facility for the night, the Questor android comes to life, and makes himself look more human. Questor seeks out Jerry, and explains he needs help to find his “creator,” Vaslovik. There’s a nuclear device inside his android body that is set to explode, and only Vaslovik can disarm it. A race against the clock begins, as Questor and Jerry search for Vaslovik, with Darrow and the military in hot pursuit of the duo.

Robert Foxworth as Questor

Jerry Robinson teaches Questor about humanity, and there’s a bit of humor in the film mined from the android’s attempts to understand humans. Questor’s endeavor to understand human behavior and his search for his creator will probably bring to mind a later Roddenberry character: Data, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. There are two moments in the film that pre-figure scenes in a pair of Next Generation episodes. First, Questor uses his superior knowledge to win some money at a casino, which is similar to a scene with Data in the TNG entry “The Royale.” Later, Questor offers to seduce a woman with information on Vaslovik, stating that he’s “fully functional” which is what Data says to Tasha Yar in the episode “The Naked Now.”

Questor is definitely an inspiration for Data, given the explanation for his origins in the film, which will be familiar to fans of the themes found in the work of Roddenberry and co-writer Gene L. Coon, another veteran of the original Star Trek. It seems that a benevolent alien race has left a series of androids on Earth to help mankind, and Questor is the last of his kind. Questor was created by Vaslovik (who turns out to be an android) to succeed him. Based on the edicts set down by the aliens, the robots can aid mankind, but not interfere directly in their development. If you’re looking for evil robots (akin to films such as The Terminator) out to destroy humans, you won’t find them in The Questor Tapes. The film is very much in line with Roddenberry’s peaceful vision of the future.

The Questor Tapes is part science fiction tale, part chase thriller, and part fish out of water story. The film benefits from Robert Foxworth’s performance as Questor; he does a nice job portraying the android’s development over the course of the story.  Foxworth and Mike Farrell, who portrays Jerry Robinson have excellent chemistry together. The movie also features veteran character actor John Vernon (aka Dean Wormer in Animal House) as Darrow, Lew Ayres as Vaslovik, and Dana Wynter (from the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers) in a small role. Richard A. Colla, who went on to helm the pilot for the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series, “Saga of a Star World”, directed the film. Sharp-eyed viewers will spot Trek veterans Majel Barrett (aka Mrs. Roddenberry) and Walter Koenig in small roles. You might also recognize part of composer Gil Melle's score; it was later used as the theme for the Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series.

NBC was reportedly interested in moving forward with a series, but wanted to make significant alterations to the concept, including removing the Jerry Robinson character, and ignoring the revelation about Questor’s origins. Roddenberry ended up clashing with the network regarding these changes, and the series never materialized. A novelization of the film, authored by another Trek veteran, D.C. Fontana, was published at the time of the film’s original broadcast. Roddenberry did produce another pilot for the network, the supernatural thriller Spectre (1977), starring Robert Culp, but that film also did not generate a series. The Questor Tapes is available on DVD from Universal Home Video. This post is part of The “Robots in Film” Blogathon, hosted by The Midnite Drive-in and Hamlette’s Soliloquy. I’d like to thank them for having me participate! You can follow this link to view the posts, and find out more: https://midnitedrive-in.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-robot-blogathon-starts-up.html.