Episode 92: Planet 8 goes Beneath the Planet of the Apes

 

This episode we are going back to one of our favorite places, a little world known as the Planet of the Apes! But this time, we're going to explore...Beneath the Planet of the Apes!

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) was the second film in the original Apes franchise, and it went down quite a different path than the first. The Planet Ape -I mean, 8 - crew, along with our special guest, Lord Blood-Rah, will discuss all the myriad details behind how the film came to be made, as well as walk through the storyline. There were a number of ideas thrown around in the initial stages of the film, which involved bringing back Rod Serling and author Pierre Boule, but none of these really stuck. It was only when British poet and screenwriter Paul Dehn was brought in that the plot solidified.

Making a sequel back then was unusual and seen as a shoddy money-grab, and Apes star Charlton Heston really didn't want to do it. He was ultimately convinced to do a cameo appearance, so a new lead had to be found, and James Franciscus, who had primarily appeared on television, filled the bill. Much of the cast of the first film returned, including Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius, Kim Hunter as Zira, and Linda Harrison as Nova. Roddy McDowall was not available so actor David Watson stepped in. James Gregory gives a notable performance as gorilla General Ursus, a role originally offered to the legendary Orson Welles!

The story builds to a confrontation between the ape military and the human mutants who live underground in the Forbidden Zone. The mutants are disturbing not only visually but for their bizarre worship of their doomsday bomb. With this film, we get a whole second culture to explore on the planet, one that in many ways is more threatening than the apes. The mutants are horrifically scarred but possess powerful mental abilities of telepathy, mind control and the ability to cast illusions. The moment when the mutants are shown praying to their god provides a massive shock moment.

The film ends with (SPOILER) Heston's Taylor pushing the final button to set off the Alpha-Omega bomb, thus igniting the atmosphere and destroying the Earth. Famously Heston and producer Dick Zanuck thought that this would prevent any more sequels from being made -a fair conclusion - but this was not the case. But that's a tale for another episode!

For our Sensor Sweep, our good friend Lord Blood-Rah updates us on his latest and greatest goings ons: check out his podcast, Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin' Auditorium, which can be found on most podcast aps or Anchor.fm/Lord Blood-Rah to hear old time radio horror. His weekly series, Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin' Theater is still going with new episodes every week to be found on LordBloodRah.com. His Patreon series (Patreon.com/lordbloodrah) hosts classic TV sci fi every Friday. The big news though is that Creatures Con is coming back on August 7th in Concord, California! The show will feature horror expert David J. Skal among other guests. Check out CreaturesCon.com for more info. 

That's all for now, listeners. Until next time, remember, ape shall never kill ape!  But the only good human, is a dead human!

Thanks for listening!

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