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From: SJohnson.es@PARC-Maxc.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: A Movie
Message-ID: <16231@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 31-Jan-84 19:57:31 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16231
Posted: Tue Jan 31 19:57:31 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 7-Feb-84 12:40:05 EST
Lines: 36

From:  Swen Johnson 

The movie you are thinking of is "The Questor Tapes", a made-for-TV film
by Gene Roddenberry (sp?). The protagonists are Robert Foxworth
(Questor), and Mike Farrell (I don't remember the name of his
character). I was also impressed by that scene.

This was an obvious set up for a series which didn't make it. Too bad. I
have seen a paperback novelization, I believe by Dorothy (D. C.)
Fontana.

Some other details (Spoiler!):


Questor is an android created by Farrell and others using mag tapes left
by a missing scientist named Vaslovic. Vaslovic is some kind of
political outcast (you know, his name sounds Russian...), and no one
fully understands his work, so the project is controversial.

The Vaslovic tapes are incomplete, and the first attempt to bring
Questor to life/conciousness fails (or at least appears to). My favorite
scene occurs when everyone has left the half-completed android alone in
a lab at night, and the featureless manequin begins to stir. It applies
several nasty-looking tools to itself, gradually adding human features
to its blank, smoothed-over face. Chilling.

Questor and Farrell then begin a search for Vaslovic, running into
various adventures (including some attempts at humor). They finally find
him in the cave, which is located in Mount Ararat! Lying on one of the
slabs, Vaslovic (Lew Ayres) explains that the other bodies are his
"predecessors", androids which have secretly guided human history for
centuries (or longer?). When each android is ready to "die", he creates
his successor, and then goes to his final resting place in the cave.


-- Swen