The Robot Spy

Z-10, Dr. Zin's Robot Spy, 11/6/64, 5/6/65.

Trivia and items of interest: The voice of the radar operator was provided by Mike Road (Race), using a western drawl.

Flubs:

When the radar operator is asked by his superior if they're just picking up rough seas, he replies in the negative, since the contact is travelling at a high rate of speed, but later, after the bogey disappears, he "takes it back" stating that maybe is was just sea waves, after all!
When Race and Dr. Quest approach the storage shed in the jeep, Race says, "Where's the guard?", then Dr. Quest says, "And the door's open!" -- but Race's mouth moves for both lines!
When the robot spy punches through the lab wall, its legs do not reach the ground -- it looks as if it's walking several feet off the ground! Dr. Quest describes his para-power ray gun by using some slightly faulty physics: "It magnetizes energy, which is, after all, power." Actually, energy is defined as power multiplied by time. (Reported by John Boyd)
How does Dr. Zin know which button to tell his robot to push to open the door to the para-power ray? Nothing is marked. (Reported by John Boyd)
In the button-pushing scene mentioned above, Dr. Zin says "That's it...the top button on your LEFT...that's the one, press it". But the robot reaches from screen left to screen right, making the button on its right, instead of its left. (Reported by "Joe in OK" in the forum)

Burning Questions: (not really flubs, but things that just didn't seem quite right)

When the planes are scrambled to intercept the bogey, a pilot states that they have the bogey on their own radars, plain and clear, and are closing fast, with contact in 8 minutes. Eight minutes? That seems a bit slow for intercept jets, even back in 1964! Shouldn't it have been more like 1 minute or even less?
Why didn't the base radar regain contact when the bogey re-emerged from the water after the planes flew overhead? And why didn't the planes' radars pick up the contact again?
When the craft lands, a bright glow can be seen behind the dune which attracts attention from the base. Later, as Dr. Quest and Race approach in a jeep, we see the robot open the dome of the craft and exit, so we know the light was not being caused by the open hatch. However, as Race and Dr. Quest draw near, the robot returns to the craft and closes the dome, and the light disappears! So, what really caused the light in the first place?

(Reported by "8-Bit Star" who submitted the following theory regarding the light: Maybe Dr. Zin had a "Light Switch" back at that computer terminal that he can turn off and on at will, and he turned it on hoping to call attention to the place. He WANTED Dr. Quest to find it, after all, and this does make it more noticeable.)

Note:The following scenes in the opening and closing credits are from this episode:

soldiers firing machine gun at spider robot (OC)
tank firing on spider robot (OC)
Race firing machine gun (OC)

Note:The above scenes in the credits showing the spider robot are different that the ones in the episode; the background scenery is different (the stark mesas and rocks do not appear in the episode) and the scene takes place at night in the episode instead of during the day as seen in the credits. Also, the background when Race is shown shooting a gun is different; the episode does not show a wood-beam type wall behind him.
Link to the restored end credits for the episode.

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