| One of Carey's first steady TV jobs was
as a regular scriptwriter for the first television science fiction series, Captain
Video. As the show's opening lines decribed it, "Electronic weapons. Master of time and space. Guardian of the
safety of the world. Fighting for law and order, Captain Video operates from a mountain
retreat, with secret agents at all points of the globe."
|
 "Possessing scientific secrets and
scientific weapons, Captain Video asks no quarter and gives none to the forces of evil.
Stand by for: Captain Video, and his Video
Rangers!" |
 |
 Carey was one of the regular stable of writers that
Irwin Allen used in the first two years of Lost In
Space, a schlocky scifi epic that was a cross between
Swiss Family Robinson and Lassie Come Home. Some of the episodes written by Pop included the
memorable "Questing Beast," "There Were Giants in the Earth,"
"The Sky Pirate," "His Majesty Smith," "A Visit to Hades,"
"Treasures of the Lost Planet," and "The Astral Traveller." Pop's
scripts tended to focus on the relationship between the Robot, Dr. Smith, and Will
Robinson, who were the most interesting characters for him. |
| Carey wrote an original StarTrek episode titled "Space
Seed" that aired in February, 1967. The story served as the basis
for the second Star Trek movie, "The Wrath of Khan," starring Ricardo Montalban
as the evil Khan Singh. |
 Synopsis of
"Space Seed": |
 |
When the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters the
S.S. Botany Bay, they discover that it is a sleeper ship with its crew held in suspended
animation. The ship holds survivors of Earth's Eugenics Wars of the 1990's. Their leader,
Khan Noonien Singh, is one of the most dynamic and ruthless of the genetically engineered
beings resulting from those times. With the help of U.S.S. Enterprise historian Lt.
Marla McGivers, who is extremely attracted to the newcomer, Khan is able to take over the
U.S.S. Enterprise. He tells Kirk that he wants the U.S.S. Enterprise to transport his
people to a civilized planet, but the captain refuses. In an effort to persuade him, Khan
forces Kirk into a decompression chamber, intending to kill him.
Marla, seeing the contempt and ruthlessness of Khan, turns against him and releases
Kirk from his death sentence. Kirk manages to release an anesthetic gas throughout the
starship and regain control.
Kirk gives Khan and his people a choice; return to civilization and face charges or
beam down to Ceti Alpha V, a hostile, uninhabited planet, and colonize it. Khan chooses
the latter and Lt. McGivers opts to go with him. |
| The most expensive television show
on the air in 1966 was The Time Tunnel,
an Irwin Allen production that debuted Friday night, September 6th of that year. |
 |
| This series was another high profile ABC failure that only
lasted one season, but created a permanent community of Time Tunnel Fanatics. It's the
story of Dr. Tony Newman (James Darren) and Dr. Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert), two
research scientists who develop the top secret Time Tunnel, only to become lost, tumbling
among the infinite corridors of time.   
|
Carey was remarkably prolific, authoring more Time Tunnel
episodes than perhaps any other writer. A typical Carey story was "Chase Through
Time." Synopsis of "Chase Through Time":
When a technican-turned-spy plants a bomb in the Time Tunnel Complex,
then escapes through the Tunnel into time, Doug and Tony's job is to find him.
The Time Travellers, Doug and Tony have just arrived in the Grand Canyon in 1547
when something goes wrong at the Time Tunnel Complex. A technician, Nimon, kills the
scientist at the controls, who falls across the console so that conflicting signals nearly
tear the travellers aport. Nimon, then replaces a bus-bar in the Phase Synchronizer with
one he has with him. Alarms go off, and a chase is quickly organized as Nimon flees
through the Complex while Ann and Swain work feverishly at the console to help the
writhing Doug and Tony. Nimon dashes to the Tunnel, cuts off the picture of Doug and Tony,
and himself vanishes into time. As Nimon's effects are searched and evidence is found that
he's a spy, a much worse problem comes up. Coded instructions say he's to plant a nuclear
device in the Complex before going off the job at midnight. And we are off into a
labyrinthine series of twists and near disasters... |
| |
The Life of Carey Wilber,
Sr.
|
