SUMMARY Opening:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. Closing:  No clothes! NOTES There’s not an awful lot to be said about this one…   Presumably, our heroes didn’t go back to Borak to retrieve their bags and baggage—because they certainly don’t have them as “Tomorrow’s Tide” opens.   Unless, when we first encounter them, running along the beach, they’re just taking their morning exercise, and have stowed the backpacks somewhere before doing so…   Their conversation, however, does not support this.   In view of our heroes’ luggage-less state at the commencement of this adventure, it should come as no surprise that they are without their backpacks at the story’s conclusion—but the boys outdo themselves on this occasion, and are not just sans baggage this time around—but sans clothing, too.   When we last see ANSA’s finest, they are without their normal attire, and are clad in the just the fisherman’s loincloths they were given during the course of events.   This is one of those occasions where we have to assume the boys returned to the village in the dead of night to retrieve their gear, because next week they’re back in the duds Farrow gave them—and going back is the only way they could have got them!   Maybe Soma, Gahto, and Romar helped. SUMMARY Opening:  Backpacks!   Burke:  No waistcoat. Closing:  On the cart?   Burke:  No waistcoat. NOTES And so, with a heavy heart, we prepare to say farewell to the fugitives’ backpacks—because “The Surgeon” marks their final appearance in the series, in production order.   Curiously, it also presents us with the most logical, consistent employment of them.   Our heroes have them from the very beginning, as they make their way across the dry river bed we know so well. Seeing them, and noting how right it is that the fugitives have them, I can’t help but wonder why they were absent from the preceding episode…   Returning, briefly, to “Tomorrow’s Tide”, I can think of no reason why our heroes could not have been in possession of their bags and baggage at the beginning of the story, as they ran along the beach. After slipping free of them to rescue Gahto, they could then have left them in the cave where they concealed the “discarded” fisherman, under Galen’s watchful eyes, while they set out to investigate the circumstances that had led to the human’s pedicament.   As it is, here we are in the following episode, “The Surgeon”, with someone in the production team (Director Arnold Laven, perhaps?) recognising what a significant role the backpacks would occupy in the fugitives’ lives and ensuring that, wherever our heroes go in this story, their luggage goes too…   When Burke and Galen arrive at the hospital in Central City, we can see the backpacks on the cart beside the injured Virdon. Somewhat insensitively—but unavoidably, perhaps—when the dark-haired astronaut carries his injured companion inside the facility, his wounded superior is laden with all three items of the fugitives’ luggage: he’s wearing his own, has Burke’s on his right arm and Galen’s on his left.   Perhaps the streetwise Burke didn’t want to leave their possessions unattended on the cart while he carried Virdon inside in case they were stolen, or perhaps the virtuous and ever-cautious Virdon insisted on burdening himself with their belongings.   In any event, although there’s no sign of the backpacks in the story’s final moments, given the high sides of the cart they leave in, it’s perfectly possible that they are hidden there, somewhere.   Finally, this story offers us a backpack-related “blooper”…   Early in the episode—in a scene filmed on location—we see Galen return from his visit to Kira, and enter the cave the fugitives are hiding in. He is carrying Burke’s backpack. We are about to discover that he has with him a Doctor’s collar, and a servant’s smock that he and Burke will wear to pass themselves off as healer and servant, respectively (Curiously, there is no equivalent disguise for Virdon!). When our favourite Chimpanzee arrives inside the cave, however—in footage shot on the sound stage—he removes the disguises from a sack—which appears to be the one containing bread that Zantes handed to Burke at the end of “The Good Seeds”. SUMMARY Opening:  No backpacks?   Burke:  No waistcoat. Closing:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. NOTES While the fugitives’s luggage fails to make an appearance of any kind in “The Deception”, if you like to indulge in a little fannish speculation, the story does offer us an explanation for its absence from all the episodes which follow “The Surgeon” in production order.   When the story opens, we find Virdon, Burke, and Galen enjoying the hospitality of a human named Jasko. It’s obvious from the tone of their conversation that they are only just getting acquainted. Although the fugitives’ backpacks are nowhere to be seen, it’s possible they’re in the hut somewhere, out of our range of view.   Not long after this, we find Galen watching the astronauts fishing. Our heroes don’t have their backpacks with them here, either—but if we accept that they are now spending some time with Jasko, and are trying to return their host’s generosity by catching dinner, it’s perfectly understandable that they would have left their belongings at his home…   In any event, it is at this moment that Jasko receives a visit from The Dragoons, and is attacked and murdered, and his house burned to the ground.   Obviously, if the fugitives’ backpacks were inside Jasko’s hut at this time, they would have been destroyed—which would explain why they are never seen in any of the subsequent stories. SUMMARY Opening:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. Closing:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. NOTES Just as our first sight of Virdon, Burke and Galen in “The Deception” was some time after they had been welcomed into the home of Jasko, so “The Horse Race” opens long after our heroes have taken up residence with a blacksmith named Martin.   Consequently—in another echo of “The Deception”—there are no scenes of the fugitives on the road, and we are denied the opportunity of seeing if they would have had their backpacks with them.   As it is, although we are presented with several views of both the forge and living area of their host’s home during the course of the adventure, the fugitives’ belongings are nowhere to be seen.   Their luggage is also absent when our heroes finally head for the hills at the story’s conclusion.   While all of this suggests that, by now, the production team had decided our heroes should be travelling light, it’s worth remembering that “The Legacy”, “The Trap”, “The Liberator”, and “Tomorrow’s Tide” all ended with the fugitives sans possessions, and were all followed by stories in which the backpacks reappeared. SUMMARY Opening:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. Closing:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. NOTES Backpack-wise, this story is a desert. Virdon, Burke and Galen are lacking in luggage from the beginning, through the middle, and at the end.   When we first encounter our troubled trio, they are being pursued across open country by a troop of Gorillas, and are conspicuously unencumbered by bags and baggage.   While it is possible that the fugitives could have cast their possessions aside to try and improve their chances of getting away (as they did when being pursued through the ruins of San Francisco in “The Trap”) when we later see Virdon and Galen travelling across country to Central City, they are still backpack-deficient.   You could argue that the determined duo have left their belongings behind because they wanted to travel light, but given the fact we haven’t seen our heroes carrying anything for some weeks now, it seems more likely that they no longer have anything to carry.   When Galen visits his parents at the story’s conclusion, he is still without luggage and although it is possible to justify this, it hardly seems worth it. SUMMARY Opening:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. Closing:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. NOTES “The Tyrant” is the fourth adventure that begins with Virdon, Burke, and Galen already settled in a home-away-from-home. In this case, it’s the farm of brothers Janor and Mikal. There are no backpacks anywhere in sight in the opening scenes, but then the fugitives are outside, bagging grain, so I wouldn’t expect there to be.   When the tale does provide some excellent luggage-themed photo opportunites, however—for example, during the evening ’round the campfire in which we see the astronauts manufacturing Galen’s latest disguise—the backpacks remain absent.   This all reinforces the impression that our heroes no longer have them—but does raise the question of what they use to transport things.   It is perfectly possible to accept that they were able to acquire the cloth, needle and thread they use to duplicate the collar of Octavius locally—perhaps from the ashes of Janor’s farmhouse, or even from friends of the bereaved human—but Galen later employs an elegant cloak we have never seen before to essay his role as a “concerned citizen” when he visits Urko—and dons what looks suspiciously like a Dragoon mask.   Given that the success of the fugitives’ plans depended on a certain amount of subterfuge and (to coin a phrase) deception, to be seen ambling around the countryside with all this paraphernalia would have been somewhat counter-productive. Now, if they had still had their backpacks… SUMMARY Opening:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. Closing:  No backpacks.   Burke:  No waistcoat. NOTES With this episode, the saga reaches its poignant, premature finale.   Although Virdon, Burke and Galen are unburdened with luggage as the story opens, it would be easy to assume, on the basis of the berry-picking behaviour our favourite chimpanzee is engaged in, that they are out and about foraging for food, and could have left any baggage they possess at some refuge they have established. Except that, if they are looking for dinner, you would expect them to be carrying something to place the food in…   So, for me, that isn’t what we’re watching here.   Furthermore, as events unfold, we are presented with a number of scenes in which our heroes’ backpacks and canteen could have been included as set dressing—most tellingly, when we see Virdon and Burke arriving with Leuric’s cart at Chatka Garrison in Act Three. Again, however, the fugitives’ belongings remain noticable by their absence.   While it’s accurate to state that, even on those occasions when we knew the trio’s gear was still around, it was seldom seen after an episode’s opening scenes, by the time of “Up Above the World So High”, the backpacks and canteen have failed to make any kind of appearance for five consecutive episodes in production order.   We therefore have to conclude that our heroes no longer have them.   Maybe they did go up in smoke with Jasko’s home, after all.