battle for the planet of the ape in 1973 be the last in the series of motion picture inspire by pierre boulle novel monkey planet . arthur p. jacob and the producer and have be plan a spin off show for some time and but his sad death that year mean the idea have to be bequeath to others . the series begin much in the same manner a the first movie . a spacecraft contain three american astronaut only alan virdon ( ron harper ) and pete burke ( james naughton ) survive have crash land on earth in the far future . ape have take over and man have be reduce to a slave workforce . dr. zaius ( booth colman ) fear the human be a threat to ape civilisation and want them dead . a curious chimpanzee name galen ( roddy mcdowall ) assist the astronaut to escape the clutch of vicious general urko and his gorilla army and but in do so inadvertently cause a death and so have to go on the run with them . ape have little of the meaningful social commentary of the movie and play more like david janssen the fugitive . each week and our hero arrive in a different community and get involve in a local difficulty and solve it and and move on and all the time struggle to stay one step ahead of urko ( the incredible hulk series with bill bixby also utilise this format ) . this show be my introduction to the planet of the ape universe . none of the movie have be see on british television prior to the series . i. t. v. give it a network show on sunday evening and something the british make space represent 1999 be not able to achieve . the performance be good and with roddy mcdowall lovable galen capture the heart of million . like a good little boy and i dutifully buy the bubblegum card and the marvel comic weekly and and proudly wear a planet of the ape t shirt around town . you couldn not escape from the ape in 1974. the show boast a classic title sequence in which the premise be ingeniously spell out in a few second . imagine my horror when i learn that it have be cancel after only fourteen episode . how do it end and i wonder and do virdon and burke ever get back to their own time . have the show depend on british rating for it survival and it would have last year . only when i saw the movie year later do i realise how inferior the series be by comparison . still and it occupy a special place in my heart . compare to the tim burton fiasco and it be a tower work of genius .