Maddox (Planet of the Apes)

Colonel Donovan Andrew Maddox is an American astronaut, in the second Planet of the Apes movie, 1970's Beneath the Planet of the Apes. He was portrayed by actor Tod Andrews.

Maddox commanded the rescue mission sent to find astronauts Taylor, Dodge, Landon and Stewart, who went missing in the events of the previous film, Planet of the Apes. Colonel Maddox was accompanied on this mission by John Brent.

Following a tradition practiced in both the navy and the air force, Brent sometimes addressed the commander of the craft as "Skipper", just as Landon had sometimes addressed Taylor in the previous film.

Maddox and Brent's spaceship passed through a "Hasslein Curve", sending them two-thousand years into the future. The ship made a crash-landing, badly injuring and blinding Maddox in the process. Brent helped Maddox out of the ship, provided him with medical attention and made him as comfortable as possible.

Brent reported the current year to him (the year 3955 A.D., according to their clocks). Maddox was horrified to hear that they had traveled two-thousand years forward in time. He spoke of his wife and two daughters being long since dead. Maddox himself died shortly afterwards and was buried by Brent.

Notes

• Maddox's name is not mentioned in Beneath the Planet of the Apes or its comic adaptations or its novelization. As such it has been the subject of much speculation over the years. A close examination of a promotional shot seems to reveal the letters 'addox' on his uniform.^[1]
• A fan-produced reproduction of the Presidential Commission's Briefing Dossier gave Skipper the name 'Captain Andrew Maddox'.^[2]
• The 'ANSA Public Service Announcement' bonus feature from the Blu-Ray Planet of the Apes Box-Set (released November 2008) included this biography: "Two first alternates round out the crew [of Colonel Taylor's mission] - ... Brent, 34, and Colonel Skipper Donovan, 38." However, a timeline included in the same Box-Set gives his name as the more familiar 'Maddox'.
• The name 'Maddox' in fact appears in an early script treatment for the original movie. After several scripts from Rod Serling, Charles Eastman was asked to revise Serling's screenplay. Instead, he completely re-wrote his own screenplay but only completed the opening scenes before he was replaced with Michael Wilson, who returned to Serling's original concept. In Eastman's script, the central character (the 'Taylor' character) was called 'Command 60 Maddox'; "Our hero has a slightly military, over-conscientious, too business-like air"; and is in control of a large crew. It's unknown if this has any connection with the flight suit seen in Beneath the Planet of the Apes.^[3]

References