The Longest Day (Land of the Lost)

"The Longest Day" is the seventh episode of the second season of the 1970s American television series Land of the Lost. Written by Joyce Perry and directed by Gordon Wiles, it first aired in the United States on October 18, 1975 on NBC.

Plot

On a late afternoon, a crystal inside one of the pylons suddenly pops and burns out causing its matrix to shut down. This, in turn, causes the sun to remain at the same point in the sky.

Unsure of how to get the sun moving again, Rick goes in search of Enik. Meanwhile, the Sleestak view the ancient Altrusian civilization in the Library of Skulls. Taking a large net, they follow after Rick, who cannot find Enik in his cave.

Using their pendants, Will and Holly see the Sleestak capture Rick and quickly head for the Lost City. Rick is taken to the Library of Skulls, where the "sacred smoke" renders him increasingly confused but also gives him limited ability to read the Sleestaks' thoughts. The Sleestak leader speaks to the Index Skull, who reminisces about Altrusia as it was 1,000 years ago. He refuses to answer any questions, however, until they have spoken to the Skull of History. The leader asks the Skull of History to explain how their "enemy" (Rick) has stopped the sun, preventing them from hunting the sacred Altrusian moth. The skull presents a vision of Rick and his children entering a Pylon. Rick denies having done this and suggests that, rather than incriminating him, it may in fact be the skulls' way of telling them what he should do. The Sleestak ignore him and set a date for his execution.

Will and Holly head for the Lost City. From Rick's point of view, they find him in the Library and are captured by the Sleestak. Rick appears to experience visual and auditory hallucinations about football players and his children floating though the air. Will and Holly drop crystals into the smoke-emitting urns to create a distraction, and the three escape, their father still behaving strangely. He hallucinates seeing his children and himself as cavemen, and imagines that Holly is an 18th century British debt collector and that Will is a marching Confederate soldier. Two Sleestak come running into the cave and drag Rick out into the open. Awaking from his stupor, he sees that they are actually Will and Holly. He explains that the smoke in the Library must have made him hallucinate. Will and Holly ask him what library he is talking about, and he realizes they never actually entered the cave except now to drag him out.

Seeing that his tethers have been cut, Rick believes that someone must have let him escape. He remembers the vision presented by the Skull of History, and leads his children to the pylon, where he fixes the matrix by replacing the burnt-out crystal, allowing the sun to set, recapitulating the sequence of events shown to him in the Library. On the way back to High Bluff, the Marshalls run into a band of hunting Sleestak, but the Sleestak do not attack and instead return Rick's knife, suggesting that despite his failure to recall what happened, Rick must have made a deal with the Sleestak that was fulfilled by his repair of the Pylon's matrix table.

Reception

References