This week John and Eugene look at two more episodes of Logan’s Run. First up, Fear Factor, the episode where Rem and his pets visit an upscale sanitarium thriving in a post-apocalyptic world, and we ask, “who thought that the first order of reestablishing a post-apocalyptic world was to set up an insane asylum?” Then we look at the Judas Goat, the episode featuring the Amazing Spider-Man’s Nicholas Hammond, and we ask, “just how many people know about the City of Domes’ Council of Old White Guys?”

Fear Factor Synopsis

Rem and his pets come across a 20th-century mansion “far away from everything.”  As they approach, they find a terrified woman trying to escape.  Her handler soon arrives and takes the gang to meet Dr. Rowan, the facility director, and his right-hand man, Dr. Paulson.

This convalescent sanitarium survived the nuclear holocaust untouched because they were “far away from everything.”  They’ll all hospitable, but Jessica doesn’t really like the answers Rowan is (or isn’t) giving about the woman.  She stays to talk with him as Logan and Rem are taken to their rooms.

Rem discovers they are being monitored, so he uses the in-room computer console to monitor the rest of the facility.  They watch as Rowan explains to Jessica how they like to strip the brains of emotion and higher thinking functions and replace them with their own thoughts and emotions.  She does not like what she hears.

Neither do Logan or Rem, and they discover they are locked in.  But Paulson lets them out when they knock politely.  They force past him and head to find Jessica.  Unbeknownst to them, Paulson pulls a gun on them but decides not to shoot them.

They find Rowan in his office, just Jessica is not with him.  At gunpoint, he leads them to Jessica, but it is a trap.  Logan and Rem are tested by being subjected to strong winds and 1950s B-movie flaming meteoroids.  Then they’re gassed.

When Logan awakens, he is taken to the Inner Circle, the ruling council that oversees this society.  The Inner Circle appears to consist of Dr. Rowan, and he explains the situation:

They burn out the brains of the menials and make them afraid and obedient.  They similarly control, to a lesser degree, the guards.  This process makes them cowards, averse to any form of anxiety.  They’ve got army-building technology, but none of their people can fight.

Logan is just the man to help them breed a whole new race of fearless soldiers.  He refuses without even bothering to look at the harem of women he’d be servicing.

Rowan has a counteroffer:  Agree, or we’ll burn out Jessica’s brain, and we’re already deprogramming Rem.  At this moment, Rem, who is too sophisticated to be deprogrammed by 1970’s cheesy SciFi blinky lights computer prop, leaps into action and starts to strangle Rowan.

Paulson has had misgivings, and he assists them in getting to Jessica.  She’s already hooked up, and while Logan can subdue two of the technicians, the third hides behind a Sandman Gun-proof piece of plastic and takes control of Jessica’s mind.

Rem grabs a control unit, and they fight it out through Jessica’s brain.  Logan tires of this and blows up the machinery.

The guards and menials put up a very lackadaisical pursuit, and his own guards kill Rowan.  Now Paulson is in charge, and he lets the gang leave.  He stays to help rehabilitate his society.

The Judas Goat Synopsis

In the City of Domes, Hal 14 makes his run.  Hot on his trail is Sandman Joseph 8.  Hal makes it to the secret doorway, opens the door, and then pauses momentarily to allow Joseph to catch up and terminate him.  The Runner’s secret exit is wide open, exposed for the Sandman to destroy!

But the Council that rules the City of Domes has a different idea.  Joseph 8 is taken and, without consent, surgically modified to look like Hal 14 and given a copy of Hal’s memories.  For all intents and purposes, Joseph 8 is now Hal 14, except that he is actually a Sandman dedicated to terminating Runners.

Taken before the Counsel of Old White Dudes, like Francis 7 before him, they offer him a place on the Counsel if he can bring Logan and Jessica back alive.

Hal-Not-Hal easily locates Logan and pretends to be a terrified Runner, scared of the mean old Sandman.  In an effort to reassure him, Logan chases him down just like in the good old days, although he doesn’t terminate him.

Hal was known to Jessica – “you remember, I was that guy you bumped into once at Carousel spouting off about not believing.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember, Hal, right?”

Hal-Not-Hal, having escaped the City of Domes and meeting the famous Sandman-turned-Runner Logan, immediately wants to go back to the City and start a revolution with Logan as the figurehead.

Rem thinks it’s a bad idea.  Logan kinda digs the idea of saving all the people in the City of Domes.

Before they can return, they are captured by a bunch of simpletons with guns and a lethal force field.  Hal-Not-Hal wants Logan to kill them all so they can get on their way back to the City of Domes. 

Instead, they are taken to the Provider, the man who takes care of the simpletons and uses them effectively for slave labor.

The Provider is actually Matthew 12, the very first Runner.  He is also known to Jessica and was the man who encouraged her to get involved in the Underground Runner Road.

The gang hatched the ludicrous idea that Matthew could go back, too.  He’s a legend.  Matthew, however, isn’t as stupid as our heroes and realizes what a bad idea it is.  Also, he realizes that if they get caught, they’ll be brain scanned, and he’ll be hunted down.  That’s a big no-go.  Also, I can’t let you leave now.

Hal-Not-Hal tries to steal guns in his endearing, single-minded way and escape, so they can return to the City of Domes and start a revolution.  That doesn’t work, and Matthew locks them up when they try an escape plan.

Hal-Not-Hal has a better idea…. If Rem stays behind to fix the Provider’s computers, maybe Matthew can let the others go.  For some dumb reason, Matthew goes along with this, and for even dumber reasons, Logan, Jessica, and Hal-Not-Hal think he’s going to let them go.

They leave, and Matthew tries to kill them.  Rem, fearful for his friends’ lives, reverses the polarity of the neutron flow, which kills Matthew.  Rem has done an AI boo-boo.  He’s violated the first law.

Don’t worry, say Logan and Jessica, you did it for a good cause – saving our butts.

“Well, that’s great and all, but hadn’t we better be getting back to the City of Domes?”

Gosh, if you want to get back there so badly, why’d you ever leave? Says no one, not even Rem.

As they approach the City of Domes, Logan gets suspicious when Hal-Not-Hal leads them to the same exit they used.  Logan notes that there’s no way Francis would have left that escape route open.  Hal-Not-Hal jumps for Logan’s gun, but Logan gets the better of him. Hal-Not-Hal runs away, again with Logan in hot pursuit.

Two Sandmen on routine patrol…. Wait? Two Sandmen on routine patrol outside the city walls spy a fellow Sandman chasing a Runner and terminate Hal-Not-Hal.  Logan stuns them both, and the gang skedaddles back into the trackless wastelands.