Ark II: The Robot

"The Robot" is the fourth episode of the science fiction television series Ark II out of a total of fifteen episodes. It was directed by Ted Post with a script written by Chuck Menville and Len Janson. It first aired on CBS on October 2nd, 1976. In addition to the main cast, this episode features guest appearances by Al Dunlap as Brant and Elizabeth Cheshire as Nestra, as well as a special appearance by Robby the Robot.

Synopsis
The Ark crew takes a much needed break. Jonah tries to cook up some fish stew (without fish) while Samuel is inside the Ark II putting the finishing touches on his latest achievement - a large robot designated Alpha-One (or "Alphie"). Alpha-One is capable of many things, but there are still a lot of bugs to work out of the system, including making improvements on his manual dexterity. As Samuel works on him, he receives instructions to investigate a mysterious pocket of atmospheric gas located nearby.

Samuel goes outside to tell Jonah and Ruth. As the group prepares the Ark II, Alphie fiddles with the scanning equipment and breaks off two of the control knobs. Jonah already has zero patience for the robot. As they drive towards the target area, Alphie continues to make mistakes, including dropping a monkey wrench into the control panel.

They stop when they see two primitive people in rags walking down the street in a seemingly hypnotic state. They try to communicate with them, but they are listless and unaware of the Ark team's presence. They narrowly prevent the two from walking off the side of a cliff.

Before they continue any further, Jonah orders Samuel to completely deactivate Alphie. He then takes off with Ruth in the rover towards the area where the gas is emanating from. Samuel doesn't want to deactivate Alphie, but he follows orders. Alphie revolts however, gassing Samuel and escaping from the Ark II. Alphie walks down the road until he comes upon a sick little girl named Nestra. He tells her that he has the means to cure her people and asks her to trust him. She leads him back to her village, but the sick villagers regard Alphie as some sort of devil machine and throw rocks at him. Ultimately, Alphie has to defend himself by blasting the projectiles with a laser.

Jonah swoops down upon the scene in his jet pack, but one of the villagers, Brant, declares him a "sky devil" and incites the others to throw rocks at him too. Jonah is forced to land and injures his leg.

Alphie comes to Jonah's aid and they find the fissure from which the poisonous gas is coming from. They try using lasers to seal off the fissure, but the breach is too big. Alphie determines that the only way to generate enough power to get the job done is by entering the fissure itself, allowing his robot body to explode. Samuel is heartbroken to see his creation sacrificing itself, but in the end, the plan miraculously works and the fissure is sealed off.

Jonah, Samuel and Ruth return to the Ark II, where they discover that Alphie left behind a recorded message, declaring his love for them all.