WILD WILD WEST, THE: THE NIGHT OF THE DRUID'S BLOOD {DON RICKLES} (TV)

Summary

One in this drama series about the adventures of Jim West and Artemus Gordon, two undercover government agents working in the old American West on secret assignments for President Ulysses S. Grant.

Jim meets with Professor Robey, his old teacher, who seems extremely nervous about something. He reveals he was involved with a woman named Lilith while on an archaeological dig in Mesopotamia, but says she is “evil.” Moments after he leaves, the Professor spontaneously bursts into flames, killing him. Jim watches, horrified.

A week later, Colonel Fairchild, Jim’s superior, informs him that he has been barred from working on the investigation of Robey’s murder by the chairman of the Senate Surveillance Operation committee, Senator Clay Waterford. Jim visits him to find out why; Senator Waterford tells him that the murder is a personal matter for Jim and not federal business. Senator Waterford’s new wife Astarte enters; Jim recognizes her as Lilith from Professor Robey’s photograph of her. He elects to remain with the Senator for a time to investigate.

Senator Waterford shows Jim a few of his guests: Asmodeus, a magician, and Dr. Tristam, a physician. Despite Asmodeus’s repeated efforts, Dr. Tristam refuses to believe in black magic. Once alone with Astarte, Jim confronts her about Professor Robey’s death and tries to get her to confess how she convinced Senator Waterford to take him off the case. Before he can get any answers, Asmodeus sneaks up on him from behind, but Jim is ready for him. Artemus gets Jim and they leave together.

Jim believes Astarte is trying the same thing on Senator Waterford as she did on Professor Robey and asks Artemus to investigate further. They part ways and Jim is almost immediately tricked into a trapped coach. A man with a bandaged face is snuck into the local hospital under the pretense of being Jim West. The fake Jim lies unconscious for hours with Artemus by his side.

The real Jim wakes up at the bottom of a tall metal chamber. An illusory projection of Asmodeus taunts him before disappearing. The room starts to heat up, but Jim escapes using equipment he hid in his shoes. He hears chanting and investigates a nearby room filled with robed figures. Astarte appears to be leading an occult sacrificial ceremony; Jim tries to stop it but is knocked unconscious by Asmodeus.

Artemus, Dr. Tristam, and Colonel Fairchild meet at Senator Waterford’s house, all having received notes supposedly sent by Jim. Jim, semi-conscious, is delivered to the Senator’s porch and brought inside. Jim tries to tell him of what he saw, but no one believes his story, believing that he experienced a delusion while unconscious at the hospital.

Jim and Artemus pack up to leave for their furlough, but Artemus suspects the man in the hospital was a fake. He shows Jim his research: other than Professor Robey, top scientists across the country have suffered gruesome deaths, and each time Asmodeus or Astarte was near the scene of the crime. Believing that the scientists are not dead but are being collected for their genius, Jim and Artemus convince Colonel Fairchild to dig up the body of one of the scientists. However, the body is in its casket, disavowing the Colonel of Jim and Artemus’s theory.

As they leave the cemetery, Jim and Artemus hear chanting coming from within a mausoleum. They investigate and find the place where Jim was held captive. The robed figures turn out to be mannequins and the chanting is coming from a phonograph. Asmodeus emerges and tries to capture Jim and Artemus, but Jim fights him. Asmodeus is killed when he accidentally impales himself with a spear. A secret door opens and Jim and Artemus find a laboratory inside. Seated within is the true mastermind behind the entire scheme: Dr. Tristam.

Dr. Tristam used various chemicals and other ploys to murder the scientists. When Artemus tries to attack him, he is electrocuted into unconsciousness. Dr. Tristam further explains that he carried out his scheme to literally harvest the scientists’ intellect; he reveals the scientists’ brains kept alive in jars and forced to collect their intellect into a vast electrical conductor. He enlisted Astarte’s aid in luring the scientists into his traps; she married the senator for his many contacts but he will perish by the same incendiary fluid that killed Professor Robey, spread onto a cape he is wearing at his costume party.

Jim gives the imprisoned brains the idea to concentrate all their thought into a single massive electrical burst. They do so, overloading Dr. Tristam’s machine. It explodes and Dr. Tristam is struck by electricity, lighting him on fire. Jim drags Artemus to safety as the lab explodes. He rushes over to the costume party and confronts Astarte, telling her that Asmodeus and Dr. Tristam are dead. When Senator Waterford arrives, Astarte feigns that Jim was harassing her and he pulls a gun on him. Jim manages to get his cape off before it bursts into flames. He convinces the senator of Astarte’s part in the scheme.

Later, back at the train, Artemus is practicing a few magic tricks of his own. The episode ends as he conjures a woman out of an empty box. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: CBS
• DATE: March 25, 1966 7:30 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:50:00
• COLOR/B&W: B&W
• CATALOG ID: B:56638
• GENRE: Drama, police/private detective; Drama, western
• SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective; Drama, western
• SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1965-1969
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Michael Garrison … Executive Producer
• Gene L. Coon … Producer
• Leonard Katzman … Associate Producer
• Ralph Senensky … Director
• Henry Sharp … Writer
• Richard Markowitz … Music by
• Robert Conrad … Cast, Jim West
• Ross Martin … Cast, Artemus Gordon
• Don Rickles … Cast, Asmodeus
• Ann Elder … Cast, Astarte
• Rhys Williams … Cast, Dr. Tristam
• Bartlett Robinson … Cast, Sen. Waterford
• Don Beddoe … Cast, Prof. Robey
• Sam Wade … Cast, Robert Perry
• Susan Browning … Cast, Nurse
• Simon Scott … Cast, Col. Fairchild