Dodge

From The Sacred Scrolls

Lieutenant Thomas Dodge

Actor	Jeff Burton
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Born	circa 1942 ^[1]
Died	3978
Continuity	Movies
Appearances
First Appearance: Planet of the Apes Last Appearance: Planet of the Apes

Thomas Dodge was an astronaut on a mission along with Colonel George Taylor and Lieutenants John Landon and Maryann Stewart to test the theories of doctor Otto Hasslein. A member of the Icarus, Dodge and the rest launched out of Cape Kennedy in 1971. After entering suspended animation, the Icarus entered a Hasslein Curve. It crashed onto an unknown planet (actually Earth) and Stewart was killed. Dodge, a man of science with a thirst for knowledge of the unknown, committed himself to finding a way to survive on the planet. After swimming in a lake and discovering their clothes were stolen by mute humans, including an attractive woman named Nova, Dodge and the others discovered, to their horror, that there were horseback-riding, talking apes on the planet. During their attempt to escape, Dodge was shot. Later, Taylor would horrifically find Dodge stuffed in a museum.

[edit] Notes

In the novelization of Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Dodge is referred to by a government inquiry board as 'Lieutenant Dodge'.

In the novelization of Escape, it is revealed that the apes were intrigued by Dodge's skin color, having never seen a black person. This scene is based on script dialogue edited out of the finished movie:

E-1: "Colonel Taylor had colleagues..."

Zira: "Oh, yes. There was one who ... somehow ... died before we found out he could talk. He possessed a unique skin. We had it stuffed and put in our museum. Like the gorilla I saw in yours. ... It was black."

That script was written by a different writer than that of Planet, so that reason may not have been a consideration at the time of the original movie.

The museum where he was displayed was the Great Hall of the Zaius Museum.

A fan-produced reproduction of the Presidential Commission's Briefing Dossier gave Dodge the name 'Dr Jeff Dodge'.^[2]

The 'ANSA Public Service Announcement' bonus feature from the Blu-Ray Planet of the Apes Box-Set (released November 2008) included this biography: "Lieutenant Thomas Dodge serves as head science officer. At the relatively young age of 35, Lieutenant Dodge exhibits the vision of a man with twice his years. He admits yearning to find intelligent life at the crew's ultimate destination. A dream he has often discussed as professor of organic chemistry at Annapolis."

[edit] Trivia

As a scientist, Dodge is similar to Professor Antelle from Pierre Boulle's original novel, La Planète des singes, though Antelle is an older man. But Dodge is shot and killed in his first encounter with the apes and Taylor discovers him as a stuffed and mounted display in the ape museum shortly afterwards. This is the same fate that befell Arthur Levain, the third character in Boulle's book.

The name 'Dodge' is used from the earliest scripts (1964) written by Rod Serling. Serling's script treatment for an 'Apes' TV show followed on somewhat from these scripts, with two astronauts sent to rescue Taylor's crew which included an approximately 31-year-old man (possibly called 'Thomas' - confusingly, an earlier script name for Taylor) who is found to have died from a gunshot.^[3]

On May 21, 1967, the first day of filming in Page, Arizona, Charlton Heston complained that they.. "were more than half an hour late starting this morning because the beards weren't sent up for the other astronauts, who of course haven't had time to grow their own. They weren't well applied when they did come... The heat is bad here. One of the other two actors playing astronauts (Jeff Burton) passed out from the heat."^[4]