This episode was the worst of the entire series. In fact, it's so bad, it's embarrassing to watch. The story is about a martian, "Mr. Zero", who is banished from Mars for being a quarter inch shorter than the other martians. His rocket crash lands on earth,presumably in the American west. Next thing we know, he's standing in The Daily Planet office. (How did this naive martian know to go there? Mr. Zero inadvertently helps the bad guys with his "paralyzing finger". When he realizes he's been helping the crooks, he uses his power to help catch them. He is then allowed to return to Mars, for doing his good deed.
This episode was obviously aimed at kids, but even from a kids perspective, its awful. The dialog is terrible...when Mr. Zero appears out of nowhere at the Planet, he says to Jimmy "take me to your leader" This episode is also one of the most cartoonish of the series, with the bad guys named "Georgie Gleep", and "Slouchy McGoon", and the dumbest special effect of all time...people freezing still when he points at them.(Bet that was real expensive to do)
How sad that this great series had deteriorated into a cartoonish kiddy show by the time it went to color. I only wish that George Reeves, who I've read was not happy with the change in tone of the later episodes, would have demanded the return of Jackson Gillis, Ben Peter Freeman, and the other writers responsible for those great scripts of the first two seasons. After all, they already had the best Superman/Clark Kent(Reeves), Lois Lane(Phyllis Coates), Jimmy Olsen(Jack Larson)and perry White(John Hamilton) If only the writing would have kept pace.
This episode was obviously aimed at kids, but even from a kids perspective, its awful. The dialog is terrible...when Mr. Zero appears out of nowhere at the Planet, he says to Jimmy "take me to your leader" This episode is also one of the most cartoonish of the series, with the bad guys named "Georgie Gleep", and "Slouchy McGoon", and the dumbest special effect of all time...people freezing still when he points at them.(Bet that was real expensive to do)
How sad that this great series had deteriorated into a cartoonish kiddy show by the time it went to color. I only wish that George Reeves, who I've read was not happy with the change in tone of the later episodes, would have demanded the return of Jackson Gillis, Ben Peter Freeman, and the other writers responsible for those great scripts of the first two seasons. After all, they already had the best Superman/Clark Kent(Reeves), Lois Lane(Phyllis Coates), Jimmy Olsen(Jack Larson)and perry White(John Hamilton) If only the writing would have kept pace.