20171103

WONDER WOMAN

The subject of terrorism was explored in the episode 'Knockout' in the TV series, 'Wonder Woman' first went on air in October 1977. Written by Mark Rodgers and directed by Seymour Robbie, Burr DeBenning played Tom Baker, the assistant agent in charge at I.A.D.C. headquarters in Los Angeles. Artie Kane composed the music to enhance the scenes. 

Viewers learnt from Lt. Col Steve Trevor, Jr., Tom Baker was "a sleeper, a traitor planted years ago by the other side." He had recruited Carolyn Hamilton (played by Jayne Kennedy) who was a SFPD officer from 1971 to 1975 to join the terrorist Movement group, supposedly a genuine independent revolutionary movement. The ex-con and terrorist Angel Velasquez (played by Alex Colon) told Wonder Woman, "The Movement set out to change the world so that those on the top can be taken away from power. Those from the bottom should be set free." 

Tom Baker's plan was to knock out the top level of the I.A.D.C. - Steve Trevor, Jr. and Diana Prince. Then the Movement planned on crashing the Trade conference ceremony to extort $20 million which Tom Baker demanded be drawn from federal and private banks and also a private jet, proclaiming, "In this richest city, in this richest country of the world, in the gathering of the richest nations, we announce today the existence of a movement that someday would change all that forever." 

In one scene Steve Trevor, Jr. told Carolyn, "You talk about vice, narcotic, child abuse. Those are the things an honest cop spend a lifetime fighting. You want to hand the problem over to the other side, let them to solve it? Go ahead, they'll solve it with slave labor camp, secret police." In another scene between the Tall Man played by Frank Marth and Carolyn, he said, "It would bother me doing what you're doing." She snapped, "You don't know what we do." 

He countered, "No, but I imagine it involves changing the world through some form of violence, senseless wasteful violence." She argued, "The world has to be changed." He reasoned, "Maybe. But I doubt very much whether you're the group to do it. You'll make a name for yourself but you'll wind up in some alley prison or county grave." In the end, viewers were told raids by federal and state authorities had knocked out all known groups of the Movement. Carolyn told Wonder Woman, "At least it's ended." Wonder Woman replied, "At least it's begun." 

On CBS the format of 'Wonder Woman' was switched from "period" to a modern setting. Lynda Carter spoke to the press at the time, "'Wonder Woman' was changed this season (1977-1978). It was moved from the 1940s to the present day. Everyone felt we had done enough shows about the Nazis and World War II. I think it was a good idea to update the show. 

"It's still the same show. It's just been moved to a modern setting. The plots have been - and will be - based on domestic and international problems. Some of the guest leads are 'larger than life' in terms of destructive power, and then other shows will be based on a more human interest slant. The scope is wider - from outer space to a child in trouble, perhaps." 

One commentator observed, "The shift to modern times enables the show to deal with this side of the conflict of the '40s with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight." In the episode 'The Starships Are Coming' written by Glen Olson, Rod Baker and Anne Collins, first went on air in February 1979, Andrew Duggan played an ultra-right-wing fanatic Mason Steele. He staged a UFO invasion hoax to manipulate Colonel Robert Elliot (played by Tim O'Connor) to launch a nuclear missile into Red China.

Mason Steele told Diana Prince, "I'm serving my country, even as you, perhaps, except that my hand is not tied with red tape and political expediency. I am free to act, to destroy the enemy of the United States, to do what every freedom loving patriot know what has to be done. We all have our passions. Mine is to see that democracy outlives every other form of government. The others, they play the lead in a magnificent cosmic tragedy."

Diana Prince rebuked, "In a way, for your sake, I almost hope you never realize the truth that you have done more to destroy democracy than any communist country ever dream of doing." Mason Steele fumed, "Put a gag in her mouth. I don't have to hear these obscenities." In closing, Wonder Woman said, "With patriots like you Mr Steele this country doesn't need any enemies."

The show also dropped the camp element and concentrating on straight adventure and more science fiction-oriented plots. Also on CBS, the invisible airplane would be used sparingly and the Wonder Woman's crime-fighting kit would undergo minor changes from the tiara that could be used as a boomerang to the golden belt. The bullet-repelling bracelets would also turn from lead to gold and the magic lasso Wonder Woman would use to rope villains and force them to tell the truth also looked slightly different.

"I have welded the two so much that there are things about myself and the values I have that the character has," Lynda Carter stated. "Diana Prince is probably more me than Wonder Woman is because, obviously, Wonder Woman is a fantasy and Diana is more a human being. And I wear glasses, too." To stay in shape for the show, "I do many kinds of exercises. I swim a lot. I play tennis. I jump on the trampoline, and do leg lifts and push-ups. I run - and for the opening shows this season (1977-1978) I had to take fencing lessons. I hate working out in a gym but I do it. Any exercise where you use your whole body is good. Your body becomes balanced. You become aware of your head, your hands, every part of your body." 

The truth serum was explored in episodes of 'Wonder Woman'. In 2006, the truth serum was mentioned in debates on interrogation techniques in the war on terrorism. As understood, the "truth serum" was discovered in 1916 by obstetrician Robert Housecame. However the first truth-eliciting drugs dated back 2,000 years to the time of the Roman Empire when Pliny the Elder noted "in vino veritas" ("in wine there is truth"), indicating alcohol was an early form of truth serum. Humans were said to be more readily truthful while under the influence of alcohol. Over the millennia, some of the truth serum included scopolamine, pentothal or sodium thiopental (sodium pentothal and sodium amytal were types of barbiturates) and ethyl alcohol (or booze).

In 2013, Michael Mosley of the BBC 'Magazine' reported, "For many years scientists have been working to develop 'truth drugs' - drugs that will make you open up and tell all you know to an interrogator. One of the oldest and best known of these truth drugs is sodium thiopental. I was intrigued but also extremely sceptical about the claims that sodium thiopental, originally developed as an anaesthetic, could make people speak the truth if they chose not to. 

"So I decided, as part of a series I've been making on the extraordinary history of pharmaceuticals, to try it out. Sodium thiopental is part of a group of drugs called barbiturates, drugs widely used in the 1950s and 60s to help people sleep better. They are no longer used for that purpose because they are extremely addictive and potentially lethal - Marilyn Monroe famously died from a barbiturate overdose. 

"Barbiturates work by slowing down the rate at which messages travel through the brain and spinal column. The more barbiturates there are, the harder it is for chemical messages to cross the gaps between one neuron and the next. Your whole thinking process slows down until you fall asleep. With thiopental, that happens very quickly indeed. 

"Although it was originally developed as an anaesthetic, it was soon noticed that when patients were in that twilight zone halfway between consciousness and unconsciousness, they became more chatty and disinhibited. After the drug had worn off, the patients forgot what they had been talking about. It was decided that sodium thiopental might form the basis for a truth drug, an interrogation tool. But does it really work? The truth is we don't have a reliable truth drug yet. Or if there is one out there, nobody's telling."

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