The Builder Temple
Near the Lost City's plaza is a stone "temple" (discovered by Will and Holly in "The Test"). It is avoided by Sleestak, as it is not an Altrusian ruin but rather was built by some other humanoid agency of great stature. Outside the temple there are two very curious artifacts. The first is a large stone obelisk which Will suggests might represent the Pylons. The other is a stone tablet with mysterious markings that vaguely resemble letters of the English alphabet. Rick posits that there may be a possible connection. Inside the temple is an empty antechamber with a sundial set into the floor, somewhat of an oddity since sunlight does not reach that far into the room. As shown in "The Musician," there is a solid stone door at the back, and at the top of the door frame is a sculptured relief high on the wall of two hands touching; one hand is convex, the other concave. The door only opens when the "right" individual (Cha-Ka, in this case) puts his or her hand into the concave relief. Inside is an auto-illuminating chamber with "the great-granddaddy of all matrix tables" (as Rick described it). There are also several pieces of art including a chrome humanoid statue and a pane of hand-shaped glass.
When this chamber is explored in "The Musician", Cha-Ka touched the matrix table and caused the appearance of a glowing red humanoid figure, along with colored light smears in the sky. The figure was uninterested in the Marshalls, telling them "You have already proven yourself; it is not your time." When it encountered Cha-Ka and he faced the glowing figure bravely, it declared, "It is your time, Cha-Ka." The figure morphed from a tall, featureless red humanoid into a boy - a more human-like twin of Cha-Ka - before vanishing. Cha-Ka was apparently left with a powerful ring and improved intelligence; at the end of the episode, he is shown playing music on a recorder that he had previously been unable to comprehend.
Farther away from the Lost City is another smaller complex also called "The Temple". This other Temple is perhaps of Altrusian origin; its decorations include the half-sunburst symbol seen over the entrances to the Lost City. The Marshalls wound up using this temple as their primary shelter in the show's third season. A popular myth for the reason of this set-change is tied into the fire that destroyed the cave sets for another Krofft show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. However, this fire took place during the second season of Sigmund, at which time Land of the Lost would have been in production of only its first season. Also, the first two seasons of Land of the Lost were taped at a different studio entirely from that of Sigmund. The show then moved to Goldwyn Studios for its third season. This was the studio where the fire did occur two years prior that destroyed the Sigmund sets.. The mystery of the Builders and their Temple was not explained further.
Read more about this topic: Land Of The Lost (1974 TV Series) Geography And Technology
Famous quotes containing the words builder and/or temple:
“Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create something in the image of nature is to create a machine, and it was by learning the inner working of nature that man became a builder of machines.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“The same indignation that is said to have cleared the temple once will clear it again. The question is not about the weapon, but the spirit in which you use it. No man has appeared in America, as yet, who loved his fellow-man so well, and treated him so tenderly. He lived for him. He took up his life and he laid it down for him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)