Thomas Dodge

Dodge
Biographical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Born	c. 1942
Died	3978
Status	Deceased
Occupation	Astronaut
Appearances
Continuity	Movies (APJ)
Actor	Jeff Burton
First Appearance	Planet of the Apes
Last Appearance	Planet of the Apes

Thomas Dodge was an astronaut who embarked on a mission along with George Taylor, John Landon and Stewart to journey to another star system.

Biography

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. He seems to have a personality that was a go-between between Taylor's tongue-in-cheek ways and Landon's seriousness. When Taylor mocked Landon for volunteering on the mission, after some time Dodge had had enough of this and yelled "Climb off him, Taylor!" At some point, the trio found some weeds and dandelions flowering, which Dodge considered great scientific knowledge that although they still had no clue wha planet they were on, they had proven this planet could sustain life. 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.

Notes

• In the novelization of Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Dodge is referred to by a government inquiry board as 'Lieutenant Dodge'.
• Michael Wilson's final shooting script for the movie described Dodge and Landon as "thirtyish, clean-shaven, virile".
• 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 (although that script was written by a different writer than that of 'Planet', and so it may not have been a consideration at the time of the original 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."

• The museum where Dodge was displayed was the 'Great Hall of the Zaius Museum'. Earlier scripts named it the 'Museum of Natural Science'.

• A 2007 fan-produced reproduction of the Presidential Commission's Briefing Dossier gave Dodge the name 'Dr. Jeff Dodge' (Mission Specialist).

• 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."

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.

• Rod Serling used the name Dodge from his earliest screenplays for an Apes movie (1964), with one draft apparently describing him as 'William Dodge', a stocky man in his twenties. He was apparently also a white man, as he "turns pasty white" when shot. Serling's script treatment for an 'Apes' TV show followed on somewhat from his film scripts, with two astronauts sent to rescue Taylor's crew which included a man called 'Thomas' - confusingly, Serling's earlier name for 'Taylor' (possibly a 31-year-old man, who is found to have died from a gunshot).

• 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."

• Explaining the effects used to transform Dodge into a stuffed corpse, make-up designer John Chambers joked, "We just didn't have the heart to send Jeff to a taxidermist!" Instead, special contact lenses were made to cover Jeff Burton's eyes completely, giving a 'glazed' appearance. A custom mouthpiece which fit inside his lips & cheeks added to the 'stuffed' illusion, and translucent body make-up completed the effect. Between takes the actor was overheard to comment "I don't see how those stuffed animals can stand it!"

Appearances

• Planet of the Apes
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (archival footage only)
• Planet of the Apes (Power Records)
• Planet of the Apes Magazine: Planet of the Apes (issue #1)
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes: Planet of the Apes (issue #1)
• Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes

See also

• Dodge (Visionaries), for the analogous character in Planet of the Apes: Visionaries, based on Rod Serling's first draft of the script.
• Arthur Levain, a character from the novel La Planète des Singes who has a similar story arc.

References