Zaius (TV Series)

For for other versions of the character, see Zaius.

Zaius was the highest ranking member of the High Council of Central City in the year 3085. Obviously based on the character from the movies, he filled the same function as his namesake.

Biography[]

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Zaius served as the head government official in Central City, possessing great legal authority over the ape society of North America. He knew of the potential of humans and would stop at nothing to maintain the status quo. Unlike most apes, Zaius knew that humans had once been the dominant species on Earth. He collected artefacts of ancient human civilisation and stored them in a cabinet in his office.

Some time prior to the year 3085, another spaceship from the past crashed in the ape-controlled present. The occupants of the ship were captured and questioned by Zaius. The astronauts informed Zaius that his planet once belonged to intelligent humans. As proof of their technological advancement, the astronauts gave Zaius several high-tech hand grenades. While Zaius was fascinated by these humans, other apes were not, and the astronauts were executed. Lamenting the fact that he couldn't learn any more, Zaius stored away the grenades with his other human artefacts.

Around the time the young chimpanzee Galen became Zaius' new assistant, a new spaceship crash-landed near an ape village. Zaius became determined to learn everything he could from its occupants, who were astronauts Alan Virdon and Peter Burke. Zaius sent his enforcer Commander Urko along with Galen to capture the humans alive. Despite Urko's urge to kill the humans, Galen ensured that Zaius' orders were followed. However, Galen eventually befriended the two astronauts and helped them escape, accidentally killing a gorilla guard in the process. Virdon, Burke, and Galen were then marked as fugitives, hunted by Urko's police forces.

Notes[]

The shooting script for "Escape from Tomorrow" indicates that Zaius is in his mid-fifties at the time of the Planet of the Apes television series.

One of Zaius' orangutan predecessors was named Doswa. Zaius kept a bust of Doswa in his home.

While Urko believed humans to be inferior and incapable of anything remarkable, Zaius knew that humans could be intelligent, capable, and dangerous.

Trivia[]

Frank Westmore was responsible for the makeup transformation of Booth Colman, as the actor later recalled: "The full make-up took quite a bit of getting used to. Frank Westmore made me up every morning, and it took three hours. I had to be in his chair at 5 a.m. to be ready on set at 8 a.m., with a very short interval for breakfast, before they had the lower half of my face to deal with."^[1]