Shoot-Out At Land’s End

As the Cetacean participates in routine monitoring of an undersea volcano, Mark feels a sharp, stabbing pain in one shoulder, and is determined to find out why, leaving the sub to head for nearby land. He meets locals at a settlement who seem to think they know him (except they think his name is Billy), discovering an entire island still operating by the rules of the wild west. Mark soon meets “Billy” himself, his near-identical twin, who became a hired gun on this island after he was found alone on the beach. Mark is convinced that Billy is exactly like him, but his ability to feel whatever pain Billy feels could become a fatal liability when Billy is cornered by a lynch mob.

written by Luther Murdoch
directed by Barry Crane
music by Fred Karlin

Cast: Patrick Duffy (Mark Harris / Billy), Belinda J. Montgomery (Dr. Elizabeth Merrill), Alan Fudge (C.W. Crawford), Pernell Roberts (Clint Hollister), Jamie Smith Jackson (Bettina Washburn), Noble Willingham (Artemis Washburn), Tasha Martell (Carla), Bill Zuckert (Virgil), Richard Laurance Williams (Jomo), J. Victor Lopez (Chuey), Jean Marie Hon (Jane), Anson Downes (Allen)

Notes: It was not uncommon for 1970s American science fiction series to hew closely to the conventions of TV westerns, especially as many of the TV writers working at the time had been all but weaned on that genre, but this episode of Man Of Atlantis bends over backward to take the western connection to somewhat awkward extremes. Guest star Tasha Martell is better known as actress Arlene Martel (1936-2014); she adopted the stage name Tasha Martell in the 1970s and used it through the early ’90s.