Land of the Giants/Deadly Pawn

Deadly Pawn
Season 2, Episode 4
Airdate	October 12, 1969
Production Number	4709
Written by	Arthur Weiss
Directed by	Nathan Juran
Produced by	Irwin Allen
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Land of the Giants — Season Two

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Deadly Pawn is the fourth episode of the second season of Land of the Giants, and the thirtieth episode overall.

Starring: Gary Conway (Steve)

Also Starring: Don Matheson (Mark), Stefan Arngrim (Barry), Don Marshall (Dan), Deanna Lund (Valerie), Heather Young (Betty)

Special Guest Star: Kurt Kasznar (Fitzhugh)

Guest Star: Alex Dreier (Kronig)

Additional Cast: John Zaremba (Dr. Lalor), Charlie Briggs (Guard), Steve Marlo (Technician)

Plot Overview

Kronig, a fiendish chess-obsessed giant millionaire, contrives to capture the little people. He succeeds in capturing the travellers, but then makes them a deal; they take part in Kronig's chess game and if they defeat him, he will set them free, but if he wins, he turns them over to the Special Investigations Department. The Earthlings choose Barry, a skilled chess player and junior state chess champion back on Earth, to represent them, which infuriates Kronig and prompts him to tie Barry's companions to some of the chess pieces used in the game. After the pieces they are tied to are removed, Steve, Mark and Dan escape, but Dan is recaptured by one of Kronig's guards while Steve and Mark make their getaway from the giant's mansion and contact Betty at the Spindrift via two-way radio to have her help them distract another guard. Mark is momentarily caught by an animal snare, but escapes and returns to the ship while Steve goes back to the mansion.

When he starts losing the game to Barry thanks to secret radio assistance from Mark at the Spindrift, Kronig tries to rig the game to his favor by activating trap doors on the chess board that trigger and drop a captured piece into a computer-controlled blast furnace, potentially endangering Fitzhugh and Valerie (who are still trapped on the board) as well as Barry. Dr. Lalor, Kronig's psychotherapist who is acting as Barry's proxy in the game, objects to his diabolical plan and gets locked in a broom closet for his trouble by Kronig. While Steve and Dan go to free Lalor and deactivate the computer controlling the furnace by frying its circuits, Kronig, who finds out that Barry has been getting help, loses his temper and petulantly claims victory, then overturns the chess board and dumps the five travellers into the furnace chamber before going to reactivate the computer and turn the furnace back on. Lalor is freed from the broom closet and tries to stop Kronig from restarting the furnace, and during the ensuing struggle, Kronig falls against the computer's exposed wiring and is electrocuted and killed, while the Earthlings use a cutting torch to cut through the chamber's steel wall and escape back to the Spindrift.

Notes

• Starting with this episode, a new theme song was introduced for the show's opening credit sequence

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• At the time of this episode, series regular Heather Young, who played Betty, was showing signs of pregnancy, so in storyline, Betty was stationed back at the Spindrift at the ship's computer console in order to hide Young's pregnancy