I associate the ballon with today's killer drone. Its task is to control or kill the targets. It's a natural "futuristic" tool that is an integral part of the surveillance system, the "All SEEING EYE". The EYE is the equivalent of what we see today with the security cameras and all the other gadgets that spy on us. Monitoring is one function but then you also need a tool to physically influence those being observed, that is the balloon/drone's function.This is one of my favorite series from the 1960s. Even as a young man I appreciated the social commentary. There is a synergy or collinearity between this story line and "The Matrix" - the idea that things are not what they seem and that one is really a prisoner in a "velvet prison". I purchased this on Blu Ray and rewatched it all. It was filmed in 35mm so the translation to Blu Ray disk is like a movie. Its brilliant.
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The whole attack balloons didn't make sense at the time and it still does not make sense (to me).
I get this, and I got it at the time, but sorry, the "balloon" image just doesn't work for me. There is no way there could be a "mechanism" inside. Its a nit, I will agree. (Perhaps the fact that I am an engineer by profession influences my opinion... )I associate the ballon with today's killer drone. Its task is to control or kill the targets. It's a natural "futuristic" tool that is an integral part of the surveillance system, the "All SEEING EYE". The EYE is the equivalent of what we see today with the security cameras and all the other gadgets that spy on us. Monitoring is one function but then you also need a tool to physically influence those being observed, that is the balloon/drone's function.
Quite clever that something like this was chosen, as the then sci-fi movies already had robots. So choosing a balloon is a highly creative choice for such a function.