Classic Villains: Planet of the Apes’ General Urko

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

General Urko in the episode ‘Escape From Tomorrow’

For years, I thought that General Urko was part of the movie trilogy. It wasn’t until I was older that I realised that I was wrong. But that just shows me the power of the character and just how embedded into my young mind the performance of Mark Lenard was.

Lenard was, of course, famous for playing Sarek in Star trek. He would appear in the original in Journey to Babel and as a Romulan in Balance of Terror, Sarek in the animated series, three of the Trek movies as Sarek and one as a Klingon. Finally he would return as Sarek in Star Trek The Next Generation episodes Sarek and Unification.

Lenard was a powerfully commanding actor holding a great screen presence. So it is no wonder that he made such an impression on me as a kid from under that gorilla mask.

Urko was the head villain in the television series, a high ranking figure his troops looked up and intent on capturing the two human fugitives from Earth’s past, (Alan Virdon, Ron Harper) and Peter Burke (James Naughton brother of An American Werewolf’s David). Like Taylor (Charlton Heston) and Brent (James Franciscus) before them, they were astronauts caught in the time warp sending them crashing to Earth centuries after the nuclear war that allowed the apes to take over.

Urko was introduced in the pilot episode “Escape from Tomorrow” and went on to appear in all fourteen episodes of the short lived series. There was always something distinctive about Urko to me and part of that was his appearance with that big helmet with those unique markings. The opening titles also terrified me with the gorilla on horseback against a burning sun rifle raised into the air against that theme music.

I remember vividly my mother buying me the Mego action figure and the Planet of the Apes franchise has stayed with me ever since. Aside from Cornelius, Urko was the ape for me and meshed in my head with the movie series for ages.

General Urko appeared in the not so great animated series dressed in a much more colorful costume and this was the last time we would see the character. The ape hatred of humans and their fear of bringing down the ape civilisation in the television series was not unfounded. This gave Urko a more multilayered character as Burke and Harper discovered that there were vaults from their time and they had a circuit key to those very computers. If what man knew and had destroyed their world, then the likes of Urko did not want that same knowledge destroying ape civilisation. It elevated General Urko to a rounded character.

In the pilot Dr Zaius dispatches Urko to capture the two humans but doesn’t trust him to obey his orders to take them alive for questioning. Indeed Urko does arrange for the humans to escape but has a shooter in place so he can claim they were killed while trying to escape.

In episode three, The Trap, Urko gets up close and personal with a human in the shape of Burke. Urko doesn’t let even earthquakes put him off his pursuit which leads him to being stuck with Burke. Burke is terrified of being killed at his hands and manages to build a form of mutual survival by pleading to Urko’s sense of self survival. Urko says he does not work with humans but Burke tells him he will need him because he was born in the time of the subway and knows how it works. As part of his denial that humans once were the dominant species, he does not believe that a subway train would be used to travel underground. He believes that apes were part of what was here before and it was theirs not the humans. He hates the fact Burke thinks he knows more than Urko does.

Despite himself, Urko learns what solar energy is, words like holocaust, disposable clothes, organ transplant and that his very future depends on making an alliance with the human he has been sent to kill. It is up to Burke to show him what humans and apes can do when they team up, However on one of the walls partially covered with rubble, is a ticking time bomb; a poster of a circus with a gorilla in a cage.

Urko attacks Burke until he admits that the apes owned everything and that humans were pets. Urko is heavy handed with all humans. To quote him, “I always assume a human is lying; makes it easier”. But they must work together before the air runs out. This tendency to disbelief humans carries to his loyal men who have to work with Galen (Roddy McDowall) and Virdon.

In the ruined San Francisco, they are both trapped together in an old subway station when an earthquake hits. Urko is a great hunter as he is able to lasso Burke from the back of his galloping horse before they plunge through a sinkhole into the subway. It is interesting to note here that the relics of man’s past are very much visible as we travel through San Francisco where man’s once tall buildings are shattered but there. That’s in stark contrast to the originals where none of man’s past was visible reduced to a few relics in the possession of Doctor Zaius. Indeed the movie’s Forbidden Zone holds the secrets the likes of which, Urko would never want made public.

He is a master tactician and strategist and like every bloodhound never gives up. Urko chooses his moments carefully as he sees the poster but says nothing until they are about to escape. Burke uses Urko’s own temper against him to knock him unconscious but still gets him out. An injured Urko still wants the humans shot there and then but doesn’t divulge what he saw or his reasons why.

In episode nine we learn Urko is an accomplished horseman and has never lost a race in his life. Now Virdon must race Urko to secure an innocent man’s life. Episode fourteen sees Urko’s distrust of human technology which he believes was the ape’s originally put to the test when they capture a human who can show them glider technology. example

In episode twelve Urko is quite happy to openly mutiny against the council and burn down a malaria inflicted village under the false banner that he is doing it for his troops. It is a battle of wills against him and Zaius to let Burke and Virdon’s medicine to cure the disease.

Urko will never be happy until he is in total control of humans and apes alike whom he will then exterminate. Alas we will never know but the fact Urko sticks more in our heads than any gorilla baddy from the movies speaks volumes to the power of the character. Even the new age apes in the movies will pale next to General Urko.