"Wonder Woman" Formicida (1978)

Director:

Alan Crosland

Writer:

Katharyn Powers (writer)

TV Series:

"Wonder Woman" (1976)

Original Air Date:

3 November 1978 (Season 3, Episode 6)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Major | Magic | Amazon | Nazi | Bracelets

Cast

Lynda Carter	...	Wonder Woman
Lyle Waggoner	...	Major Steven Leonard "Steve" Trevor / Steve Trevor, Jr.
Tom Kratochvil	...	Voice of I.R.A.C.
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Alda	...	Harcourt
Carol Carrington	...	Receptionist
Neil Elliot	...	Male Secretary
Frank Farmer	...	Foreman
Stan Haze	...	Cawley
James Nolan	...	Watchman (as Jim Nolan)
Robert Shields	...	Doug / Douglas Henry Radcliffe
Lorene Yarnell	...	Formicida / Irene Janus
Ben Young

Saundra Sharp

...

Eve

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Wonder Woman must jump over a fence with Rover. She is holding Rover with one arm before and after the jump, but in mid-jump she has both hands up in the air with Rover attached to her side.

Quotes:

Wonder Woman: Show's over boys.
Formicida: No Wonder Woman, the show's only begun!

Ant Man's Distaff DC Counterpart Having a Bad Hair Day

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This episode had a lot of promise going in, guest starring the once-popular duo of Shields & Yarnell and featuring a real super-powered villainess to challenge Wonder Woman. But the story turned into a muddled affair about a would-be Monkey Wrench Gang of eco-terrorists who are targeting the chief of a chemical company (played by Robert Alda). The ending was too pat, from the old Scooby Doo playbook, where everyone admits they were guilty and wrong and is eager now to do the right thing.

Robert Shields has stated he and his wife Lorene Yarnell were "embarrassed" to appear on the show (then why did they agree to do it? Was someone holding a gun on them?) and their lack of enthusiasm shows. One does admittedly feel sympathetic towards Yarnell, who was made to wear a frizzy wig and a low-cut spandex suit while popping her eyes wide and gritting her teeth, emitting a high-pitched whine by which she communicates her orders to her legions of ants.

Yarnell aka Formicida is actually a scientist who developed the chemical pesticide that her boyfriend sold to Alda's chemical firm for a million dollars. Now she wants to stop production of it because it has been subsequently discovered it will poison the ground after four years, doing more harm than good. Do Shields and Yarnell offer Alda a refund on the million he spent on their pesticide? No, instead she orders hordes of ants to infiltrate Alda's buildings to eat away their structural supports, causing them to collapse (insert stock footage of ants gnawing on wood, followed by stock footage of building demolitions). The morality in this episode is muddled at best, both Alda and Formicida being both wrong and wronged.

Only in television would a chemist being followed and threatened call Diana Prince and request a meeting at an old warehouse. Why not choose a public setting or better yet the IADC offices where there is security? The warehouse meeting does however provide the setting for Wonder Woman's one good fight scene with Formicida. The warehouse is conveniently stocked with stacks of empty cardboard boxes and old mattresses (which make for kid-friendly impacts when the characters throw each other around).

There's a nod to Stevenson's Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde when the mousy scientist drinks her ant hormone potion and transforms into the formidable Formicida. You know she's a scientist because she wears a white lab coat and has a big hand-drawn picture labeled "The Ant" on the wall that looks like it was swiped from a third-grade science fair exhibit.

"Formicida" was a tremendous disappointment. The third season opening credits try to move the show away from its comic book origins, but the plots and stories seem more directed towards younger viewers than the first (and best) season or even the second. Steve Trevor is again wasted as he so often was in the second and third seasons, having only a couple scenes that serve merely to pass along information.

Three stars for the always beautiful Lynda Carter.