the Forgers

plot
While visiting an interplanetary art exhibition, Husky notices a painting of the Dictum forest on Mars.  The painting shows a barren desert landscape and Husky says that there is no such area in the forest.  Believing that a disease may be killing the vegetation there, Dart obtains Raeburn’s permission to take the Galasphere to investigate.  Professor Haggerty, meanwhile, is attempting to find the source of a large amount of forged currency which has come into circulation.  Having traveled to Mars with Dart and his crew, Gabbler learns from the other gabblerdictum birds that once a week, a man arrives in a rocket and another man waits to meet him.  They carry sacks of what the gabblerdictums call “crackle” into the rocket.  Dart tells Gabbler that he would like to see some crackle and Gabbler tells him that the glooks, Martian insects, use it to line their nests.  He kills one of the glooks and takes some crackle back to Dart and Husky, who are surprised to discover that it is, in fact, Earth money.  Dart believes that the two men are responsible for the counterfeit money and Gabbler tells them that the rocket is coming again that night.  Gabbler spies on the two men and discovers where their hideout is.  He, Dart, and Husky find a moving platform there which takes them to an underground passageway where they find the two forgers and arrest them.

notes
This is the only episode in which we see another gabblerdictum parrot.
This is the first episode in which we see Husky’s home planet, Mars.

credits
a National Interest Picture production
produced by Roberta Leigh and Arthur Provis
directed by Frank Goulding
created & written by Roberta Leigh
voices by Libby Morris, Dick Vosburgh, Ronnie Stevens, Murray Cash
puppetry by Martin & Heather Granger, Joan Garrick
electronics by F.C. Judd
space consultant: Colin Ronan
RCA sound recording
script assistant: Denise Kaye
cameraman: Arthur Provis
editor: Roy Hyde
art director: Roland Whiteside
models: Derek Freeborn
special effects & animation: Bill Palmer, Brian Stevens, Bert Walker