Worlds Unknown #6 - Killdozer!

I do feel there can be no finer sight in the world than that of a homicidal bulldozer threatening to murder people for daring to defy it.

Let's be honest, we all like our construction equipment to have a bit of attitude.

And that can only mean one thing.

Killdozer!

I first learnt of that mighty machine's existence when watching a TV movie about it, sometime in the mid-1970s but my other encounter with it was in the pages of Marvel UK's Planet of the Apes comic, where it featured as a back-up tale.

How I thrilled as it massacred man after man after man.

But, looking at it again, for the first time in roughly forty years, will it still hold the same charm for me?

It starts with a scene familiar to all James Cameron fans; a world where human beings are at war with killer machines possessed by an evil consciousness. Unlike the Terminator franchise, this war is in the distant past and, unlike the Terminator franchise, the human race develops a defence against the machines. A defence which gives us total victory.

But that's not before one evil bit of consciousness escapes and survives, on an island, within the structure of a temple, for untold ages.

Sadly, when a team of workmen set out to demolish the temple, in order to start work on an airstrip, the evil consciousness takes over their bulldozer and starts to kill everyone off.

It's not just a tale of serial murder, it's also a tale of distrust; as the moment one man is killed, the workmen quickly turn against each other, blaming everyone except the obvious culprit.

What strikes me about this tale now is how angry everyone is. You do get the feeling that if they themselves could take possession of bulldozers, our cast of characters would all be going on a bit of a homicidal rampage themselves.

To be honest, the bulldozer doesn't have any great personality - it's not like it has any means to express itself, apart from by killing people - and it doesn't seem to have a plan beyond killing people. So, the tale's not some sort of classic but it's harmlessly diverting and it's nicely drawn by Dick Ayers, with an uncredited but fairly obvious helping hand from John Romita.

Of course, that's the comic. I don't have a clue how the TV movie stands up after all this time. It is, however, up there with Snowbeast as one of the few TV movies that's lodged in my memory from my childhood, so it must have done something right.