One of my favorite television shows of my youth was the Sid & Marty Krofft production, Land of the Lost. The odd mixture of a family fallen through a space-time warp, tribal people, dinosaurs, very tall lizard men of dubious marksmenship, and easily disturbed, mysterious obelisks that seemingly control the whole thing made for a very memorable experience. One of the most memorable aspects was an ancestor of the tall lizard men or Sleestak, a traveller from the past of the Land of the Lost stuck in a barbaric future, Enik the Altrusian.

Created by Walter Koenig (AKA Star Trek's Pavel Chekov) when he wrote the episode 'The Stranger', Enik was protrayed and voiced from within the reptilian/insectiod mask by actor/voice talent Walker Edmiston (already a veteran of other Krofft productions) in a calm measured tone that I only recently discovered was done to keep Mr. Edmiston's voice clearly audible and to keep it from reverberating inside the mask.

I've had the entire series on DVD for a few years and have watched it a couple of times. After the advertising surrounding the recent film release and my cable malfunctioning during my vacation, I got the DVDs out to listen to the various commentary tracks that I hadn't done before and found all sorts of things I didn't know about the program including how involved in the show Mr. Edmiston was beyond his role as Enik. Regardless of all that, I'll probably still remember him as Enik first and foremost.

Land of the Lost © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions
Enik created by Walter Koenig, portrayed by Walker Edmiston