in which another ship was said to have crashed long ago without any survivors. In episode four, "Underground", another Earth ship is described as crashing three years previously, again with no survivors. Several episodes show crews surviving their initial crashes, only to be killed later. The episode "Brainwash" has a crew of little people surviving long enough to build a radio station that can communicate with Earth. They are killed shortly after that. The episodes "Golden Cage" and "The Lost Ones" show a few survivors from other crashes. Only the Spindrift crew seems to have survived for long with its party intact. One continent, or hemisphere, is dominated by an authoritarian government that tolerates full freedoms within a capitalist system, but it does not tolerate any effort to effect political change. Exactly what the political situation is on other continents is not known, although at least one overseas land has a despotic ruler. The air traffic control tells those who venture out to sea that they should turn back, that nothing beyond that sea has been explored nor is there current contact; whether this is an official government line or the truth is not known. Culturally, the Giant society closely resembles the contemporary United States of 1968 (in various episodes, it has a police force, private hospitals, prisons, a state governor, radio and television services, a zoo, jazz clubs, and even a racetrack; the Giants speak English, drive American cars, attend vaudeville-style theatres, and play chess). The Earth people find themselves able to cope, and their efforts to get around are facilitated by the ubiquity of large drains leading directly from interior rooms to the pavement, in an outside wall of most buildings. The Giant government has offered a reward for the capture of the small Earth people (whom the Giants call "the little people"). In spite of the authoritarianism, several dissident movements are at work that either help other dissenters (such as the Earth people) or are actively working to unseat the ruling party. The government has established a special-investigations department (SID) to deal with assorted dissidents, but it also takes the lead in dealing with the Earth people. For an extended period from the middle of the first season to the middle of the second, the primary local SID officer is Inspector Kobick. The Giant technologies mostly resemble mid-20th century Earth, but inconsistently: Some are significantly more advanced