Professor George Bancroft

Bio
Professor George Bancroft was a NASA scientist at Cape Canaveral in Florida in charge of the Mars Probe sent into space. His colleague is Professor John Corwell. It's not revealed what his specialty is, but he is very excitable and somewhat distracted, given to thoughts bordering on lunacy. When the probe is contacted, he jumps to the conclusion that Mars has huts and palm trees; he adds that the hut shows signs of intelligent life, unaware the probe has re-landed on Earth in the South Pacific, At one point, he is so excited by his conclusions that he describes them to a reporter, but when the probe is reactivated, he is further stunned to see a race of bird people, unaware he is spying on the survivors of the S.S. Minnow lost some time before.

Trivia

 * Bancroft was played by actor Arthur Peterson; best known as "The General" on the short-lived series, "Soap."
 * It is unrevealed what happened to Bancroft, but it is likely he would have been discredited and fired from his position because of his ludicrous conclusions.

Episode(s)

 * Smile, You're on Mars Camera