Veska is a character in the first episode of the TV series Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes (TV series)

Planet of the Apes was a short-lived American science fiction television series that aired on Friday evenings at 8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central on CBS in 1974. The series starred Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, and James Naughton, Mark Lenard and Booth Colman...

, based on the 1968 film

Planet of the Apes (1968 film)

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...

.

Character

Veska is a pragmatic chimpanzee and prefect of the ape village known as Chalo.

In the episode, titled titled "Escape From Tomorrow," in 3085, his inquisitive young son Arno discovers the downed spacecraft called the Icarus some distance away from the prefecture that has delivered the human protagonists to their planet. Veska is shaken by the realization that humans have constructed and flown the ship, which is considerably more advanced than the primitive level of invention on his own planet. Veska's fierce reaction to his son's declaration that the humans must have come from a superior culture introduces a core theme present throughout the franchise, that the apes fear the human astronauts will threaten their dominion over the species. "If humans could build and fly a [spaceship] like this," he tells Arno, "they'd begin to think they're as good as we are!" Veska alerts the other ape leaders to the two surviving humans' escape from the vehicle, which starts the hunt that drives almost all episodes of the short-lived series.

Portrayal

Veska is played by Woodrow Parfrey

Woodrow Parfrey

Woodrow Parfrey was an American film and television actor from the 1950s to the early 1980s. e appeared on Broadway in Advise and Consent .-Biography:...

, who along with appearing in this first series episode also appeared in the first Apes movie, a distinction he shares only with Roddy McDowall

Roddy McDowall

Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...

. (Interestingly, their two characters in the series pilot are cousins.) Veska's eyepatch was a last-minute wardrobe solution to mask a visible eye infection Parfrey contracted after falling asleep while wearing the dark contact lenses that all blue-eyed actors wore to help the ape makeup appear more natural. The large patch, apparently shorn from the same material used to make his costume, enhances Veska's frightening countenance.