It is debated whether the the original Planet of the Apes film pentalogy represents a single circular timeline or two linear timelines. Screenwriter Paul Dehn firmly believed that the story-arc of the films he devised (as co-writer of Beneath and Battle and sole writer of Escape and Conquest) should lead inevitably back to the start of the original movie. Speaking in 1972 upon the release of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, he stated, "I fitted it together so that it fitted in with the beginning of 'Apes 1', so that the wheel had come full circle and one could stop there quite happily, I think." "The whole thing has become a very logical development in the form of a circle. I have a complete chronology of the time circle mapped out, and when I start a new script, I check every suppositi