The Golden Triangle (6 Oct. 1985)

MacGyver is sent to Burma to retrieve a poison-filled canister from a crash site. While there, a drug lord mistakes MacGyver for a narcotics agent, forcing him into a confrontation.

Director:

Paul Stanley

Writers:

Terry Nation (opening gambit written by), Lee David Zlotoff (creator),

Stars:

Richard Dean Anderson, Joan Chen, George Cheung

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Richard Dean Anderson	...	MacGyver
Joan Chen	...	Lin
George Cheung	...	General Narai (as George Kee Cheung)
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Anek
Keye Luke	...	Prasert
Benjamin Lum	...	Truang
Bryan Price	...	Chan
James Saito	...	Ming
Angus Duncan	...	The General (American)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stephen Chang	...	The Beginning
Gerald Okamura	...	Soldier

Storyline

In the opening gambit, Mac takes a diplomatic case during an criminal hand-over, and outsmarts he armed fiends making use of the site, a car demolition junk-yard, which almost ended fatally 'depressing' for him. - In the main story, the Pentagon lost an airplane carrying weapons, including a secret canister, over Burma (SE Asian, bordering Thailand) and Mac accepts the search mission. The region in the 'Golden Triangle' is controlled by the sinister war lord general Nairan, whose goons terrorize the rural villagers to work poppy fields for his opium - and arms trade. Mac observes the abusive overseer Truang at work, gets the brave teen boy Chan to show him the crash site but is captured by surprise; Nairan orders him slowly executed 'as an example', bound on a rack in the sun. Chan's sister Lin is too scared for reprisals -whole villages were brunt down for disobedience- to help, but Chan gets him a stolen army knife. In no time crafty Mac frees himself, overcomes his guard and his ...

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Plot Keywords:

crash | horse whip | warlord | abuse | beating

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 October 1985 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Henry Winkler/John Rich Productions, Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[voice over]
MacGyver: [trapped in the back seat of a car about to be crushed] Now, you may find this hard to believe, but there have been times when I've had a lot more fun in the back seat of a car.

User Reviews

Cliché

First, the good sides: it's always fun to see Clyde Kusatsu's work, and an appearance by pre-Twin Peaks Joan Chen is also nice. But otherwise, this is on autopilot. The opening gambit with the "escape from a car about to be crushed" trick was already in 1985 an old story. Why did they have to make those opening gambit's anyway? It only brings to mind the forced "James Bond WITHOUT the license to kill" analogy. Well, on to the main plot: MacGyver goes to Burma, where conveniently EVERY native speaks English. The Bad Guy is your usual '80s Action Movie stock two-dimensional (one-dimensional, is, as mathematicians know, only theoretical!) cardboard cliché, spouting unimaginative dialogue and being stereotypically cruel. According to ancient cinema and TV traditions, he MUST die at the end and of course, this being "MacGyver", no GOOD characters can't kill him so he gets to experience what "live by the sword, die by the sword" means, literally. I found this hilarious cheating on the writer's part. It's just another variation of the clichéd tradition of the bad guy shooting himself with his own handgun while struggling with the good guy (here The Bad Guy is is trying to lunge at MacGyver with his thin blade only to trip over and to impale himself). The only interesting thing in this episode is that MacGyver's employer is the government, possibly military - but the writers have left it unclear whether he is a free agent or not.