12 O'Clock High (TV Series) Back to the Drawing Board (1966) User Reviews

Cat and mouse

[VetteRanger · 8/10 · 23 April 2023]

Particularly in the air war, WWII saw a lot of technological see-sawing. Radar, in the manner it was used in the war, had only been developed shortly before hostilities broke out. It subsequently was used in weather forecasting and to detect planes in the air. Navies used it to range enemy fleets.

This episode touches on a new use for radar ... locating ground targets in bad weather before turning the bombing run over to the Norden Bomb Sight, which had been another critical leap forward in the war's technology.

The episode includes the great Burgess Meredith, who brings the targeting radar to our heroes ... picked to test it out during overcast conditions. The Germans make a countermove, and then we see the dawn of another wartime strategy.

Did it all happen just this way and in the few days covered by this story. Certainly not. But this condensed version of events is still interesting and made for good TV.

One of the very best.

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 22 September 2021]

While I enjoy watching reruns of "12 O'Clock High", the stories often go in odd directions in order to spice up the show. Simply showing bomb run after bomb run each episode would bore viewers. So, sometimes the show came up with some nutty plots to mix things up a bit...such as having Gallagher and his crew flying to the USSR, doing missions for which other planes are designed, as well as being shot down....and combined General Savage and Colonel Gallagher must have been shot down at least 6 times!! So, an episode like "Back to the Drawing Board" is a welcome show, as it is very different AND realistic!

When the story begins, Gallagher is shown a new secret weapon...a radar system for bombers that allow it to see through the clouds and accurately bomb in adverse weather. The episode guest stars Burgess Meredith as the device's inventor and you see the progress of the weapon--its successes, its failures and working out the glitches in the system.

Overall, a really fascinating episode...one that is based on fact and is exciting from start to finish....and one of the very best of the episodes so far.

An episode that is tight, well acted and filmed with a decent plot.

[sgspires-89-442591 · 30 September 2011]

A few spoilers below: 12 O'Clock High is one of those standard television dramas in that it has episodes that rely heavily on the melodrama and not conflict. This episode, Back To The Drawing Board, is pretty tightly written and very well acted by the veteran players. The crew of the 918th Bomber Group has to perfect a radar device that can bomb through cloud cover. Pretty believable as the allies worked on such a device during World War II. Alf Kjellin does a decent job with the part of the German fighter commander. Burgess Meredith fills out his role as the scared scientist well. The cast of regulars do solid jobs also - many episodes they do not and the writing and acting are all over the place. But the best performance is that of Robert Doyle, television regular in the 60s and 70s, who plays a sgt. aide to Meredith who gets wounded on one of the missions. His part could have been a sappy performance geared to make people feel sorry for a wounded warrior, but it did not devolve into a propaganda bit. He went from confident to scared to scarred to determined throughout the episode. The cinema photography looks like a quality production motion picture - almost like one of the big budget war films or Bogart movies of the 40s, and adds to the period viewers are meant to believe this drama takes place. All too many times - especially in the 70s - a good cast, script and plot can be shot down with "modern day" hairstyles and poor wardrobe selections. The bombing missions didn't seem corny, and the stock World War II footage matched the missions (in most of these episodes they were forced to use a P-47 Thunderbolt closeup of machine gun whenever either side is attacking with fighters). The bit about how radar fooling chaff is created is a little much, but acceptable. Robert Dornan, who went on to be a eight term U.S. congressman from California is in many of these episodes - something like 24 of them - as a captain or co-pilot. He is always chewing gum and gives a pretty good portrayal as an Air Force pilot - and that is because he was one. Star Trek fans, and lovers of beauty, will not that Susan Denberg, who had but a short acting career, is in this episode as the German colonel's "girlfriend." She is best remembered for her role in the first season Star Trek episode "Mudd's Women." She looks much, much better in living color.