sgspires-89-442591 Reviews

Star Trek: Enterprise: Shuttlepod One (2002) Season 1, Episode 16

An early episode that fill out two main Enterprise crew and has a great dream sequence

[10/10 · 30 May 2024]

People who criticize this episode or overanalyze it should lighten up.

This was aired 16 episodes in to Season One of Enterprise. Malcom and Trip are still pretty new and here is a wonderful opportunity to see some interaction and backstory on both. The writers are building these two and the effort pays off in later episodes.

The dramatic pieces work. The shuttlepod is a bare bones spacecraft with little advanced hardware so there is no long range scanners or ability to run metal tests snd discern crashed spaceships etc. And their interactions, while comical at times, will be recognizable to anyone who has had a roomate, been on a long camping trip or spent time in a barracks.

Also, there is a humorous drean sequence with T-Pol and Malcom that coming early in the show helps flesh out fantasy Vulcan female attractions.

A solid episode for the first season.

Remington Steele: Steele Away with Me: Part 1 (1983) Season 2, Episode 1

Originally a single part episode and the second season premiere

[10/10 · 6 March 2023]

This eposide heralded slight changes in the series. Gone were Murphy and Bernice (I really missed Bernice), in came Mildred (funny but lacked some of the qualities of Bernice).

What really was kicked into high gear was "Steele as Bond." This episode plays out like a Roger Moore Bond movie with a soundtrack that is very close to Sean Connery's 1963 Bond From Russia With Love.

Pierce Brosnan would spend the next four years playing a mini Bond (or more accurately a Simon Templar - aka The Saint - Moore's 1960s reformed jewel thief adventurer) in in the guise of Remington Steele before ... not being Bond due to contract disputes and production delays until 1995.

This episode sets the madcap, international location tone that the series would take on for the next four years.

Good that it was out of the overused cop show locations of LA, but, still, Bernice was missed.

The Baron: Portrait of Louisa (1966) Season 1, Episode 13

Terry Nation recycles again

[7/10 · 26 January 2023]

Dalek (Doctor Who) creator Terry Nation recycles a 1964 script from The Saint called "Lida." It is exact scene for scene across about 90 percent of this episode right down to an interuption by a monotone busty woman. And the main female lead - Moira Redmond - playing Louisa is even driving Simon Templar's Volvo.

Still, there is a talented cast, and it is in color.

It seems Nation resold his scripts quite often, even trying to resell an entire six episode Doctor Who plot to the BBC during the same series or season.

Nation went on to create Blake's 7 and then moved to America where he helmed and wrote for 1985-1992's MacGyver.

The Saint: The Work of Art (1963) Season 2, Episode 7

The value of the US dollar and the theft of half a million francs

[9/10 · 26 October 2022]

The 500,000 French francs purloined from the bank in this episode was worth about $100,000 (as said by the chief bad guy in The Work of Art). That is roughly worth $1 million in 2022 money adjusted for about 10 times per dollar inflation rates over 49 years. The French franc was worth .20 th .22 cents on the USD then.

The Saint rarely delved into current day topics (rarely ... rarely) in the Black &White episodes. In the colour episodes there was more Cold War and fall of Colonial Britain drama in the episodes.

All around, this episode is pretty well plotted and it is nice to see Martin Benson, aka Mr. SOLO of crushed car demise from Goldfiner show up to act beside future 007 Roger Moore.

Harry O: The Last Heir (1975) Season 1, Episode 14

Another version of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel And Then There Were None

[8/10 · 15 May 2022]

If you are going to steal, then crib from the best. That's what is going on in this episode of Harry O - it is stolen from Agatha Christie's 10 Little Indians (aka in the US as And Then There Were None and by another title in the UK people can Google for themselves). It seems every detective show or soap opera took Miss Christie's book here and gave it a turn on US television in the 70s and 80s.

Several family members (not 10 as the episode's budget would not stretch) gather for a yearly allowance from an older sister. Clearly they hate each other and all start dropping dead in various fashions. No spoilers here, but if you like David Jannsen then you will like this episode.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Space Vampire (1980) Season 1, Episode 12

Very frightening to a young boy

[10/10 · 25 October 2013]

I saw this one when it aired, first Buck Rogers of the 1980s. I remember I was recovering from a cold and the space vampires particular way of draining a victim - fingers to the neck - was very frightful. Had an awful fever dream about it that night, and went around the next day rubbing my fingers and neck. Aside from just having very fond, if not frustrating, memories of Wilma Deering's wardrobe (probably only second to Diana Rigg as Emma Peel), this episode of Buck Rogers is the one that pops in my mind some 34 years later. The sets were restrictive and evoked a certain claustrophobia, also. And the fact that their weapons didn't work added to the tension; the technological marvel of "advanced" civilizations probably will not work on everything when our own kind starts exploring other worlds. Twiggy was scary in a different way.

The Night of the Generals (1967)

Flawed film, with outstanding talent in the production

[9/10 · 7 July 2013]

The Night of the Generals is a 1960s favorite of mine, even if it is just for the talent and the cinematography. Alas, today, because of a few production errors, as it stands, this one is the answer to the trivia question: "What film reunited 'Lawrence of Arabia' co-stars Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif?" This film has about every Sixties icon that could be shoved in a Wehrmacht uniform - Peter O'Toole, Tom Courtenay Omar Sharif, Charles Grey, Christopher Plummer, Donald Pleasance, Nigel Stock, etc. It only lacks Derren Nesbitt, Jeremy Kemp and James Mason (along with real German Karl Michael Vogler) to have rounded up the majority of European male stock of actors who could fill out a German uniform. The setting of Warsaw showed these guys were bad Germans, and few movies are set in World War II Warsaw, even though it is as easy as taking a back lot and making it look further run down. Involving some of the Generals in the actual July 1944 plot to kill Hitler - hence the name "The Night of the Generals" - gives the film depth (but pads it for about half an hour). The "who done it" in wartime was a great plot touch. The color, the psychology used with O'Toole's character of General Tanz gives the movie a touch of learned discourse. And murdering prostitutes gave it as close to SEX, boobs and legs as could be done in 1966, when the film was lensed. *** SPOILER *** And here's where it makes the viewer hate it: O'Toole literally kills the movie, the audience and Sharif's Major Grau when he guns down Omar in a climatic confrontation and with about 20 minutes left for dates and viewers to squirm their seats. It was as if Holmes were torn apart by the Baskerville hounds on the moors. Sharif as Grau was everyman. He is even likable as a German pressed into wartime service because he was a policeman in civilian life and was needed for the war effort. Everybody loves the detective cop. But O'Toole simply, dispassionately guns him down. It is a cheap shock for the audience, but the act destroys the one person the viewer identified with. I mean there may have been a few fellows in 1967 Rio or Caracas who were pulling for the Generals, but those guys were not the money paying target audience. Spend two hours building a character and then gun him down, and the audience will hate the movie. They did, and they still do. Well, a guy who was an enlisted man in 1967 Vietnam said they showed this movie to the soldiers and it was sort of popular for the girls,the sex killing and the fact a few generals sort of get it. This could be remade today. Throw out the bit about killing Hitler, make it a straight psycho general with common hang ups and keep Grau ALIVE until after the war when he brings justice to Tanz, and it would work. It could even work with some sort of anti moral twist ending, such as Grau killing Tanz and keeping the cycle of violence open. But it CANNOT work with the hero figure murdered before the closing act. So, great film if you like 1960s talent and faux psychology. If you like straight murder mysteries or simple crime plots - SKIP IT.

Moon Zero Two (1969)

Great film with believable plot on lunar science that works

[10/10 · 7 July 2013]

I have nothing bad to say about this movie. Other than the fact it is (as of July 2013) an on demand DVD, meaning it has NO special features (even though the two principals, James Olson and Catherine Schell are still alive to provide an interview and commentary track, and any number of film historians would take about $50 and a shot of scotch to review it). Set in 2021, the plot concerns Olson's Capt. William H. Kemp, an aging astronaut-hero who runs a space salvage operation on the moon where he scratches out every buck for survival. He gets involved with (the stunningly lovely) Schell's Clementine Taplin, who is trying to find a lost miner brother on the far side of the moon. Throw in a no nonsense, do anything for a Lunar Dollar businessman and an asteroid made of sapphire and there is the standard action conflict. This movie has been described as a Space Western, and I see the tropes and along with what would be called homage today - six shooter, bad guy vs. good guy, aging hero, and show downs. But the same plot devices are used in Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Ben Hur, Hornblower etc., and were long before Akira Kurosawa provided a shorthand for lazy film critics. This film is closer to "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" than "Seven Samurai." And it gets the science and technology of the moon down right, and explains it in a way that even Kubrick could have learned from on 2001 - make it simple and don't drag it out. The science is pretty bang on. That is the problem with a lot of 60s productions about space, they were slightly a notch above the bug eyed monster craze of the 50s in terms of believable science. But audiences were savy by 1969/1970 having been exposed to coverage of the real NASA lunar program and other space exploration efforts. I would say this movie owes a little to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" and the then in production television show "UFO," in terms of realism and look. Stylistic look, with props that make sense, and good looking 60s women in future clothes. It all makes one long for the future we were promised but never realized in the late 60s. Now, where is my food in a pill and hover car?

12 O'Clock High: R/X for a Sick Bird (1965) Season 2, Episode 2

Spies and counterspies at the 918th

[9/10 · 20 December 2011]

This one was probably written to quench the audience thirst during the first James Bond/espionage craze of the mid 60s. It plays more like an episode of 'I Spy' or even 'The Man From UNCLE' than it does a World War II bomber show. (there's a scene where the bad guys where special rings which would be right out of the UNCLE show). There are spies - saboteurs really - causing maintenance problems for Gallagher's aircraft. B-17s are suffering mechanical failures, bombers are falling out of the sky and targets are not being struck. What to do? Well Bomber Command has got to ferret out the Reich's sympathizers at Archbury. This one has enough twists and turns to satisfy the thriller thirst in any fan, and comes across as a good entry in the series, with Gallagher sort of going off and letting people know what he thinks about spy games vs. his duty to pound the Reich in the process. Again, solid performances all around - especially from J.D. Cannon, a Quinn Martin favorite. Gia Scala is both striking in looks and her acting in this one. She doesn't get a chance to shine - being she basically has no lines - in "The Guns of Navarone," but she really had the most lovely of voices and her ability to act off others with facial expressions surprised me. Tragic that her life was blighted and she ended up passing away a few years after this episode was filmed. She would have been a great talent for stage and film.

12 O'Clock High: The Idolator (1965) Season 2, Episode 4

Boyhood friends come together in war (again)

[7/10 · 20 December 2011]

I think every time a call went out, in the mid 60s, for somebody to play a long time friend who had a grudge (or chip on his shoulder) then Gary Lockwood's agent flipped up on the old Rolodex. This episode sports great performances from Lockwood, Andrew Duggan and Lee Meriwether - and some true gems of examples of physical reaction acting from Robert Hogan as Lockwood's over burdened co-pilot. However, it just stretches the imagination too much. Lockwood's "Lt. Josh McGraw" is an old friend of both Gallagher and Brig. Gen. Brit (Duggan who seems to not need his cane so much in this episode) and McGraw's father is a big time general somewhere that got him in the same outfit as Gallagher. He also dates Britt's daughter ... but, in short, he envies Gallagher's command, his girlfriend (for this episode played by the talented Lee Meriwether) and pretty much just wants to undercut him. This role wasn't a stretch for Lockwood, as he had just wrapped up playing pretty much the same part for Desilu on the second "Star Trek" pilot - "Where No Man Has Gone Before." And it really is just a plain television episode. Part of the plot revolves around McGraw/Lockwood popping into bomber command HQ pretty much whenever he feels like it ... and pouring over classified data. When Gallagher's not babysitting McGraw, or in meetings with Britt, then he is romancing Meriwether - a junior officer - at headquarters. Surprised there was time to bomb anything.

12 O'Clock High: Big Brother (1965) Season 2, Episode 5

Pure television ... but good entertainment

[8/10 · 20 December 2011]

This episode pits - albeit temporarily - Joe Gallagher against his own brother U.S. Army infantry officer Lt. Col. Preston Gallagher, ably played by Jack Lord. Gallagher is leading the 918th to North Africa after bombing a target in Europe on what was called a shuttle mission, meaning the aircraft shuttled from England to a target and then to another base. Kudos to Quinn Martin & Co. for using this bit of historical fact as a background. The facts sort of end there, but hey its free to watch (on broadcast TV anyway), right? From the opening act you know what you are in for - brother vs. brother. Lord plays Gallagher's brother as an short sighted, hard infantry officer who is at the end of his fighting rope after a week long battle with German units to seize an important airfield. Joe Gallagher needs fuel and bombs, waiting there for this very important shuttle raid, to complete the return part of his mission. Somewhere along the line, Preston Gallagher has decided the fuel is his outfit's needed to evacuate (to where isn't very clear) his wounded. He tells Joe Gallagher the 12 or so B-17s are going to be scrapped - blown up - on the runway to keep them out of enemy hands and everybody is going to fall back. The episode goes off the logic rails with this one. I guess the thought is Jack Lord is slightly mad from too much combat and isn't seeing straight. It seems to me if your orders are to hold an airfield for aircraft to operate out of, then BLOWING up some $3 million worth of aircraft (B-17s were about $250,000 a piece then) and essentially kissing off the second half of a very important mission when the goods and time are there to do it wouldn't be a punch in the promotion ticket. Plus, you have 12 bombers, fuel and bombs and you know where the Germans are ....hmmmmm (well, wait and watch the episode) From then on out the episode is just standard 'No you will not' ... 'Yes I will for duty, honor, country' conflict stuff that most episodic television is to this day. And that's sort of the bane of television production. Grinding out some 24-28 episodes a year (in the mid 60s) didn't leave a lot of time to polish scripts and make sure plots were iron clad. Along with that, Quinn Martin had a few television shows in production at this time - mid 1965 - and staffs tended to work across the board on multiple shows on script approval and rewrites. As usual, however, the performances of the actors, along with some pretty good reuse of movie war footage, sells this episode and gives it an 8 stars for me.

Secret Agent: The Professionals (1964) Season 1, Episode 2

Believable but production seemed rushed

[7/10 · 3 December 2011]

Most spy stories of the 60s revolved around pretty girls, gadgets, tricked out automobiles - basically carbon copies of Ian Fleming and James Bond. Secret Agent/Danger Man was quite different. With this episode, "The Professionals," John Drake has to ascertain why a British spy has gone missing in Prague. He has the added responsibility of worrying about the man's family. The reasons turn out to be typical spy fare - women, debt, fast living. The way Drake attempts to get him out is the entertaining part. Plot of this episode was outstanding, but the production seemed rough around the edges. The chase is a little contrived also. But as with the majority of Danger Man episodes, this one is entertaining.

Secret Agent: A Date with Doris (1964) Season 1, Episode 12

Takes a bit of a leap of faith but still good episode

[10/10 · 3 December 2011]

John Drake is sent to and island suspiciously similar to Cuba in order rescue a spy accused of murdering a very attractive young model/star. He manages to wend his way through local intrigue and dodge the very attractive military press handler Juana Romero - his cover is that of journalist - who dogs his every step. Finally, linking up with the "on the run" spy, Peter Miller (played by James Maxwell who turned in a performance in Danger Man's "Fair Exchange aired a few weeks earlier) Drake and Miller have to make their "date with Doris" courtesy of the Royal Navy. Solid writing for this one, and the chemistry between Jane Merrow as the eager young military press handler is well acted. Merrow was a staple of ITV programs like "The Saint" "Danger Man" and McGoohan's "The Prisoner" for years, but here penultimate performance of the 1960s came with "The Lion in Winter" playing Alais, King Henry's consort. Ronald Radd plays the typical 1960s Latin American dictator in green fatigues, but with a twist ... he has no beard. Of the multiple Fidel Castro rip off parts from this era, Rudd's certainly stands out because even with the little screen time he has Rudd manages to give the part depth. Alas, this tale has me up until the final escape. I'll leave it to the viewer but the literal Wild West-esque "showdown" in the villa was a bit much for me. Still, there are few Danger Man/Secret Agent episodes (well the black and white ones that is) that are not top notch in the writing department, and even the gadgets make sense and are believable for that time.

Secret Agent: The Mirror's New (1965) Season 1, Episode 21

Decent espionage plot with very real human twists

[10/10 · 2 December 2011]

"The Mirror's New" is one of my favorite Danger Man/Secret Agent episodes. Donald Huston is cast as Edmund Bierce, a mid level British diplomat, who piles on debt to a Paris gangster to finance his lifestyle of fast women and drink. For Edmund life has never been the same since his days in combat during World War II. He drinks, he womanizes and he lives life to recreate those few moments when he was alive. Shortly before a trip to Bonn, Germany, Bierce goes missing for hours following an accident with the gangster and the episode revolves around John Drake, secret agent, trying to unravel Bierce's missing day and where something called "The Dylan Report" has been and why there is a plastic mirror in Bierce's "other" Paris flat. (the one without his wife) A very well acted tale of true intrigue and human weakness, that is just as real in the 21st Century as it was in the mid-20th Century.

12 O'Clock High (1964–1967)

A decent bit of television. A fan of the original film ... but will somebody shoot down that rogue P-47?

[10/10 · 9 November 2011]

For episodic television, "12 O'Clock High" is solid entertainment. Most of the plots are well conceived, and the writing is, overall, decent. There are some of those stereotypical "If you weren't a general, then I'd pound you" scenes that are teeth grating, but those are few. The production team actually makes each of the scenes in the air interesting - which is hard to do because after a while they could dramatically become the same in that a team of men in a B-17 fly to a target and get shot up. Each one fits. The base scenes fold in what was the standard operations of the time: briefing room with the big map of Europe, the debriefing room, the commanding officer's office and the infirmary. It is television, so there's a certain amount of liberty taken with the "squadron bar" set pieces. I've spoken with veterans of World War II, and I don't think there was a dance every night at the squadron. Where the series departs is the romantic drama. I don't think every body hoofed it into the nearby British pub for fun and recreation. This seems to be melding peace time Air Force American activities that audiences had come to expect some 20 years after World War II had ended. I also don't think "girlfriends" came and went on most bases during World War II as they pleased. If there is one big detraction for me, then it is what I call the "rogue P-47." The production used an insert of a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter firing its six .50 caliber machine guns to represent a Luftwaffe fighter shooting a t B-17s a lot ... almost every episode of the two Black and White seasons. They couldn't find a Focke-Wolfe to substitute out, I guess. The viewer has to look past that. And the women all have 60s haircuts ... Plots are still top rate.

12 O'Clock High: Golden Boy Had Nine Black Sheep (1964) Season 1, Episode 1

Good pilot-first episode that diverges just far enough from its namesake film

[10/10 · 5 November 2011]

Slight spoilers below

This was the first episode of "12 O'Clock High," and I thought it would be full of the melodrama and stereotypes found in most episodes of 60s television - squadron bar brawls and created conflicts with superior officers. While there is conflict, it makes sense and is well acted by the principals - Paul Burke as Capt. Joe Gallagher and Robert Lansing as Brig. Gen. Frank Savage - and cleverly plotted with the real emphasis on the teamwork it takes to fly bomb missions. This episode zeros in on what was a "B," or side plot, of the 1949 film this television show was based on. Capt. Gallagher is unlucky with his aircraft and in danger of losing leadership capability due to fear and combat nerves. Savage give Gallagher the misfits in the wing and charges him with whipping them into shape. The flying scenes are realistic, the combat stock footage matches up with German aircraft attacking and allied aircraft defending (it wouldn't always in later episodes). Burke would return as Gallagher in a later episode and eventually take over the 918th Bomb Group later in the show's run. His performance is about 80 percent what is was in later episodes, and you can see Gallagher has some changes to undergo before leading the 918th.

Combat!: Cry in the Ruins (1965) Season 3, Episode 27

An episode of The Rat Patrol is the same plot

[3 November 2011]

I've watched enough episodic television to know that most plots are recycled - especially in the 50s and 60s. But Tom Gries - creator, director, producer of "The Rat Patrol" - must have outright lifted this great episode of "Combat!" when he wrote the second season episode, "The Truce at Aburah Raid," of "The Rat Patrol." Gries episode is the same exact plot, only in half hour form, of American and German units helping a distraught mother find a child trapped. Surprise twists and plot elements are the same. The only difference is running length, setting and, of course, "The Rat Patrol" was "IN COLOR." The "Combat!" episode aired March 23, 1965, and "The Rat Patrol" episode aired Sept. 11, 1967 - some 2.5 years later. Gries director three episodes of "Combat!" himself, and actually served in World War II as a Marine. Sometimes plots get stuck in the imagination from different places. Gries may have not just "lifted" and episode - but episodic television production can be tight. Many writers have done some creative readjustment of plot elements to speed along the creative script process. Both are great episodes that explore the themes of truce and trust between enemies in time of war.

12 O'Clock High: To Seek and Destroy (1966) Season 3, Episode 10

Worthy, movie quality episode right up until a V-2 becomes a V-1

[25 October 2011]

Plot description but no spoilers. This episode sports pretty good writing, a tight plot about German vengeance weapon going off course and crashing in Sweden. All plausible. Paul Burke as Col. Gallagher and Chris Robinson as Sgt. Komansky are called upon to fly an unmarked transport aircraft, the venerable Douglas C-47, along with David Frankham as the British RAF group captain who dislikes "Yanks." A realistic plot, even good explanatory lines from Richard Anderson's Brig. Gen. Doud saying the parts of the guided missile are needed to track down the manufacturing plants so they can be bombed. That's how it was done. Then the V-2 rocket shown in the opening becomes a V-1 guided missile, used by the German Luftwaffe in the real World War II. The V-2 was an actual rocket - the forerunner of American military rockets like the Redstone missile ("our" Germans designed it for the U.S. Army after they were grabbed at the end of the war). The V-1 would be akin to a cruise missile with a crude guidance system. The V-1 used an "air breathing" jet engine, and the V-2 used liquid rocket propellants - aka rocket fuel. Totally different weapons ... the V-2 footage was probably added in the harried post production after the episode was filmed. Still, the acting and plot is pretty good, even if some of it was cribbed from the 1966 racing film "Grand Prix," notably Frankham's "drunk" subplot.

12 O'Clock High: Back to the Drawing Board (1966) Season 2, Episode 21

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

[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.

12 O'Clock High: Which Way the Wind Blows (1966) Season 2, Episode 19

It is television - but still

[28 September 2011]

I'm far from a politically correct person. I like romance between men and women, but this episode of 12 O'Clock high is just improbable. Air group commanders, full colonels no less, do NOT romance junior officers assigned on special duty. That's basically the entire conflict of this episode. Col. Gallagher (Paul Burke) goes through the normal (for television) route of not wanting a weather specialists because he distrusts specialists and science. But within about 30 seconds he warms to Capt. Patricia Bates (Dina Merrill). And spends the rest of the episode putting his arms around her in a B-17, on the streets of London and in his office. Even Star Trek's Capt. Kirk didn't romance officers ON the starship Enterprise - mostly. The plot, for once, is pretty plausible: How to navigate through weather patterns so German defenses won't expect bombers coming. But the off the cuff romance between a colonel and a captain is awful.

Callan: Charlie Says It's Goodbye (1972) Season 4, Episode 7

Leap of faith in the romantic subplot concerning Callan and Susan Morris

[25 July 2011]

This could've been the penultimate episode of Callan. It gives all the classic espionage bits: detective work, sex forcing defection, a well dressed young hood and an agent pinned to his section. However, in the span of about 72 hours Callan and Susan Morris fall in love and talk of marriage with Callan leaving his section - a no-no in his world that comes with imprisonment or death. That is a HUGE leap of faith for the audience to make. Callan and Morris, both jaded, are in their late 30s or early 40s and people generally don't go on about marriage after three days. Other than that, the espionage part of the plot is tight about a high ranking British official who is known to be going over to the Eastern Bloc, or Russia, because of his particular dalliances in bed will undo him in the UK - maybe even in 1972 it was a little well worn. And LeCarre's "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" broke similar ground of romance and tired spies. All the Callan episodes are a good way to spend an hour or so if you like to think about what is being said instead of looking for gadgets and boobs (literal and physical). This boasts a good performance by a young Richard Morant - who looks like he is 17 but in reality was 26 or 27 years of age - and an original fight scene at the end of the episode.

The Twilight Zone: The Mirror (1961) Season 3, Episode 6

It seems dated, but the concept is timeless

[9/10 · 24 June 2011]

It's the adage of "absolute power corrupts absolutely" that Twilight Zone writer/creator Rod Serling was going for with this episode. It may seem dated because it is about Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but the concept never dies. Seemingly good men take power from bad men. Paranoia, greed, blood lust creep in, and then good men do bad things. Castro was courted, briefly, by the United States after he took power. This episode was produced just a few weeks after the failed US backed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. So, it was a mirror of its time. This same morality tale seems to play out over and over and over again. Whether it be a power hungry manager or a nation's leader. Only thing is, these days people come to respect those knee jerk decisions and paranoid moves to eliminate competitors. Seems these types never learn, somewhere, sometime that another will just push 'em down the stairs or out into traffic. And the cycle starts anew ... the point of "The Mirror" Great work, as generally was the case with Serling's Twilight Zone episodes.