Despite featuring a villain whom Wonder Woman had squared off against in the comics, "Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther" gives Wonder Woman busywork but doesn't give Baroness Paula Von Gunther (Christine Belford) even that in a lukewarm tale that previews the limitations of the first season of "Wonder Woman": Set following America's entry into World War Two, the series had to find variations on the theme of battling Nazi Germany, with the question being just how far could that go without becoming even more restrictive and formulaic than television was in the 1970s.
Here the premise, scripted by Margaret Armen, is sabotage perpetrated by Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists that is blamed on war hero Major Steve Trevor, working intelligence missions stateside for General Phil Blankenship while supported by Yeoman Diana Prince, Wonder Woman's alter ego introduced at the end of the pilot, "The New Original Wonder Woman."
The infiltrators are the Baroness, who in a neat misdirection is incarcerated in a women's prison near Washington, D. C., ostensibly renouncing her loyalty to the Third Reich while seemingly embracing democracy, and her henchman of sorts, prison guard Hanson (Ed Griffith). Both use a secret passage out of the prison to rendezvous with the fifth columnist, American steel magnate Arthur Deal III (Bradford Dillman), who is somehow pressuring Congress (in some indistinct plotting by Armen) to investigate Steve for treason even as Deal is fabricating evidence to prove Steve is responsible for various acts of sabotage, with Wonder Woman managing to save him from peril in the proverbial nick of time.
But watching the Baroness and Hanson's goings-on behind bars is the warden's (Edmund Gilbert) son Tommy (Christian Juttner), the proverbial Precocious Kid from Central Casting with a Sherlock Holmes fixation who also imagines himself a sleuth as he carefully documents their suspicious behavior, although he too must be rescued by Wonder Woman, which is how he gains temporary custody of her magic lasso in more hand-waving to fill time before the Grand Finale at which the Baroness and Deal expect to eliminate Steve, Wonder Woman, and even Tommy in One Swell Foop.
Lynda Carter spends much of her time in her iconic Wonder Woman costume, and perhaps not just for the T&A factor: In her first full outing as Diana, Carter is still feeling out that persona, painfully obvious in the early scenes in which her line readings are stiff and wooden, exhibiting the discomfort of an actress with minimal experience and, apparently, little guidance from director Barry Crane.
At this point, Carter clearly seems more comfortable as Wonder Woman and is more effective in that persona. One intriguing touch she attempts, when she spins into her Wonder Woman costume, is to find a place to discreetly stash her now-discarded street clothes, a gesture that was itself eventually discarded.
Top-billed guest star Belford does what she can in a boutique role while TV veteran Dillman similarly postures in a one-dimensional part and Juttner holds his own as "Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther" delivers a disappointing, anti-climactic encounter.
Here the premise, scripted by Margaret Armen, is sabotage perpetrated by Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists that is blamed on war hero Major Steve Trevor, working intelligence missions stateside for General Phil Blankenship while supported by Yeoman Diana Prince, Wonder Woman's alter ego introduced at the end of the pilot, "The New Original Wonder Woman."
The infiltrators are the Baroness, who in a neat misdirection is incarcerated in a women's prison near Washington, D. C., ostensibly renouncing her loyalty to the Third Reich while seemingly embracing democracy, and her henchman of sorts, prison guard Hanson (Ed Griffith). Both use a secret passage out of the prison to rendezvous with the fifth columnist, American steel magnate Arthur Deal III (Bradford Dillman), who is somehow pressuring Congress (in some indistinct plotting by Armen) to investigate Steve for treason even as Deal is fabricating evidence to prove Steve is responsible for various acts of sabotage, with Wonder Woman managing to save him from peril in the proverbial nick of time.
But watching the Baroness and Hanson's goings-on behind bars is the warden's (Edmund Gilbert) son Tommy (Christian Juttner), the proverbial Precocious Kid from Central Casting with a Sherlock Holmes fixation who also imagines himself a sleuth as he carefully documents their suspicious behavior, although he too must be rescued by Wonder Woman, which is how he gains temporary custody of her magic lasso in more hand-waving to fill time before the Grand Finale at which the Baroness and Deal expect to eliminate Steve, Wonder Woman, and even Tommy in One Swell Foop.
Lynda Carter spends much of her time in her iconic Wonder Woman costume, and perhaps not just for the T&A factor: In her first full outing as Diana, Carter is still feeling out that persona, painfully obvious in the early scenes in which her line readings are stiff and wooden, exhibiting the discomfort of an actress with minimal experience and, apparently, little guidance from director Barry Crane.
At this point, Carter clearly seems more comfortable as Wonder Woman and is more effective in that persona. One intriguing touch she attempts, when she spins into her Wonder Woman costume, is to find a place to discreetly stash her now-discarded street clothes, a gesture that was itself eventually discarded.
Top-billed guest star Belford does what she can in a boutique role while TV veteran Dillman similarly postures in a one-dimensional part and Juttner holds his own as "Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Von Gunther" delivers a disappointing, anti-climactic encounter.