This is a very entertaining episode. Once again, snipers have made life hard at the 4077th. While people are avoiding being shot, some visitors have problems of their own. A British group is on its way to counteract the sniper (though they never seem to show up) but their commander has a delicate problem (he has an ingrown toenail) which the boys make sound like an STD. The real STD guy is a blood and guts Colonel who comes to visit some of his men and then needs Hawkeye and BJ to prevent further complications. As they treat him, they realize that their microscope has been stolen. They make a deal with a military scrounger who wants to go home on a ship (remember how Henry died) but he needs three signatures to make it so. It gets down to finding a way to get Frank to sign the request. It also involves a tank, brought to dissuade more sniper fire. How it all comes down makes this a very worthwhile show in the series.
3 Reviews
It happened one day
safenoe16 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
So many entertaining sub-plots in Hey, Doc, culminating in Frank running amok in a tank and causing havoc and wreckage in half the camp. I like M*A*S*H a lot, and I've lost count the number of times I've watched each episode. I never tire of M*A*S*H.
Three Plots ,One Theme
sprynx12 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This episode was pretty well written because it had three co-plots with the same theme.I'm focusing on one of the plots which was a motor pool sergeant being discharged home. This sergeant apparently has a known penchant for stealing army property and sending it home and no one seems to care very much. He wants to go home by ship rather than by plane so that he could smuggle a ton of steel (don't ask me how) so that he can open up his own restaurant when he reaches the states . Pierce and Hunnicutt ,who play cards with this guy, tell him that they have no qualms about falsifying his medical record to state that he has an ear problem which makes it prohibitive for him to leave by plane. However, they tell him that he needs three doctor signatures and they say Potter won't sign because he is too honest and Burns won't sign because he is too thoughtless of other people. Interesting double standard- Burns is bad because he is a doctor who wouldn't falsify a medical record but Potter who also won't do it is just honest .
Later on, the units only microscope is stolen so Pierce and Hunnicutt tell the sergeant that they will still falsify his record-and will try to convince Burns to do it too- only if the sergeant acquires for them a new microscope. During that dialogue we learn that the sergeant is the one who gave them the original microscope after stealing it from somewhere else. The good doctors don't seem too taken aback by that information unless of course they already knew of it- which is worse . Anyway, they try to convince Burns to sign with them . Burns is initially puzzled of this medical report because he is the one who last examined the sergeant and he knows that he only has a hernia which Burns quips is the result of him trying to mail car transmissions home. So even the officious Burns knows about this sergeant's past antics yet he seems to have begrudgingly accepted it . I guess Burns has learned overtime how to pick his battles. Anyway, when the other two doctors explicitly tell Burns to falsify the record so that they may get a new microscope , Burns lividly refuses with some inane remarks to remind us that he is the bad guy.
They later succeed in getting Burns to sign the form by getting Burns out of trouble with Potter over something he did involving a tank. Again, I can't get over the big double standard coming from the mouths of Pierce and Hunnicutt . To them ,Burns is petty for not wanting to falsify a medical record in exchange of a much needed microscope but they don't even attempt to go to Potter with the same request. Did they not think he would have complied if he knew the whole story? Anyway- it was still a funny episode and the plot instruments of the three co-plots intertwined brilliantly.
Later on, the units only microscope is stolen so Pierce and Hunnicutt tell the sergeant that they will still falsify his record-and will try to convince Burns to do it too- only if the sergeant acquires for them a new microscope. During that dialogue we learn that the sergeant is the one who gave them the original microscope after stealing it from somewhere else. The good doctors don't seem too taken aback by that information unless of course they already knew of it- which is worse . Anyway, they try to convince Burns to sign with them . Burns is initially puzzled of this medical report because he is the one who last examined the sergeant and he knows that he only has a hernia which Burns quips is the result of him trying to mail car transmissions home. So even the officious Burns knows about this sergeant's past antics yet he seems to have begrudgingly accepted it . I guess Burns has learned overtime how to pick his battles. Anyway, when the other two doctors explicitly tell Burns to falsify the record so that they may get a new microscope , Burns lividly refuses with some inane remarks to remind us that he is the bad guy.
They later succeed in getting Burns to sign the form by getting Burns out of trouble with Potter over something he did involving a tank. Again, I can't get over the big double standard coming from the mouths of Pierce and Hunnicutt . To them ,Burns is petty for not wanting to falsify a medical record in exchange of a much needed microscope but they don't even attempt to go to Potter with the same request. Did they not think he would have complied if he knew the whole story? Anyway- it was still a funny episode and the plot instruments of the three co-plots intertwined brilliantly.
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