This episode features an inventive plot line - an impostor Porter Ricks staging a theft of $200k worth of jewels from a luxury yacht with added twist of Sandy and Bud inadvertently implicating their dad.
All credit to the boys, particularly Sandy who shows more adult thought processes, they figure out what has likely happened and Flipper's role for a change is more peripheral (taking the boys to the location where the jewels were supposed to be hidden).
The Flipper movies and TV series were famous for their underwater scenes and in this episode we see a dramatic underwater chase with the jewel thief, knife in hand, chasing after Sandy who is able to race to a reef behind which he can partially shield himself. Porter joins the fray but then the script writers seems to be unable to tie the threads together. Flipper, who eventually charges the thief and winds him underwater with his nose (a technique first seen with the escaped murderers in "Flipper's New Adventure"), seems to be content to speed alongside the fleeing Sandy merely watching on. And then when Porter arrives on the scene, with nothing more than a face mask (no flippers or tanks), Sandy (who likely has plenty of air left in his tank) goes to the surface and climbs in the boat leaving his father fighting underwater with no air. Perhaps he has given Flipper the "go get him" instruction seen in other episodes and FNA and left it at that but we are left guessing. Also the nose butt into the stomach is reversed backwards and then forwards to replicate two strikes at the crook. Sloppy work from a production team who normally have excelled in the Flipper series. Still it didn't detract from what was an exciting episode.
Finally law enforcement procedures in the slow paced Florida Keys in the mid 60's seem a little casual. Maybe because Porter is so well regarded and the sheriff is old school (he's actually the same sheriff that features back in the first Flipper movie) that stuff is let slide but the arrest seems pretty casual when Porter is allowed to run off in his boat as soon as he finds the wet clothes used for the disguise. Also the finger printing of the boat never happens. Its probably reminiscent of how small town cops operated back then.
All credit to the boys, particularly Sandy who shows more adult thought processes, they figure out what has likely happened and Flipper's role for a change is more peripheral (taking the boys to the location where the jewels were supposed to be hidden).
The Flipper movies and TV series were famous for their underwater scenes and in this episode we see a dramatic underwater chase with the jewel thief, knife in hand, chasing after Sandy who is able to race to a reef behind which he can partially shield himself. Porter joins the fray but then the script writers seems to be unable to tie the threads together. Flipper, who eventually charges the thief and winds him underwater with his nose (a technique first seen with the escaped murderers in "Flipper's New Adventure"), seems to be content to speed alongside the fleeing Sandy merely watching on. And then when Porter arrives on the scene, with nothing more than a face mask (no flippers or tanks), Sandy (who likely has plenty of air left in his tank) goes to the surface and climbs in the boat leaving his father fighting underwater with no air. Perhaps he has given Flipper the "go get him" instruction seen in other episodes and FNA and left it at that but we are left guessing. Also the nose butt into the stomach is reversed backwards and then forwards to replicate two strikes at the crook. Sloppy work from a production team who normally have excelled in the Flipper series. Still it didn't detract from what was an exciting episode.
Finally law enforcement procedures in the slow paced Florida Keys in the mid 60's seem a little casual. Maybe because Porter is so well regarded and the sheriff is old school (he's actually the same sheriff that features back in the first Flipper movie) that stuff is let slide but the arrest seems pretty casual when Porter is allowed to run off in his boat as soon as he finds the wet clothes used for the disguise. Also the finger printing of the boat never happens. Its probably reminiscent of how small town cops operated back then.
