User Reviews

The previous review of this episode by planktonrules says that McGarrett's botched plan caused one more officer to be taken hostage and one to be killed. Truck and the other officer volunteered to try and drop that knockout gas on Karl. Steve didn't tell them to do so and was apprehensive about sending them. It wasn't Steve's plan.

The governor took the blame for that incident, and Steve told him he wanted to proceed with his original plan.

McGarrett made mistakes in many earlier episodes, but seeing him make mistakes does not bode well for the show when it causes the bad guys to keep operating, and if he kept making mistakes all the time, he would get no results and we would have no show.

Also, remember that these characters taken hostage or killed were police officers who knew that when they took on this job, there was risk involved, and they could not deal with these terrorists without someone getting injured or killed.

"Voice of Terror" is a return to the sort of shows that "Hawaii Five-O" made quite a few of in earlier seasons--terrorists. This was big news back in the 70s, so it isn't surprising that quite a few episodes concerned these crackpot groups.

This show begins with what begins as a routine traffic stop turning into a shooting and a hostage situation--with one of the cops being taken prisoner by terrorists. The terrorists have quite a few demands and they all seem pretty unreasonable--the release of a couple gang members who are in prison as well as one lost early in the episode of the police, a chance to broadcast their call to action over the radio as well as a getaway jet.

For his part, McGarrett actually does a crappy job. While the terrorists began with just one hostage, his crackerjack plan results in a dead policeman and TWO hostages. Way to go, Steve!

I actually was surprised at how sloppy this show made the police look-- something you don't see on this show normally. The only interesting part of the show is McGarrett's dialog on the radio to the nuts--that is, at times, kind of funny. Otherwise, a rather weak episode but one worth watching. Plus, it's kind of refreshing seeing McGarrett make a few mistakes!

Horrible new story line and new characters, horrible acting, horrible scripts. Season 12 should be buried where nobody can ever find it. The megalomania of Jack Lord ruined this show. The primary characters of the show were thrown away: Dan Williams, Chin Ho Kelly, Kono, Ben Kokua, Frank Kamana. Duke Lukela, who was being brought along as a primary character, was thrown away for a disgraced former mainland cop with no relevant experience, (and who does not dress the part of McGarrett's elite unit, nor a Boston Police Department detective unit, and who is suddenly called, "Kimo," with the laughable excuse that "Kimo" is Hawaiian for "Jim," so now a haole is suddenly Hawaiian), and a brand new patrol cop with no investigative experience. Truck as the native Hawaiian in the unit looks like a haole compared to Zoulou's Kono character. Ross Martin is laughable as Tony Alika, with a fake New York/Hawaiian accent, and no continuity with prior story line.

An extremely ham-fisted performance by Bellini, but still good, this episode is about as good as anything from Season 10 or 11.

In later Season. McGarrett is usually in a role of adminstration, with little action, and this one is like that.

Someone said the terrorists' demands were reasonable. No, they weren't--they were terrorists, which means that they were utterly unreasonable. This is largely due to the complete and utter incompetence of the terrorists, the police, and the writers of this episode. I have a hard time believing that these people were capable of blowing their noses, much less blowing up a bus full of children. On at least 3 occasions, both terrorists are out of the car in full easy view of anyone with a sniper scope. Hawaii Five-O does have snipers--we've seen them in other episodes. Furthermore, there are several military bases in Hawaii--if the police didn't have a sniper for some reason, I'm sure the military would have been happy to lone out one or twenty.

The writing is incompetent. The only competent cop shown is the one taken hostage. The writing was utterly terrible. The only good thing about this episode is that we didn't have the ditz.