Original title for this review was "All I Really Need to Know I Learned Watching Star Trek," specifically the "Arena" episode.
This second consecutive episode guest starring Barry Van Dyke was a giant leap forward from the loser that was "Winning." In fact, enjoying "Endurance" made me see "Winning" for the series anomaly it was. Van Dyke's hard-driving and win-at-all-costs Coach Curtis who tried to kayo punch Shep is suddenly a chummy nice guy. Coach Curtis is basically a different character here, and a much more appealing one. I wished they kept Van Dyke in the cast as a recurring character. His off-hand remark to Shep that one of these days he'll figure him out could have opened the door to some plots.
Can there be any doubt this episode was inspired by the popular trend of teen slasher flicks set in summer camps like FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE BURNING, and SLEEPAWAY CAMP? I mean, after Ted and Lisa have a spat and she stomps off into the woods alone to pout you just knew something bad was gonna happen, right? And when the girls went swimming in that pond, you just knew something was gonna reach up and grab 'em. And of course those escaped mental patients had to turn up. This being a prime-time family show, it was a safe bet all of Shep's survival class students would return to Crestridge alive and unmaimed, the escaped psychos would be arrested, and that Melinda the mountain lion would live to roam free, free as the wind blows.
Ted and Lisa were throwaway characters who never reappeared. Same for Anne. This show needed a consistent secondary cast of students the audience could get to know and care about, like the B-team of students on GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. For example, why not bring back Tony from "Winning" to play the clueless knucklehead instead of Ted, or Monica from "Genius" to fill the nerdy Fletch role?
Fletch anticipated REVENGE OF THE NERDS in being the slide rule at a red plaid flannel party who winds up winning the day with his Tony Stark skills. His MacGyver moment led to a frustrating scene where Fletch radios a mayday to the ranger station, then Matthew grabs the radio away--he is the star, after all--and learns Campbell has been MIA for months. Instead of reporting the bullet-pierced skull and the unsettling fact a criminally insane imposter is afoot, and that Shep and Coach Curtis are in grave danger, Matthew breaks off the call and everyone just looks at each other in mind-boggled bewilderment.
Huh? That inaction in a survival class should have flunked the bunch of them, but the teachers were presently preoccupied with their own perilous predicament: trapped in a collapsed mine (which recycled the boulders from "The Italian Caper"). Let's just say it's a good thing Shep caught some of those midnight STAR TREK reruns when he was "back East."
Highlight of the show for me was seeing a post-LAND OF THE LOST Spencer Milligan playing Ranger Campbell. The mountainous scenery also provided a welcome change of context from dreary Crestridge High. Minus a few moments of pathos with Fletch fulminating about his father-wound, and the romantic squabbles between star-crossed lovers, the pace was brisk and the dangers real. This one goes into the win column.
This second consecutive episode guest starring Barry Van Dyke was a giant leap forward from the loser that was "Winning." In fact, enjoying "Endurance" made me see "Winning" for the series anomaly it was. Van Dyke's hard-driving and win-at-all-costs Coach Curtis who tried to kayo punch Shep is suddenly a chummy nice guy. Coach Curtis is basically a different character here, and a much more appealing one. I wished they kept Van Dyke in the cast as a recurring character. His off-hand remark to Shep that one of these days he'll figure him out could have opened the door to some plots.
Can there be any doubt this episode was inspired by the popular trend of teen slasher flicks set in summer camps like FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE BURNING, and SLEEPAWAY CAMP? I mean, after Ted and Lisa have a spat and she stomps off into the woods alone to pout you just knew something bad was gonna happen, right? And when the girls went swimming in that pond, you just knew something was gonna reach up and grab 'em. And of course those escaped mental patients had to turn up. This being a prime-time family show, it was a safe bet all of Shep's survival class students would return to Crestridge alive and unmaimed, the escaped psychos would be arrested, and that Melinda the mountain lion would live to roam free, free as the wind blows.
Ted and Lisa were throwaway characters who never reappeared. Same for Anne. This show needed a consistent secondary cast of students the audience could get to know and care about, like the B-team of students on GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. For example, why not bring back Tony from "Winning" to play the clueless knucklehead instead of Ted, or Monica from "Genius" to fill the nerdy Fletch role?
Fletch anticipated REVENGE OF THE NERDS in being the slide rule at a red plaid flannel party who winds up winning the day with his Tony Stark skills. His MacGyver moment led to a frustrating scene where Fletch radios a mayday to the ranger station, then Matthew grabs the radio away--he is the star, after all--and learns Campbell has been MIA for months. Instead of reporting the bullet-pierced skull and the unsettling fact a criminally insane imposter is afoot, and that Shep and Coach Curtis are in grave danger, Matthew breaks off the call and everyone just looks at each other in mind-boggled bewilderment.
Huh? That inaction in a survival class should have flunked the bunch of them, but the teachers were presently preoccupied with their own perilous predicament: trapped in a collapsed mine (which recycled the boulders from "The Italian Caper"). Let's just say it's a good thing Shep caught some of those midnight STAR TREK reruns when he was "back East."
Highlight of the show for me was seeing a post-LAND OF THE LOST Spencer Milligan playing Ranger Campbell. The mountainous scenery also provided a welcome change of context from dreary Crestridge High. Minus a few moments of pathos with Fletch fulminating about his father-wound, and the romantic squabbles between star-crossed lovers, the pace was brisk and the dangers real. This one goes into the win column.