I have to laugh at the fight of Diana as Diana with another woman which shows just how much better choreography has become. On top of that I'd guess they wanted the shirt to be as open as it was or they would have done a re-take.
5 Reviews
Roddy McDowell!
Joxerlives19 January 2012
Warning: Spoilers
The Man who Made Volcanos Roddy McDowell makes the first of his appearances on the show, a veteran of the DC universe having also appeared as The Bookworm in Batman and will go on to voice the The Mad Hatter in the animated series. We have competing Cold War powers including the Chinese and USSR, the first real acknowledgement that the conflict exists. The title sequence is revised with much of the cartoon and comic art removed. Very good performance from McDowell (what we can see of him through those specs) as a man prepared to cause great destruction in the name of peace and pretty thrilling scenes where WW stops the laser and is faced with being crushed by the walls closing in. One query, if McDowell's character is so dedicated to peace why does he pick such a sadistic way to try to kill off Diana? Last ep for Joe Atkinson, maybe now he can spend more time with his daughter? 7/10
THE BEGINNING OF A NEW CONCEPT
asalerno1014 May 2022
Apparently the results of the first episodes of this second season were not as expected and did not reach the audience of the first season. The production decided to change course and direct the series to a more adult audience, they eliminated the colorful cartoons of the presentation and replaced them with a compilation of live images, they changed the musical theme of the entrance for one made with synthesizers that was what was fashionable in those years. This will be the last time that we will see the character of Joe Atkinson, who retires and leaves his place to Steve Trevor who in turn will become Diana's boss and will limit himself to commissioning the different cases, she will begin to work as an independent spy and she will stop wearing her hair up and replace skirts with pants, glasses will be used occasionally from now on. His first mission is to discover a scientist who has built a powerful ray capable of making volcanoes erupt anywhere in the world. The episode is entertaining and takes place mainly outdoors, which makes it visually very attractive.
Midseason Makeover Erupts with Renewed Energy
darryl-tahirali13 March 2022
Midway through its second season, "Wonder Woman" got a makeover including a cold open, upgraded opening credits and theme music, a promotion for Steve Trevor as Joe Atkinson gets kicked upstairs, and Bruce Lansbury ("Mission: Impossible") stepping in as supervising producer for the rest of the series' run.
Coinciding with Lansbury's arrival, "The Man Who Made Volcanoes," scripted by Brian McKay and Dan Ullman from a story by Wilton Denmark, dives into the Cold War as Steve dispatches Inter-Agency Defense Command agent Diana Prince into Baja California to find an IADC agent gone missing following the eruption of a mysterious new volcano in Communist China, with the Chinese suspecting the Americans of somehow being responsible.
Indeed, inscrutable Chinese intelligence chief Colonel Minh (James Ahn), based in Los Angeles's Chinatown, dispatches two of his operatives, American-based Lin Wan (Richard Narita) and, fresh from the homeland, gung-ho Mei Ling (Irene Tsu), to tail Diana, with the pair sniping at each other in rom-com fashion. And when another volcano blossoms in the Soviet Union, it too accuses the US of causing the trouble and sends a pair of stereotypical agents into Mexico's frontier in a superpower convergence that could escalate into a global disaster.
However, the one causing all the grief is brilliant American scientist Arthur Chapman (Roddy McDowell)--he even has the nerdy Coke-bottle-bottom glasses to prove it--but although he toiled for years for the US, he holds a Krakatoa-sized grudge against the military-industrial complex and is willing to destroy the world with his terrifying laser weapon all in the name of . . . Peace. That is, unless Wonder Woman can stop him.
Although his Chapman seems less the James Bond villain and more like Herbert Lom from "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1976), which must have informed Denmark's story, McDowell is a reliable and convincing enough actor to carry the conceit forward. Responding to him in her Wonder Woman guise, and perhaps emboldened by being thrust into the solo spotlight as Lyle Waggoner recedes further into the background, Lynda Carter commands attention throughout the episode with confidence and conviction, even if she does get into a catfight with Tsu.
"The Man Who Made Volcanoes" does lean on Asian stereotype a little too heavily, particularly during the denouement when the rom-com element gets unsurprisingly resolved, although at one point Artie Kane's incidental music swipes slyly from Jerry Goldsmith's score for "Chinatown" (1974) as this midseason makeover erupts with renewed energy.
Coinciding with Lansbury's arrival, "The Man Who Made Volcanoes," scripted by Brian McKay and Dan Ullman from a story by Wilton Denmark, dives into the Cold War as Steve dispatches Inter-Agency Defense Command agent Diana Prince into Baja California to find an IADC agent gone missing following the eruption of a mysterious new volcano in Communist China, with the Chinese suspecting the Americans of somehow being responsible.
Indeed, inscrutable Chinese intelligence chief Colonel Minh (James Ahn), based in Los Angeles's Chinatown, dispatches two of his operatives, American-based Lin Wan (Richard Narita) and, fresh from the homeland, gung-ho Mei Ling (Irene Tsu), to tail Diana, with the pair sniping at each other in rom-com fashion. And when another volcano blossoms in the Soviet Union, it too accuses the US of causing the trouble and sends a pair of stereotypical agents into Mexico's frontier in a superpower convergence that could escalate into a global disaster.
However, the one causing all the grief is brilliant American scientist Arthur Chapman (Roddy McDowell)--he even has the nerdy Coke-bottle-bottom glasses to prove it--but although he toiled for years for the US, he holds a Krakatoa-sized grudge against the military-industrial complex and is willing to destroy the world with his terrifying laser weapon all in the name of . . . Peace. That is, unless Wonder Woman can stop him.
Although his Chapman seems less the James Bond villain and more like Herbert Lom from "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1976), which must have informed Denmark's story, McDowell is a reliable and convincing enough actor to carry the conceit forward. Responding to him in her Wonder Woman guise, and perhaps emboldened by being thrust into the solo spotlight as Lyle Waggoner recedes further into the background, Lynda Carter commands attention throughout the episode with confidence and conviction, even if she does get into a catfight with Tsu.
"The Man Who Made Volcanoes" does lean on Asian stereotype a little too heavily, particularly during the denouement when the rom-com element gets unsurprisingly resolved, although at one point Artie Kane's incidental music swipes slyly from Jerry Goldsmith's score for "Chinatown" (1974) as this midseason makeover erupts with renewed energy.
Much more assertive Diana Prince impresses
mmead-533571 May 2021
On the early episodes of TV's Wonder Woman she is too easily beaten by overweight national socialists or as the series shifts to the 70s, by paunchy thugs in polyester suits. All men of dubious physical gifts.
With the episode below it seems the creators made a conscious decision to make WW more punchy, more powerful, not only in her superheroine guise but as Diana Prince. To show sensitivity and strength, of body and character.
She is less Amazonian princess dressed in flimsy nighties (not that this is necessarily a bad thing, it is Lynda Carter!), more 70s feminist ass kicker. Diana Prince/Wonder Woman should be no pushover and with this episode there begins to be more of Lynda Carter as a person, as an actor and less cartoonish jiggle (again not always a terrible situation).
It's significant that the title sequence is new this episode, in mid-sesson with some different roles for the characters. It is like a re-set. I hope to see further development of WW/DP as my ode to childhood WW rewatch continues:).
With the episode below it seems the creators made a conscious decision to make WW more punchy, more powerful, not only in her superheroine guise but as Diana Prince. To show sensitivity and strength, of body and character.
She is less Amazonian princess dressed in flimsy nighties (not that this is necessarily a bad thing, it is Lynda Carter!), more 70s feminist ass kicker. Diana Prince/Wonder Woman should be no pushover and with this episode there begins to be more of Lynda Carter as a person, as an actor and less cartoonish jiggle (again not always a terrible situation).
It's significant that the title sequence is new this episode, in mid-sesson with some different roles for the characters. It is like a re-set. I hope to see further development of WW/DP as my ode to childhood WW rewatch continues:).
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