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American Monster: Alabama Murder Mystery (2017)
True American monster
The Hilley family of Anniston, Alabama, suffer twin tragedies with the death of Frank Hilley in 1975 and the hospitalization of Frank and Audrey's daughter, Carol Hilley in 1979 who is getting sicker and sicker in hospital. Something sinister is going in the Hilley family. There are allegation of overdue gambling losses committed by the late Frank Hilley and anonymous phone calls made to the Hilley home about this subject. But the real question is who is behind the illness of Carol and the death of Frank Hilley? Frank and Audrey's son, Mike eventually finds the devastating truth--a truth that saves his sister's life but tears his family apart.
Local Anniston police and the FBI have to combine forces to pursue the criminal mastermind for 3 years to arrest this American monster. Its just strange that the doctors who cared for Carol Hilley never visually checked her nails to see if she was being poisoned...like her late father was. This procedure would have taken less than 1-2 minutes.
Secret Nazi Bases: Hitler's Invisible City (Dag Bromberg) (2019)
An intriguing production on "Dag Bromberg" a massive Nazi munition centre
Dag Bromberg was a massive 10 square mile Nazi munition centre created in the forest of modern day Western Poland. This episode explains how this huge munitions factory/facility escaped Allied air detection by being extremely well camouflaged in a forest--unless most other Nazi structures. This site was so important to the Nazi regime that it produced 33% of Germany's nitroglycerin (explosive munition) production in World War Two for the Eastern front. Even the effective Polish resistance never penetrated this well guarded Nazi facility to alert the Allies about its existence.
The Allies suspected and bombed other Nazi sites that produced Germany's Me 262 jet fighter aircraft from the air but this facility that made massive quantities of explosive munitions simply escaped their detection. The Germans abandoned it in January 1945 five days before advancing Soviet forces captured it. The Soviets then took away the factory's facilities in a total of 1,000 trucks...which shows much how equipment was left behind in this huge facility.
Secret Nazi Bases: The Devil's Lair (Maisy Batteries) (2019)
The Mystery of the Maisy Batteries at Utah and Omaha Beach
This is a first class production of the Maisy Batteries, a little known but well entrenched and heavily armed massive Nazi battery at the corners of Utah and Omaha Beach which poured heavy and devastating barrages on Allied troops from June 6 to June 9, 1944....when it was finally taken by US troops.
This episode outlines Maisy's discovery located partly underground with secret trenches and places for artillery pieces by Gary Sterne, a British military historian in 2004, and raises the question of why Allied historians 'forgot' about its existence and simply turned it over to local French villagers until US rangers verified to the media that they did attacked and storm this heavily fortified German position. Rommel's propaganda caused the Allies to focus their attention on Pointe du Hoc on the D-Day landings and forget all about Maisy, which was a costly mistake. Rommel was sly as a fox.
Remington Steele: Forged Steele (1985)
A top 10 Remington Steele episode
This was one of the top 10 Remington Steele episodes ever made in my view. You had Remington Steele ensnared by a con game played by another person. He goes out for a seemingly routine client interview with a rich client claiming to be BJ Sinclair...only to wake up 36 hours later later in a hotel bed. He appears to have lost track of time and looks dishevelled. Its funny how the fictitious BJ Sinclair character pours out a glass of presumably drugged champagne for Steele and says: "Here's to the start of something special" only to learn what a bunch of nonsense this is as Steele is propelled into a nightmare.
When Steele returns to the Remington Steele agency, he finds out that someone named Harry Cranston has taken control of the office. Cranston claims that Steele lost the agency to Cranston in a high stakes poker bet with Cranston at the Colony Park club. Steele has no memory of the previous 36 hours and cannot account for his whereabouts. Laura and Steele are aghast and check out Cranston's story and the person claiming to be BJ Sinclair states that Steele was drunk in their midnight meeting and she left him at the Colony Pack club where they were after he made his bet with Cranston. When Laura and Steele visit the club, the workers appear to be familiar with Steele--and the situation looks bad on him since it appears that Steele did indeed make a bet with Cranston about the agency's future here after he was drunk.
Steele then breaks into Cranston's home and finds 3 different passports all with this person's name on it (Cranston is a conman all right) but when Steele then visits his company office at night and finds a hole in the floor of office and descends down to investigate, he is promptly arrested by the police and the insurance investigator, Norman Keyes who tells him that the diamond merchant exchange vault directly below the Remington Steele office was broken into and $6 million worth of diamonds were stolen. They think that Steele is the main suspect. But Keyes finds "a measly two hundred thousand" dollars worth of the stolen diamonds in Steele's condo and becomes disheartened instead of the total six million dollars and suspects that Steele has the other $5.8 million dollar diamonds hidden elsewhere. Obviously, here, someone is trying to frame Steele for the robbery. Meanwhile, Steele's company lawyer, Reuben, seems to be incompetent and constantly loses track of important papers and claims that an important legal note with Steele's signature was stolen. Mildred warns him to buck up to "earn his retainer."
Keyes decides to anonymously bail Steele out of jail (hoping that Steele would retrieve the rest of the missing diamonds) and Laura, Steele and Mildred proceed to race around LA trying to find clues about the real thieves only to discover 1. that the person claiming to be BJ Sinclair was actually Christy McCall, a cunning real estate agent who was a partner in Cranston's scheme and 2. both Cranston and McCall were murdered in two separate locations. Keyes is one step behind following them in tow. Keyes attempts to arrest Steele in the two murders but Steele gets away; in the case of Cranston's death, Mildred knocks Keyes out with a blow to the head. In the end, Steele, Laura and Mildred capture the killers at LA airport as they plan to fly to the Cayman Islands: Debbie Rebello, another colleague of Cranston and X who shall remain anonymous here. Steele shakes X down and the rest of the diamonds fall onto the airport floor. Keyes also catches up with Steele there and wants to arrest Steele but X confesses since he knows that he cannot fund his escape now. X represented the diamond exchange and owed some money to Cranston. So, he told Cranston about the timing of the diamond deliveries to the exchange vault.
Cranston executed a con game to seize control of Steele's office directly above it while Steele was away. Ultimately, X double crossed and killed Cranston and took the diamonds instead...and tried to frame Steele as the robber. This was a thrilling show with Keyes chasing Steele around LA in the end.
Remington Steele: License to Steele (1982)
First rate premise episode of Remington Steele
License to Steele introduces the first appearance of Pierce Brosnan as Remington Steele...only he first appears in License to Steele as the fictional Ben Pearson, a South African special agent. Ben Pearson (BP) was charged with protecting $2.6 million US gems from theft. The fictional BP--or the future Remington Steele--keeps tabs on the Remington Steele detective agency's movement of some invaluable cargo under the watchful eye of Laura Holt, her chief right hand man Michael Murphy and a high profile client: Mr. Hunter who is investing in the creation of a new car.
Hunter keeps pressing Holt to see the real Remington Steele--the man behind her detective organization--in the hotel whose vault will safeguard the jewels and threatens to cancel his contract with her if the meeting fails to occur. Meanwhile Murphy, Holt and secretary Fox try to get themselves out of the problem Holt has created; they all know that Steele does not exist. Holt just created him to market the firm to male clients. In the middle of the meeting, the fictional Ben Pearson BP/(future RS) comes into the office and tells the agency there will be an attempt to steal the gems soon. We later find out that the gems were stolen by two murderous jewel thieves--but the courier who then smuggled the gems out of South Africa became greedy, betrayed them and took their money.
The fictional BP has also been trying to steal the jewels himself both in Paris and London and now in LA. He then charms Holt to give him a ride in the official Remington Steele limo after they had dinner--a dinner in which Laura stated to him that Mr. Steele's "presence will be felt rather than seen" in this case--and he persuaded Laura to let him phone the police to detain the original gangsters who had been tailing their car. Holt believes his story that he is really Ben Chandler...until the next day when the two original gangsters show up at the hotel lobby to intercept the fictional BP. The fictional BP quickly answers a page's call for a "Remington Steele" and Mr. Hunter just happens to be in the hotel lobby with a band of security guards. Mr. Hunter states it is an honor to finally meet 'Remington Steele' and escorts the fictional BP out of the deadly embrace of the two murderous gangsters into the hotel securities office where they meet the real South African agent, Ben Chandler. It is a hilarious scene and the fictional BP quickly assumes Remington Steele's role. When Holt shows up for the meeting, Mr. Hunter abruptly tells her that he has met Mr. Steele and she cannot tell who is masquerading as RS--since she sees the real Ben Pearson and the person who she thought was Ben Pearson (BP) together but had to abruptly leave the hotel to protect the real gems which have now arrived in LA--together with the person who has now assumed Remington Steele's identity. (the fictional BP) In comedic fashion, she swears unsuspectingly to the fictional BP (the now real Remington Steele) that the 'phoney Mr. Steele is obviously after the gems' without suspecting that the fictional BP next to her in the limo is this person. Anyway, RS soon meets Mr. Hunter again in the hotel hallway where he learns of Hunter's doubts that he even existed since Holt kept saying to him that Steele was always away on business. Steele then manages to access the RS hotel suite and finds brand new leather bags, men's shirts in their original packaging, plus a man's comb without a trace of hair...and rightly assumes that Holt's Mr. Steele is a fictional character. He then stares into the suite's bathroom mirror and utters the killer line: "pleasure to meet you Mr. Steele." Laura Holt is furious at him--when at an official presentation of Mr. Hunter's new car--the new Remington Steele rises to accept the crowd's cheers as he is called the 'head' of the RS agency rather than her. She denounces him as a "crook" and "con man" but he replies that Holt's Steele was 'an elaborate ruse.' Later, she and Murphy investigate the fictional Ben Pearson's original hotel room and find the real Ben Pearson's body hanging from a coat hook in this person's hotel closet. Murphy thinks the fictional BP/now Remington Steele is the killer but Laura has her doubts and they both confront Steele. The three then arrange a set up where the two killers detain Steele and enter his suite. He tells them that the jewels are in a safe. When they open a closet door to the safe, they see the body of the real Ben Pearson. One of the gangsters panics and says 'we left him (the body) in his (ie. the fictional Ben Pearson's) room'. The police then storm into the hotel suite and arrest the gangsters for murder. Steele soon promises to Holt not to steal the gems until they have left her LA jurisdiction.
The next day, Steele leaves the hotel in a taxi while Laura longingly looks at him; soon after, however, Murphy runs out of the hotel without the gems in pain and tells her: "somebody blindsided me." Laura is furious and immediately assumes that it was Steele who did this deed and lied about his promise to her. They race to the airport but it is Mr. Hunter--also there--rather than Mr. Steele, who runs away. It turns out that no one bought Hunter's car and Hunter was drowning in a sea of red ink. So, he stole the gems himself. In the end, Steele--together with Holt apprehended Hunter but the papers all laud Steele for retrieving the gems and merely call Holt 'an unidentified lady.' The next day, Holt tells a waiting client at their agency that Steele is away and ushers him in to his office...where they unexpectedly meet Remington Steele sitting at the office desk. Now we know how this TV series began.
Remington Steele: Steele Crazy After All These Years (1983)
An eerie outing of Remington Steele with a group of former hippies
In this episode, Annie Carpenter seeks former classmate Michael Murphy's help when her close friend Dan Kowalski fails to show up at their 10 year anniversary college graduation reunion at night. Annie claims she heard Dan calling out to her in a panic but when she looked at the campus from her room, she saw no one. So, she and Murphy decide to look into Dan's room...and find his body hanging from the flagpole in front of the campus ROTC building.
Murphy enlists Holt's help but Steele tags along much to Murphy's annoyance. Steele decides to investigate separately from Holt and Murphy in the college campus. When Murphy asks for Annie's help in his and Holt's investigation of the murder, Annie sets out the basic story. Basically, 10 years ago--in 1973--Annie, Dan, Tom Donovan, Nat Shavers, Hector Sanchez and Lynette Mercer were a group of six anti-war protesters/hippies who planned to set off fireworks on the roof of the campus ROTC building. Only something went wrong, the roof exploded and Tom was killed while Lynette warned Hector and Nat to leave the ROTC building just before the explosion. Annie was on the street acting as the group's lookout in case campus security came. Annie also points to her picture portrait showing Dan with his sister. Holt/Murphy later meet with Hector in the campus library who tells them the same basic story (he only wanted to vandalize the ROTC building with spray paint graffiti) but Holt and Murphy were distracted by what appears to be the appearance of an apparition of Tom Donovan's ghost in a separate area of the library. When they return to their rendezvous, they see Hector gone...and soon Hector's body is also hanging dead atop the flagpole in front of the campus ROTC building. The campus killer has struck again.
Meanwhile, Steele investigates Dan's room only to find doors slamming shut, a mirror exploding in front of his face and the bathtub apparently releasing blood...and becomes terrified that the killer is a ghost. Holt and Murphy are unconvinced of Steele's story naturally and remain determined to discover the truth. Holt catches Nat Shavers breaking into her VW buggy and he tells his surviving group members and Murphy/Holt the same basic story of what happened in 1973 in the botched ROTC building break-in: only that Lynette told him that Tom could not get the 'fireworks' set while campus security had detected their presence in the building, so they had to leave quickly. Nat was only interested in retrieving some embarrassing office files in the ROTC building.
The masked killer soon breaks into Annie's room at night while Annie and Holt are there; when Holt confronts the intruder, the killer escapes into the dark outdoor campus. Holt teams up with Steele and pursues the masked killer into a series of underground tunnels but the killer escapes. However, they fortuitously catch the final member of the Group of 6 in the tunnel: Lynette Mercer. Lynette admits to Steele, Holt, Murphy and her surviving group members that she knocked Tom out with a blow to his head in 1973 when she discovered that he had really brought a bomb in the ROTC break-in and planned to destroy the entire roof of the building and make martyrs of the rest of the group for 'the revolution.' She realized "how stupid" she had been about Dan and how radical he had become with each break-in they had staged. She then reset the bomb's timer to 5 minutes and got her group members out of the building--with a story she made up just before the bomb blew the building's roof out. When Steele accuses her of also killing Dan and Hector, she denies it and says she hid in the tunnels below the campus because she had heard about Dan's murder. Holt agrees with Lynette that she is not the killer--to Steele's surprise--since there are 'no holes' in her story. As Holt reasons, prior to Lynette's admission, no one knew that she had killed Tom ten years ago.
Stumped, Holt and Murphy go through Annie's picture album once again to thrash out who had the motive and access on the college campus to carry out the two murders. Holt soon has an idea about the identity of the killer and runs into her storage area, with Murphy, and finds there an identical picture of Tom Donovan with his sister--that they had seen in Annie's picture album. They realize that this lady must be Tom's unknown sister. (At the episode's conclusion, it is revealed that she waited for the 10 year anniversary of the graduation to avenge her brother's death by killing all the other members of Tom's original group) Steele also deduces the killer's identity since he discovered a unique earring of the killer which Murphy had uncovered in Dan's room after further investigation. The killer had booby trapped Dan's room with hidden wires designed to automatically trigger open and shut doors when Steele was there thereby giving the appearance of a paranormal presence. The earring matched a piece of jewellery the killer wore which was displayed on various campus pictures.
In reality, clues about the killer's identity were obvious in this episode as Steele, Holt and Murphy could hardly walk around campus without seeing a picture of her. There was also Lynette's underplayed comment before Steele that Tom had once "told his kid sister about discovering the tunnels" below the college campus which was another clue as to the killer's identity. Only Lynette and the killer knew about the tunnels. This episode might be a great Halloween themed show with its references to ghosts and Poltergeist--which was the book Steele first picked up in Dan's room when all the special effects began. If I had a choice, I would have rated this episode at 8.4 out of 10.
Remington Steele: To Stop a Steele (1983)
A hilarious and high quality episode of Remington Steele
This was a good season 1 episode of Remington Steele. Steele is approached by a man named Morrie Singer who admits that he is a thief who was contracted to rob the safe of the Harrod gem vault--as part of his last job prior to his retirement. Unfortunately, he and his two co-conspirators find the safe completely empty and apparently undamaged and now he owes a lot of money to the head of the local mob--a man named Considine--who funded their operation with $20,000 since he and his crew received this person's permission to do the job on Considine's "territory" in return for a 20% cut of the profits. If Morrie doesn't pay Considine anything, he'll be a dead man as he tells Steele.
Steele accepts Morrie's story and searches for the truth while Holt and Murphy are hired by the robbed jeweller, Albert Harrod, who orders them not to tell Steele anything about their investigation since publicity seems to follow Steele wherever Steele goes. Both Holt/Murphy and Steele visit the same places within minutes of one another and almost bump into one another. Meanwhile, Steele discovers that the person who allegedly supplied Morrie with details of the safe was dead before he could even have given the information to Morrie while he discovers that Frank--the last surviving co-conspirator of Morrie's jewel robbery gang has been shot dead. Considine had already had his hit men shoot dead Louis, Morrie's first jewelry heist partner, as a warning to Morrie to give him his cut of the jewellery heist. Steele agrees to hide Morrie in his home for Morrie's safety...and suspects that it was the jeweller Albert Harrod who arranged for the theft of his safe which would account for the lack of any damage to the safe's door--something which Morrie notes to Steele--since only the jeweller should have had the combination to it. Therefore, Steele reasons Harrod was planning an insurance fraud on his insurance company.
Meanwhile, Holt/Murphy confront Considine and apparently intimidate him enough to not accept stolen jewellery--especially a stolen 60 carat diamond "worth $2 million dollars" as Albert Harrod had told the trio which had been deliberately hidden with other much less valuable items in the Harrod gem vault. To make a long story short, neither Holt/Murphy nor Steele realize that they are working for the robbed jeweller or the jewel thief until Considine arranges a meeting between the two parties and introduces Steele as the thief to them. (Steele and Morrie had had an earlier meeting with Considine and his party of top mob partners--ie: his so-called 'board of directors'--where Steele had pretended to be the real jewel thief who had emptied the safe earlier in order to buy more time to save Morrie's life from the mobster's hit men who had already killed Louis.) Naturally, Holt/Murphy are aghast but as they compare notes with Steele and Morrie in Steele's apartment and Morrie hears about the 60 carat diamond--whose safe return will net someone $500,000--Morrie plainly tells Holt/Murphy that such a diamond would take him years to sell, something which he doesn't have the time for given his advanced age and his wish to retire, and that he had never heard of the diamond's existence until now. He just wanted a bunch of simple diamonds that he and his two now deceased partners could quickly fence on the street.
Secondly, Steele learns from Laura/Murphy that Albert Harrod doesn't intend to file an insurance claim and wants the theft to be kept a secret since the priceless 60 carat diamond was not even officially supposed to be in his vault...and was a breach of his insurance policy. So, Harrod could not profit by filing an insurance claim which would only bring the jeweller bad publicity, ruin his reputation and cause him to go out of business. In the end, Laura/Murphy and Steele with Morrie realize that only Considine could have known about the presence of the priceless diamond in the Harrod vault with his vast mob connections...and have the resources to sell such a rare item on the local or international black market. That was the reason Considine 'funded' Morrey and his crew's operation to break into the empty Harrod jewellery vault on his 'territory' with a small $25,000 investment in the first place since Considine knew the combination to the safe and had already earlier emptied it of all its jewels including the $2 million dollar diamond when Morrey's men breached it. So, Holt, Murphy, Steele and Morrie join forces and stage a heist of their own on Considine's home wearing ski-masks and recover the 60 carat diamond. After turning the tables on the mobster, Considine's career in the mob is abruptly terminated while Morrie claims the $500,000 reward money and the Remington Steele detective agency solve the case.
Big Top Scooby-Doo! (2012)
One of the best Scooby Doo Direct to Video's Made
I just saw both 2012's Big Top and 2010's Abracadabra-Doo in the past week and I have to say that Big Top was probably the best Scooby Doo episode made in the 21st century--2002's The Cyber Chase. Unlike Abracadabra-Doo where one could guess who the true villain was from miles away--since only he had the technical know how to pull off all the stunts with the griffin in that episode--with Big Top, a werewolf is terrorizing a circus and his identity is not obvious to the viewer until minutes before he is finally captured.
In Big Top, the gang discover that the circus is not a very friendly place and almost all the circus ringleader's employees have an axe to grind with their new circus ringleader--Marius Brancusi--who just inherited "the greatest place on earth" from his uncle. Therefore, the villain could be anyone and discovering his identity turns out to be a difficult job which is great for the plot. Doubleday, in the end, is revealed, to be the werewolf villain partly because he is disgruntled that he didn't get the chance to run the circus after Marius' uncle left the circus even though he had been helping running the circus for years unlike Marius. But something is not right: the jewels the Werewolf stole have not been recovered and Doubleday can't talk since he has been tranquilized. Then the gang realise that Doubleday had an accomplice all along and must give chase to catch this second person before he gets away. So, the plot is quite intriguing and is lots of fun and this episode at 80 minutes...is the longest Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movie ever made and certainly one of the best too since the Witch's Ghost and Zombie Island. Recommended.
Poirot: Elephants Can Remember (2013)
Elephants can Remember was a good adaptation
Ariadne Oliver was not a "fill in" character as one reviewer here suggested. She was in Agatha Christie's original Elephants Can Remember book and ITV, of course, included her in their TV adaptation. After Colonel Hastings stopped being Poirot's assistant after her 1937 book "Dumb Witness", Agatha Christie chose to eventually appoint Ariadne Oliver as Poirot's new full time assistant from the 1952 Poirot book--Mrs McGinty's Dead--onwards. (Ariadne Oliver did appear in Cards on the Table with Poirot too in 1936 but that was a temporary post) Suchet certainly does not seem out of breath playing Poirot in this film adaptation.
Anyhow, this ITV production does have new elements that were not in Christie's original book such as the Willoughby Institute angle and the murderous Marie McDermott, daughter of Dorothea Jarrow but for the most part I felt the producers tried to stay true to the book such as the fact that Molly Ravenscroft was indeed accidentally killed by her identical sister Dorothea Jarrow. But before dying, Molly asked her husband (General Ravenscroft) to protect her sister (Dorothea) from prosecution. Only the family dog could tell the difference between the identical twins Molly and Dorothea. The Colonel honoured his dead wife's wishes until the final day of reckoning with Dorothea at the cliff.
ITV had to adapt the original book since Elephants Can Remember was Agatha Christie's last Poirot book--from 1972--written when her mental faculties were in decline and she might have been suffering from dementia. John Curran, the Christie specialist, in "Agatha Christie's Murder in the Making" called her book here "a disappointment. Like the books published (by Christie) on either side of it (in the 1970's), there are too many rambling conversations that give the reader little solid information" but are merely repetitious. (Curran, p.394) ITV did a reasonable job of turning a below average book into a good TV adaptation.
Curtain, Christie's published Poirot book from 1975, was written three decades prior to Elephants Can Remember. John Curran who studied Christie's original manuscript for Curtain notes that "the address on the manuscript of Curtain is 'Greenway House', which Christie left in October 1942 on its requisition by the US navy" while one of the typewritten corrections to a notebook containing the manuscript for Curtain "seems to date to the early 1940s." (Curran, pp.211-213) So, Elephants Can Remember was certainly Christie's last written Poirot book since Curtain was actually written by the author in the early 1940's as a final farewell for Poirot.
Remington Steele: Steele Blushing (1985)
Nana Visitor in Remington Seele
I never expected to see Nana Visitor (of Star Trek Deep Space Nine fame) in a Remington Steele episode. But she makes a convincing appearance as a FBI protection witness (Eileen Fitzgerald) whose cover is broken when her confidential photos are sold by an LA, California, based cheap tabloid photographer named Douglas Veenhof and printed in a different state--Ohio--in a pornography publication of all places. The same thing happens to a photo of Laura Holt which is printed in the same cheap publication. This causes some embarrassment to Holt's relationship with Steele.
The problem is Visitor had testified against the mob in a key trial in Ohio...and now the mob--seeing her photos--has dispatched assassins (who pose as FBI agents among other disguises) to track her down and kill her. Holt is at first only indirectly involved in protecting Veenhof from harm by hiding him in a safehouse. But as the guns start to get drawn and the bullets start flying, Holt and Steele realize that they can only save the situation if they can solve all the clues in time. Holt and Steele find Eileen's safehouse just as the mob hit men are storming it to kill Eileen.
PS: Visitor appears in the final 10 or so minutes of the episode. Many of the best Remington Steele episodes such as Sensitive Steele, Beg, Borrow or Steele, Forged Steele, Steele Inc., and Premium Steele were made in the series fourth season and Steele Blushing should be on this list.
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
Top 5 Scooby Doo episode
This was a great episode to honour the memory of the late Don Messick (1926-1997), who was the original voice for Scooby Doo--as the show's closing credits state. The original gang--Fred, Velma and Daphne are reunited again with Scooby and Shaggy but this time Daphne isn't the dangerprone 'dumb' blond from the classic 1976-1978 'The Scooby-Doo Show' TV show.
Instead, she's Daphne Blake a smart media savvy star whose hunting for a real ghost with her show's partner Fred 'Jones'. She's tired of finding people pretending to be real ghosts wearing ghost masks and Fred decides to round up the gang including Velma Dinkley, Scooby and Shaggy to go into Bayou country where they finally stumble into a haunted house on Moonscar Island--where there have been reports of a number of disappearances of people in the past--and nearly perish themselves. The episode's writing was top notch as was the animation. The episode isn't your usual Scooby Doo "whose hiding behind the ghost costume" because the villains are real ghosts. And the zombies are actually the victims here. What a head turner! Two other top notch Scooby Doo movies are Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost and Scooby Doo! Camp Scare.
Star Trek: Voyager: Retrospect (1998)
a moral dilemma with a twist
A reviewer complained that the writers should have shown that Seven of Nine's memories were false but I think this is besides the point. How could they do so within the constraints of a 42-43 minute episode? The more important issue is how does the Doctor deal with his misdiagnosis of Seven's false dreams as Kovin violating her body? The Doctor simply suggests to Janeway that she delete his psychological programming subroutine; Seven meanwhile begins to experience the painful human experience we know as remorse.
The Captain tells the Doctor to grow up and learn from this experience since he's still helping the rest of the crew with their own psychological issues too. Its good to see a Voyager episode come about where the Doctor and Seven admit that they made a terrible mistake on Kovin and work to prevent a future misjudgment. The Captain does say that she had some concerns with Kovin's belligerent attitude towards her and the crew but she never accused him of anything.
Criminal Minds: Limelight (2008)
A local FBI agent messes up the BAU investigation
Jill Morris, a local ambitious FBI agent in Philadelphia--with an eye for media publicity--seeks out the BAU team's help to reveal an unsub's identity based on the contents of an abandoned and now rediscovered storage unit which contained his fantasy on female bondage and possibly murder. His ideas were scribbled out on mounds of paper. She persuades the BAU to allow agents Rossi and Spenser to visit her city and look at the paper evidence but Rossi remains unconvinced that the anonymous unsub will act out on his own ideas--until she pulls out a pair of women's nail clippings and hair. What Jill Morris doesn't say, however, is that they are her own hair and nail clippings.
So, Jill lured the entire FBI BAU team to Philadelphia on false pretenses. Rossi finally figures out her scheme--after the team has identified several of the unsub's victims who were electrocuted to death--and warns her to stop her behaviour although he sympathises with her situation in capturing the unsub. When his BAU colleagues finally realizes what she has done, Rossi says to them: "she (Jill) can be saved. She was who I was 20 years ago chasing the killers but now everyone remembers the killers and no one knows the victims." He clearly empathises with Jill's goals here even if not with her methods towards capturing the unsub. But Jill also ticks off Hotch for having a separate non-BAU press conference where she discusses their progress in catching the unsub...which shows her love for the 'limelight' of publicity. Hotch quickly criticises her for putting her face into the investigation. This act turns out to be be one of supreme folly as the unsub deliberately targets her as his final victim by kidnapping a female Philadelphia Chronicle reporter and contact of Jill--Kat--and forcing Kat to set up a meeting (via a cell phone call) containing supposedly new information with Jill. Lured unsuspecting into the meeting--and without notifying anyone in advance of her rendezvous (a second major mistake by this high risk taking FBI officer)--Jill is knocked unconscious on the head by the unsub who drives them both (ie. Kat & Jill) off in his van to his home. The unsub proceeds to strap the female reporter and Jill into his electrocution device. He electrocutes the reporter first and proceeds to caress Jill before the BAU team frantically breaks down the door to his home, arrests him and rescues her. But a major shortcoming occurs: there is no time in the show for us to see how Penelope identifies the house of the unsub; all we know is that he is an electrician who had a troubled family upbringing. Instead, what one sees is Penelope triangulating her search grid for the homes of middle-aged electricians in a Philly neighbourhood...and then then scene cuts directly to the BAU team and the FBI task force breaks into the unsub's home.
Rossi plays a major role in this episode into its conclusion. He confronts a mostly uninjured Jill at the hospital bed when she avoids asking any questions about the fate of Kat Townsley, the Philadelphia chronicle reporter who the unsub electrocuted shortly before the BAU team stormed the house. Jill replies to him: "I know you think I'm in the first stages of denial" to which Rossi plainly says "she didn't make it." Jill merely stops a second and sighs before going on her merry way and leaves the hospital as if nothing happened. Kat was just a contact to her, I suppose. At the hospital exit, a police officer calls out to her to come into a police escort van but Jill sees a crowd of reporters waiting for her at the other side and still can't resist the "limelight." So, she walks towards them. The reporters rush towards her asking their questions about her encounter with the unsub and Rossi, who watches Jill's behaviour, slowly walks past her and gives her a cold hard stare. If looks could kill, this would be it! Rossi realizes that the battle to save Jill is lost: she cares more ambition and the spotlight of a case then its safe and successful conclusion--the very things that got Jill captured by the unsub in the first place. Her risk taking has reached intolerable levels. Rossi ends the episode by quoting a short piece of prose below by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), the author of Anne of Green Gables: "For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won."
PS: A minor detail one learns from this episode is why the BAU team calls their suspects "unsubs rather than criminals." When Jill privately remarks to JJ that she should soon give this killer an exotic sounding name like the BTK killer, JJ objects and says the BAU team always calls their suspects 'unsubs' (ie. "unknown subjects") in order to demythologise them.
Criminal Minds: Mosley Lane (2010)
One of the best Criminal Minds episodes ever made.
Mosley Lane actually aired on March 3, 2010 but I missed its first viewing and only saw it in early 2011 in a Criminal Minds (CM) rerun during season 6 of this series. After I saw this episode, I was stunned by the fact that this was Matthew Gubler's first outing as director of a CM episode. This episode was free flowing but exciting with an excellent pace. It was excellent and both emotionally powerful and gut wrenching at the same time. Such was the power of its script.
Basically, Sara Hillridge approaches the BAU to see JJ to find out any news about the kidnapping of her son Charlie 8 years ago. Sara still believes that Charlie is alive. JJ, however, knows all about the statistical odds that a child would be killed by an abductor within a 24 hour time period and isn't especially thrilled by Sara's visits whenever a child is kidnapped. Meanwhile the parents of a recently kidnappped girl are desperate to have their daughter recovered safely. Hence, the producer's line where JJ reads Nietzche's seemingly painfully accurate words near the start of this episode: "Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man." Sara has heard news about the recent kidnapping of the young girl--Aimee-at a fair and tells JJ that her young son was kidnapped in precisely the same way that this new child was kidnapped (with a female unsub calling out for a child which distracts the attention of the mother thereby allowing the child to be kidnapped). The BAU team quickly realizes that this cannot be a random coincidence but rather the signature of a group of abductors--one to distract the mother and cause her to to loosen her hold on her child and the other to grab the child in an open public theme park, mall or public space. JJ arranges to have Sara remain at the BAU team's workplace for her input while the team starts to build a detailed profile of the unsubs who eventually turn out to be Roger and Anita who have been carrying out their crimes unmolested for at least 8 years and who have murdered 8 children along the way.
The ending was both joyful for three parents--including Charlie's mother, Sara, and father--and tragic for another set of parents who discover that their son was murdered the day before by Roger and Anita. Its a mix of emotions: joy and grief all at the same time. Sara's quiet approach to the BAU team and her question to them after Charlie was found--was genuine and heartfelt. It was a question which we all wanted to ask the team. How could they perform their dark and difficult jobs and yet live their lives knowing what they knew? Prentice's reply is a classic: "because of days like this" where other parents are crying in joy with their lost (and now found) children. JJ's quotation of Emily Dickinson's beautiful poem on hope was a wonderful way to close out this episode. What can I say: the script was above average and Gubler made an excellent directorial debut in Criminal Minds. The only thing lacking is that no clear reason was given for why Roger and Anita were kidnapping the children but since they owned a secluded boarding home, one can guess that they wanted some children under their control with new names and identities. I personally rate Mosley Lane as one of Criminal Minds top 10 episodes. It helped that JJ was still a regular in this season 5 episode when it was produced as she was forced to leave the CM series early in its 6th season sadly...though she made one effective comeback in 'Lauren'--another episode that Gubler also coincidentally directed. In a sense, this series was closely tied to JJ since she knew Sara, supported Sara's theory about the unique kidnapping methods of the unsubs over the initial skepticism of her BAU colleagues and found the secret basement compartment at the house on 2150 Mosley Lane where the children were hidden.
Relic Hunter: Irish Crown Affair (2000)
A fairly powerful and well written plot
I found the Irish Crown Affair to be an emotionally raw and powerful episode which was very well written, and almost unforgettable. It had everything: loyalty to a long dead king, betrayal, greed, and family honour and shame. Basically the O'Donnell clan of Ireland were charged with the safekeeping of the bejewelled crown of king Brian Boru, Ireland's last legitimate king who was slain in battle after defeating foreign (English I think) invaders in his homeland in 1000 AD.
The O'Donnells keep their vow to this great king when suddenly out of the blue--centuries later--in the medieval period they built a statue to king Henry II of England (Richard the Lionheart's own father) and symbolically pay allegiance/bow to him. No one knows that they hid Boru's crown in the statue's head! When Ireland finally gains independence from Britain in 1922/1923, the O'Donnells of the 20th century were permitted to keep their landed estates but they were basically denounced as traitors by their fellow Irishmen. And the modern O'Donnell clan have forgotten where their ancestors hid the crown. They only feel decades of painful disgrace and shame for their ancestor's alleged act of allegiance to the English.
This is where a friend of Sydney's (Molly) comes into the picture. Molly tells Sydney that she has come into possession of a medieval era poem which cryptically tells of the location of the missing crown of Ireland's last great king. Amazingly, the crown has been resting hidden away in plain sight for generations. (you know where) The O'Donnell clan in the medieval period probably hid it to keep themselves safe since everyone through the centuries would have threatened them for it. In the end, the crown is recovered but not before one of the 'friends' in Molly's party (and his 2 unscrupulous allies) reveals himself to be a ruthless treasure hunter who has plans to sell the crown for its immeasurable historical value. Sydney and the a surviving son of the O'Donnell clan (Garrett O'Donnell) who have become allies in order to find the crown manage to foil their plans in a brilliantly choreographed hand to hand fight in an Irish museum. The most touching scenes occur when Garrett O'Donnell decides to 'spruce' up the family's old symbols of heraldry and engages in a heart to heart talk with his father after saving both Brian Boru's crown (again as his ancestor has done) and securing the O'Donnells family honour by showing to all of Ireland that their ancestors were merely bowing to Brian Boru and not to the English king Henry II, whose statued head hid the well hidden Irish crown. It was a very emotional but frank father-son discussion.
This was a truly powerful and gripping story. And yet, I can only award it a rating of 9 out of 10. (I would give it 9.5 out of 10 if IMDb permitted this but it doesn't) The costume designer should have been fired for having king Brian Boru wear a uniform bearing 3 lions at the exciting start of the episode. Didn't he/she realize that this was the traditional symbol for England, not Ireland? This was a major memory lapse on the producers part. Every Irish and Englishmen would have a chuckle at this error today.
Relic Hunter: Love Letter (2000)
A first rate Relic Hunter show
This was a taut, well written show and one of the better episodes of season 1 of Relic Hunter. Sydney and Nigel have to find the long lost church archives for a small village named St. Agnes Sur-Loire located just outside Paris. Dating to 1789, this archive allegedly preserves a marriage certificate of a young French aristocrat named Guy de Bourdin who married his pregnant French lady but was murdered just after his marriage on the eve of the French revolution. He donated his family's estates over to the local French village. Unfortunately, due to the revolution, the local church was destroyed by fire by the revolutionaries and the priest who signed the marriage certificate, Father Louis, hid all the pre-revolutionary baptismal, marriage and other invaluable church records in a secret cave that almost no one knows about. So, any knowledge of de Bourdin's donation was lost in the chaos of the revolution.
Worse still, the present head of the de Bourdin family who owns the lands that the village sits on, (Vincent de Bourdin) wants to sell the village to a developer and have the entire place torn down and redeveloped into a business park or some other commercial project. This unscrupulous nobleman also has a secret 'relationship' with one of Sydney's so-called partners in finding the records...and he will stop at nothing to prevent Sydney from finding the lost church archives including murder. Treason is in the air again (as it was in 1789) and both Sydney and Nigel need all their wits to both find the long lost church records, establish that the rightful heir to the village, Guy de Bourdin, donated the ownership of the lands of the village to its local people--so the village cannot be re-developed--while protecting their hides. Who will triumph: will Sydney and Nigel perish in their attempt to right a historic wrong? Can good always triumph over evil? You must watch the episode to discover the answer here but the script and acting for this episode in the French countryside was superb. Relic Hunter's season 1 French based settings--The Last Knight, this episode and A Good Year--were simply magical.
As an aside, the late British actor Tony Anholt (1941-2002), Christien Anholt's father, played the villain in this 2000 episode as Vincent de Bourdin.
Relic Hunter: Midnight Flight (2001)
First rate episode of the Relic Hunter
The Midnight Flight was a first rate episode of the Relic Hunter miniseries. I would say it was one of the best episodes of the entire miniseries. Sydney's old "friend" from the Louvre, Frederick, persuades her and Nigel to help locate Gunther the Brave's ruby encrusted sceptre.
Sydney and Nigel retrieve this object only after saving Frederick from being killed by a massive arrow and avoiding other ancient traps in a cavern where it lay hidden. They then naively turn over the item to their friend in the belief that he will pass it over to the Louvre only to find themselves accused by the French authorities of tomb robbery because Frederick was fired from the Louvre for stealing art objects only a week ago. Now, determined to save their reputations, they capture Frederick, learn that he has sold the priceless relic for $5 million dollars to a high Turkish embassy official named Habasi and discover that they must retrieve the relic at all costs--before Habasi takes a 'midnight flight' back to Turkey in a diplomatically protected pouch which cannot be searched by the authorities since Habasi enjoys full diplomatic immunity. It was nice to see Sydney and Habasi playfully tango with one another at a Turkish embassy party after Sydney was invited by Habasi to attend this function just prior to Habasi's trip home and great to see her snoop around the dark corners of Habasi's office--only to be stopped dead in her tracks by his hand activated electronic security safe. Sydney, hence, cannot take the sceptre on her own initiative.
So, Sydney carefully devises a trap where she calls Nigel at a hotel room--where Frederick is being tied up--and pretends to retrieve the object and Nigel plays along and openly congratulates her within earshot of Frederick. She sure fooled me! Nigel then proceeds to call room service and hides from view while the hotel maid frees Frederick who promptly rushes to the Turkish embassy to warn Habasi that he has heared that the sceptre has been seized by Sydney--when it fact it was still safely locked in Habasi's security safe. Habasi quickly checks his treasure and when he opens the safe and takes out the sceptre, Sydney briefly talks to him from his back and then engages in a short but furious struggle with Habasi before getting the artifact back. Habasi himself is temporarily knocked to the ground in a semi-conscious state. By the time he is able to active the embassy alarm system, Sydney manages to pass the relic to Sydney and barely escapes the embassy grounds in time while the French police arrive on cue to arrest Frederick and protect the duo; thus Nigel and Sydney's reputations are intact.
I liked the final scene: when Habasi cheekily approaches Sydney from behind in a hotel foyer and asks what happened to the 5 million dollars he gave to Frederick. Sydney says she 'heard' it was donated to a new museum wing to house Gunther's ruby encrusted sceptre. It took a lot of guts on her part to tell this diplomatically protected official that all his money was gone forever.
Relic Hunter: M.I.A. (2001)
An excellent episode
In this episode, Interpol agent Cate Hemphill arranges a night sting operation with Sydney as bait but Sydney gets snatched off the streets before the sting can even begin. When Cate hears Sydney's last taped words--"what are you doing here"--and Cate's trap, a Czarist fabergé egg, is left behind on the sidewalk, she quickly realizes that Sydney's kidnapper cannot be one of the illegal antiquity smugglers that she has been targeting but rather one of Sydney's many...many enemies from the past.
Basically, Nigel and Claudia have to run through their recollections of Sydney's Relic Hunter 'entanglements' and cases with Relic Hunter's truly nasty villains with Cate in order to catch the culprit--who plans to kill Sydney just as the morning sun rises the next day. Its really a whodunit with Sydney's life on the line now. Much of their work ends in frustration as they find many of Sydney's rival relic hunters are either dead, firmly locked away in prison or are living far away from North America and in no position to threaten Sydney in New York. In the end, Nigel,Claudia and Cate reach the end of their list and guess the kidnapper's identity and save Sydney just before she is about to be killed by....a truly scary psychopath. Let's just say the killer appears in one of the earlier episodes of season 2 of Relic Hunter...and he despises Sydney enough to drug and kill her for foiling his past plans by making her suffer and pay before she dies. He's certainly not your garden variety villain. All in all, this was one of the best Relic Hunter episodes out there and I rate it at a generous ten out of ten.
Star Trek: Requiem for Methuselah (1969)
A compelling and highly original season 3 Trek episode
This episode was penned by Jerome Bixby and is one of the highlights of Star Trek's trouble filled third season. After watching 'Requiem for Methuselah,' I must admit that it is one of my favourite season 3 shows. I can see why it is assigned a high favourable rating of about 8.3 out of 10 here. There was a lot of magic in this episode. James Daly's and Louise Sorel's performances as the tired, lonely Flint and the innocent android Rayna were excellent. Everyone knows that Kirk was getting a bit high on his testosterone level in many third season TOS scripts--which were often penned by female writers who cared more about personal relationships than adventure. However, Bixby actually used this to boost the storyline of 'Requiem to Methuselah.'
Flint hates the presence of the Enterprise trio (Kirk, Spock and McCoy) who beamed down onto his planet for ryetalyn to cure the Enterprise crew from Rigellian fever. But he soon changes his mind when he sees how Kirk can bring Rayna's "emotions alive." Basically, Flint uses Kirk to let Rayna experience the feeling of love so that he can have Rayna for himself later. Kirk follows Flint's subtle suggestions to play pool and dance with Rayna and quickly falls in love with Rayna. Yes, it was a bit farcical to see Kirk implore Rayna, a woman he barely knows, to stay with him with this classic line: "Childhood must end. You love me, not Flint!" Kirk didn't know that Flint was monitoring his every move. Once Kirk has accomplished his host's goal, Flint chillingly says: "A last tender encounter Captain Kirk to end your usefulness." Obviously, Flint has something up his sleeve and its definitely not just to say goodbye to Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Spock rightly suspects something is wrong and tells Kirk that their host is delaying their stay on his home for unknown reasons. Spock surmises--correctly--that Flint knows Brahms, da Vinci and countless other personalities to create his exquisite collection of paintings and musical masterpieces. When Flint delays the transfer of ryetalyn to the Trek trio and basically compels them to enter his secret room with its models of other Raynas, his intentions become clear: he wants to hold them in stasis with the Enterprise for a thousand years. Spock is in his element with this late Classic Trek episode. He's the first person to realise that Flint will never let them leave his home since they have discovered his secret--immortality--and the first to tell Flint that Rayna would hate him for holding the Enterprise crew in stasis. This is the brilliant Vulcan we have come to expect, not the one who couldn't distinguish who the real Kirk was in 'Whom Gods Destroy.'
Murray Golden did a great job directing the only Classic Trek episode he ever touched. This episode was a very smooth flowing film with little slow paces. Bixby's idea that an android could experience feelings and think for herself was extremely intriguing and original in the 1960's. Louise Sorel's portrayal of the innocent Rayna who suddenly experiences the complex conflicted feelings of love and jealousy only to fall apart when she cannot compensate for her newfound emotions for both Kirk and Flint was first rate. Sorel really brought the Rayna character to life. The main plothole was why Kirk would fight Flint over an android? I appreciated Kirk's comments that Rayna had the right to "do and think as she wills" even if it meant forcing Rayna to choose him over Flint but, as Spock logically notes, Rayna was not a woman.
This show, which first aired on St. Valentine's Day in 1969, may have broken some viewer's hearts but it made for compelling sci-fi TV. Its just a pity that Kirk didn't fight Flint before he found out that Rayna was an android! Its hard to criticise this unique season 3 TOS episode despite its small faults. Only Jerome Bixby could write such an unorthodox, original--for the 1960s--and poignant script like 'Requiem for Metheselah.' This was Star Trek at its very best. I give an 8 out of 10 overall for this episode which was not perfect but very good nonetheless.
Star Trek: The Way to Eden (1969)
The single worst Star Trek TOS episode
The Way to Eden was both a terrible Star Trek episode and, in my view, certainly the Worst TOS show ever made. Even Spock's Brain had its campy, humorous moments but this show was bad throughout! It epitomized the very depths of season 3 of TOS. The plot holes in the show are too many to count: how did a group of space age hippies manage to travel to their Eden by hijacking the Enterprise and then maneuver the large starship into Romulan space without sparking a Romulan response? Why does the young Chekov suddenly become the inflexible status quo adult personality we see here in this episode? Moreover, why would Spock, the Enterprise's second-in-command, play music with a group of social outcasts who had just stolen the Aurora spaceship and nearly violated the Federation-Romulan neutral zone? A real Vulcan would have had them thrown in the brig instead. If Eden was such a poisonous, acidic planet, how did Dr. Sevrin, the leader of this group, manage to climb a tree when logically the tree trunks should have burned his skin upon contact. But, I forgot: there is simply no logic in this episode! If DC Fontana had remained the show's script writer in season 3 of TOS, most of her original 'Joanna' storyline could have been produced as she envisioned it instead of being rewritten almost out of existence by the season 3 script staff. Its no surprise that Fontana removed her name from this show due to the disaster it became.
Fontana's original 'Joanna' script--the prelude to 'The Way to Eden'--was competent: Eden is now a dead planet because its peace-loving people allowed their baser emotions to take over and destroy themselves. Fontana never mentions that Eden was located within the Romulan Empire. Chekov's love, Irina, doesn't appear either. The group of social misfits--called 'The Artists'--are actually rescued from a planet where their spacecraft crash landed. There are few plot holes and plenty of character interactions (ie. sparks) flying between Dr. McCoy and his daughter, Joanna, since the doctor realizes that she has been lying to him for the past 3 years and was not studying to be a nurse, as she had claimed. Joanna and McCoy eventually begin to reconcile at the end of the show after Joanna states that she will serve time for helping hijack the Enterprise and McCoy decides to allow her to choose whatever career she wants. In short, the show had the ingredients to be an excellent and highly personal TOS episode instead of the very depths of season 3 of Classic Trek.
Star Trek: Bread and Circuses (1968)
One of the Best Trek Earth Parallel stories
'Bread and Circuses', production #43 was one of the last episodes made by Gene L. Coon himself who left the second season of Star Trek after 'A Private Little War.' (production #45.) The entire premise of this show was different from other Trek-Earth parallel stories such as 'Who Mourns for Adonis', or the subpar 'Plato's Stepchildren'. Here, captain Merik of the USS Beagle actually obeys the Federation's prime directive and avoids cross-cultural contamination with the inhabitants of planet 892-IV, a carbon copy of the ancient Romans when he orders his personnel to beam down to the planet--and essentially die. The head of the Romans, the cruel and vindictive Claudius Marcus, knows all about the Federation and its prime directive of non-interference. Bread and Circuses is an obvious what if: if the Roman Empire had survived into the 23rd century, what would life have been like today? Savage gladiatorial duels are now transmitted on live TV and dissident "sun worshippers" are shown resisting the regime. We have a classic McCoy-Spock interaction in the slave pens and the Trek trio including captain Kirk know that they all face certain death unless they violate the prime directive. Kirk--while threatened at gunpoint--still deliberately refuses to betray his own crew by ordering them to transport themselves down to the planet and instead uses the word "condition green" to Scotty to signal that his party are in trouble but the Enterprise musn't rescue them. Everyone obeys the prime directive which seemingly condemns the Trek trio to a painful death.
Roddenberry nicely lays out his conception of how slaves in our modern world would function while the Roman guards are equipped with both modern machine guns as well as ancient daggers to honour the memory of their predecessors. In the end, Kirk, Spock and McCoy are saved from death in the arena by the traitorous Merik himself who tells Scotty to home in on the communicator's general coordinates and beam the trio up. Merik is rewarded for his bravery by being stabbed to death by Marcus while Kirk, Spock and McCoy narrowly miss being machine gunned to death when Scotty beams them up in time. There are several classic lines in this show including one to the dissident gladiators and sunworshipper Flavius that if he brought down the show's ratings: "We'll do a special on you."
This episode was a tense tightly wound story by Gene L. Coon and since Coon was one of my favourite Star Trek producers, I highly recommend it. There are many great production values here.
Star Trek: The Practical Joker (1974)
The holodeck makes its first appearance
This was actually the first Star Trek episode to feature the Holodeck--called the 'Rec Room' here. So, The Practical Joker enjoys an important link to Star Trek: The Next Generation where the holodeck appears so prominently. The Enterprise accidentally enter into Romulan territory and Kirk is now pursued by the Romulans. The crew try to elude the Romulans by entering an energy field...but the field is alive and seizes control of the Enterprise's computer where it launches one 'joke'/trick after another upon the Federation crew.
The crew were able to create any environment they choose with the use of the computer (basically the holodeck) but it malfunctions since the energy field places McCoy, Uhura and Sulu in several inhospitable situations. The Enterprise eventually escape the cloud and the pursing Romulans now get entangled in the same cloud instead. Other than the holodeck link with TNG, The Practical Joker was OK but not outstanding.
Star Trek: The Cloud Minders (1969)
good script marred by execution difficulties and one poor casting
This show was one of the stronger final season Trek shows on the effects of social stratification on the inhabitants of Ardana. The high priest of Ardana and the planet's elite live in Stratos, their city in the Clouds and do whatever they wish while condemning the lowly Troglydytes to a miserable existence mining the planet's resources below. Kirk and his crew are attacked by the Troglydtes near the beginning of the show and are saved by the leader of Ardana, Plassus.
Unlike many boring season 3 offerings, this show had more spark and energy. It was nice to see Droxine, the daughter of the High Priest Plassus state that she would like to see the Troglydtes at the end of the show. While the ending of the conflict--through the use of gas masks--is unconvincing and robs the show of part of its premise and power, Droxine's promise to Spock here was supposed to foreshadow the gradual breakdown in social inequality between the inhabitants of Stratos and the Troglodytes. Hence, the film here follows in the Classic Trek tradition.
Another problem is that Diana Ewing is slightly miscast as Droxine; her promise to Spock to investigate the Troglydtes' dire situation seems insincere. Its almost as if she delivers this line just to impress Spock--not because she really cares about them. Droxine's infatuation with Spock and Spock's reference to the 'lovely Droxine' and allusion to the 'pon farr' also shows how far the show was straying from its Classic Trek roots towards the end of season 3. A true Vulcan would not reveal such a thing to Droxine--a woman whom he only barely knows! Plassus, on the other hand, makes a convincing and belligerent leader of Stratos who seems quite sincere when he threatens to drag Kirk to a tribunal for forcibly beaming him down to the caves of Ardana and forcing him to physically dig zenite in order to suffer the effects of its anger inducing gas. Kirk's demand that Plassus "dig" in the caves was somewhat petty and totally out of character. The real Kirk would not have uttered such a phrase and instead forced Plassus to negotiate a compromise to resolve the social inequality that the Troglydtes faced on Ardana. I am uncertain if Kirk's intervention in beaming down Plassus to Ardana is a violation of the Prime Directive since the episode never says if Ardana is a member of the Federation and Kirk had only a few hours left to transport the badly needed zenite to stop the plague on Merak II.
The 'gas mask' solution totally ignores the whole point of social inequality in this episode. But by now, the producers were running low on fresh new ideas--and production money--and placed an emphasis on resolving episodes with simple but totally unconvincing solutions to such complex social issues. As Plassus said to Kirk, I believe, you cannot solve centuries of social inequality with gas masks. The producer's solution is much too glib and unconvincing to be successful. Unfortunately, this episode is an example of Star Trek's decline in production quality here. David Gerrold's script was good but the producers didn't handle it right unfortunately. I assign it 7 out of 10.
Star Trek: Amok Time (1967)
wonderful show
Season 2 of Star Trek started off with a bang. This is one of the most memorable shows concerning Spock and his home planet of Vulcan. Plus the Vulcan's 7 year biological urge to mate. Only Harlan Ellison's "City on the Edge of Forever" exceeds the quality of Theodore Sturgeon's script here. It must surely rank among the Top 10 Star Trek shows that were ever produced.
We see Spock and Kirk fighting at the end and Spock is almost out of his mind since he is in the throws of Ponn Far--the Vulcan mating ritual. Who can forget Spock's poignant speech to Tpau that he shall not live long and prosper since he has killed his captain and his friend, Kirk.
Star Trek: For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (1968)
an average Star Trek show with some good points
This was one of those episodes which William Shatner cited in his book "Star Trek Memories" where the Star Trek scripts were declining in either quality, believability or both. Shatner notes that McCoy discovers he's terminally ill and subsequently falls in love with the high priestess of Yonada--Natira. At the show's end, McCoy decides to leave his wife to return to the Enterprise where he is cured by the Yonada's catalogue of advanced medical technology which the Enterprise crew access from Yonada's computer. (p.266) Simply put, there are far too many coincidences in this single episode to make it credible. Moreover, McCoy and Natira's love scenes are generally devoid of passion--something one would not expect from a married couple.
Its strange that a laser beam from the Yonada's oracle quickly knocks out Kirk and his party when they first beam down to the Yonada asteroid. But when we reach the conclusion, the oracle doesn't employ a similar device to knock out Spock and Kirk who are now trying to access the oracle's computer? Instead, it reacts by abruptly heating up the room that Kirk and his crew are in. I thought the scene where Spock consults the holy book or 'sacred text' to discover how to which navigate the asteroid in a room that was heating up to nearly intolerable levels was funny. Shouldn't the book have spontaneously caught fire? However, despite these logical shortcomings, the show's overall premise is fine, just nothing spectacular.
A grade of 6 or 7 seems very reasonable. I rate it a 7 overall because it appropriately highlights the danger of unquestioningly placing one's faith in religion which is symbolised by the all powerful oracle that is guiding Yonada into a collision course with the Federation planet Daran V which contains 4 billion people. The story's theme that the suppression of dissent and independent thought--through the 'instrument of obedience' which is implanted in every Yonadan citizen--can be dangerous also rings true. Hence, the show's premise is eminently believable even if its execution was problematic.