Sight Unseen

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (Sight Unseen)

Never having watched this episode before I bought it, I got it (get this), sight unseen! It's one I'm not entirely sure how to take, because it's not a comedy, but it is bizarre. Beginning as one kind of story it morphs, like an inter-dimensional creepy-crawly, into something else, but with scenes of buzzing fairy-pink flies, bright blue and yellow centipedes and, at its most 'Men In Black,' fat, window-sucking slugs with teeth and huge mouths, it's difficult to take seriously, either. It's not like the story doesn't have any good scenes, because there's O'Neill trying to get Carter to go fishing with him, followed by Jonas feeling left out for being the only one not to be asked, and Teal'c telling him how fortunate he is. Teal'c is not a lover of fishing. There are also character affirming moments such as when Carter reassures Jonas that he is now very much part of the team, making it clear (to the audience as much as him), that he's accepted as the fourth member of SG-1, and isn't just an extra, making up the numbers. It comes about because she and the others initially find it hard to believe in the invisible creatures only Jonas has seen.

Trust isn't really that important to the story, though - one theme that could have been explored was Carter's easy access to Vernon's personal details. When Jonas shows surprise that they would do that, Carter blankly says it's only in emergencies, which was creepier, in a way, because she sees nothing wrong with it! It's a throwaway scene and could have been so much more. The episode ends up being a bit of a messy one, not really going anywhere or doing anything to make it worthwhile. The initial scene between O'Neill and the garage attendant, Vernon Sharpe, is good, mixing some humour with the mystery of these creatures. But Vernon becomes the centre of the story when he goes on the run and it just becomes completely different as if they were making up the story as they went along, instead of having an end goal to aim for. I don't remember an episode being this unfocused for a long time, and added to the slow scenes in places, it doesn't do the episode justice. If the creatures had been scarier and less cartoony (though I will give credit to the CGI, which looks very nice and solid), and it had been about the escalation of paranoia, this could have been a tour de force for Jonas - I can imagine things getting out of hand and him being the one hunted as he goes on the run, but all that happens is that the SGC doesn't immediately believe his story, and then more people are affected, and then they do believe.

Hammond gets a more central role since more of the episode takes place at the base, but this is neither a purely off-base, 'real world' kind of episode, nor an alien on Earth, and not at all a typical 'adventure through the Stargate.' Because of all these points it doesn't succeed in creating any real drama or leading to dramatic situations - the moment the blue centipede exits the alien device and gives Jonas a surprise is the closest we get to any impression of danger or fear, but the truth of the matter is, the aliens prove no threat, being indigenous to Earth, though we usually can't see them because they actually inhabit another dimension… except they can land on some matter… and go through other matter… you can tell this wasn't all that well though out, as much as in the plotting as in the preposterous idea that these things are all around us. Okay, so it's no less preposterous than aliens, Asgard and the Ancients, but somehow, with the way it was presented in such a funny style it doesn't lend gravity to the sci-fi concept. It's fun that O'Neill gets an ALF reference in at the end, and I wondered if the guy on the phone at the airport might have been the same actor from whom Neo steals a phone in 'The Matrix,' though it's very possibly not, and when such trivia is about the only thing worth mentioning, you know you have an episode that failed to make an impact.

**

The Psychic

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (The Psychic)

We're going back to their interest in the weird and the wonderful, but this time it's not shady, crooked evil, but a man with a 'gift' that he wants to be as removed from as possible. In other episodes we see all kinds of dodgy cultists or fanatics, often shown to be either delusional or perpetuating a delusion for gullible followers, but whatever the angle, they were loud and proud and not timid about their practices. This time we meet a man with a genuine power, but he's quite the opposite; a quiet man that wants to be left alone, hiding from his past and hoping to remain disassociated from the ability he has to see visions. Interestingly, there's strong role reversal in this episode - not just the difference between Joe Collandra and the phonies we've seen before him, but S&H. Usually it's Hutch that's getting crabby with people (I say usually, as in my memory it's Hutch more than Starsky that goes into grump mode, with the latter generally more optimistic), and moaning at the police dispatcher, but this time Starsky has the attitude. There's also the fact that Starsky is generally the one to believe in anything weird or way out, but this time he's the sceptic, and Hutch the believer. It's also usual to see Starsky messing around with an order of food, but this time it's Hutch who carries a bundle of things into his friend's car, and it might even be junk food! It seems things are not normal this episode.

Something else odd about this episode is that it seems to have a thing about men dressed in women's clothing, for some reason: Fireball, the felon they're chasing in the teaser (which may have been reused in a later episode), starts the ball rolling, then we also have the guy holding up the bar, and the blokes in the laundromat that Hutch runs through during his heroic sprint at the end. For no discernible reason this theme is in there, unless it's another subtle indication that things aren't always what you expect? The series isn't generally very subtle, so I'd be pushing it to praise such nuances, instead it seems far more likely that it was just to emphasise the slapstick comedy element that runs through this episode, and season. It's played up in the teaser, which is completely unrelated to the main plot, except by the bridging line where Starsky wonders what the idle rich are up to, but who needs careful plot progression when you can open with a tyre-squealing car chase, innocent civilians leaping out of the way, and S&H getting caught up in other people when it becomes a foot pursuit. This may well be the episode which features the greatest number of people either pushed out of the way, or to the floor, in the history of the series, because not only do we begin with an action sequence, we end with one, too.

It's one that I'd forgotten came from this episode (possibly because I think it's also used in a clips episode), so I was looking forward to seeing it again when I got the hints it was coming, because it's one of my favourite action scenes from the entire series, although I do wish it was longer and more intricate - perhaps the concept was better than the execution in some ways. What it does is show S&H once again working together, though actually separated, with Hutch on foot and Starsky on a dirt bike, complete with big, blue crash helmet and every biker's essential accessory: a high-powered rifle! Mind you, I don't know whether he was firing incendiary rounds out of it, or if the villains' getaway car had a boot full of TNT, because it went up like a bonfire with one shot! It's 'Savage Sunday' all over again! There's some good stunts with Starsky pelting round on the bike, and Hutch manically running to reach each phone the villains' instruct him to, so it's a mix of sick game and shrewd tactical play by them - I especially enjoy the moment Hutch ploughs through three loafers trying to mug him, in desperation to reach the next phone before the girl is killed he doesn't hang around, even using a dustbin lid to finish the job and hurling it behind him into the air as he dashes madly off. It's no surprise the police car thought he was a lunatic. It's not the first time uniform have got in the way of an investigation at a sensitive moment, but it just adds to the trauma of the moment when all Hutch's efforts seem in vain thanks to the villains being spooked.

One of the most important moments of the end sequence is that Starsky doesn't rush over to see if his partner is alright, but takes out the baddies' car, then goes to Hutch. He thought he was dead after being blasted through a door, forgetting Hutch was kitted out with a bulletproof vest (just like the previous episode - is this a new policy?), so I suppose that was his reason more than professionalism. But with that kind of dedication the bad guys stood no chance. In fact, one of them had already been dealt with before: Earl Pola, the darker-skinned member of the duo, was played by George Loros - I thought I recognised his face, and I was right. He'd played Chaco in Season 1's 'Texas Longhorn.' Like 'Huggerino The Magnificent' (or 'The Amazing Collins' as Joe Collandra had been known), as Huggy styles himself this time (previously taking the title Huggerino The Supremo in 'Murder At Sea,' and Huggerini The Incredible in 'Murder At Sea, Part II'), we see things that are (or were, in Chaco's case), not so much in the category of things that aren't, but certainly something of things that are to come: Allan Miller who made an impact as Joe Collandra, would return a couple more times as other characters.

Miller was so well cast as this anguished man plagued by his past and a 'gift' he doesn't want, giving a believable portrayal of what it might be like to have this power, the fear of it messing up his life as it had once done before, the draw of reporters and hordes or people and the sheer misery of knowing things you don't want to know about people. For Joe, ignorance really would be bliss, he just wants to live his quiet life out of the limelight, running the J. C. Cafe and pretending his past never happened. We don't often get writing that looks at other angles like this, and he's given good development, going from a man trying to hide, agreeing with Starsky's scepticism, to a man that admits what he is and is able to help before it's too late, at least in part assuaging the guilt of his previous attempt to help when he was too late in Atlantic City. As well written and performed as he is, the opposite is true of the two villains. They aren't bad bad guys, they just aren't afforded the attention Joe gets, which, while keeping their stock as a danger high, also gives us little insight into them. If they were kept out of the picture, they should have gone the whole hog and made them denizens of the shadows. It's not always clear who's the boss, with both Moo-Moo taking charge at times, but Earl seemingly the brain, and their addition needed more work to integrate them better into the story.

The lack of work on the villain side doesn't lose the episode its good qualities, which is mainly that it's upbeat, full of slapstick comedy, the bickering we love between S&H, but also some good stunt moments. One example is in the foiling of the raid on the bar - Starsky almost does his jump and grab move inside, using a chair or sofa to get the high ground instead of the usual car bonnet, but doesn't make the full leap. It was probably the only time Picerni did a stunt this episode, although he was probably riding the bike some of the time. Look out for the little old lady in the background at the bar, brandishing her stick as if she's going to use it to assist the police! Maybe the story isn't that deep, but it has the right mix that make it a good example of the series, if not a spectacular one. It has many of the expected quirks and things to tick off: we have a few odd characters to interact with, from bald, dress-garbed Fireball, to 'fat man' as Hutch names Michael Keenan's car wash boss (a moniker he's used before on others), and including the kiddie crime duo that almost succeed in jacking Starsky's beloved tyres off, to Charlie Sireen, though her quirkiness is more to do with her greater than average height and atypical role as a female mechanic, than being wacky.

That theme of people being different to what you'd expect really does appear to run through, but if so, I still say it's unintentional. One character I initially thought was a bit of a fraud was the Korean gambling boss, Su Long, whom Julio Gutierrez owed money to (he being the carwash guy that had struck up a passing familiarity with Haymes' daughter, enabling her to be kidnapped without too much hassle). The Asian guy looked suspiciously like a non-Asian who was screwing up his eyes a bit and had false whiskers plastered to his chin, but seeing the actor's name, James Hong, I got him all wrong, although they did sometimes pass off people as different races in the past so it was an easy mistake to make. Haymes himself wasn't a memorable character, his claim to fame being that he was rich enough to own the Turbos football team, and all we had to sympathise with him was the single scene between he and his daughter before her kidnapping. He could have done with humanising a little more for us to care about his plight, because Joanna was equally undeveloped, mainly shown struggling ineffectually in the back of the Rosa's van that was her prison.

There were few pop culture references, but I'd include Dick Tracey (one of the boys caught by S&H calls one of them that), Shangri-La (Starsky's description of Su Long's place), and Lazarus (Hutch's response when the police ask who he is after finding him lying through a smashed in door tying in to when Starsky thought he was dead). Joe mentions the 'tomato' and 'white stripes' describing the Torino; Starsky complains about Hutch's treatment of his car (this time it's dripping food on the upholstery); Haymes' office features the red carpet usually reserved for crooks (though it might be a sign of wealth in S&H's world - if you can afford bright red things you must be rich!); and the chunky bloke Hutch bowls over in an effort to reach the phone may be a regular stunt man, I'm not sure. The best reference of the episode is also the final line, when Huggy gets S&H's orders mixed up at J.C.'s - Starsky has the great line "I'm pickles, he's onions." As well as casting a couple of actors that would be/become familiar to viewers of the series, in this episode there's a couple of sci-fi names, too: Michael Keenan would also be in episodes of 'Voyager' and 'DS9,' about twenty years later, and Edward James Olmos (mistakenly credited as Edward Jamesl Olmos!), who had the small role of Julio, would become famous for the 'Battlestar Galactica' remake, around thirty years later!

I like that Huggy gets to be part of the story, but again, it's not right that he should be in someone else's cafe taking orders, he should have his own place! It's also nice to see Dobey getting out of the office again when he's permitted to attend Haymes' house, and he's allowed out in a travelling HQ in the back of a van, presumably coordinating S&H's operation since Hutch is wired up with a mike to relay the information to Starsky. I thought the Seaside Amusement Park was going to feature more in the story than as the place they find Julio's body, but it may have been a location to which they returned ('Targets Without A Badge'?), though there were numerous stretches of scenery that looked familiar - the alley Starsky speeds though on his bike may even have been the famous opening credits' alley. I like that they don't rush into the dump and immediately realise Joanna Haymes is in the Rosa's van, it takes them a few seconds to orient themselves and then they spot the vital clue. It's strange the gardener didn't hear her initial kidnapping as he was in the background as she walks down the drive, but neither did anyone at the dump notice these two guys bundling a girl about, so either people were too absorbed in their work or they expected to see these men.

***

The Specialist

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (The Specialist)

It started out promisingly enough with a shady, sharp-suited man seeing his wife gunned down in front of his eyes in a terrible police mistake as S&H and two of their fellow cops shoot at escaping robbers. It had a potentially devastating enemy at a level of technical skill far greater than the street punks they usually have to deal with, one who changes his appearance to blend into society, has an expert level of weapons knowledge and those specialised weapons at hand. It all sounds a bit like Prudholm from 'Pariah,' a personal enemy out for vengeance. It all sounds a bit Jason Bourne or John Rambo: someone that's been pushed to the limit of his sanity or beliefs, discarded by the organisation that made him who he is, that's left him to live out a mundane life. Then the trigger event happens: his wife, the only thing keeping him sane, is taken from him. So what followed should have been a thriller as S&H find themselves increasingly out of their depth. They even had the opportunity to build the tension with two expendable 'redshirts,' the other cops involved in the shooting, before Drew put all his attention on S&H. Yet that level of suspense, that palpable fear of an unstoppable force coming for you never reaches anywhere near the Bourne or Rambo films, or even 'Pariah.'

One thing that lets the side down is a lack of resonance that affects us, deepening the dips in this roller-coaster: when young William McDermont is blown sky high, his old Dad is sad and we hear of a young daughter now Father-less, but it's not presented in a way that gives us reason to care too much. The same with the other officer's assassination when Drew pops some poison in his drink at a bar - it's just an orchestrated scene, one with a sense of horror as we see the realisation of pain in his face as he dies, but not giving us a reason to empathise or building up the suspense. It also becomes almost comical that Captain Dobey and the head of Drew's former organisation, Arthur Cole, go 'undercover' (the Captain in a white boiler suit, Cole with sunglasses!), as plumbers to ferry S&H to their 'safe' location at the Country Squire Motel. Why would these two important (and recognisable! - Drew would know both of them!), men be involved in that way? I liked it for giving Dobey something to do outside his office, especially with no sighting of Huggy Bear this time - they probably didn't want S&H to have too much help, to increase their sense of isolation…

While Alex Drew is very much of the same mould as Bourne and Rambo, he has one distinct difference, namely, that he kills innocent men because he considers them guilty, even though he doesn't know which police officer fired the stray shot that killed Mrs. Drew. So the story we know so well from those films is seen from the other side in that it's those in authority under threat, not the special agent. I got the impression Cole was one of those typical high-up military special operations guys who were happy to wipe out their 'mistake' by wiping out their creation, very much in line with those films, and was overly sure of himself and his resources in tracking down his man, even knowing the guy's capabilities. S&H are shown to have compassion for Drew whose head has apparently been turned by his enforced retirement allowing paranoia to creep in, making him believe in assassination squads out to get him. As Starsky notes, in a way he's just as much a victim, and the real guilty party, Cole, can't be arrested. At the very end, in Dobey's office, Hutch voices something that is very relevant for today: he asks what Cole believes in, and gets the reply of the continued strength of our nation. Hutch then responds to Cole's assertion that's what Hutch should believe in, too, by saying 'not at your prices': when liberty is chipped away, when governments take paranoid actions, that's when things have gone too far, and even threats to the nation as a whole shouldn't be used as excuses to curtail personal freedom.

If only such a theme as that had had full play in the episode it might have elevated the writing to another level, but it's just a little throwaway exchange at the end, and that's what the episode is made up of: little throwaway exchanges. S&H make the episode worth watching as usual, but if you took them out of the picture (as Drew was so hoping to do), you're left with an average story. I felt myself prompted towards memories of several episodes of the series - the oil fields mentioned as the showdown between S&H and Drew had me expecting those pit head oil machines as seen in 'Texas Longhorn,' though in fact the oil fields outside of Mandalay Heights turned out to be more of a factory complex, which nonetheless made for the best part of the episode. I was also put in mind of one of those early Season 1 episodes where they walk into some kind of massage parlour or similar kind of thing and push past the girls to the back room and the bad guy. It was 'Flashy' Floyd at the 'Chapel of Bodily Invigoration' as this week's slimy head of a sleazy business to which S&H pile on the pressure. That whole scene was extraneous to the plot and seemed just an excuse to have some girls running around in short clothing.

That wasn't the only questionable part of the episode, as demonstrated expertly by Starsky's incredibly unprofessional behaviour to the female officers he works with. For one, he cosies up to Officer Hagen when she brings some files for him (a refrain predictably returned to for the episode's cap in which you knew the jokey moment was going to involve Hagen - although I was confused in the moment before she arrived as I thought the guy laughing with S&H was the cop that got killed in the bar!), and in a completely unrelated moment, pats another female's behind with a file (I think it was the same female officer named Sarah in 'Vampire' who gets Hutch coffee) - it makes me wonder if this was something Paul Michael Glaser ad-libbed as a joke on the background extra as this isn't the first time he's done that (he did something similar in 'Little Girl Lost'), so maybe it was a personal gag, who knows? It just seemed inappropriate, and speaks to the vast changes in societal values in even just thirty-odd years. On the other hand, one of the girls at the 'Chapel' does the same thing to Starsky, and Sally Hagen shows her physical superiority by throwing both Starsky and Hutch to the floor (the only time Hutch's place is seen), with martial arts, so I assume they were redressing the balance. Still, two wrongs don't make a right, right?

One little gleam of interest can be gleaned from the files Drew has out on his chosen targets, although you can only actually read Hutch's on DVD, as the shot moves and blurs Starsky's, but it is interesting to pause and read the details that the makers of the series probably never envisioned being possible to make out. We see that he was born in Salon, Oregon on 29 May 1948 (meaning he's late-20s here), his address is 2224, Washington Blvd., and his description is: height of 6'2", medium build, fair hair, blue eyes, blond, and has no scars or marks. One thing that stood out was that his city is listed as Los Angeles, California, so does that mean the series is set there and not the mythical Bay City I always thought it was? Considering these were never likely to be read they probably don't need to be taken as gospel. Whether the episode could be classed in the positive or negative bracket isn't as obvious, but I'd probably go with the positive on the whole as we're seeing more luxurious sides of the city, or at least, the motel, restaurant and other places weren't rundown, nor were S&H plunged into the struggle to survive on the street as they should have - they fill their bellies, read, watch TV and take on suit-wearing criminals all in well-lit scenery, so although it's not overtly upbeat, it's mainly a good view of society; residential, clean, etc.

Other episodes springing to mind during the viewing of this one were 'Blindfold' from Season 4, in which Kim Cattrall plays a blinded woman caught in a crossfire like Mrs. Drew, and 'Vendetta' - you'd think Hutch would be more reticent about opening the boot of a car which is possibly rigged with explosives after his hand was severely injured in a malicious blast (so much for no scars…), in the exact same situation. That was a moment I liked from the episode, where they carefully examine the Torino from all angles after becoming suspicious thinking about McDermont's fiery vehicular demise, and I liked that the lack of security at the station's car park was vocalised (just as I liked Floyd's comment that police don't look like police any more!). It also brought what at first seemed to be set up as this episode's running joke, full circle: Starsky's usual quirky reasoning at the beginning as he wonders 'What If?' quickly takes on a more sober accent when he wonders about the events surrounding Mrs. Drew's shooting - what if the robbers had arrived a few seconds later, etc. This then stayed in my mind for when he drops his car keys and serendipitously spots the plastic explosive under the dash, some unspoken subtext I may be reading too much into, but it worked for me.

The ending is another good part and makes for an exciting, action-fuelled finale - if only the rest of the episode had contained this level of brilliant timing and hairsbreadth escapes as S&H do what they do best, working their way round to take out the target, once again doing so without the military bluntness that would have seen the blase Cole take out Drew without a second thought, instead capturing him alive. It made me think of the junkyard sequence from 'Texas Longhorn' and later, the climbing pursuit of 'Murder On Stage 17,' both of which saw them pitted against assailants armed with a rifle. For once we get the impression of danger with S&H respecting the skill of their adversary enough to kit out in bulletproof jackets, something we don't usually see them do. Indeed, earlier in the episode I was led to suspect this definite personal threat to their lives by a highly skilled operative who had never failed in a mission, was affecting them more than their usual brushes with death: when cooped up in the motel, Hutch is seen to be reading the Holy Bible, although while he's improving his mind and soul, Starsky's splayed out across the gap in the two beds watching some police chase on TV, ably presenting the two disparate styles of character!

In terms of the usual collection of oddballs this episode is surprisingly devoid, with the closest being Sally Hagen (played by Linda Scruggs Bogart - I would assume a relation of Humphrey's since she gets 'Special Guest Star' billing - ironic given Starsky's predilection for doing an impression of Bogey!), or a couple of the girls at Floyd's place, though none of these are particularly weird or get the chance to solidify that impression, so I can't really count them. References are also thin on the ground with only Frankenstein (in relation to what Cole's organisation had created), a comparison of Dobey to an elephant and his food obsession ("You should see him eat peanuts" - though he leaves a perfectly good meal when he thinks his men are in danger, so he's got his priorities right), and a swimming pool which, remarkably, no one dives into. One thing I think may come up again is the closeup of Hutch firing his gun during the initial shootout, which looked familiar from the later credits montages, but I could be wrong about that. We also hear a back catalogue of the series' themes, from the resolute action score which is my favourite, from 'The Las Vegas Strangler,' (der dummm dum, didoo doo doo, der dummm dum…) to the equally mood-making tingly tightrope from the second part as they hunt the Strangler in the roof of the casino, to the well used horror jangle of bells and weird notes.

It's disappointing that we never actually found out who was responsible for firing the fatal shot which precipitated Drew's personal vendetta, but you can be sure it would have turned out to be one of the other cops as S&H are too careful and professional to make a mistake like that. Equally, they wouldn't have wanted to lay the blame on one of their deceased fellow officers so were probably happy for it to remain unknown. While there was potential for really good action and strong dramatic moments, the premise was mostly wasted, and the themes that could have been taken and run with, about a secretive government program of super agents that Cole admits was a mistake from inception, and how far the authorities are willing to go to 'protect' their citizens by curtailing freedoms, ripe for exploration, were largely avoided. But once again I'm asking too much of a cop show from the 1970s, it's just that they've shown that they could create well written material and tense drama, so when they fall into the trap of just making a weekly TV series on time instead of realising the longevity and history this would have and be a part of, as is all recorded TV to us now, it feels like a loss, especially compared with the general quality of the season. 'The Specialist' wasn't very special after all, and could just as well have been called 'Targets With A Badge.'

**

Unnatural Selection

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (Unnatural Selection)

This was a 'Star Trek' episode, unquestionably, and like a 'Star Trek' episode it was a good, solid story with a good, solid moral quandary to chew on and a bittersweet ending that leaves you thinking. It would have been a better episode, however, if there had been a character like Daniel Jackson to stand up to O'Neill in his course of actions, to enthuse about the possibilities this means for everyone in the galaxy, but while Jonas was there to provide some of that angle, he never proved confrontational about it in the way Jackson would have, because he's trying to fit into the team, whereas Daniel was all about doing what's right and examining the problem instead of making that soldier's quick decision as Jack does, and has to. It's the reason the four of them worked so well, and why, as much as I like Jonas, he's not quite there as a replacement for the Jackson role in the team - he has his own uniqueness to him, and I like him for it, but the dynamics of the team are that O'Neill isn't going to face too much opposition.

Of course Daniel Jackson, in the form of the actor, Michael Shanks' voice, does appear in the episode, once again giving Thor his lines - last episode I'd forgotten Shanks' involvement there, but this time, knowing who was behind it, I could actually make out some of the mannerisms or intonation of the actor, even through all the distortion and audio trickery, which was fun - it's like all five members of the team were back together on the bridge of the Prometheus! That's the first thing that makes this Trek, the fact that they're off on a mission, Jim, but not as we know it, with O'Neill in the Captain's chair, Teal'c and Carter either side on consoles, and Jonas away on another one, just as if they were aboard a starship (O'Neill even wanted to name the ship Enterprise, an overt admission to the inspiration of this episode, I feel!) - they act as if they know all the controls and how to operate this incredible new piece of Earth technology, which is perhaps the furthest fetched story point of the episode for me, even above the Replicators and such, because all that is well established in the internal consistency, but I don't remember them ever saying they'd had training to fly this super-vessel. The other thing that 'bugged' me (sorry), was that the Prometheus doesn't seem to be affected by the time device and sails out of there as normal, when surely it would have been caught in the 'bubble'?

Not that it matters, because they have a cool-sounding mission to go into Asgard space and reactivate this time dilation device that had been designed to entice all the Replicators into a 'bottle' and then create the bubble of much slower time so they'd have centuries to come up with a solution to the problem. It's a good idea, and I like the reference back to Reese, the android creator of the wee mechanical beasties (as Scotty might say), and reminder of their origins, as well as explaining the galaxy-, even intergalactic-wide connotations if the Asgard are defeated. Yes, there are nitpicks about them choosing the SG-1 team just as they happen to have a ship to hand, and that somehow it's so backward that the technology won't appeal to the Replicators, who will let them pass unmolested (a Borg influence there?), and that although Earth isn't in immediate danger they'll eventually overrun every planet simply for the raw materials, regardless of technology, and that SG-1, out of all the peoples of all the worlds the Asgard have contact with, are the only ones who can help, but that's a conceit of the series, and indeed most human-produced stuff, so it's not a problem.

When I saw the 'Excerpt by' credit after the opening montage I inwardly groaned, thinking it might turn out to be a dreaded clips episode, but since no other excerpt credits appeared I hoped for the best and I was right - it was well worth seeing that clip from Season 1's 'Cold Lazarus' of the time O'Neill's son shot himself by mistake with his Father's gun, which was itself supposed to be a flashback, and I only wish we'd had more of this emotional manipulation or blackmail or torture or whatever it was to become, because I love hearing about the characters' histories and seeing some of those defining moments. The same can't be said for 'First,' the leader of the pack of sentient, humanoid Replicators, who came across as the stereotypical, smooth, clipped and sinister bad guy, just as 'Fifth' was the typical insider who is persuaded to turn against his own kind for good. But whose good? Humanity, the galaxy at large and everyone, but not his own 'people,' though you can understand it as they consider him a deviant, a mistake with the human flaws that had been eradicated from the other models. I wondered what it might have been like if he'd got his wish and left with SG-1, and then I thought he might have been an infiltrator, and then I realised they didn't need a spy and his addition to the SGC would have been full of potential, though the power of the ending would have been sacrificed.

The idea of the Replicators achieving sentience and living in humans form, or in their eyes, Reese's form, was a great turnaround, and though I previously have been little more than lukewarm towards this enemy it made inspired me with possibilities and wanting to see them again now that they've progressed from mere robo-rats which seemed to have little intelligence beyond consuming everything, existing to be blasted, into a fully sentient threat with all the complexity therein (still not sure why SG-1's bullets had no effect on their bodies). I suppose I should have expected something like this, where we find a barren planet and a single structure to explore. After the money that must have been spent on 'Prometheus,' this story's part one, they would have needed to cut back, so we weren't going to see vast battles or fleets of Replicator ships, but somehow that's what I had in mind. Neither were we going to see Asgard civilisation, and actually I'm glad we had much more simple visual fare, although I'm not saying the completely consumed planet made up now of Replicators, was simple, even if it was barren.

The science fiction storytelling elements were more important than action, and that's why it felt more Trek than 'Gate. Other things that helped this feel, besides the X-303, their very own starship, were that they were beaming up the supplies from the SGC (a concerned Sergeant Siler reports to Hammond - sad that the characters from part one were dispensed with as going into this situation without having chance to return to Earth would have made even more difficulties, but I suppose it was inevitable), going to a strange new world by ship, landing their small vessel, going off on an 'Away Team' shall we say, and encountering humanoid aliens that aren't what they seem, without even mentioning that the title of the episode is the same as a Season 2 'TNG' story (although with over seven hundred episodes I suppose most of the good titles had been used on Trek anyway). All this could be any space-based sci-fi, but it all had a Trek feel to it. I always maintained the Replicators were supposed to be the 'Stargate' equivalent of the Borg, and it was further confirmed in this encounter: they have designations (First, Fifth, etc), in their humanoid form, they aren't interested in adding inferior technology to their own, and their leader thinks of any member who doesn't act exactly like the rest of them, as a threat and someone to be dealt with, just like the Borg Queen. Oh, and they even have combined thoughts… It's all Borg.

The interesting thing was using Fifth to ensure their escape, promising that he can come with them, lying and using his own humanity against him. It's a bit like the reverse of Khan in 'Space Seed' of the original 'Star Trek,' in that First talks of being superior and plans to conquer the galaxy. Superior intellect breeds superior ambition, and at first that tried and tested bad guy desire wasn't enough to raise the episode, but the moral side of using someone against their people and then double-crossing them, is what makes it so good. It helps that there are a lot of fun exchanges in the episode, whether it's O'Neill's reactions to Thor's end-of-the-galaxy stakes, or him finding Jonas and Teal'c eating through all the Ben & Jerry's ice cream in the ship's hold because 'Thor didn't take into account the temperature,' there are a lot of amusing scenes. But it's that last shot of the time dilation device activating and preventing the Replicators from doing anything to prevent it, with Fifth in the middle of a medieval image of hellish creatures surrounding him out of the darkness, the sadness in his eyes, or puzzlement that Carter had lied to him, that is the enduring coda that stays with me now, just as the last conversation aboard the Prometheus does, Jonas and Carter speaking their mind, admitting what's just been done, though O'Neill maintains it was the right thing to do. And maybe it was, but will a Replicator ever have the chance to make that same mistake again, of trusting a human, or has all hope of peace gone?

***

Vampire

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (Vampire)

Were vampires popular in the late 70s? Were there lots of vampire films? Were there books about vampires and a hunger for these fantasy creatures, just as there is today? They've always held a fascination for the entertainment media, many TV series have had an episode dealing with the subject - even the great literary figure of Sherlock Holmes had a story about vampirism ('The Adventure of The Sussex Vampire'), which makes it interesting that the only pop culture reference I got from this episode was Hutch mentioning The Great Detective. Personally I've never been interested in vampires beyond the initial creepiness of someone dangerous out in the dark, and revulsion for blood-sucking, as, to me, vampires usually come across as silly. The one in this is no exception, which is why the episode, if not falls apart, has its creative juices sucked inexorably from it.

Another example of the series' avoidance of continuity, Hutch is back to chatting up girls in bars even after such difficult experiences for him in the previous two episodes. We don't know how long after 'Vendetta' and 'Gillian' this is set, but after the double impact of those episodes it would be nice to see Hutch staying away from potential romance for a change. This isn't the creative juice-loss I was thinking of, it's just another little niggle gleaned from watching the episodes regularly and in order. Something this episode can claim is being the first bona fide horror episode of the series - I've mentioned in previous reviews that once or twice we've had elements of this sub-genre-to-be in the first season, and one or two this season, but this is the first to really go for it, and like Starsky trying to convince Hutch of the legitimacy of preparing for a real vampire, the episode tries to posit the idea that in this real world of crooks and gangsters, there's room for the mystical, mythical and fantastical. In that sense it's a laudable effort to expand the boundaries of what the series could encompass, and would set us on the road to the ultimate example of the sub-genre when Season 4's 'The Avenger' rolled sinisterly around. But this time it doesn't work.

For one thing the atmosphere tries to become evil and horrifying, but apart from the scenes of Rene Nadasy standing, gothic-like in front of a none-too-brilliant painting of his dead wife Maria, and being all theatrical to his audience of candles, none of that translates into the encounters with him on the streets. I think they shot themselves in the foot (not a reference to Nadasy's leg injury, honest!), by telling us who the 'vampire' is and what motivation he has very early on, so there's no mystery except for how and why this seemingly ordinary dance teacher with an apparently gammy leg becomes a fearsome bloodsucker by night. In this regard too, there's no saving grace for the character or story - it turns out that he's just a little bit insane. One moment I did love from the episode is when Nadasy, awaiting the arrival of his prey to the theatre, flings himself about the stage in full vampiric clobber showing his dance background and the madness that envelops him (though you can tell it's not the actor, so presumably they had a proper dancer in for that). It's probably the purest vision of the character in the entire episode and that utter violently exultant insanity is displayed so gracefully that it does give the character the dimension the rest of the episode needed to create the mood they were going for, and made me think of the moment in 'Batman Begins' when child Bruce is taken to the theatre to see bat performers flying round the stage.

The rest of the scenes featuring Nadasy are as a seemingly sane and highly expert dance instructor at his own Rene's School of Classical Ballet, with a roster of two hundred students, or as the caped maniac running the dark streets attacking young women, or escaping the police by jumping across buildings. Admittedly, that moment when he escapes Hutch's pursuit by flinging himself from rooftop to rooftop and leaving doubt in his wake in the usually rational mind of Hutch, wasn't bad, although Hutch's assertion that the man flew doesn't bear out what we saw of him, basically falling, albeit his cloak flapping out behind him and providing some wind resistance which is how he doesn't A. die, and B. can still walk afterwards! The only bridging scene between the two personalities is when he loses focus, concentrating on choosing his next victim out of the young ladies in his class, who all stare at him waiting to be given the next instruction or for him to put the needle back at the centre of the record.

In the first attack I noticed the attention to detail in the way they lit the fountain Honey Williams walks past so that it looks red like blood, but the actual attacks, with this man running along in a Count Dracula costume just looked silly. Obviously at that time on TV they couldn't get away with showing much, so there's no actual blood on his face or indication of death except when Hutch runs over and pronounces the other girl dead. I'm not saying I wanted gore or overt nastiness, but a little trickle of red stuff on Nadasy's face or the girls' necks wouldn't have gone amiss! The other thing that brings the episode down is the unnecessary insistence on bringing in a number of occult references. They've done this before with Ezra ('Terror on The Docks'), last season - I'm surprised Starsky didn't get his weird book of facts out! There were moral lessons to be learned so I suppose something good does come out of the inclusion of such things for a change: one is that both Guybo, the magician or whatever he was, and Slade of Slade's Cave, are shown to be charlatans, tricking people out of their money - it's a living, claims Slade (though he didn't look like a man with a six-figure bank account unless he was referring to the combination!), calling his weird customers 'suckers' for believing in the satanic rituals he arranges for them.

This extends to Nadasy himself who was one of Slade's customers and though it's never confirmed we hear S&H's theory that he 'flipped out' because of these rituals. Obviously he already had a couple of reasons to be straining his sanity because of losing his beloved wife, and also the bitterness over losing a promising career in theatre after damaging his leg in 1961 when he was with the National Company. I'm not sure Nadasy's story holds up to scrutiny, though: if he really did damage his leg beyond repair and his career was over, then how would he be able to fling himself about rooftops (or on stage for that matter), clearly a very fit and healthy specimen for his age? But if he never really did damage his leg, or it was superficial and he quickly recovered, then why didn't he take up this illustrious career where he left off if he was so good? Maybe he did take damage and it put him out of the running for a little while and by the time he'd recuperated others had taken his place? That would go further to explain the bitterness. Maybe he always had a propensity for violent outbursts and rage which triggered the insanity (did he kill his wife?). Either way it's another warning against getting involved with nasty rituals and dodgy stuff, so both the danger to a person and the danger of being taken advantage of are covered, both good lessons to be taken from it.

Something else that detracted from the episode in some ways, but also made it the only reason worth watching were the laughs to be had - S&H are on form here, whether it was Starsky reacting to Hutch's laughter at his superstitions by throwing his piece of garlic in Hutch's guffawing mouth (which would go on to be used in the opening credits, eventually!); S&H arguing loudly about the existence of vampires in front of an office of bemused fellow detectives; the slapstick of both Supergnat and Hutch being squashed into a door at different times by Dobey; even Huggy's suggestion that there could be different denominations of vampire (e.g: a crucifix for those of a Christian persuasion, a hammer and stake for all the others!); and the banter about Hutch putting in the request for information on Nadasy under Starsky's name so as not to appear foolish for suspecting him though he uses a walking stick - it's all good fun, but doesn't do much to create a strong horror mood. Lightening things up only to throw the audience into fear and doubt can be a strong force in horror, I believe, but there's no roller-coaster of contrast in different tones so it doesn't work here except to give us something to enjoy beyond the gloom and slow realisation of S&H about who the murderer is, which we the audience already knew, long before. 'The Avenger' did it much better, making it seem like there was something going on that wasn't, all the more creepy for it.

I mentioned Huggy, and although he's pretty much in his usual role as comic relief, he's also back in his rightful place as the patron of a bar and restaurant, the Play Pen. It actually belongs to his cousin Louie who's out of the country to, get this, visit his frog ranch in Venezuela, though Hug admits he left after the IRS found some irregularities. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be the same cousin (Marco The Magnificent), Huggy was keeping place for in the first part of 'Murder At Sea,' but if not he's got a lot of cousins. I thought Louie was the slightly dense relative who helps him in 'Huggy Bear and The Turkey,' but I'll have to wait until I get to that one, to see. Although Huggy's back to his old tricks of trying to sell tat he does get more screen time than usual in this one and seeing him in charge of an establishment again just made me wish he could stay in that role, his natural habitat. It's also good to see Captain Dobey used for something - he's not in it as much as Hug, but he has a mission to talk to the DA about a deal with Slade to find out if one of his former customers could be the vampire, which is more than he usually gets, sitting behind his desk. I don't know whether it was because it was shot from a different angle or whether his office had been refurbished, but the place didn't look quite the same as usual.

Dobey's love of food rears its head again when Starsky leaves him his sandwiches which he can't eat after hearing Dobey and Hutch discuss the gory murders, to which the Captain is delighted - nothing can put the man off his nosh, although I seem to remember an episode where he was too distracted to eat, though I can't remember which it was! The thing where Hutch outmanoeuvres his partner so he can talk to the girls, Bobette and Jane, happens a couple of times again, as does the confusion over names which gets an added dimension: Starsky says the girls' names the wrong way round (no, I'm Bobette, she's Jane), so they respond in kind ("I'm Starsky, he's Hutch"), then the other girl gets their first names mixed up so Hutch says "I'm Ken, he's Dave," so a good little play on that running joke. This episode's running joke about Starsky remembering their phone numbers didn't amount to anything as it was obvious he was going to forget, and it didn't really run very far, either.

I wonder how Dobey was able to track down S&H to Huggy's cousin's place on their night off? Maybe that's why he's the Captain and they're just detectives… A thought struck me about vampires: how do they avoid biting their own lips, having those sharp teeth sticking out so much? I also feel like they get the same troupe of background extras whenever there's a sequence of people dancing, this time at the Play Pen, though I didn't specifically notice the usual blond couple! Locations that stood out to me were that the coroner's lab was the same set seen before in 'Vendetta,' so maybe we'll see more of that. And the Playhouse Theatre where Rene's dance class was held looked very similar to the Royal from 'Gillian,' though the inside was completely different, so it was likely unconnected. In terms of the oddities there were few - Nadasy was seriously messed up so he wouldn't fit into such a lighthearted category, and nor would Guybo, who, although weird, was putting on an act and you could tell was really a shrewd businessman playing on people's superstitions. So the only true weird characters were Supergnat and Slade's spaced-out girl, Linda Offenbecker (actress Suzanne Somers had previously played Sally Ann in 'Savage Sunday'). Supergnat was by far the oddest, being a short man dressed in an outfit reminiscent of Superman's, though he was a bit mixed up as he was being a villain! He could probably be nominated for weirdest character this season…

This was such an unmemorable episode that the only thing I remembered from it (apart from there being a loon shooting around as a vampire, obviously), was Starsky saying "two outta three ain't bad." Turns out that wasn't what he said, and he wasn't the one to say it anyway! It was originally Supergnat who said "one out of two ain't bad," which Hutch later quotes after Nadasy has plunged to his death, failing to reach another platform or rope, or whatever he may have been aiming for, though when you watch the stunt he looks like he's just falling, not reaching. It shows how forgettable the story is, and although I'm not wholeheartedly against it, it probably does still rank as the worst episode so far, a record previously held by Season 1's 'Death Notice,' though I liked that a little more on this run. The mix of devil imagery and occult references, a story that doesn't go anywhere, and a lack of required tension that means it never gets going even in the chase scenes, makes this a poor episode which even the various comical moments can't save.

While vampirism fits with Starsky's interest in the weird, there's little rhyme or reason, stuff just happens. I suppose there were attempts to do something artistic, such as the red-lit fountain or the students of Nadasy dancing round the camera, or Nadasy himself seen through the circle of dancers, so you can say they were trying. The ending was stolen from 'The Las Vegas Strangler, Part II' where they chase Eugene in the upper reaches of a casino - a good rule of thumb is to never turn up to a darkened theatre when asked to do so on the phone by someone you've never met! Just as happened in 'The Las Vegas Strangler.' That ending wasn't bad, with a struggle between S&H and Nadasy, followed by a high fall. This was the series' first proper foray into a horror episode, but, just like Nadasy, it falls far short.

*

Prometheus

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (Prometheus)

I didn't particularly like this episode on first transmission, but maybe I was just in the mood for a starship, or because there hasn't been any new 'Star Trek' series for far too long, but I was ready for artificial gravity, inertial dampeners and all that good spaceship stuff that's usually not a part of 'Stargate.' I would have been just as happy with an episode that was all about showing journalists around the Prometheus, otherwise known as the X-303, explaining what it could do, maybe taking it for a spin - they certainly took it for a spin, but not in the way you'd expect from the opening which appears to be about a hard-hitting journalist about to uncover the US government's latest technological marvel. Miss Donovan becomes quickly superfluous to the plot, sadly, just a means for the terrorists to get aboard and make their demands (a bit like the news crew in the film 'Air Force One'), and it was at this point I was thinking it was just going to be boring greedy terrorists and somehow O'Neill would sneak aboard and stop them. Then it took a turn towards the rogue NID group led by Colonel Frank Simmons (John de Lancie making another appearance, probably his last, since he gets sucked out into space after becoming a Goa'uld). This whole thing with Adrian Conrad, the dying man that wanted a symbiote to heal his illnesses didn't really turn into anything, and one reason I didn't associate this episode with it being Simmons' end was because I had the impression there was more lead up to it.

Q finally got to be Captain of his own starship, I'll bet that pleased de Lancie! It's another step to the series becoming more and more like 'Star Trek' in that now they actually have a starship too, and not just a starship, but one that has those Trek corridors, a bridge with a Captain's chair, even Jefferies tubes for Carter to crawl through! I don't know whether it was a concerted effort to interest those who watched Trek (or had abandoned watching it through dissatisfaction with 'Enterprise'), or whether they were running out of ideas for where the series could progress, but I thought the whole point of the Stargate was that it meant they didn't need starships! That minor quibble aside, it was good to see a ship like that on this series, rising up out of the ground - I'm not sure building a spacecraft underground was the best place for it, but they had to keep it secret, I suppose, and a big tent or warehouse facility would cause questions. Mind you, I wonder if they'd told the Russians, because they must have detected this large ship flying into Earth's orbit!

The story does become a bit predictable with Carter separated from the others and trapped, conveniently, in a room full of tools which would facilitate her escape. Neither did I feel any real tension from the knowledge that she would be killed when the X-303 went into space unless she could get to a sealed part of the ship, but I was just coasting along with the story by that time so I didn't mind. I liked that even though Donovan and her Producer find out about this amazing technology the team still don't open up about aliens and the Stargate or tell them anything more than they need to know. It's a big enough bombshell for an uninitiated human to learn that there really are aliens out there without mentioning that Jonas and Teal'c are real, flesh and blood aliens right in front of you. This also meant we could get a bit of humour when Donovan hears of it! I must say she held together pretty well, going from being threatened, basically, by Major Davis (whose first name is Paul, I'm not sure that was known before), to discovering a starship built from alien tech that had crashed in the 70s, to being held hostage, meeting aliens, and finally being requested by another alien to come and help save their homeworld when Thor pops up at the end to turn this into a two-parter - yet she barely bats and eyelid!

I had suspicions this might become a two-parter just from the extensive sets they'd built for the Prometheus. It's not quite a Federation starship in size and scale, but for a weekly TV series it must have been reasonably ambitious, so it was inevitable that the costs would be defrayed by spreading across two episodes. Thor brings news that the Replicators have overrun the Asgard homeworld, though why they would need a human ship and the SG-1 team, being the most powerful aliens in the galaxy, I'm not so sure, but we'll find out in part two. It will be interesting to see how Donovan and the other 'normal' humans will adapt to the new circumstances and whether they'll feature much in this new mission, or whether the X-303 will zip back to Earth to drop them off before helping Thor.

It was a small role for Simmons this time, but it was fun to hear de Lancie with a Goa'uld voice, still in that trademark ironic delivery. I also thought the slightly slow-motion fight between Teal'c, O'Neill and Simmons wasn't bad, though this was one of those things that stuck in my head, that Simmons was sucked out into space. I suppose it's still possible for him to survive somehow, and as he's not the first or last person to return, the possibilities are always open. Not so much for Mayborn who only got to appear as part of the reminder of what happened previously, but I think they were moving away from some of the older arcs by this season. Interesting to hear that official policy on the secret tech the SGC and other organisations have, or are developing, is to deny everything, according to General Hammond. There were a couple of thoughts that popped into my mind as I watched the episode: it seemed like Carter must have left her car with the window wound down because when she gets in there to escape the journalist, she speaks out of the open window, whereas she'd have been more likely to leave it closed if it already had been. And the team weren't intimidating at all to Donovan and her Producer when they first approach the shack which contained the lift down to the X-303, were they? Standing all in a line facing them…

I remember not much liking the Prometheus, feeling it was a ripoff of Trek and trying desperately to get some of the elements that had been missing from 'Stargate,' but at this early stage it was a good setting for an adventure, and reminded me in a very small way of 'BUGS' episodes where people were hostages in some high-tech location, or even 'Smallville' where similar things have happened (not on a starship, I hasten to add!), though this didn't have as much excitement to it, it was comfortable to watch. And checking back to the credits I see that Michael Shanks did the voice of Thor, which I'd completely forgotten, and shows he was still involved, though it's a bit bizarre for him to come back to do something small like that!

***

Gillian

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (Gillian)

I'd previously felt that this was one of the lesser episodes of the season, along with the first part of 'Murder At Sea,' mainly because of the sleazy nature of the story, but seeing it again I realised how good an acting piece it was for both Starsky and Hutch as they struggle through the horrors of life on the street, or at least, the realities of what that can entail - it's not so much them against insurmountable odds, the Grossmans never looked to provide one of their most difficult challenges to overcome, but that this time they're hit where it hurts. There's a reason superheroes dress up in masks to fight crime, and that's because if the villains knew their true identity, their families and friends and anything about their private life would become threatened. S&H don't have the luxury of such anonymity, but in their case that's where their power derives from: the law, its full weight, and when you consider Captain Dobey, that's a hefty force to wield! Usually their reputation is all they need to discourage criminals; they're well known on the streets (which always makes the big red and white car a bit of a giveaway!), but sometimes they come across those that aren't in the know that this is S&H's city, they don't know that these are cops who are going to put everything on the line to foil evil. Such are the Grossmans, Al, and his Mother, Olga - they came from Cleveland so they're relatively new in town and set on taking over all the grimy pornography, prostitution and no doubt other nasty things beginning with 'p.'

It was a little too soon for an episode about a blonde cop's blonde girlfriend as we'd just gone through that pain in the preceding episode where Hutch's longtime girl, Abigail Crabtree, was brutally attacked in response to being Hutch's girlfriend. And now we're in a similar situation. I suppose it may be realistic in that Hutch was so torn up about Abby leaving town that when Gillian came along (I don't think we're told how they met, but with the amount of bowling going on, it could have been at the alley!), he was instantly smitten. Whatever the reason, he's really gooey in this episode, properly, romantically taken like we've not seen before. It gets a bit sickly when they're staring into each other's eyes and talking about how it's like being in a room full of balloons, red balloons, and yet Gillian's afraid that one will pop… I think we can forgive Hutch for such soppiness when he's just lost Abby, and his newfound love causes some interesting results: the biggest thing is (like Abby), he's suddenly aware of his own mortality during a firefight in an alley causing him to freeze when he should be backing up Starsky. He beats himself up about it, but it's fascinating to see such a usually confident, secure character placed of doubt - he's experienced true happiness and he's loathe to let it go, affecting his judgement. Starsky's not accusatory at all, even taking Hutch's side against Hutch's own self-condemnation, but it's clear that things can't proceed like that, which is why when the pair take on the baddies in the Royal Theatre at the end, it's like regaining faith in each other. Not that Starsky ever lost it.

Starsky's an incredibly good friend in this episode, one reason why I bumped the rating up from an average to a good episode. Not only does he put up with Hutch's romantic airheadedness and poetic ramblings, he supports his pal in the strongest ways at his most vulnerable time. We've rarely seen such closeness, such true friendship displayed (I think back to an episode like 'The Fix' in which Starsky cares for Hutch after he's been addicted to drugs and is at his lowest point in the gutter or trying to go cold turkey), but it's always there below the surface. They don't usually talk about it, they tease each other, have a laugh, deal with the often tough job they do, but because there's this great philial love that they instinctively know the other has, they have complete dependence on each other and complete faith so that when a time of testing comes, they know they can depend on the other and that's what makes them successful. It goes back to the pilot, talking about it being them against the world, only truly being able to rely on each other. Of course they have Huggy who provides great help over the course of the series, but he's got his own agenda sometimes, as good a friend as he is. And Dobey also backs them up tremendously from his position of authority, but has to answer to his superiors in the end. Which means in the 'toilet bowl' of the city it really is at its purest, Starsky relying on Hutch, Hutch relying on Starsky, a bond which is incredibly strong.

These are definitely the ingredients for a 'negative' story: the two cops reiterating their interdependence against all else; the dirty back alleys; the seedy 'trades' that go on in grimy streets. It's all there and I would certainly place it in that category, only the second to meet that criteria so far this season. But in keeping with Season 2's lighter mood in general, this is still playful and fun, and more importantly, as grim as the subject becomes it's superceded by the theme of deep friendship and self-sacrifice that lies at its heart, more than a knockabout comedy episode - the depths of the bad encountered bring out the heights of the good, and so despite being an example of the city at its worst, it's showing S&H at their best and Starsky in particular at his most noble. While Hutch is tested by finding great joy and then having that taken away from him, it's not so simple for Starsky who's faced with a difficult situation and hard decisions to make - it's about how he can best help his partner, whether by telling what he knows and risking alienation, or by confronting Gillian and giving her a way out without having to tell Hutch that his new girlfriend is actually a prostitute, held under the thumb of the Grossmans.

It isn't easy for her, either, as she wants out of the organisation and it takes great courage to throw away the 'good life' with its trappings of a nice place, plenty of money, but essentially, slavery in a gilded cage, for the unknown, even more to confront those that have controlled her and threatened her. But she can't live under that law any more and stands up to her controllers, sadly leading to death at the hands of Al. If she'd only trusted Hutch and told him instead of keeping her shame to herself, she could have been saved, he would have protected her, I'm sure. He might have been disgusted and drawn back, but he seemed to be so serious about her that he would have come around to realise she needed his help (and Starsky would have prompted him, too). Starsky shows great character when he goes to Gillian. It's an awkward situation, but everything he does is for Hutch's benefit, regardless of the expense to himself - he offers Gillian money to take off and explore her dream of opening a boutique, so that she'll be out of Hutch's life for good and also away from the Grossmans, a tactful, roundabout way to let her know he's onto her secret. She in turn realises things can't go on as they were, and with Starsky's ultimatum she'll have to tell Hutch the truth, or he will. Still, she could have confided in Starsky and explained how difficult it was with the Grossmans hanging over her, but she resolves to work it out on her own and meets her end.

Starsky's most trying moment comes at the same time as Hutch's - far worse than the revelation of her true line of work, is that revelation coming after she's dead and unable to explain for herself, and for Hutch to see his hopes dashed. It's unsurprising that, after feeling so high, he would come crashing down, reacting badly, even punching his friend for giving him this news, desperately not believing the truth until Starsky's emotional pleas get through. It was a relief in some ways that Hutch still had work to do, to redress the balance, to react to the horror and do something practical. Yet, and this is one of the most important points, once again he doesn't seek revenge, as tempted as he must have been to kill Grossman, or to take out all his anger and hatred on the man's thugs, but he has far greater self control than that, able to restrain himself and be professional in catching the crooks and let the law deal with them, even when Grossman's gutter mind makes Hutch suffer even more. He could easily have killed Grossman and explained it away as being the only option in the firefight, but he's an honourable man, a true hero, as was Starsky, the kind of heroes you rarely see.

I was surprised that S&H never really had a punching match with the Grossman's goons - we see a couple of bouncers outside their office when S&H pay their inevitable visit, reminding me of the health club heavies of 'Kill Huggy Bear,' but while there is some fighting in the cinema, it's more of a shootout, and in general, the episode doesn't have much action. That doesn't make the quandary any less compelling, seeing Starsky faced with such a problem, or Hutch attacked so personally as he had been in 'Vendetta.' It might have been too soon to end with a blonde cop's potential blonde girlfriend again, but I did feel the end scene, which so often can be jarring after such drama, was handled more sensitively. It's made clear that a month has passed, so Hutch is no longer grieving, and it wasn't too silly or funny as to take you out of the thought-provoking story that had just played out. It's usually a bit formulaic, ending with an action scene, then featuring a tag scene of humour to leave on a happier note before the lively credit music kicks in, but it's not always done sensitively enough, so I'm glad they wrapped up well, with another example of Starsky looking out for his best buddy.

But who goes bowling alone? The blonde girl can be seen throughout that end scene in the background, fiddling with her shoes or whatever, and it's funny that Hutch sees through what suggests to me that this is a setup by Starsky and his current girlfriend, Nancy, because the girl says the same thing about bowling as the slightly odd Nancy, but Hutch decides to just go with it anyway. Nancy was one of the few weird people in the episode, none of which go far into that category. She was a bit dippy, but that was all. Mrs. Grossman was the most wacky, but in a creepy way with that creaky old voice and face, and her childish behaviour, such as when slapped by Gillian she whines and wails like a true bully that's been stood up to, after threatening Gillian. She's also devious in keeping up the appearances of a sweet old dear, and that Grossman Enterprises is a wide-ranging company, with as much interest in 'Grossman Tricks and Puzzles,' as any other form of 'entertainment.' It's a weird combination of two villains, a man and his old Mother, but it's an archetype, I suppose, and I'm sure it's been done many times, though I can't think of specifics from this series. Al is as equally creepy and odd, with his facial ticks and devotion to his Mum despite being capable of murder. In this strange characters category you could possibly include the silent tramp that points S&H to the shoeshine booth, and Pepper, the shoeshine woman that's doing Huggy's shoes in his main scene. Again, it's a shame Hug doesn't have much to do, but at least he appears, unlike Dobey.

Perhaps the most important 'odd' character is Eddie Hoyle, another returning character from Season 1 (with his endearing way of calling S&H 'Starpy and Hup'). His simple incomprehension of the murder of Lonely Bloggs sets the episode off with an affecting opening. He asks why anyone would want to kill someone like he and his friends because "we're nothing." This sad and horrible sentiment is reiterated by Harry Blower (another returning actor from Season 1, though in 'The Hostages' Richard Foronjy had played Gibson, a different character), owner of the 'adult' Stardust bookstore, who shows no concern for the death at the back of his premises because who cares about winos and people like them? S&H's distaste is clear, and having a character like Eddie come back, even if only for the one scene, gives us reason to care about the death, invests us into what's happening, which is always a wise way to begin an episode.

There aren't as many things to tick off, but there's a namecheck for actor Robert Redford (again, after 'Savage Sunday'), and the Boston Strangler (whom Hutch sarcastically claims to be going out with when Starsky calls him up) - it would have been better if he'd said the Las Vegas Strangler, but not in the best taste, considering what was lost in that investigation. In his bliss, Hutch walks over his own car bonnet again, and in fact, both cars are featured, Hutch's looking as rundown as ever. His healthy or obscure food obsessions come up again - when in Starsky's car he eats boysenberry jam (or 'jelly' in American!), on toast, much to Starsky's displeasure. It's also notable that both their apartments are featured again. Gillian's apartment, with it's lavish decor and large fireplace, looked like a set that's been used before or would be again, and the same could be said for Grossman's office - I couldn't help noticing the red carpet, and it's surprising how many villains have this colour covering their floors. I can't recall if Amboy did, but I feel like Stryker or other people in Season 1 did. Probably to hide bloodstains… The only thing I questioned, besides the likelihood of anyone going bowling alone, especially someone who wasn't any good at it ("I know, I've never been bowling before, so I think I'll go and try it out."), was who called in the attack on Lonely? The place was deserted when S&H speed in, but the crime had been reported by somebody. Maybe they just had the sense to keep out of the way, and there were plenty of windows someone could have seen out of, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

This was another episode to show how confident the production was by this time, and far from it being one of the first to let the side down, aside from the subject matter it had much to recommend it. It's about as down as this season had gone so far, talking about the gutter and dregs of society, but it was also about the will to get up out of the gutter and start anew. In the end that desire cost Gillian her life, but perhaps striving for something and failing was better than living under tyranny, so despite the negative aspects this also had positive things to ponder. The music wasn't restrained, quite upbeat and sure of itself (I even caught some electronic in there, too), which is one of the things that make the episode less depressingly negative. The powerful scene when Hutch hits Starsky and collapses in tears is one of their best ever, so it's no wonder this was used again in one of the clips shows. And finally, an observation: Gillian Ingram made a much more obvious impact on Hutch than Abigail ever did, despite her various appearances and impression of being there behind the scenes, but I don't know whether to read that as due to her Gillian's death, or that Abby was just there in the background rather than being truly at the front of Hutch's mind.

***