More episodes of Combat than I'd like to admit have a kind of preachy message to them, and this one's moral is a little too simple to span the length of an hour show, but a great guest star is able to at least partially salvage the experience. Cry For Help begins with Hanley, Little John, Doc and Kirby attacking a German machine gun position. They manage to kill all germans but one: a medic named Halsman (Robert Duvall). The squad realize medics (like Doc) aren't allowed to carry weapons on the battlefield and thus are considered off limits targets under the guidelines of the Geneva Convention. Halsman and the others eventually come across a house that is supposed to belong to a French contact of theirs. Upon entering, they find only his wife and her apparently sick child. The mother doesn't speak English and none of the squad members can understand french, but luckily Halsman speaks it. He and Doc turn the kid upside down and slap his back a few times, thinking it will clear his throat, and discover a lone bean was obstructing his windpipe. After exiting the house, Hanley and the others come across their contact, who gives them coordinates to a german observation post with a water tower and then goes to hide his family. The objective (located near a cemetery) consists of a ruined house next to a water tower and houses about 5 hostiles altogether. During the shootout, Doc is talking to Halsman (who has his hands tied due to attempting escape earlier), and a german soldier comes across the graveyard. He sprays the area with machine gun bullets and Doc is hit in the midsection. Halsman manages to use a scalpel from Doc's medic bag to cut his hands loose and tend to him. After some fighting, Hanley and Little John manage to subdue the position with a couple of grenades. In the aftermath, the squad notices a wounded german who survived the battle, and Halsman wants to go help him. Hanley doesn't really feel like granting permission, but Doc vouches for Halsman. Halsman goes to help his comrade, he and Doc give each other a glance, and the squad leaves. This episode is ok. Aside from the obvious downside of not including Saunders, I felt the premise was kind of stupid. It's all about conveying to the viewer the importance of the Hippocratic Oath that physicians abide by and how they are obligated to treat someone in imminent medical danger, no matter who they are. Indeed, there are stories from World War 2 about Americans being saved by nazi medics and vice versa, but a show like this isn't the best vehicle for this moral. Let's not forget Kirby still acting like an idiot to defenseless soldiers, even if they're on the opposite side. He still threatens Halsman when there's no reason to, and after 5 straight seasons of seeing him act this way, I have to say it's getting old. I did at least like how it portrays medics as being different from actual soldiers, since even though Doc says (in a previous episode) he was trained to be one, fighting the enemy isn't his job. Despite that, his job is arguably just as important, as medics are the driving force behind a squad's ability to accomplish an objective; healing people and sending them on their way to battle. Overall, I would say most other Combats are better than this one, but at least its story is more set on Doc; one of my favorite characters who really doesn't get as much screen time as he deserves.
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