Reviews

The 14 episode BBC TV presentation (5 episodes with more editing on the PBS TV presentation in the USA) covers the 800+ page novel by Charles Dickens. The time period before Amy's birth is not mentioned in either this series or the movie version. This is the preface to the start of the story so it will clear up some unresolved questions when you reach the end of the series about the connection between the Clennams and the Dorrits. Arthur's father had an affair with a dancer who gave birth to Arthur. Mrs. Clennam found out about it and demanded that her husband's child be given to her to raise or she would expose the scandal to his family. Arthur's real mother later died and Arthur's granduncle or grandfather (Gilbert Clennam) became aware of what Mrs. Clennam had done. He made a change to his will to pass on some of his legacy to the deceased dancer patron's (Frederick Dorrit) youngest daughter or if he had no children to the sibling's (William Dorrit) youngest child (Amy). This is the first fortune that Arthur tries to figure out from Mrs. Clennam (Do Not Forget). In doing so, he unexpectedly discovers (through Pancks) that William Dorrit has a legacy of his own that frees the Dorrits from the prison. However, this second fortune is later lost through Merdle. Amy goes from being poor to rich and back to poor. It is the third fortune of Dan Doyce that finally ends her connection to the prison. Arthur's rejection of returning back to the family's business is the key decision that allows his joining with Doyce and access to the third fortune. The movie version made several changes to the plot by having Doyce die overseas (no third fortune) and for Amy to receive the first fortune from the Clennam will to bail out Arthur from prison (Mrs Clennam provides the will money to Amy after being exposed by Flintwinch and she does not die). The house partially collapses and only Flintwinch dies. He is the villain of the movie and there is no Riguad, Tattycoram, Miss Wade, and Cavalleto. And strangely, the two Dorrit brothers do not die together. Frederick Dorrit is seen alive back in England after William's death and then later is mentioned as having died. There was a lot of off screen events not depicted in the movie version because of the use of the first person point of view used by the director. This did not allow events that did not involve the character in the first person to be shown. This divergence with the flow of the plot made for a less compelling ending of the story for the movie version IMHO.

This movie reminded me of the plot of one of the Stargate SG-1 episode where one character starts to have revolving images covering different people and events. In that episode, the main character (Teal'c) has suffered injuries and tries to help both himself and a friend by sharing a symbiote between them. Doing that helps to save them both at the end. But, he has several imaginary experiences during the time after his injuries before he is rescued. This plot seemed to mirror this movie's plot regarding the main character's attempt to cope with the trauma of being involved in a car accident. I was expecting more of a science fiction movie that was more directly tied to black holes and was a bit disappointed that it was more of a psychological drama about coming to terms with a tragic event.

There will be some viewers of the series who will complain about how unimaginative this episode is and that it is another version of the earlier alternate reality episode theme which is being copied over again. But unlike the earlier episode involving the mirror as a gateway to alternate realities, this episode builds the storyline involving how the relationship between Carter and O'Neill took a very different path. Instead of both being part of the Air Force, they are instead married and in love with each other. The survivors of a Goa'uld invastion (Carter and Kawalsky) flee to escape in another alternate reality. The SG-1 team help the escapees to change the course of direction in the other reality by the intercession of the Asgards. Carter from the other reality had decided to stay in the alternate reality, but having two Carters in the same reality brings an instability that forces the Carter that fled to return back to her reality. The other alternate reality world is saved and the other Carter has to bid goodbye to O'Neill again (the first time when he died and the second time with the alternate version of O'Neill departing). It is one of the most poignant episode of the series.

This episode that involves Jack O'Neill being abducted to create a clone of himself by one of the Asgard has similarities to plots of other series. The Outer Limits "Vanishing Act" episode involved alien abduction and Star Trek: Enterprise "Similitude" involved the cloning of one of the crew. This episode was very entertaining to watch the younger version of Jack O'Neill display the same mannerisms of the older version. The actor did a great job at replicating the way that the older version would act and talk. The attempt at trying to see why a younger version had replaced the older version was a good plot development. It would eventually be discovered that the younger clone had genetic defects that would result in death. The Asgard individual who produced the clone abducted the older O'Neill to try to find a way to stop the genetic cloning degradation process that the Asgard were experiencing. At the end, Thor arrives to punish the Asgard researcher and help to correct the genetic defect in the younger version. The younger version at 15 years old exhibited the classic "zit" problem of adolescents. Hilarious.

The sixth season has several episodes that seem not that interesting and exciting. Among them are "Nightwalkers" which left out Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson. Using only the three members of SG-1 makes it feel like something is missing. "Cure" episode seemed somewhat slow paced and a convoluted plot involving the Tokra and an alien race. "Sight Unseen" made for an even slower paced episode involving the use of a device that allows people to see creatures from another dimension. The really slow part of the episode involved Jonas and Samantha going to visit a female relative of someone who they believed was infected by the device. Other than some human reactions to the creatures, the plot was a bit weak to me.

As for the story that began with the Stargate motion picture with Kurt Russell and James Spader, this episode in some ways concluded all that transpired from the movie to the sixth season. All four of the major characters died in previous episodes (Daniel Jackson by radiation poisoning, Jack O'Neill by torture and being revived in the sarcophagus, Teal'c by staff weapon fire and being revived in the sarcophagus,, and Samantha Carter by the alien intruder taking over her body through electrical contact), so all members of SG-1 all experienced "the next level" stage. The original location of their encounter with Ra gets completely destroyed. There are some still unresolved issues like Anubis and Daniel Jackson's continued search for enlightenment and the other system lords and the Replicators. But by the end of this episode, I felt that much of the progression from the movie up to this stage had completed the story line of the four major characters.

This episode concludes the theme that started from Season 3 with the "Forever and a Day" and "Maternal Instincts" episodes involving Daniel, his wife, and her child. In the first part, Daniel's wife is killed as she is attacking him, but is also able to communicate with him through dreams to help find her child. In the second part, Daniel finds the child, but decides to allow an alien force (Oma Desala) to care for the boy instead. In this episode, Daniel comes across the child as an older youth who speaks to him like the monk that he encountered in "Maternal Instincts". He is brought back through the Star gate for further examination. The Star gate team hopes to obtain some knowledge from the child to develop a defense against the Go'auld. While talking with the child, he hits Daniel with an energy beam like his wife back in "Forever and a Day" and Daniel experiences a similar situation where he dreams of how the future could develop by using the child's knowledge. In the dream, he sees how he becomes power driven and eventually orders an attack on the Russian capital. After waking up from the dream, he realizes the danger of becoming power hungry by the wrong use of the knowledge. The child was raised by Oma Desala and the child was trying to pass on her teachings to Daniel through the dream. At the end of the episode, Daniel realizes the true nature of the child and that his journey through life has a different direction than just using alien technology to defend the planet. The Harsesis child ascends and departs through the Star gate to continue his journey and future destiny. Daniel ascends in future episodes, but the Harsesis child is not seen later in the series.

I am sure this movie will raise a ton of "huh?" and plot holes. Anachronisms galore. Notwithstanding all of these "defects", the movie's premise seems similar to the Christopher Reeve/Jane Seymour movie titled "Somewhere in Time", but instead of meeting directly, a mailbox becomes the time machine for them. I am not going to pick apart the plot of the movie and show all of the inconsistencies. There are only two major plot holes that I have a concern with. The first one is when a man is hit by a bus on the city streets. Kate who went to offer aid apparently never realizes that the injured man who dies is the same man who kissed her on her birthday two years earlier. Was that incident from the birthday party that forgettable? Maybe so. The second one is where Alex decides to follow what transpired in the "Persuasion" novel by not pushing to meet the doctor on Valentines Day 2006 and to wait until "the time and place is right". He still does not appear at the restaurant for their scheduled meeting on Valentine's day night 2006. Why not since he did not get hit by the bus? For this "plot hole", I can accept the alternate reality explanation. He was originally killed on Valentines Day 2006 and by preventing his death (following a different future path), he must accept the destined path that he must wait until the correct date and location has arrived. And that date is Valentines Day 2008 and the place would be the location that allowed the time travel connection in the first place - the Lake house. Kate needed to realize how Alex had crossed paths with her and to finally confess her love for him. Doing so would not occur until Valentines Day 2008 and meeting earlier would likely end up with "the wrong place at the wrong time" result. Timing and location are crucial factors in many relationships.

I watched the series when it started in 1980 and all the way to its eighth season. The show led its time slot at 8 PM (CBS) on Thursday night from 1980 to 1984. NBC then added the "Cosby Show" as competition beginning in 1984 and the audience slowly decreased over the last four years for Magnum, P.I. By the 8th season, the producers were likely looking to finish up the series as a full season of episodes were not produced. There are some rather different plot twists that make for a not well developed finale for the series. There is an attempt to provide answers to several issues since the start of the series such as the identity of Robin Masters, what Magnum expects to do after quitting as a P.I., and what happens to his buddies. Some of the scenes in the Part 1 of the finale were shot at the Naval Academy in Annapolis and the National Mall in Washington DC which is close to where I worked back in 1988. Many viewers voiced some disappointment with the finale and I agree to some degree. But, having watched the series as it originally aired back in the 1980s, the ending with Magnum walking along the beach with his daughter and rejoining the Navy was a suitable end for the TV character.

As the eighth and final season was nearing the end of the series, this episode concludes the story regarding Magnum and his former wife. From the first episode of the eighth season, the same villain reappears to exact a tragic event upon Magnum. The story line also involves a MIA/POW being held in a Vietnam prison. The villain's court trial is abruptly dismissed as a result of a prisoner trade deal between the USA and Vietnam to obtain the release of the MIA/POW veteran. Magnum then decides to kill the villain during the prisoner exchange, but after a meeting with the veteran's child, has a change of heart.

The plot had a similar backdrop of an episode from "Hawaii Five-0" when Steve McGarrett finally captured his nemesis, Wo Fat, but had to release him as a result of a prisoner swap between the USA and China.

This episode is unique from the others in the series as it seems to conclude the role of Daniel Jackson in the SG-1 team. In Season 1 at the start of the series, Daniel loses his wife to Apophis and strives to get her back to him which is his main objective in joining the SG-1 team. In this episode, he finds her, but ends up losing her for good. When you look over the episode from the start to the end, you realize that everything that happens in between was part of Daniel's dream. He has what is in essence, a dream within a dream. As his wife attacks him with a beam projecting into his head, he experiences what could be called future timelines that would have happened after his attack. During the dream experience, his wife is able to communicate to him her request for him to find and protect her baby created by the joining of two Go'auld hosts. At the end of the episode, she is killed by Teal'c who intervenes on her attack on Daniel. Daniel's dream allows him to avoid repeating the experiences in his dream and to focus on finding his wife's baby. The search will climax in the episode "Maternal Instinct" later in the season.

This episode has Heath being sent to a town to assist in its evacuation due to a potential dam bursting and flooding. Heath finds three men there also keeping watch. Heath comes across two women in a hotel (Cloris Leachman as a saloon singer and a mute Indian girl played by Patti Chandler who was Lee Major's girlfriend at the time). Patti Chandler was a familiar star in the Beach Blanket Bingo and the Doctor Goldfoot movies of the 60s. The other three men come across a man trying to steal goods from the empty town who is played by Rhodes Reason. He played in two Time Tunnel shows as Col. Travis (Alamo episode) and Joshua (Jericho episode) and in the Star Trek episode playing a arena fighter in an alien world Roman style Coliseum. The thief convinces the other three men to join him in stealing the town goods. Heath has to hide along with the two women from the gang of four thieves. Heath gets wounded by one of the gang members, but is able to kill two of them before he is confronted by Rhodes Reason's character. Cloris Leachman kills Rhodes Reason as he was about to shoot Heath. The remaining surviving gang member decides to stop the theft after seeing the other three men dead which included his brother. At the end, the dam does not burst, so Heath and the others do not need to get out ASAP. The saloon singer and her native American companion leave the Barkley ranch to start a new life. The Indian girl character does not say one word in the entire episode and gives a goodbye kiss to Heath at the end. Lee Majors would later marry for the second wife (Farrah Fawcett).

This episode has Dr. Kimble looking for work and getting hired at a construction company. The owner knows about Kimble's identity and decides that having him as a worker would help him medically because he has a heart condition which he has kept private from others. The construction owner has a past tragedy that involved a newly constructed building which collapsed and killed several children and left his young daughter mentally damaged from the experience. He secretly tries to camouflage a building project for a motel, but is really for a children's hospital. It appears that he is doing it to atone for the building accident tragedy from his past. The construction owner has to deal with city protestors as well as his combative spouse and copartner. In the end after his death, his wife continues his project for building a hospital. This episode had a more interesting plot development than the episode just before this one. The prior episode with Anne Francis and Charles Bronson went by at a boring pace with little urgency. Also, Bronson as an undercover federal agent was not that credible in my opinion. The only aspect of this episode that did not quite make sense was the interaction between the construction owner's wife (Celeste Holm) and Doctor Kimble. She tries to get rid of him, but Kimble refuses to leave unless the construction owner tells him to. In some of the other episodes, when the situation became inhospitable for Kimble, he would just high tail it out of there since he was a transient worker.

This episode has so much going on that it could be a stand alone movie by itself. Dr. Kimble is working as a handyman at a struggling farm operated by a father and his two daughters. All three family members have appeared in earlier episodes of the series under other characters. Lin McCarthy who plays the father was Dr. Kimble's brother in law in another episode. June Harding and Bonnie Beecher who portray the daughters also appeared in earlier episodes. The plot is very complicated with two young attractive women starving for affection (one who has mental deficiencies), a father looking to expand his farm, a store owner looking to cash in on Dr. Kimble's reward for his capture being offered by a newspaper reporter, an escaped murderer in the vicinity, a sheriff who may have come across with Dr. Kimble in Korea, and Police officer Gerard who gets notified about Kimble being around the farm area. Dr. Kimble befriends the farmer's younger daughter (she calls him her uncle) and tries to convince the father to have her get assistance for the learning impaired which he does not agree. The older daughter feels trapped in her current living situation and feels ignored by others who focus on her sister. The information about Kimble is exposed later in the episode and the farmer also wants a part of the reward. The escaped murderer gets into Kimble's truck and nearly kills him. Gerard and the sheriff form a roadblock to locate the two convicted murderers. Kimble comes across the murderer a second time and is forced to provide a hiding place for him (which is a secret location set up by the younger daughter). The younger daughter goes to her secret place and is taken as a hostage by the murderer. Kimble then has to leave the place as the murderer tries to use him as a diversion for the approaching law officials. He takes the younger daughter with him, but she is able to get away from him as Kimble tells her to jump into a water pond to get to safety. The murderer without a hostage then tries to shoot his way against the police, but is shot down. Gerard discovers that the shooting victim is not Kimble so he continues the search for him. Kimble and the younger daughter return to the secret hiding place. Kimble tells her that he has to leave because the police will keep looking for him. The younger daughter replies that the police are also looking for her and runs outside away from the secret place. This gives Kimble the opportunity to depart in a different direction as the younger daughter diverts the police attention towards her. So the ending indicates that the "slow" daughter can think of a way to help her friend all by herself.

This installment provides the first incident where Dr. Kimble is arrested by Inspector Gerard and a premonition that the end is near for him. Dr. Kimble works as a farm orchard worker and befriends the other workers there. Gerard gets a tip and travels to the farm to arrest him. Gerard forces one of the workers to divulge information about Kimble and is able to arrest him. This should be the end of the chase, but a major wind storm intervenes and Gerard decides to take shelter with Kimble in a farm house. The other workers there do not take kindly to Kimble's apprehension. During the storm, some portion of the building collapses on Gerard injuring him and causing loss of blood. Kimble asks for blood donations, but no one offers to help. Eventually, one of the female coworkers who is fond of Kimble decides to provide blood. The question of helping the person who can bring about your death later is a major theme of this episode. Kimble explains to the female coworker that his training as a doctor obliges him to help others even if they are not friendly towards him. Gerard recovers and Kimble is able to get away as a result of the help from the coworkers who impede Gerard. This episode has a rare touch of humor in it. One of the male coworkers plays a guitar and keeps singing a song that plays on the story line of a pursuer who is out to get his prey and the prey still helps out the pursuer. After constantly singing his song, another coworker gets fed up and tells the singer to shut up.

This season of the Fugitive appears to be taking plot ideas from current movie themes. In an earlier installment, the "Bad Seed" movie theme of being born evil was used. This episode used the "My Fair Lady" theme with Dr. Kimble becoming a tutor to an unsophisticated lady (which was a popular movie in the 1960s). Dr. Kimble works as a handyman/bell hop at a hotel (oddly named "Chinese sunset hotel") where there are Oriental decorations, but no Asians working there. The lady is companion to a man who appears to be a hustler trying to make the next big score. This installment also has Wayne Rogers portraying a police officer who is tracking the hustler before his appearance on the M*A*S*H TV series. The lady that Dr. Kimble is tutoring also reminded me of a Marilyn Monroe type of blond woman. Marilyn died earlier in the 1960s.

The main plot involves Doctor Kimble meeting a young woman who seems very emotionally unstable, manipulative, and possessive. The lady (played by Joanna Pettet) tries to endear herself with a carnival worker as well as Doctor Kimble. She had previously got tangled with a former coworker who got fired for stealing (apparently was framed by her). The lady lost her parents at a young age and was raised by her retired uncle from the police force. There are many indicators of the lady who appears innocent enough, but harbors a strong need to get affection and approval from others. Her character includes professing lies to place the blame on others. She is later connected to an arson attempt on the carnival worker and his wife. She tries to run away with Doctor Kimble who cannot allow for anyone to accompany him, so she becomes vengeful towards him. Near the end, her uncle then realizes that his niece may have been responsible for the death of her parents by arson. The character portrayed by Joanna Pettet closely resembles the evil child in the "Bad Seed" story. At the end of the episode, a former coworker and friend of the uncle tells him that sometimes people turn out mentally sick.

This episode offers an interesting premise on reviving the dead to allow them to return back to the living world. Two researchers perform experiments on animals and finally a dead frozen human to try to revive the dead through cryogenics. They are able to revive their first human guinea pig, but the vital signs start to go haywire and the revived man begins to break down physically and dies within a few days. The man suffers in order to continue living and prefers to have remained dead after having a heart attack. He asks to see his wife, but is prevented from doing so because of exposing the research work. Since he only was revived for a short period, the researchers decide to keep the man's condition to themselves. Reviving the dead brings out one important aspect regarding sudden death where the deceased did not have time to say their goodbyes to their loved ones. I am sure some of the people whose life was suddenly cut short would like to have some additional time to spend with their families. Later in the episode, one of the researchers is shot and killed by a mugger (who happens to be the director of this episode). He dies, but then is revived by the other researcher. The revived man then decides to spend time with his family, knowing that the first revived man only lived for a few days. He gets to spend time with his wife and daughter that he has neglected for many years. I am certain that many who died suddenly would have liked to have closure with their families too. The twist to this episode occurs when the revived researcher locates the mugger who shot him and seeks revenge. He kills the mugger, but there are eyewitnesses. The other researcher then informs the revived researcher that he had made a mistake about his continued life expectancy after being revived. Since his dead body was not frozen like the first revived man, the body would be able to heal itself and allow a normal life span to be attained. The revived researcher is elated at this news that he can live much longer with his family. However, the murder of the mugger comes back to haunt the revived researcher in the ending with a twist.

The time traveler (Nicholas Prentice) who was in last season's "Tribunal" episode returns again as he transports several Civil War re-enactors back to the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. His reason for doing so is not revealed until near the end. His purpose for moving the men back to the past is to allow one of the men to see how the pursuit of war was a useless effort and to change the outlook of that man. The man would play another role in the future when he assassinates the current President. The time traveler was trying to change his outlook on his life and prevent the later assassination. He was using the time travel effort to convince those in the future that events in the past can be altered to a better outcome. The future assassin does have a change of heart near the end and attempts to stop the Pickett's Charge order. But he is killed by another soldier and his death in the past stops his future assassination of the President. However, the ending of the installment has an ironic twist. One of the Confederate commanders is accidentally transported into the future and appears at the time of the President making a speech at Gettysburg and he instead assassinates the President along with a Lincoln look-a-like. So the entire time travel effort produced the same result. The episode also included a pregnant woman who gave birth. I am not sure of her relation to the plot. She does get to read a historical journal of the battle of Gettysburg.

The 1980 season of Galactica 1980 only brought back Lorne Greene and Herbert Jefferson Jr from the previous series. The two main male characters played by Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke were a later generation from Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict's characters. For the last show of the season, it brought back Dirk Benedict's character with a tie-in with Dr. Zee. Dr. Zee tells Adama of a dream that he had recently. In the dream, Starbuck gets stranded on a planet after his ship is damaged by a Cylon raid and the planet appears to have a Cylon outpost. One of the units powers back on and Starbuck gets acquainted with it. He is happy to have some company. The enemy attitude is suspended between them as they discuss how their lifestyle is different from each other. Later, the Cylon brings a woman to keep Starbuck company. The woman is pregnant. Where she came from is a mystery. She asks a rather odd question to Starbuck - will you die for me? Later, a repaired space vehicle is made up by Starbuck and the Cylon using parts from their ships. A group of Cylon ships approach the planet and Starbuck places the woman and her new born child into it so they can leave. The Cylon that befriended Starbuck attacks the other Cylon units, but is injured in the battle and shuts down. The woman appears in the horizon and proclaims that she loves Starbuck (for sacrificing himself for her and her child). Adama tells Dr. Zee that he thinks that he was the child in the dream. The episode ends with Starbuck all alone again on the planet. One of the main points of the episode Is that enemies can become friends given different circumstances.

This was made by Brazzer studios which specialized in MILF videos. The feel of the video appears without a script. Charlee comes right into the room that has several men and they get introduced rather quickly. She appears to have been hired to do a video by the men (one with the stage name of "Noah Stoppin"). They focus on her well endowed breasts. After performing foreplay between Charlee and Noah, they have sex in three positions (which appear to have been edited) - her on top, him on top, and then doggy position. After he climaxes, the video ends and Charlee says that it was the first time that she has screwed (really?). She closes the video by mentioning her name and the moomygotboobs website from Brazzer studios.

This was one of the better episodes from the TV series that kept you guessing about Anne Lockhart's character. She gets to act out being upset and under strain for most of the episode. The plot involves a wife (and former girlfriend of Hawke) who escapes away from her mob husband by swimming away and then agrees to testify against him. She has a past history with Hawke which makes the situation more complicated. Hawke and Dominic are tasked to bring her to Washington, DC to testify. Her husband and his accomplices look to stop her. There is someone who works for her husband who is with the firm. Airwolf is attacked by fighter jets and other helicopters who seem to know where it is flying. Anne Lockhart's character eventually reveals the true reason for escaping from her husband. Hawke helps to get her to the Capitol to testify. G. Gordon Liddy has a role as one of the mobster accomplices who happen to have a high level government position. He also hires others to try to stop the mobster's wife from testifying. The end has a twist which made me think about the Watergate scandal and whether Liddy would have taken the same action. Anne also gets to wear a bathing suit in this episode, so you get to see more of her figure.

This episode of "Hondo" involves Hondo and his sidekick, Buffalo Baker, coming across a house where the Apache Kid (Nick Adams) has kidnapped a newlywed couple (played by David Nelson and Annette Funicello). The Apache Kid ties up the husband while he starts to leer and touch at the wife. The episode has a rather long and intense scene involving the husband struggling to get loose while the Apache Kid starts to pursue the wife. Eventually, the husband gets free, but is strangled by the Apache Kid. Hondo and Buffalo Baker then come to the home location, but see that the wife is a hostage. In the gun fight, Buffalo Baker is shot and hurt. Hondo goes to deal with the Apache Kid and is able to have her to get away as he fights the Apache Kid. The Apache Kid is able to get away with the wife as Hondo pursues them. The cavalry gets the news about the Apache Kid from Buffalo Baker and sends out a group to find him. Hondo finds the wife alone as his dog fights with the Apache Kid. The dog is stabbed and hurt and the injured cries brings Hondo to the scene. Hondo and the Apache Kid fight in the raging waters as the cavalry and other Apaches arrive at the scene. The Apache Kid disappears in the water as Hondo is helped by the cavalry. The assault and violent scenes were quite intense for something on network TV in 1967.