Missing in Action (1.9)

[Frodoleader]

I always liked the version of "Deja Vu" Laura sang at the KKC. Kind of haunting. Wish there was a full length version sung by her.

[Agatha]

Not one of my favorites, either, but still a solid plot with Thomas using his Navy experience to solve the case.

As in Need to Know, it's pretty obvious to me why Thomas resigned from the Navy. He really has no tolerance...nor should he...for Newton's bureaucratic (Help, James! I need spell check!!) nonsense. And, again, his strong sense of right and wrong is outraged by what is basically Newton's murder of three innocent men (white hats) just to save his own hide. I'm proud of him for mailing Eric's letter and I hope Newton frys for his crimes!

This is the first appearance of the military man that we all love to hate...Lance LeGault, soon to be Colonel "Buck" Green. In true military form, a dipstick like Newton ends up becoming a dipstick like Buck. But I think it's interesting to see how a "regular" starts out. Like Buck and Agatha and Doc Ibold...and this is also Patrick Bishop's first appearance. He's Pat...the parking attendant with a mustache...in this episode but soon the mustache disappears and "Voila!"...it's Keoke!!

My favorite part of this episode is Thomas and TC's "Abbott & Costello" routine over the $50 bucks that it cost to buy spark plugs for the Ferrari
Very funny.

Thomas: You mean you'd let me drive out of here broke?
TC: Why not? That's the way you ALWAYS drive in!

Seamless and subtle...and excellent!!

[N1095A]

MacKay had previously appeared in the "Pilot Movie" as "Ski", a Navy MP.

Just a quick correction for the episode guide. "Ski" was a Marine MP. You can tell by his uniform. The Navy doesn't have MPs, They're SPs, for Shore Patrol.

[Jay-Firestorm]

A middling but fair episode this time. But at least we get to see Lance “Decker” LeGault before he played Buck Greene, as well as April from ‘Knight Rider’ – phwoar!

[TV.com rating = Average; 8]

A singer that Rick has hired keeps having visions of the death of her missing fiancé – a Marine listed as Missing In Action. Magnum searches for the missing man, a member of a top-secret organisation who is refusing to come in from the cold. A middling episode…

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‘Missing in Action’ is a reasonable first season episode, but does not really stand out as one of the greats of the first year. Saying that, it is still a fair episode in its own right, and maybe suffers be being surrounded by some of the other first season classics.

The episode is notable for several people appearing:
Agent Newton is played by Lance LeGault, best known for playing Colonel Roderick Decker, who pursued 'The A-Team' in seasons 2-4 of that series (one of my favourite ever US shows). LeGault would go on to play the recurring Buck Greene in subsequent seasons of 'Magnum'.

...And Laura is played by Rebecca Holden, who would appear as technician April Curtis in the second season of 'Knight Rider' (of which I am also a huge fan). She looks so young here! By the way, the singing she does in this episode is really her - she is also a singer and musician.

…Not to mention, that we see Jeff MacKay as “Mac” MacReyolds – the Naval Lieutenant always being scammed by Magnum – for the first time. After MacKay played the small role of Ski in the Pilot, Mac would go on to feature in a number of episodes – in one form or another (!).

Anyway, the story is an interesting one, but not the best played out, and maybe lacks some of the pacing of some of the other plots of the season.

It is also notable for being the first time that something extra-sensory would be used in a plot, with Laura’s E.S.P. Some later episodes would play on such powers, as well as featuring ghosts and whatnot!

The highlight of the episode is Higgins insisting Magnum get the Ferrari serviced – on which Magnum cheaps out and gets T.C. to do it, with predictably disastrous results! Even by this relatively early stage, the writers and producers (and performers) perfectly understood the four main characters, and were giving them great material to work with. In fact, in some cases, it is touches like these that would sometimes save an episode.

[Spoiler] The climatic scene feels a little awkward, and as others have commented, why doesn’t Magnum at least check to see if Eric is alive after his fall?! [End of spoiler]

Overall, I’m not really sure how I feel about this episode. It’s a fair one, and better than some of the episodes that would come in say, seasons 5 and 6; but at the same time, it doesn’t completely seem to hit all the right notes, and in some ways feels that it should be better than it actually is.

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:
This is another one that most of the things I picked up on have already been mentioned. But here’s a few:

* On the opening trailer, the Naval computer showing the blocked Delta Section information, makes a different noise to in the episode proper. In the trailer is a sort of scrambled computer noise; in the episode proper it is making a beeping.

* Laura’s “Eric!” when looking into Higgins’ crystal on the opening trailer, is from a different take to that used in the actual episode.

* Laura’s singing and piano playing is genuine – as well as an actress, Rebecca Holden is also a singer and musician, and has recorded several albums.

* I’ll have to double check this one: As with ‘The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii’ before it, the first commercial break on the DVD version of this episode seems to be abridged (i.e. the story plays right through). The subsequent breaks in the episode have a gap.

[Jaybird]

I liked this episode more than most of the forum. Maybe it was because I was dumb struck by Rebecca Holden's classic beauty. Wow! Long red hair and stunningly blue eyes plus an exceptional figure. Again, she might be the prettiest actress to grace the series.

Other than that.....what was this about? The plot left something to be desired. I loved the TC/Magnum exchange...TM: "I owe you one!" TC: "That boy can't count past one!"

Overall, a disjointed but thoroughly enjoyable (for me, anyway) episode.

[lutherhgillis]

Despite the nonsense of the entire story, I sort of enjoyed this one in a campy sort of way. It is fun to see the old KKC. Rick and TC seem to be having a good time. I found it to be one of those episodes that is so bad that it is good or at least fun to watch...

I did not like the foray into the psychic mumbo jumbo... Maybe Laura could have given Rick the results of the up-coming sports games so he could score some major dough...

[Frodoleader]

Watched this again the other night. Rebecca Holden....

[Little Garwood]

I found Rebecca Holden's line delivery distracting and she and Tom Selleck had zero chemistry together; it's like he knew he was working with an amateur!

I liked the use of negative flashbacks in this episode, as it gave the proceedings an artsiness that was usually absent in eighties TV.

My DVD froze up during the climactic gunfight and I curse Universal's double-sided DVD ineptitude! Grrr! Is it too much to hope that seasons 1-4 will be reissued on single-sided discs? (probably).

[Buck]

Despite the nonsense of the entire story, I sort of enjoyed this one in a campy sort of way. It is fun to see the old KKC. Rick and TC seem to be having a good time. I found it to be one of those episodes that is so bad that it is good or at least fun to watch...

I did not like the foray into the psychic mumbo jumbo... Maybe Laura could have given Rick the results of the up-coming sports games so he could score some major dough...

I like the old KKC better than what will be there for most of the series. Why did they change locations?

[Magnum T.]

Laura Frasier is the new singer at the King Kamehameha Club.
The woman suffers for some kind of visions about her fiance, a M.I.A. Marine.
She is sure he is still alive and in Hawaii.
Magnum offers his help to investigate and finds out that the guy is actually still alive and is a member of a secret special military unit called "Delta Section".
But somebody else is after him.

I read this episode is not a favourite one.
I liked it very much!
It has all the ingredients:
- a good-looking damsel in distress
- investigations
- physical action
- hilarious jokes (Abbot & Costello, "Are you a Ferrari authorized mechanic?")

Plus: Rebecca Holden. She looks beautiful to me. Even in a parka.
Minus: Like other people, I find the climatic scene strange.
Neither Magnum nor Laura bother to check if Eric is really dead.
Best line:
Newton: You give me the letter, I'll give you Laura.
Magnum: No. You give me Laura and then I give you the letter.
That's the way it works this time because I've got the warrant (i.e. the gun).

Notes:
- team ring on the left hand.
- first Jeff MacKay's appearence as the regular (and my favourite) character Lieutenant "Mac" MacReynolds.
- first Lance LeGault appearence, here as Newton. He will return in future episodes as Colonel "Buck" Greene.
- this is the first of a number of episodes in which Higgins performs hypnosis.
- Ms. Holden is not dubbed in her singing scenes as Laura. She plays the piano too.
- first time TM wears his Vuarnet sunglasses? (Not sure about this one)

Funny thing:When TM and Rick compete to offer their help (after Laura's first vision), I wonder how much of their concern is due to the look of the girl

[timm525]

So-so ep for me. 7.5.

One thing I just noticed was towards the beginning when TM takes her back to the estate for a swim and dinner, you see her sitting on the beach and TM coming in from a swim. He grabs a towel to dry off and the dialog starts. At this point, notice the level of the water on the beach directly behind TM. Now fast forward to the end of the scene and look at the level of the water directly behind TM. Looks to me like there is a big difference.

Now either this was a long shoot with multiple retakes or the tide was coming in rather fast at that time. Or, perhaps the tide/waves picked up in intensity as you can see the waves come up almost to TM's feet at the end vs what looks like several feet away at the beginning.

I love to look at the back grounds when watching shows just to see the differences from one shot to the next.

[AmandaByNight]

I quite like this episode. It's Rebecca Holden as the singer, right? She used to be one of the most recognizable faces on television, and she's pretty... almost Barbie doll like, but at the same time she some realism to her as well.

I love trippy-dippy stuff in episodic television, so I thought this one was fun.

[MaiTaiMan]

This episode is a little different, and I really like it! Once again the corruption and disorganization of the millitary comes into play...and I loved how Magnum handled it!

I also enjoy seeing Rebecca Holden in something else besides "Knight Rider"...as this was about 3 years or so before she had her one season stint on that show. I thought she was prettier here and I thought her performance was more genuine and realistic than her 'April Curtis' character on "K.R."

The ending was awesome when Magnum got to shoot Newton...I just wish at some point he would have gotten to shoot Col. Buck Greene--also played by Lance LeGault! However, I was sad and didn't care for the part where Eric was actually killed. They could've had him live and get to tesify against Newton. But, oh well. Overall I liked this episode and I rated it as "very good"!

[Little Garwood]

I did spot a flub in this episode: At around the 37 minute mark, when Newton's henchman is driving away in the car, a member of the filming crew can be seen in the reflection of the car door

Thanks to James for the credit.

[MaiTaiMan]

I did spot a flub in this episode: At around the 37 minute mark, when Newton's henchman is driving away in the car, a member of the filming crew can be seen in the reflection of the car door

Thanks to James for the credit.

Do you mean towards the end...when Magnum makes Newton's goon drive away by gunpoint? I went back and watched that scene and you can sort of see a reflection of some kind on the car door--but it was really hard to see exactly what it was. But, it appeared to be moving around somewhat, so you're probably right.