Memories Are Forever (1) (2.5)

[Milo Minderbinder]

Regarding the SEAL and surface warfare badge switches, my guess is that the writers either made a mistake or didn't really understand what they meant. Here are some possibilities as well:

If a Navy officer has earned multiple badges, must he wear them all on his dress uniform or does he have a choice? It's not inconceivable that Magnum actually earned both in Navy.

Perhaps the Navy had a policy (or maybe an unwritten protocol) of not wearing the SEAL badge in South Vietnam so as to not advertise the identify of a SEAL member.

I'm not sure about the timing of when he got married, but maybe he was not attached to a SEAL team at the time of the wedding, i.e., maybe that came later.

Also, the woman playing his wife does not look Vietnamese to me.

Finally, hats off to the writers on this episode for working in the issue of recovering the remains of lost pilots as a plot device instead of something more traditional and less thoughtful.

[Coops]

Michelle was of mostly French stock, not vietnamese.

[Milo Minderbinder]

Thanks for the info about Michell's Frence ancestry - that makes sense.

I did a little more digging about the rules for wearing the surface warfare and SEAL indentifiers, what the Navy refers to as insignia. Additionally, these two insignia are "warfare" insignia (i.e., surface and special operations).

The rules say in cases where a person has earned more than two warfare insignias, that only 2 may be worn at any given time. The one indicating the current speciality of the wearer goes in the "primary" position and a second one may go into a "secondary" position. If the person is not currently in either specialty, then the primary one defaults to whatever one they earned first.

I didn't see anything that said the person must wear two if two or more have been earned. The operative word is "may":

"Personnel with multiple qualifications, may wear two insignia, placing one in the primary position and the second in the secondary position, within the following guidelines:" (http://www.npc.navy.mil/CommandSupport/ ... 5/5201.htm)

Getting back to Magnum, it would seem to make sense to have him wearing the SEAL insignia in Saigon during the wedding scene since he is deployed in a joint task force doing some type of special operations.

The choice of the SEAL insignia at the end is also interesting. Since he is supposed to be testifying in DC about something that presumably happened when he was a SEAL, then I can see that making sense. You also have to wonder about how military leaders would have considered SEALs at this point in history. Some of them might have considered SEALs to have been a bit of rogue operators in Viet Nam, so having Magnum wearing a SEAL insignia could conceivably have been a bit of a negative thing for his upcoming trip, meaning that it might have put him on the defensive.

Maybe this will get explained later in the show, but it seems odd that they always had Magnum wearing the surface warfare belt buckle instead of showing a SEAL trident, assuming the latter is much more prestigious. Or, maybe they were trying to portray him as a humble guy (and not too much of a James Bond character) who didn't want to show off that kind of thing. For example, I don't think he wears a Naval Academy ring and instead wears the one showing his bond to his friends on the task force. Also, I don't think most people knew too much about SEALs back in the early 80s.

[Milo Minderbinder]

One other thing I noticed - this was the first time the show began without any coming attractions before the theme and standard opening sequence. Maybe that is just the DVD, or maybe it's because this was originally shown as a TV movie (according to the MM website).

[Coops]

Near the beginning of the episode, Magnum is taking photos while on a divorce case. After taking several shots, he has second thoughts about the case and chucks the film into the harbor! Suddenly, he sees Michelle on a boat and starts snapping pictures of her. Of course, there would have been no film in the camera! (Noted by CliffW)

Ok, time to de-flub this one.

In the shot of Magnum after he takes photos of "Romeo & Juliet", he finishes the roll, rolls it back into the film cartridge, opens the back of the camera, and then puts that exposed roll of film in his shirt pocket. He immediately bends down, grabs another roll of film, opens the rubberized plastic tube, and just starts to pull out a small length of the film for feeding into the spooler, then the camera cuts away back to "Romeo & Juliet". While we did not see him specifically load the film, his actions prior to the cut away are exactly what one does when reloading a 35mm SLR camera. So, yes, Magnum DID have film in his camera before he shot the photos of Michelle on the yacht. Boy, now do I feel old...

A bump for JJ to take notice!

[J.J. Walters]

Sorry I missed that earlier Coops! You've convinced me. I've removed the flub. Yea!

[Coops]

No sweat, J.J.! I know you're a busy man.

[Cutter]

I have to mention another interesting point...in the begining after the dream...Magnum is shown swimming and eventually runs into the study...if you watch the crossfade from waking up from the dream to the swim you will see TM standing in the water before he he starts to swim. He of course then pretends it was a long swim.

The funny thing with pointing out the flubs is that it is like having a wife or girlfriend you are in love with....you see the flaws...they are interesting...but don't matter at all in enjoying the experience.

[MACattack]

Michelle is a very attractive woman, but her morals are very confusing. If she really wanted to be with Magnum, why didn't she find a way? Instead she ran into the arms of other men. At least, Magnum got his daughter Lily in the end.

[No need to know!]

What can i say? One of my favourite episodes. Not the best, but almost. I think it´s just great how MPI managed to mix episodes like this one with Drama, with more lighter Comedian episodes without getting cheesy.

[Coops]

Michelle is a very attractive woman, but her morals are very confusing. If she really wanted to be with Magnum, why didn't she find a way? Instead she ran into the arms of other men. At least, Magnum got his daughter Lily in the end.

You're actually questioning the actions of a WOMAN? LOL! Surely you jest!

[robspace54]

Flub#1 in the chopper. When TM tells the team that he is going to marry Michelle he's riding in the front left seat. Sitting there should be the co-pilot (in choppers the commander sits on the right, unlike planes). In a combat situation there would be pilot and co-pilot. And I can't say that TM is helping to fly as he is holding his M-16, with the barrel vertical.

Flub #2. Rick is leaning out the right door of the chopper and they start to take fire. Rick then is shooting an M-16 left handed (left index finger on trigger, right hand on barrel). Then they cut to obvious archive footage from inside the bird out that same door, with a person and M-16 firing away. This shooter is firing right handed.

Rob

[No need to know!]

Flub#1 in the chopper. When TM tells the team that he is going to marry Michelle he's riding in the front left seat. Sitting there should be the co-pilot (in choppers the commander sits on the right, unlike planes). In a combat situation there would be pilot and co-pilot. And I can't say that TM is helping to fly as he is holding his M-16, with the barrel vertical.

Flub #2. Rick is leaning out the right door of the chopper and they start to take fire. Rick then is shooting an M-16 left handed (left index finger on trigger, right hand on barrel). Then they cut to obvious archive footage from inside the bird out that same door, with a person and M-16 firing away. This shooter is firing right handed.

Rob

Maybe the co-pilot just got sick right before they took of.
And Rick is a hell of a gunman. Maybe he likes to switch just for the fun of it. Yep there you have it

[cpagorilla]

Another flub is after Magnum is shot and is lying in the street, he looks up to shoot Colonel Ki, Michelle's shoes are different than when she ran up, and then she changed back after Magnums shoots.

[zebra3]

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* The main episode guide page for this episode states that the names appear bottom-centre, not the usual bottom left. On my TV version, they appear bottom-left. However, Part II lists the names bottom-centre.

* Maybe it’s just me, but when Magnum runs in to the study after Zeus and Apollo chase him after his swim, his trunks don’t seem to be wet!

* As mentioned in my review, Higgins is seen to be writing his memoirs for the first of a number of times in the series

* In the flashback to Magnum and Michelle’s after-wedding drink with T.C. and Rick, Rick’s toast line “…And this one is gonna kill ya” just before the explosion is clearly rerecorded in post production – his lips don’t even sync up properly.

* When Higgins delivers the photographs to Magnum in the guesthouse, he says “I don’t know if you’re pulling my leg, as you yanks put it”. There is no need for him to add “as you yanks put it”, as ‘pulling my leg’ is a very common expression here in the UK.

* Channel 5’s “bloody” edit count – only one in this episode – Higgins’ “How bloody curious” after he notices the French Cross hanging around Michelle’s neck in the photo. 5 left this one in, but on the previous shown episode, ‘Tropical Madness’*, they made some very big edits around “bloody”. (* - they were showing the episodes in order, but broadcast ‘Tropical Madness’ before this story so that the two-parter would not be left open while the series took a brief break).

* As mentioned above, my birthday is the same as the one given for Magnum in this episode – albeit 22 years later.

* More abridged commercial breaks on the DVD version – Part I only has one break unabridged (but I lost count as to which one).

* Two-part version:
When Channel 5 broadcast this story in 2002, they showed the two-part version. For those with the DVD version wondering when the end of Part I falls, it is in the church, after Michelle talks to Buck in the confession box, and Colonel Ki gets up to follow her out.

Both parts I & II had the opening credits from a later season! This seems to be where the episodes were later split into two parts and the (then current) opening titles were added, replacing the originals; I have examples of ‘The Rockford Files’ and ‘Starsky & Hutch’ that also have this done.

There is about four minutes missing from Part I, though I am unsure if this is where the episode is split into two halves (many feature-length episodes of the era were shortened when adapted to two-parters) or Channel 5 made this edit themselves. After Magnum wakes up at the beginning from his dream about Michelle, skipped is him muttering “Michelle”, him going for a swim, the dogs chasing him, and the scene in the study, where Higgins is writing his memoirs and Magnum asks him for the camera. The story picks up again as Magnum is taking photos of the car salesman. As I say, I’m not sure if this was a ‘proper’ edit, or one done by Channel 5 (who very occasionally edited for time).

I'm curious, I have all the seasons of starsky and hutch. Which did this occur in.

As for the episode, I liked it. Thought it would be more action punctuated by romance, but it seems that it's mostly just intrigue. I suppose the Vietnamese element would have meant more at the time, though still today many can understand the idea of wanting ones dead returned home.

As a flub no one else noticed, and my personal first found:


As Magnum speaks with Michelle halfway through the episode, we get a nice close up of her sitting in the wicker chair in his room. The very same chair he fired two warning shots at the Soviet man who sat there in "From Moscow to Maui." However, there are no bullet holes! They seem to have disappeared.



Also, at around 1:27 in, we see Magnum has a tiny decal on the Ferrari's window, near the top. One must wonder what it is...