Operation: Silent Night (4.10)

[rubber chicken]

Didn't Manetti say somewhere that this was his favorite episode?

I don't know about Larry Manetti, but Roger Mosley basically said this was his favorite besides the ones he wrote and directed (more in my post on the second page).

[kudubuck]

You need a picture of Magnum Claus for the episode pics.

Excellent episode.

[N1095A]

Golf, The landing is easily explainable. Hughes MD 500 series helicopters don't have hard mounted skids. They're mounted to Hughes' shock absorbing system. What you saw was simply the mechanisim doing what it was designed to. This was a revolutionary safety item that Hughes aircraft pioneered.

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I watched this again yesterday. I told my youngest step daughter we could watch the "Magnum Christmas Special".

[N1095A]

Also, isn't the ensign a little old to hold such a rank. He appears to be late 30s at the least. Maybe he is in his 40s.

Bruce French who played Ensign Jensen (anyone see the humor in the character name?) according to IMDB was born 4 July 1945 making him 38 in this episode. Of course we know how the MPI series played around with peoples' age.

[J.J. Walters]

During the scene where T.C. crash-lands the chopper on the island, the stunt pilot briefly drags his tail rotor through the trees! Tail rotors on Hughes 500D's are pretty fragile. This probably explains why different tail rotors are seen throughout the episode.

[MyGod!]

Justw atched this last night, and it was even better than I remember. Rick in particular, sometimes he really tries to be a tough guy, but in this episode he was liek a kid borther who was scared of everything and needed direction. One of the better acting jobs from him. Obviously Higgins acting like an "overgrown Boy Scout" was great, and I liked TM being the sane, practical one.
All in all, the reason this is a favorite is quite obvious, becaus eit focuses solely on the 4 principals and their interplay. i will admit I do get frustrated at some of the episodes where TC or Rick are only in them for a minute or two, those are rarely my favorites.
great episode!

[Frodoleader]

Something occurred to me when we watched this episode this past Christmas Eve: when Higgins leaves to forage for food, I thought, "what about all the unexploded ordinance (artillery shells) that were probably lying all over that island?" Not super important for the context of the story, but in reality, it would be part of the expanation for the island being off limits.

[AJL]

Alot of bad can be said about this episode, contrived etc.
My biggest complain is probably Higgins, he seems like, drunk or something in this episode, like a parody of himself (except for after his "ship" sinks). His character would tend to bend in that direction a lot more in later episodes, but this is really the first time i noticed him being more silly than serious. Compare Higgins in this episode to the Higgins from season 1, and it is almost two different characters.

All that aside, this is a great episode. I mean I/we can rant on it all we want, be it just haves a great charming atmosphere and some really funny moments. I voted it a 9, though very close yo 8.5

[wilko]

There's a flub in the sequencing dialogue involving the navy destroyer.

We are shown the stock footage of the destroyer at sea but then the Captain gives the order to cancel all leave and set sail for Frenchman's Isle. Leave is only given when the ship is in port so obviously there is a flub in the dialogue.

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

Also, the fleet would give the operational orders for a ship not the Captain. Holiday leave schedules, or any deployment, would've already been set. Nice spot on the giving the order to cancel leave while underway!

[wilko]

Here's another flub.

When Magnum, TC and Rick are looking for Higgins they come across what appears to be "peg leg" tracks (a footprint of his left shoe and a circular impression where the fight foot should be) which they discover to have been made by Higgins walking with a stick in his right hand and dragging palm fronds in his left hand.

This is impossible. If Higgins is dragging the palm fronds in his left hand then the fronds would erase his left shoe prints and not his right shoe print. Conversely if Higgins was dragging the palm fronds with his right hand then he would have to hold the stick in his left hand which would leave the bizzare track of a left shoe print and a circular impression to the outside of that.

[jastay3]

1) There is no alcohol on naval vessels.
2) The captian would've been in the wardroom or his stateroom.
3) An Ensign would not have been clearing the captians plate.
4) That ship had too much open space and glass. A real navy ship is much more closed quarters.

No. There is no alchohol ALLOWED on naval vessels. Big difference.

[jastay3]

Curious dialogue choice: The commander of the ship says to the ensign, "...a whole generation of fighting men with no real experience..."

Did he forget about Vietnam? This was 1984 which was 10 years after 'nam. That does not constitute a generation.

When he says "no real experience" he may have been referring to the traditional "Battleship Navy" of World War II which engaged in numerous "ship to ship" battles against the Japanese Navy. Although the U.S. Navy played significant roles in the Korean and Vietnam Wars (carrier operations, recon, ground support operations, brown-water navy, etc.) there were no traditional naval battles because neither Korea or Vietnam had much of a navy. World War II proved the importance of the aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier was so successful it has taken the place of the traditional battleships.

Not just battleships(which provided gunnery support in Nam). There has in fact been very little in the way of naval combat as such. Carriers mostly did ship to shore.

[jastay3]

IH:

I agree the commander was probably talking about ship to ship combat but in the dialog with the ensign it sounds like he is disgusted at his shipmen's lack of real fighting. There were several signs of the commander's gung-ho nature and this was probably another one. I guess blowing up fixed targets on the island gave the men a great deal of real fighting experience...

What about the ensign's age. Did you find him to be a little old to be an ensign? Thanks.

LHG

It gave them experience in adjusting to changes in normal work routine which may have been the point. The enemy can't be counted on to allow a Christmas vacation.