Under World (5.5)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fifth season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
8
10%
9.0 (Excellent)
11
14%
8.5 (Very Good)
19
24%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
12
15%
7.5 (Decent)
14
18%
7.0 (Average at Best)
2
3%
6.5 (Not So Good)
7
9%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
3
4%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 78

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IslandHopper
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#11 Post by IslandHopper »

lutherhgillis wrote:IH wrote: 5. (This is one of the best flubs ever-because it is so stupid) As Magnum and Rick are wheeling Higgins and TC through the hospital, they are wheeling them down a corridor/hallway, and as they pass a maintenance man on a ladder the maintenance man is electricuted and falls down (as Magnum and Rick continue to wheel Higgins and TC). Two nurses and a doctor rush to the aid of the fallen maintenance man and you can hear (must listen carefully as Magnum is still talking) one of the nurses say "call an ambulance." They are already in a hospital, why do you need to call an ambulance?

I don't think this is a flub. It was obviously done on purpose with a tongue-in-cheek style. I admit it was an odd ending but flubs are not intentional.

I bet the actors held their noses as they did the last scenes. Talk about the maximum cheese...
I thought about this when I first saw/heard the flub, but I don't think it was intentional considering the actress that said it was merely an extra and probably not a professional actress. She was probably nervous and forgot where she was and blurted it out. The director and editor probably never caught it because it is barely audible.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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Agatha
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#12 Post by Agatha »

This episode is my new FAVORITE episode!

First of all, I LOVE the play on words that is the title...applying both to the under water world where TC's chopper has ended up and to the underworld characters that our guys have to deal with.

I, too, love the plots where the guys all pull together to figure out what's going on and when we see how loyal they are to each other. I was also taken in by that slimy Gerald. Now that I KNOW he's a slimy Gerald. I always like to go back and watch again to see the clues that I missed. For example, when I watch this episode now, I want to slap that nasty Gerald every time he says "my brother"...and he says it A LOT! I "shoulda" got suspicious.

Love the sequence just before Thomas dives the first time!

R: Thomas, I don't like this. It's six in the morning and you haven't been to sleep.

T: Neither have you.

R: Yeah. But I'm not the one who's diving 50 phantoms deep into the ocean.

T: It's fathoms and it's only fifteen.

Phantoms? C'mon, Rick! Although I know he's not into diving. In Dead Man's Channel, Thomas asked if he wanted to dive and he was very emphatic..."No!, no!, no!"

And then at the end. The...Most...Wonderful "Oh...My...God" in the whole series! In my opinion...

Makes me laugh every time I hear it!

:)
Isn't the ocean beautiful at sunset? So soft....so peaceful...so romantic!

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Mark R.Y.
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#13 Post by Mark R.Y. »

We MUST have an audio file of the painter's "Whoa-oh-ohhh" in the last scene. Low humor, but I laugh myself silly at it! :P

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J.J. Walters
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#14 Post by J.J. Walters »

Mark, with or without the "call an ambulance" at the end? ;)
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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Mark R.Y.
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#15 Post by Mark R.Y. »

LOL! :P

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Jay-Firestorm
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#16 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

This isn’t an outstanding favourite of mine, but is better than a lot of the fifth season’s offerings.

[rating=8.5]

T.C. accepts a job delivering a mysterious briefcase to Oahu, but on the way, his chopper is shot down, leaving him in a coma. His brother Gerald joins the rest of the gang as they try to discover who was responsible and why. One of the season’s slightly better eps…

-----

This review contains spoilers.

Although not one of my outstanding favourites, ‘Under World’ is one of the shaky fifth season’s better offerings in my opinion. It’s certainly a notch up from the disappointing ‘The Legacy of Garwood Huddle’ previously.

Unfortunately, I had already read about this episode by the first time I saw it (some years ago now), so all along knew that T.C.’s ‘brother’ Gerald was a fake. Even so, it was still interesting to see it play out – although I can’t believe that Magnum or Rick, who know T.C. so well, wouldn’t have become suspicious at some point.

Talking of spoilers, I found it a bit strange that the episode’s opening trailer gave away that Higgins is shot and crashes his car during the story. Given that this doesn’t happen until about halfway through, it is quite unusual, as the opening trailers are usually very good about not giving too much away.

The bulk of a plot is fair, and gives each of the main cast (bar T.C., of course), a lot to do. The story is mostly a serious one, but does have it’s touches of comedy here and there.
One moment I really like is Higgins rambling away on one of his old war stories, brining T.C. out of his coma. I found this a really amusing moment (even if there had been a slightly similar set-up on ‘Happy Days’ some years previously).

The diving scenes are very well shot, and really bring the story to life. I did think it was foolish of Gerald to give himself away before Magnum had taken the briefcase to the surface, however.

Then there is the final scene, full of slapstick (and slightly surreal), as a series of accidents occur as Magnum and Rick wheel Higgins and T.C. out of the hospital. In a story that is mostly very serious, it is a nice light-hearted ending.

All-in-all, this is a pretty good story, although I did feel it was stretched a bit in the middle. I found the explanation of T.C.’s crash, relating to the briefcase carrying plutonium, a bit far fetched, but even so, this stands as one of the more interesting episodes of the fifth season.

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* The opening trailer of this episode contains a very unusual edit of the regular theme, effectively starting near the end, and then cutting into another piece of music.

* As already mentioned on the main page, T.C. sings again at the start of this story (after doing so in the third season’s ‘Did You See The Sunrise?’ and season four’s ‘Operation: Silent Night’). I sometimes wonder if Roger E. Mosley was trying for a recording contract, all the singing he did on the show!

* Surprisingly, when Five broadcast this episode in 2002, they did not edit out any of the shots of Gerald chasing Magnum with the knife underwater (normally they heavily edited knife use). If they had done so here, it would have left a hole in the story – but that didn’t stop them on a couple of other occasions!
JAY FIRESTORM

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My A-Team site - http://thea-team.org aiming to be the most detailed A-Team site on the Net - if I ever get around to updating it!!

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Styles Bitchley
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#17 Post by Styles Bitchley »

I just watched this episode for the first time last night and I'm surprised to read the positive comments here. I found it to be one of the most far fetched episodes so far!

First, the plot doesn't make sense. Why is TC being used to smuggle plutonium between Maui and Oahu? How did the stuff get there? Where was it going? I just didn't buy the fact that a physicist happened to bring a suitcase full of PLUTONIUM to a conference in Maui. Then these other guys immediately knew all about it and were able to shoot TC's chopper down and the guy impersonating his brother was quickly able to assume that identity and fool his best friends. Not to mention the fact that he looks a lot like TC. Maybe they could have worked in a Soviet angle to at least give the plutonium angle some purpose.

Also, in addition to there being some really drawn out and boring scenes (Magnum and Gerald in the hospital waiting room, anyone??), there are some strange sequences in the episode. When Gerald is chasing Magnum underwater, all he has to do is inflate his BCD and fly to the surface (it wasn't that deep). Once he was up there, Rick could have helped him out. Even more, when Gerald comes to the surface and Rick is helping him into the boat with the stab wound, Mangnum appears unwounded, but Rick lets Gerald fall back into the Ocean to die -- he still thinks Gerald is TC's brother at this point!

Finally, when the bad guys are threatening to kill Magnum and Rick if he doesn't hand over the suitcase Magnum refuses despite the fact that he knows that it's only TC's camera inside. Would he really risk getting the two of them killed for a camera?

Sorry to be such a downer on this episode, but these elements annoyed the hell out of me!
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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lutherhgillis
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#18 Post by lutherhgillis »

Did anyone else notice the vertically challenged man in the hospital waiting room when the guys go for coffee? He is standing in front of the drink machine. Is this the same guy that worked with the sumo wrestler in the tropical Madness episode? They looked similar.
Who's Dot Matrix, and what has she got to do with this?

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Doc Ibold
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#19 Post by Doc Ibold »

lutherhgillis wrote:Did anyone else notice the vertically challenged man in the hospital waiting room when the guys go for coffee? He is standing in front of the drink machine. Is this the same guy that worked with the sumo wrestler in the tropical Madness episode? They looked similar.
That IS Bruce Johnson.

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Danno
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#20 Post by Danno »

Are all the diving scenes in MPI filmed off Rabbit Island?
Does Higgins break the fourth wall in this one?

I think the "call an ambulance" line is brilliant. It's so stupid it must have been deliberate!

Plutonium. Uh huh.

The ker-azy, whacky ending. Uh huh.
Oh well. Select Menu and go to the next episode!
Help protect Hawaiʻi's Green Sea Turtles http://malamanahonu.org

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J.J. Walters
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#21 Post by J.J. Walters »

Doc Ibold wrote:
lutherhgillis wrote:Did anyone else notice the vertically challenged man in the hospital waiting room when the guys go for coffee? He is standing in front of the drink machine. Is this the same guy that worked with the sumo wrestler in the tropical Madness episode? They looked similar.
That IS Bruce Johnson.
Neat!

It would have been hilarious if Magnum had given him a funny look with a quick glance around the hospital (looking for his partner the sumo wrestler). That would have made for a nice little reference to "Tropical Madness".
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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timm525
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#22 Post by timm525 »

I really kinda liked this one. It had some silly points but also a plot that moved along well IMHO. It never really developed why the plutonium was involved but I guess in the end it didn't matter.

I also noticed as previously mentioned all the helicopter changes in the beginning flight with the honeymoon couple. I was like, wow! Long skids, short skids, V-tail, T-tail...I think they used ever helicopter they had in the series on this one! :oops:

Also right before TC's helicopter is shot you see him pass right by the Island Hopper's pier. Don't know if this was just stock footage or really meant to be in the shot but at that distance, he could have easily disengaged and auto rotated down to his OWN landing pad. In the beginning it seemed to me that they made the crash look like it was far from shore but then at the end you see Rick on the King Kam waving at the cop on the pier a few hundred yards away so I'm kinda lost at that one???

Also the diving parts interested me as a SCUBA diver for the last 20 years. First they were diving at 15 fathoms or 90 feet. Now being that this took place back in the mid 80's (84 if I recall correctly) and Magnum being a former Navy SEAL, he would've most likely been diving off Navy dive tables to establish his bottom time(s) of the dive(s).

Now since they were using what appeared to me to be a standard 80 cu. ft. single tank, and they didn't hang any other tanks at any preset depths that we saw, one would have to assume that they were doing no decompression dives at that time. Now I don't have or know what the Navy dive tables at that time said for a 90 foot dive. I'm sure they were not as safe as today's and may have given them some additional minutes in bottom time. (Note: As some may or may not know, the way the Navy "originally" came up with the bottom time limits for depths, which became the basis of all "recreational" dive time limits was quite scary and not something I would have wanted to volunteer for! "Oh...he got bent at 90 feet for 30 minutes...hummm....let's try another diver at 90 feet for...say....I donno.....25 minutes.....and see what happens to him?")

According to today's NAUI dive tables, which were around in the mid 80's as well but may or may not have given the same bottom times, a 90 foot dive (using standard 21%/79% of O2/Nitrogen) gives a diver a max no decompression limit of 25 minutes. Click ---> here. Now that is supposed to be the total time of the dive from decent to accent for safety's sake. This was before "recreational" NITROX (Nitrogen/Oxygen mixture different from standard mix usually allowing for more O2 and less N2 for more bottom time but less depth), TRIMIX (Oxygen, Nitrogen, Helium mix for really deep diving. Helium is substitute for O2 and N2 for deeper depth and additional dive time), or dive computers that take into account your nitrogen absorption rate at different depths of the dive and therefore give you an extended bottom time. Also at 90 feet unless your an experienced diver in good shape, which Magnum certainly was, your most likely going to be sucking up your tank before you reach your bottom time limit. Especially if you are really exerting yourself physically which was the case with the last dive and chase between Gerald and Magnum.

Two other things that were kinda silly about the dives were that, first they had no idea what they were looking for. Second, Magnum was general PI, not a helicopter pilot with NTSB trained to look for "evidence" of a helicopter crash especially at 90 feet below! There could have been 100s of different things that could have brought it down. How he, in one dive, in which he maybe had a 10/15 minutes bottom time at 90 feet [5 minutes down, 10 minutes to search, 5 minutes up and a 5 minute (if you factor that in) safety stop at 15 feet to off gas any additional nitrogen as a precaution]. So in 10-15 minutes time tops, he can find a part on the helicopter on his first dive and definitively know that it was "shot down"? That part really stretched the "suspension of disbelief" for me.

Oh and one last thing...The end fight was a bit silly too in my opinion. Why would anyone "sneak up" behind someone they are about to kill 90 feet under the water with a knife and present it to them by reaching around in front of their face with it to slit their throat? If I was going to kill Magnum and I snuck up behind him, I would have first cut his air hose right after it came off the first stage regulator at the tank, thus taking away his ability to breathe (kinda important at 90 feet under water) then I would have simultaneously ripped off his mask with my free hand to blind and disorientate him. Then lastly I would stick him with the knife while keeping him down so that he would either die by knife wound(s) or drown. And why didn't Magnum just swim to the surface and get back on the boat? Gerald would have had to come up for air at some point and he would have not been in a "tactical" position to fight Rich and Magnum by himself from the water while they were on the boat. Of course we know why, it is TV and the hero has to win. :D

Despite all my above criticisms, I really liked this ep. It was fun and easy to watch and just had a good flow to it. I always like eps. where the guys pull together for each other.

I feel bad for TC having to explain that one to his insurance company too! How many times at this point had his helicopter been totaled? I'd hate to pay his premiums on that thing.

The end was too funny too. All the accidents happening around/behind them and then the paint falling presumably on Higgins' head and the closing. "Oh...my...God!" Too funny and I got a good laugh. That's what I love about MPI!
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J.J. Walters
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#23 Post by J.J. Walters »

Timm, another great review my friend! I've learned more about diving in your one post than all of the Jacques Cousteau episodes I've seen combined. ;)
timm525 wrote:I feel bad for TC having to explain that one to his insurance company too! How many times at this point had his helicopter been totaled? I'd hate to pay his premiums on that thing.
LOL!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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timm525
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#24 Post by timm525 »

Sorry James, I tend to ramble like Higgins does with his stories at times! :oops:
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J.J. Walters
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#25 Post by J.J. Walters »

No need to be sorry or embarrassed Timm. Your posts are fantastic! There is no such thing as a post that is too long here. ;)
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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