Missing in Action (1.9)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the first season

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9.5 (One of the Best)
1
1%
9.0 (Excellent)
9
9%
8.5 (Very Good)
22
21%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
23
22%
7.5 (Decent)
30
29%
7.0 (Average at Best)
11
11%
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4
4%
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1%
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J.J. Walters
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Missing in Action (1.9)

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

This is the official MM thread for Missing in Action (1.9). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.


Original Air Date: 2/5/1981
Inspired by her recent visions, a new singer at the King Kamehameha Club, hires Magnum to find her fiance, Eric, a Marine listed as Missing In Action. Thomas discovers that Eric was a member of the top-secret 'Delta Section' and is, in fact, still alive. Someone else, however, is searching for him and they are determined to bring him in and keep him quiet, at any cost.
Last edited by J.J. Walters on Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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N1095A
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#2 Post by N1095A »

Eric is not shot by Magnum. Newton shot him with the rifle, then Magnum shot Newton.
Last edited by N1095A on Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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IslandHopper
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#3 Post by IslandHopper »

Maybe so, but Magnum sure wasn't in any hurry to check and see if Eric survived. He just let him drown, or presumed that he was dead. I think he just wanted Laura Frazier for himself. :wink:
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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#4 Post by N1095A »

Not sure why he would want her for himself. If you ask me, she was kind of weird, and not in a good way. She kind of gave me the creeps through the whole ep. The extreme gross-up, uh I mean close-ups of the strings of spittle hanging from her lips didn't help much either.
Last edited by N1095A on Sun Nov 15, 2009 1:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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#5 Post by J.J. Walters »

N1095A wrote:Eric is not shot by Magnum. Newton shot him with the rifle, then Magnum shot Newton.
Doh! :oops: You are correct.
N1095A wrote:Not sure why he would want her for himself. If you ask me, she was kind of weird, and not in a good way. She kind of gave me the creeps through the whole ep.
LOL! Yeah, me too! All of sudden she would just stare off into space, with her face twitching, struggling against uncontrollable visions in her head. :shock:
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#6 Post by IslandHopper »

You've got to admit, she looks pretty good in that bathing suit walking into the tidal pool at Robin's Nest. You maybe able to overlook a little face-twitching for that. :wink:
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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#7 Post by lutherhgillis »

I liked this episode but it is a strange one! Eric is a Delta member and his leader, Delta 1 (Newton) wants to kill him! Yea, I'm sure the US military does that kind of thing all the time. Next, after finding his long lost love, Laura, at the King Kam club, he splits when seeing Magnum and they have a gun battle or two. Why would Magnum chase after him while shooting? I thought he was trying to find Eric for Laura. Why chase him trying to turn him into .45 caliber swiss cheese? Then the really unbelievable part. Eric gets shot by Newton and falls into the water. Magnum shoots Newton then he and Laura turn away from the dock and totally forget about Eric. I think even a cursory glance in Eric's direction would have been the polite thing to do...

Lutherhgillis

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#8 Post by J.J. Walters »

lutherhgillis wrote:I liked this episode but it is a strange one! Eric is a Delta member and his leader, Delta 1 (Newton) wants to kill him! Yea, I'm sure the US military does that kind of thing all the time.
It's funny you mention this Luther. I just watched The Bourne Identity (from the Robert Ludlum book) the other night and the plot was very similiar. Only in this story, the covert "soldier" doesn't die (despite the U.S. govt's. best attempts). Since "they" can't kill the rogue soldier, a congressman decides to rub out the CIA "black operator" of the program instead! :shock:

I agree with you, though. There are some very confusing events that take place in this episode!

You gotta feel for the Tobin family. It appears that Eric was subjected to some sort "Mind Control" experiments while with the covert "Delta" group. And poor Laura apparently has uncontrollable clairvoyance powers (ala Magnum) which allows her to see bad things. She can't even belt out a song on the piano without having to fight through these images in her head!
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#9 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

lutherhgillis wrote:Eric gets shot by Newton and falls into the water. Magnum shoots Newton then he and Laura turn away from the dock and totally forget about Eric. I think even a cursory glance in Eric's direction would have been the polite thing to do...
You'd think so, wouldn't you?

This sort of thing happens all the TIME on television. Somebody gets shot or falls off a balcony or whatever, and the bystanders never even check to see if they're still breathing, let alone call 911.

I guess it's sort of a dramatic shorthand, but it drives me nuts.

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#10 Post by AJL »

Some silly stuff here, especially the already mentioned part where Eric falls in the water after he is shot, and nobody cares. Not even his fiance wants to check on him :?
Was vaccinated with a phonograph needle one summer break
Same summer that I kissed her on her daddy's boat
And shot across the lake
Singing all the way...
Oh I say mama
Living Ain't a luxury
Oh I say mama
And a lil' ain't enough for me

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#11 Post by 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.
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#12 Post by 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!!

:)
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#13 Post by 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.
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#14 Post by 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…

-----

‘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.

-----

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.
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#15 Post by 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.

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