Past Tense (3.5)

[J.J. Walters]

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I think the French need to be more aware of helicopters around their prisons!

[N1095A]

Maybe French prisons should install AA guns.

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"But Higgins, I can explain."

[lutherhgillis]

I saw the same article and immediately thought of Past Tense.

The episode makes no sense from start to finish but I still enjoy it because of the character interaction and sense of adventure.

Was Lefevre coming to the estate to deliver a summons for Magnum to go to Lyden or are we to expect that Lyden arranged to have Lefevre bumped off in front of the estate?

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Who's Dot Matrix, and what has she got to do with this?

[Italian Ice]

I don't quite understand the whole story at the end.

I'm assuming that Lyden was stealing weapons and that's why his men were killed because they had nothing to defend themselves with. magnum was sent undercover to investigate. I'm not sure what TM means when he says "they couldn't affored you", and the words around that.

It went by pretty quickly so unless I missed something, this is one the episodes that has me guessing what the entire story is about.

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Higgins: Dispatch the pig!!!

[Rutledal]

[Jay-Firestorm]

Friday’s second review from me. I love this episode and consider it a classic, and am surprised that it doesn’t have a higher rating on the site.

[rating=10]

Two thugs hijack T.C. in his helicopter – and Higgins with it – and force them to help an inmate escape from prison, before they crash-land on a deserted island. Magnum tries to find where they’ve ended up, but is walking into a trap. A classic episode…

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This review contains spoilers.

This is one of my favourite third season episodes. Granted, it does have a couple of areas where the plot could have been clearer, but even so, it is a great story with those key MPI ingredients – humour, drama, and action.

When T.C.’s helicopter crashes on the island, budget kicks in as it goes down behind some trees (even the announcer when this episode was shown on Channel 5 here in the U.K. picked up on that). When the Ferrari was destroyed at the start of the season in ‘Did You See The Sunrise?’, it could be assumed that Robin Masters, being so rich simply replaced it with another one; quite how T.C. gets his helicopter back in subsequent episodes to this one, however, is harder to explain.
Undoubtedly the best thing about the episode is the moments between Higgins and T.C. When the series started, Higgins was there just to act as a thorn in Magnum’s side in plots, but as the series was growing, so was the relationship between the different characters, not just Magnum and Higgins. The moment that T.C. insists that if the bad guys shoot Higgins, then they’ll have to shoot him too, is a very noble one indeed.

James Wainwright makes a good villain as Morgan Lyden, one of the season’s best in my opinion. Of course, TV bad guys being what they are, they decide not to kill Higgins and T.C., even when they start killing each other!

This story is also notable for the first time we see Rick’s aging underworld contact Ice Pick (first mentioned but not seen in season two’s ‘The Last Page’). However, he is played by a different actor to usual, Walter Chotzen. It is the character’s only appearance in the season; Elisha Cook Jr. would take over the role starting in the fourth season.

I love the final scene of this episode, where the gang all walk away (and T.C. stretchered) complaining – especially at Magnum. It is an amusing ending to a pleasing story.

I do agree with some other reviewers that the plot could have been clearer (not least as to who that other guy was in jail; I didn’t quite get that), but overlooking these small holes, I love this episode for it’s great character moments, and it has a lot of action too. I personally give this one a 10 out of 10.

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Near the beginning, when Magnum drags the injured driver out of the truck just before the explosion, they are obviously stunt doubles that are blown to the ground. Watch the driver – he lands in a totally different position to the next shot where he is on the ground next to Magnum.

* Many of the shots of T.C.’s chopper in the air seem to come from the Pilot of the first couple of episodes, as it has the much longer skis.

* I thought I’d spotted a great one here: after Magnum and Rick search T.C.’s office, Magnum reaches through the door again to lock it; only for one of Lt. Tanaka’s officers to simply push it open a few moments later. However, I’ve just spotted that A P Leyland beat me to this one.

* A note regarding the spelling of Ice Pick – the closing credits spell it as two separate words, as opposed to one single word.

* Higgins’ smoking habits have already been discussed on the threads for several previous episodes, and it seems he still smokes – T.C. says to him (when he’s struggling to get his breath and keep up) “I told you to stop smoking”.

* On the DVD version of this episode, all but the third commercial breaks are abridged.

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JAY FIRESTORM

Facebook: Jay Gathergood / Twitter: Jay_Firestorm NEW BLOG: http://thea-teamcaptured.blogspot.com/

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!!

[Italian Ice]

I don't know Jay, from what everyone has said on this thread, and the fact some of us had trouble understanding the final conversation before the fight at the end, I don't think this one deserves a 10. Maybe a 9 at most, but not a 10. However, you're reviews are great to read and I totally respect your talent!

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Higgins: Dispatch the pig!!!

[Jay-Firestorm]

[lutherhgillis]

I like this one but not 10 of 10 maybe 7.5 or so. It is a good one however. Did anyone else get the idea that this could have been a 2 part episode? That would have allowed for more buildup. Maybe LeFevere would have made more sense. and they could have explained a little more about Lyden. I know TM went under cover to bust him while in the service but not much else is clear.

There was strong acting in this one. Higgins and TC are very believable in their death march. There should have been more of a fight at the end. TM disabled Lyden a little too easily.

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Who's Dot Matrix, and what has she got to do with this?