This is the official MM thread for Did You See the Sunrise? (1) (3.1). 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).

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Original Air Date: 9/30/1982
The past comes back to haunt T.C. when an old war buddy arrives claiming that the brutal Colonel who held them captive in a Vietnamese P.O.W. camp is after them once again. Initially, T.C. doesn't take the warning seriously, but he and Magnum soon find themselves in a heart-pounding race against the clock to find their would-be killer before he finds them.

One of the best Magnum episodes ever! A great story with some intense scenes. And a tragic death. Bo Svenson is great as the super soviet agent Col. Ivan, one the best villians in the series.

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Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

I have a question about the final scenes of Part 2. First of all, in re-watching some of the shows lately, we've noticed that Thomas seems to be left-handed, which I never particularly noticed before. Is that correct? Is Tom Selleck (and consequently T.S. Magnum) left-handed?

If so, at the end, when Magnum opens the limousine door and points the gun at Ivan to get him out of the car, the gun is in his left hand. That works, if he's left-handed. However, the final shot at the end -- the Execution of Ivan -- Magnum is shooting with the gun in his right hand. If you doubt this, look at the picture for this episode on the Episodes page.

So either he's ambidextrous with a gun or the picture and scene was "flipped" to mirror image.

What's the skinny on this?

golf

He seems to be right-handed, but I have noticed that TS appears to be ambidextrous. He seems to write, play tennis (Mixed Doubles), golf (Forty Years from Sand Island), shoot, catch and throw a baseball (Squeeze Play), and pass a football (No More Mr. Nice Guy) right handed, but he does bat left handed (Squeeze Play).

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The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

Funny, I was just going to post about that after watching an episode yesterday in which Magnum was swinging a bat left-handed. It was either Rapture or Way of the Stalking Horse -- I'm not sure which it was.

Anyway, while I was watching Photo Play today I saw him do a lot of things right handed, including holding his pistol, and he was obviously sighting with his right eye as well. He may be ambidextrous, but maybe not. I have a friend who is left-handed but he bats, golfs, and even plays guitar right-handed. He is not ambidextrous, he can only write with his left hand. He claims that right-handers do all of these things backwards, and he makes a good argument!

eegorr,

I think it was "Way of the Stalking Horse" as that was on Sleuth just a few days ago and we were watching it and that was when my spouse pointed out that TM was batting left-handed. Maybe he's right-handed for everything but batting. And doesn't the military try to train everyone so that they can use a gun with either hand (or both)? TS himself has no military background, and having him use guns in either or both hands (a la John Wayne or other cowboys who wore guns on both hips) is really going into "detail" realism for Magnum's military skills background, and I really doubt the producers/directors, etc., put that much thought into gun handling scenes. It was probably more what was the best angle for the take and they probably didn't think the viewers would even notice -- and who did at the time? I'm noticing LOTS of little things that just zipped by me before I joined this group and really started paying attention. My spouse tells me to "stop picking at everything" and just enjoy the entertainment. Then HE becomes observant. It must be infectious . . . .

golf

Hey Golf, another good post.

My experiencce in the Army was that they did not train us to shoot with both hands. You could if you wanted to, but it wasn't required. I qualified on the rifle range and hand gernade range as a righty only. You did not have to qualify using both hands. It's funny, I qualifed as an expert on the gernade range. But, again as a righty, as I am right handed, and I am not ambidextrous. So if I tried to throw a live gernade as a lefty as I do right handed, someone would be in for a world of hurt. As a matter of fact, I knew many leftys who chose to qualify witht he M-16 as a righty because the hot brass is ejected out the right side of the rifle, and if you were firing left handed, the brass would often go down your blouse and burn the you know what out of you. They had brass deflectors you could put on the rifle so you wouldn't get brass down your blouse, but it didn't always divert every spent shell.

As far as TS's military background, I was under the impression that he was in the California Army National Guard.

In part 2 of Did You See The Sunrise, I also took notice that Magnum had his .45 in his left hand when he opened the door. However, I thought maybe he did that because of the way he approached Ivan's limo and rear right door. His right hand was the first to reach the door handle and he could have opened the door without Ivan seeing him through the window as opposed to, if he had his .45 in his right hand then he may have had to travel further down the length of the car and expose himself through the window before he could open the door with his left hand. I think he did it the way he did (or the writers had him do it) for purposes of surprise.

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The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

Yes, that's sort of what I thought -- he had the gun in his left hand because the shot was better filmed that way. As for the using a gun for each hand -- I guess I've been reading too many CIA black-ops novels when the protagonists can do anything!

However, I still have a question about this episode. It's very rewarding that he took Ivan out, but really, this doesn't make much sense. What did they do with the body? Okay, Rick was keeping the driver of the limo occupied while TM did the dirty, but after the driver gets fed up and goes back to the limo, he's not going to notice his passenger is gone? And he didn't hear the gunshot (TM should have at least used a silencer)? And then TM and Rick, I assume, still have to dispose of the body. Or do they drop a gun by Ivan and claim self-defense?

This really just leaves too much open.

But I really did like the flying part where TC was going to take out the Japanese ambassador thinking it was Ivan. Even my spouse commented when the two helicopters were hovering almost dead-still over the pond, "Boy, those pilots can hover!" I think I'm going to start using, "Portside, buddy," as my signature quote. The feeling conveyed in only those two words is worthy of an Emmy.

golf

Golf,

I've often wondered the same thing. Did they shoot the limo driver too? And, don't you think that the State Department would be more than a little peeved, and investigate into the death of Ivan since they took the trouble to let him go by giving him "diplomatic immunity" despite his partner Nuzzo killing all of those Marines in the previous scene. This would certainly not put the State Department in good stead with the Soviets. Surely they would want some answers.

I was also surprised that Magnum used his own gun (.45), because it is very easy to do a ballistics analysis on the bullet that killed Ivan and trace it back to Magnum's gun. Anyway, that was the final scene of a 2 part episode, so I guess we just have to chalk it up to writer's prerogative.

The other problem I have with this episode, is the fact that Ivan and Nuzzo decided to unleash TC after years of dormancy to assassinate the "Japanese Ambassador." Japanese Ambassador? Why is the Japanese Ambassador so strategic that Ivan would waste bringing TC out into the open to go after the Japanese Ambssador? You would have thought that Ivan would have used someone like TC for a much more sinister mission; not on an ambassador of a country who we have been allies with for 40 years. You talk about a waste of resources.

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The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

What if the goal of killing the japanese ambassador was to strain relations between the US and Japan?

After all, it would have been TC (an American) doing the killing, and not the Soviets.

No one would have known Nuzo and Ivan were involved had all gone to plan.

It would have been propaganda for them to say "Oh, look, the US killed the Japanese ambassabor, we wouldn't do that. Bad America!"