co-starring: Ed Grover as Major Briggs, Alan Fudge as Mr Perry, Nico Minardos as Rashaad, William Lucking as Colonel Lynch, Warren J Kemmerling as General Ludlam, Amy Steel as Kathy Ludlam, Danny Wells as Film Director, Barbra Horan as Rhonda
Written by Frank Lupo, Patrick Hasburgh (story by Babs Greyhosky)
Directed by Arnold Laven
Hannibal, Face and BA are captured by the military and agree to go on a mission to rescue a General from a compound in Borneo.
Despite the forgettable title, this is one of the best first season episodes, perhaps a little untidy in the scripting with its patchwork nature but still full of classic A-Team moments. It all kicks off with an excellent chase sequence that begins when Face tells a girl, “Where would I possibly find a woman who could drag me away from you?”, only for Hannibal to appear in drag riding a motorcycle. Face rides as passenger as Hannibal attempts to evade the chasing Colonel Lynch and it is part of the fun that there is an obvious dummy on the back of the motorcycle during some of the jumps.
This episode marks the first appearance by Lucking as Colonel Lynch since the pilot and also his last before being replaced by Colonel Decker in season 2 (though Lynch did come back for one season 3 episode, “Showdown”). Look out for Dennis Haysbert (best known for his role as the President in "24") who has a one-scene role as a hospital orderly.
One of the highlights is BA being parachuted out of a plane while unconscious, a funny scene which was later lifted and used in the season 5 opener "Dishpan Man". There's a lot of fun as Amy and Murdock team up and go in pursuit of the rest of the team (Murdock thinks they should have nicknames and chooses Penny and Sky King). It's an episode full of good humour with Amy getting stuck in a tree after her parachute drop and an initial raid on the compound that ends up in the kitchen. Great fun. 9/10.
Great review, H.M.! This is definitely one of the best episodes of Season One.
ReplyDeleteNo exposition scenes, no meeting and screening clients... instead, this episode starts right off with great A-Team action and humor! Though the Team is separated in two groups throughout virtually the entire episode (Murdock and Amy have to play catch-up with Hannibal, B.A., and Face), this isn't really a drawback as we still have wonderful comedic interplay between Amy and Murdock, as well as some Hannibal-Face-B.A. discussions of their fugitive status vs. dealing with facing 30 years in prison. (All five team members will spend most of the episode together in the show's next offering, "Till Death Do Us Part.")
There seems to be some inconsistency throughout the show as to what the Team's original sentence was for robbing the Bank of Hanoi in Vietnam (or, to be more precise, what sentence they would face if caught again). In this episode, they're facing 30 years, but in "Black Day at Bad Rock" Hannibal mentions that they would be facing 20 years.