Spoilers

“Scavenger Hunt”

Muldoon makes a return to the Man from Atlantis series and they even referenced the last time he was on. Continuity! This is the first time in the series that there has been an allusion back to an earlier episode. For example, Mister Schubert has made multiple appearances and none of them make connections to previous encounters, outside of a knowledge of Mark Harris and the rest.

I try my best to remember that this series came out in 1977 and special effects were limited. Even still, the inclusion in this episode of the creature named Oscar was stretching the acceptability of special effects. It was a guy in a rubber suit and it was pretty obvious. I was able to look past this two-headed creature from a different world, but why did it have to sound like a horse whining every time it made a sound? That was a poor choice and something that could have been done better at the time.

The acting from the side characters of this series has never been great. It is continuing to be so with the natives of this island who just did not sound like they were doing anything but reading off a page. Again, I can understand the budget of hiring real actors for the minor background characters.

Mark’s heroic and honorable nature continues to be the highlight of the show. There were plenty of time Mark could use his super strength to fight or to respond with violence, but he does not do so. He responds with respect and with words and the fact that he does not have to do so, that he would be perfectly capable of surviving the situation by his strength alone, makes him all the more of a hero.

Even Muldoon, who is selfish and greedy, can’t help but to be a better person when he is around Mark. Once again though, the show sticks it to Muldoon as he has to pay the price because of his previous actions at the end of the show, even though he helped save everyone at the end. Poor Muldoon.

Spoilers

“C.W. Hyde”

Last episode, it was William Shakespeare. This episode was Robert Louis Stevenson. The episode took the character of C.W. and made him into a Mister Hyde-type like the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

While I enjoyed the idea of using C.W. as the head of an episode and giving him more to do than he normally gets on the show, this was terrible.

I disliked just about everything of this episode. From the moment that C.W. accidentally drank some coffee with an enzyme from the ocean floor, things went downhill on the show.

Starting with the ridiculous eyebrows and hairy hands that C.W. had and going to the absolutely ridiculous, almost comical, music that played through every scene where he was “Hyde,” this was poorly written and silly.

C.W. got involved with some gangster and his moll and this led to a stupid confrontation with the crooks, Mark, C.W. and his secretary, Sara, who we had never seen before at C.W.’s office. It was legitimately some of the worst written scenes from this series.

While this series has never been remarkably deep, it has been fun in its own manner. This was hard to watch and easily the worst episode of Man from Atlantis up to this point.

Spoilers

“The Naked Montague”

Man from Atlantis saved Romeo & Juliet?

Very Shakespearian. Mark finds another one of those weird undersea portals that sees him transported to Verona, with the very real blood feud between the Montagues and Capulets as seen in the tragedy of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.

Mark is still such a noble character. He is an unlikely action hero and, despite his super powers, he does not slip into violence easily and he treats everyone with respect.

We have seen Mark in the land of a giant, in the old West, and now 14th century Italy. As Mark is inserted into the classic tale, there is some swordplay, some Shakespearian language, and some epic family rivalries.

This was a weird episode, but I enjoyed the story. I think I just really enjoy the character of Mark Harris and any time you place him in a situation like this, you have a winning formula.

Part of it is the way Patrick Duffy plays Mark, so straightforward and almost monotone. It makes the character almost naive, and certainly heroic.