Survival of the Fittest
Steve Austin and Oscar Goldman catch a military transport flight to Washington DC. The flight is going through a storm over the Pacific Ocean when it gets struck by lightning. The captain of airplane and his crew manage to land the airplane in the ocean near an island. The captain and crew are killed when the airplane hits the water but everyone else survives the landing.
Two men among the survivors of the crash landing, US Air Force Major Cromwell and US Navy Commander Maxwell have plans to kill Oscar Goldman. They manage to lure Oscar away from Steve but Steve senses that something is wrong in time to come to Oscar's rescue. The major accidentally shoots and kills the commander while they are both trying to gun down Oscar. Steve deals with the major.
There is more to this episode but I think I've described it as thoroughly as needed. There is a subplot that involves a soldier, PFC Barris, who has a year of medical school under his belt. Barris was played by Randall Carver who I know from the first season of Taxi.
James McEachin played the part of Major Cromwell. I've seen him other things including an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (The Plot to Kill a City - Part 2).
William Smith played the part of Commander Maxwell. I've seen him a number of other things including an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (Buck's Duel to the Death) where he played a much bigger and more menacing character than he did in this episode.
Where were Steve and Oscar flying from? What were Cromwell and Maxwell after? Who was paying them to kill Oscar Goldman? Why wasn't it suspicious when they left everyone behind on the beach and went inland? Did they really need to include the subplot involving Barris? It added little to nothing to the story although it did help to pad out the script.
Lieutenant Colby, one of the other passengers on the plane, was played by Christine Belford. I saw her recently in an episode of Wonder Woman where she played Baroness Paula von Gunther.
There's a moment where Steve cuts open his finger so that he can use some live wires from his bionic hand to cauterize Oscar's wound. I have a memory of a moment like that from an episode of this show when I was a kid but nothing else in this episode felt familiar.
This episode starts out okay but after they get to the island the writing gets abysmal. There are plot holes that you could drive a truck through. I wasn't crazy about the previous episode but this one is much worse.
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