Thanks for the review! I'm going to have to check my local tv guide to make sure this week's episode will be shown at its regular time. This show sounds like a pretty good one.

: While fleeing from dinosaurs, Challenger, Malone, Marguerite and Roxton discover the ruins of a lost city that is covered by the jungle. Multi-lingual Marguerite is, of course, able to read the warning that the former inhabitants carved in stone, warning everyone of the strange powers that they discovered. Challenger meanwhile finds a stone plate on which the structure of an atom is displayed. When he puts a small crystal ball on the plate, he is suddenly engulfed by a blinding light and loses consciousness. As in a dream, Challenger's mind enters into an alternate reality.

You know, this actually made me stop and think for a second, and I'll have to see the show to confirm my suspicions, but I'm wondering if the writers were going with the "its all just a dream" storyline, or if they were trying to present the "this is what the future holds" storyline, particularly in the instance of Marge turning down Challenger's diamond gift (discussed later).

: >From now on, I will mark the shift from reality to alternate reality and back with an R / AR. I'm too lazy to write it down all the time, and believe me, there's is a lot of reality jumping coming up. :)<

Hey, I think that's a pretty good way of handling it!

: AR: ... Suddenly, they are attacked by Dirkon and his band of slavers. Before the others can help them, Malone is knocked down and Veronica kidnapped. The injured Malone is left behind at the treehouse, while Roxton, Marguerite and a very much alive Challenger follow the trail of the slavers.

I think I've figured out what Malone's job on the show is - he's the "man in the red shirt" in Star Trek terms. Trekies may recall that people who wore the red shirts were the ones that always got zapped by aliens, infected with deadly bacteria, or just outright killed. So far, Malone's been fed to a tree that stole his youth, bitten by a velociraptor so that he had to be dragged through the jungle, and now he's been bonked by slavers.

: AR: At the slaver's camp, Veronica is tied to a pole with her right wrist secured (you know why, Troy)):. When some of the slavers try to approach her, she kicks them. Dirkon steps in, telling his men not to harm her, because an injured Veronica will bring them less money (at the monthly slave auction, I guess) :).

I still don't get the whole "just secure one wrist" thing, except as an excuse for Veronica to throw a bunch of kicks at the slavers. Seems to me that they'd secure both wrists, or at least shackle her legs so that she couldn't fight back. In my community, when someone resists arrest, they are usually thrown to ground and double-cuffed so that they don't hurt any of the police officers. So here are slavers, the evil guys, and they don't even try to restrain someone who's resisting? Hmmm.

: Back in the treehouse, a weakened Malone blames himself for Veronica's capture (testosterone riding high again)):, and tries to follow after the others but can't get past Summerlee(!), our usual voice of reason. >Okay, I know Malone was injured, but that really was a miserable display. My grandmother, with a little training, could've gotten past Summerlee. :)<

I've got to see this for myself!

: .... Veronica jumps in front of Roxton to protect him and is killed instead. >At that moment, you might hear a loud noise. Do not, I repeat, do not adjust your TV-Set, it is just the show's ratings taking a deep dive. :)<

You got that right!

: R: In the treehouse, Summerlee, Marguerite and Veronica (ratings going up again) see a tear dropping from Challenger's eye.

Whew! I'm glad to see that it was all just a dream!

: AR: Roxton and Marguerite prepare to take Veronica's corpse back to the treehouse. Challenger asks them to stay with him, claiming he did not want to kill her. As proof, he is shedding a tear over her death which he turns into a diamond, handing it to Marguerite. She rejects it, telling him that some things cannot be bought with diamonds....

This goes back to my question about "its all just a dream" or "this is the future of things to come". Would Marge go through this transformation from being self-centered to starting to develop the capacity to love others more than herself? Keep in mind that, later on, Challenger will destroy the idol and won't allow this "future" to occur, so will Marge go through this transformation or will she continue to be the gem-loving, self-centered character Challenger suspects her to be? Or maybe she's already transformed and her "future" act is just a confirmation of what she's already become. Hmmmm. This is getting too deep for campy entertainment ;)

: At night in the treehouse, while Malone is sleeping, Summerlee is surprised by Challenger, who claims that the others, minus Veronica, will be back soon. He tells Summerlee he will fulfill his most important wish. Suddenly, they find themselves in a room where they witness Summerlee's wife dying with Summerlee sitting next to her. When that Summerlee is leaving his dying wife, Challenger tells Summerlee that now is his second change. He can correct that mistake. Summerlee goes to his wife, to be with her while she's dying. Back in the treehouse, Summerlee tells Challenger that this is the wrong way, he invaded his privacy and that such power is too much for a man. Challenger says he's more than a man. Summerlee accuses Challenger of using him and that Challenger's gone mad. In a rage, Challenger pushes Summerlee over the ledge of the treehouse, killing him. Realizing what he has done, Challenger cries out.

This reminds me of a scene from one of the "Star Trek" films, where Bones McCoy dreams that he goes back in time to see his father, who is dying of a rare disease. It is a turning point in McCoy's life (and DeForest Kelly works the scene very well). We've seen Summerlee's lamenting his wife's death once before in one of the early episodes of TLW, when he was in a delirium and cries out to Marge, mistaking her for his wife Anne, and apologizes to "Anne" for his failures to her. It was a touching scene and Sinelnikoff does a very good job with it.

: R: Challenger cries out and his heart stops. Summerlee tries to revive Challenger by applying electroshocks, with Malone working on the electric generator with Veronica at his side. Challenger wakes up and, realizing what will happen next, warns the others of the attack of Dirkon and his slavers. Roxton and Marguerite come in time to help Veronica and Malone fight off the slavers. After the fight, they can't find Challenger.

My scoring so far: Veronica 2, Slavers 1.

: Later, Marguerite comes to Challenger, asking him how he knew that the slavers would be attacking. Challenger tells her that it's a long story, but the one thing he has learned is that man shouldn't try to play god. He also knows now that Marguerite wouldn't betray her friends, even for the most precious diamond in the world.

But has she really grown to love others more than herself? The timeline never reaches that point where she actually denies the diamond. Ouch! My brain is starting to hurt!

: ---------

: Fred's absolutely right. Just enjoy this show on it's own terms! This episode totally lived up to my expectations. Campy, silly, with a few holes in the story, but very entertaining. I will not go into too many details of this episode, only a few points I'd like to make:

: - The short scene with his dying wife confirmed my earlier criticism that Summerlee's not utilized enough. Michael Sinelnikoff is an actor that should be given more room to show his skills.

Exactly. The worst actor: Tie between David Orth and Will Snow, but I'm giving Will Snow some credit for enduring the horrible scenes he was given in "Blood Lust" where he's roaming the jungle looking for prey. But Orth isn't the worst they've had. That credit goes to the actress that played the witchdoctor on "Nectar". In my opinion, there are 2 actors on that show - Michael Sinelnikoff and Peter McCauley. Rachel Blakely is a character actor - all of her roles on other shows have been about the same - the snooty self-centered person. Jennifer O'Dell still needs some polishing but has potential if she can land a few more roles in other shows that allow her to play different kinds of characters. But O'Dell does a very good job playing the action hero. If I was her agent, I'd try to get her a job doing a comedy film, and then maybe a drama.

: - With Dirkon and his slavers we might have the closest thing to a recurring nemesis yet. They were beaten in the end, but judging from the look on Dirkon's face, we haven't seen the last of them yet. But can anyone please tell me why the slavers look like they were coming right out of a "Mad Max" movie?

Because both were filmed in Australia :)

: Dirkon would especially be a useful character opposite Veronica. In this context, it was good to see Veronica finally lose a fight. I think it would be a mistake to turn her into some sort of invincible "Xena of the jungle". When characters cannot possibly come to any harm and win every fight they're involved in, they soon become less interesting. The same applies to Roxton. To have them lose the occasional fight keeps the characters (and the stories) more interesting.

You're right - the characters need to have flaws in order to keep the show interesting. Veronica's been captured at least 3 times: once by the Saurian Empire (when the others were captured as well), once by a Cristec warrior, and now by the Slavers. Each time she was captured, the cheesecake meter started to ping pretty loudly: The Saurians put her in a 2-piece evening gown as a pleasure slave, the Cristecs threw her in a river and cut her arm to give her an excuse to present her pectoral muscles to the camera, and the slavers chained her to a pole so that she could high-kick. Hopefully you're right and we'll see the slavers come back again. I'm sure Dirkon will want Veronica even more now - we always want what we can't have ;)

:
: With it's apparent flaws (and there are some), why is this show still working? In my opinion, because it is done in a very professional manner. Production design, special effects, camera, sound and acting usually display a high standard for a TV show. In less capable hands, some of the TLW scripts would just fall flat on their faces. However, if you present them the way they do, it usually still makes for an entertaining 1 h. Camp presented in an unprofessional way makes for boredom. Camp presented in a skillfull way can be very entertaining. This, of course, does not mean that the producers should always rely on their presentation skills. In the second season something should be done for story continuity and originality, as we discussed before. But as long as they turn out episodes like this one, I'm not complaining too loudly. :)

As I had mentioned before, suspense was never the strongest point of the show. The show survives because of the way the material is presented (and that includes the cheesecake parts). The storylines are usually pretty easy to figure out, there's a good mix of action, cheesecake, and plot, and the show doesn't take itself too seriously (so the audience shouldn't either). "Hercules" and "Xena" have their formulas and TLW has its formula. Herc and Xena have lots of acrobatic fight scenes with people (usually the heroes) swinging from poles, jumping through the air, and everyone falling down. In TLW, there's the initial gunfight followed by kicks and punches, and then by everyone falling down. And there's no gore, no foul language, no disturbing moral questions. That's why this show survives - it has a good formula.

Now, if only they could maintain story continuity, it'd really be a good show. I think a band of slavers would be a good nemisis (but the Saurian Empire is still my #1 contender for that job). Hopefully we'll see Dirkon again, and next time he'll be smart enough to secure both of Veronica's arms :)

Also, I think the producers are holding back on some of the cheesecake (whether its intentional or not, I'm not sure). For example, one of the oldest devices to build suspense is a whipping scene (see "Starship Troopers" for example). Now, in this episode of TLW, Veronica has defied her captors and injured Dirkon's men. So why didn't they chain her to a whipping post and give her a good lashing? Instead, we get Dirkon trying to build a rationalization - a reason to just keep his men away from her. Did the writers put it in there, but Landis took the scene out? Come to think of it, I don't recall any of the characters undergoing any form of torture in any of the episodes other than being marched through the jungle with their hands tied behind their back. In Star Trek, Kirk endured the whip, electricity, a spinning table, and even a chair that warped his mind. Spock went through a whipping and suspension. McCoy hung in tatters as part of an experiment by aliens. Even Chekov spent some time screaming in agony. And each time, the scene was used to build towards a climactic ending (or at least a dramatic build-up before going to a commercial). I guess I should reserve my opinion until after I actually see this TLW episode, but I think its an interesting point.

Anyway, thanks for the review! I can't wait for the show to air.