: As I understood it, this was a "this is what the future holds" storyline. Challenger, in his delirium, was able to see the future and could therefore change it, once he fully realized the disastrous consequences of his new powers. I actually preferred that solution to a "just a dream" approach.

I'll have to see the episode myself, I suppose. Hopefully we will see a transformation in Marge in later episodes and let Rachel Blakely stretch her acting talents a bit. I've never been much of a fan of part-good, part-bad heroes in action stories. I like the characters' moral positions to be clear. I want to actually cheer for the heroes rather than say "its good that they won, but did they have to do all those evil things along the way?". Marguerite Krux should be growing with each episode. I hope the writers have a master plan for her.

:
: : : AR: At the slaver's camp, Veronica is tied to a pole with her right wrist secured (you know why, Troy) :)

: : 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.

: BTW, you were not quite right about the cheesecake shot of the week. The kicking scene you depicted from the website photo was shown from a different (less revealing) camara angle in the episode. The real cheesecake shot appeared near the end, during the second fight scene. ... It probably doesn't get more revealing than that in this kind of a show.

Egad! Not a flattering pose for her or for any woman. Almost too revealing. I like cheesecake, but not that angle. I would've preferred the angle used in the screenshots on the TLW official site. Much more flattering.

: : : - 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 ... 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 ... O'Dell does a very good job playing the action hero.

: I agree with most of your observations, though I do believe that Rachel Blakely has some potential to go beyond the "snooty self-centered person" type. Every now and then there are flashes of more, when the script allows. Her final scene with Challeneger in this episode was one of them.

I'll have to watch for it. I'm hoping that Marge will grow as a character and become less of an object of suspicion by the others.

:Will Snow is certainly not the best actor around (slight understatement :)), but I think he is the right choice for the part and does a reasonably good job.

True, he does a good job given the 2-dimensional character he's playing. But I look at him and I compare him to Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Bob Peck as Muldoon in "Jurassic Park", and I think he could use a bit more "depth". Then again, he may just be a victim of poor writing.

:As for David Orth, it's almost impossible to make a real judgement about his acting skills in that kind of part.

Again, you raise a good point. I suppose his trouble is the fact that Malone is a fairly simple character.

: : : Dirkon would especially be a useful character opposite Veronica. In this context, it was good to see Veronica finally lose a fight. ...

: : You're right - the characters need to have flaws in order to keep the show interesting.

: All of the times Veronica has been captured it was while she was fighting against overwhelming odds... The same (overwhelming odds) applies to Roxton, both he and Veronica have not yet lost a fight in one on one combat. This somehow seems difficult for some writers "to do" to their main characters. Yet I think it's important to have them loose such a fight once in a while, just to show that these characters are also human...

Good point. The heroes should be defeatable. I think that's one problem with the comic-book hero Superman, which the creators of that character "fixed" by the introduction of Kryptonite. At the same time, she can't get captured every week just to be rescued by Challenger or Roxton. I suppose the writers think that having her being defeated by overwhelming odds allows them to preserve her as a strong character and still set up a dramatic plot point in the storyline.
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: ::...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 ... 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? ...

: In the TV environment of today, it's often more difficult to get away with some of the things that were shown on Star Trek Classic in the 60's. The scene in the slaver's camp with Veronica was pushing the previous limits of TLW, if only for a little bit. ... Dirkon's argument, do not damage our most precious "object", was logical. Why should they injure someone they made such an effort to capture to sell at a slave auction for a high price?

Another good point. I'll have to see that scene to see how it plays out.