Posted by Diorite Gabbro on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/Greetings-tp1509895p1509948.html

Here I sit, watching the first episode again. I've
watched in a couple of times closely now. Gee, I'm
even all of the way up to 2004 in the archives, so I
have a fair idea of a lot of what has been discussed.
Let's see if I can come up with anything that hasn't
been mentioned before.

Well, it's a pilot episode. It does what pilot
episodes do. As a teen I was grabbed by the teaser,
then it was "What the heck?" when we suddenly jump to
the studio. I remember it taking me a couple of
minutes to realize we were watching the same guy we
saw thrown out of the car in the wreck.

Rugs. More rugs in this show that in the mansion in
"Dynasty". Of course, there's Straker's platinum
blond wig. And the first instance where the wig
didn't quite cover up the fact of Ed Bishop's much
darker natural hair color. There is Alec's wig, which
is actually pretty good but there is something funky
about the hair line. And then the one I hadn't
noticed until I heard Wanda Ventham on her commentary
- yes, Virginia, you are wearing a hair piece in this
episode to give you the big hair. LOL.

Did anybody else ever notice that the pants legs on
Straker's off-white jump suit are held down by black
elastic straps under the shoes? I don't think they
did that on any of his other costumes, but that one
they did.

Peter Gordeno looked exceptionally fine in those
off-white pants and mesh shirt. Yum.

Ah, the joys of dry ice! It's what makes that lovely
boiling effect in the water after the UFO crashes.

I've seen comments about Straker throwing the cigar
butt on the ground when he first gets out of the car
and the rude blowing of ash off of his desk onto poor
Alec the Letch. I also notice that Straker leaves his
briefcase for Miss Ealand to bring in. Did they ever
give her a first name? I really liked her character.
Anyway, they seem to set off to make Straker as
obnoxious as humanly possible right from the start.

But we also get the first glimpse of the softer side
of Straker. It's at the end when he conveys his
condolences to Capt. Carlin. Then he wanted to spare
him the details of his sister's demise.

And then there is the comment about the aliens coming
from a dying planet, its resources exhausted. Ah,
echoes of the early days of environmentalism.

So, did I find anything new?

Diorite