Reviews

This episode uses the tried-and-true plot device of one of the characters, in this case Dr. Phlox, narrating a letter he's written to somebody else. (Some might call this plot device contrived, trite and beaten-to-death rather than tried and true.) Phlox faces an ethical dilemma, blah blah blah... A more interesting aspect of this episode is the suspected attraction that Crewman Cutler may feel for Dr. Phlox. To paraphrase Dr. Carl Sagan, an alien would have just as good a chance at procreating with a petunia as with a human being. But that has never stopped Star Trek characters from feeling attracted to all kinds of bizarre aliens. On the Earth there is a name for this kind of attraction. It starts with B and rhymes with cordiality. But in the Star Trek universe, it's business as usual.

I have seen over 200 World War II movies (I keep a list) and I have seen most -if not all - of the World War II documentaries ever produced, such as Victory at Sea, the World at War, World War II in Color, and so very many more. Yet I had never seen the vast majority of the footage included in these six episodes. The colorization is extremely well done, so perhaps one might forgive the fact that there are times where the film screams out for image stabilization. And of course there are the phony dubbed-in sound effects like explosions, marching feet, or voices (watching programs like this it's always easy to forget that World War II documentary film footage was not recorded with sound).

But the true weakness of this documentary series lies with its writing and its narration. Often not enough perspective is given of the unspeakable nature and frequency of Nazi and Imperial Japanese crimes, and too much made of questionable Allied practices such as bombing cities. Many events are glossed over, and some that are covered are covered haphazardly. The big question is who chose this narrator and why? He often speaks with a colloquial British dialect and pronunciation that is really out of place in a serious documentary.

An assemblage of absolute garbage. Except for a few short vignettes, the entire film looks like one long video game. I kept reaching for the controller...but there was none. This phenomenon was so obvious during the prison escape/train sequence that I began laughing at the absurdity of this film. Maybe it's because of so many CGI special effects that it resembles a video game. Maybe it's because wooden Chris Hemsworth has all the acting skills of a video game avatar. Maybe it's because all of the characters are cartoon cut outs of real people.

If you want mindless action, and by action I mean people constantly shooting at each other with military weapons and generally missing each other even from point-blank range, by all means waste your time on this film. Otherwise, like me, you'll regret the two hours you'll never get back.

The film really adds nothing to the Stargate world, and features a sidebar gay love story that is utterly irrelevant to the plot (although that's not at all unusual these days in any film or TV show) that was clearly added to push someone's agenda.

The acting is generally poor. One wonders if Connor Trinneer is really so hard up for acting gigs that he took this one just to get work....any work.

Another weakness is the film's habit of playing fast and loose with Stargate canon. For example, a Stargate generally takes a lot of power to dial up and activate. In this film they are able to do it by doing nothing more than connecting it to a running 1930s car engine.

However, never fear. When all else fails, introduce cartoonish 1930s Nazis to a film. And so that is done here. It all resembles a poor man's Raiders of the Lost Ark a little too closely for comfort.

I really wanted to like this show. Unfortunately, despite being labeled as a comedy (and drama), the laughs are few and far between and they are only small chuckles when they come. Worse, the episode in which the ladies go camping devolved into an exercise in 2020s woke grievance. But for those of us who were alive and already adults in the 1980s, that type of thinking and behavior was just not around at the time. Personally, I don't like being preached to by a second-rate TV show, much less by one destroying its setting and tone by employing an anachronism in order to do the preaching.

If one is only familiar with Rosalind Chao from her work on Star Trek, as I was, one could be forgiven for underestimating her formidable talent (as it turns out, she has had a long, busy and award-winning career). But her performance as Viet Cong "liberation fighter" Li Kiem in this episode is an absolute masterpiece worthy of an Emmy, or two. I do not have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to describe it. Credit Stephen Caffrey as Lt. Goldman for holding his own opposite Chao with an outstanding performance of his own.

I have seen every episode of Tour of Duty, and in my mind this one is the best. 10 stars, or maybe 20 - if you only see this show once, make this episode the one you watch...and revel in these 2 performances.

Not one of the better entries of the series: short on plot, a little creepy, a tiny bit trite, Frankly the effort put forth by the production team is miniscule. Fortunately Michael Dunn's performance dwarfs that of his fellow guest stars.