04: The Beast Within (1.04)

1978; 50 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by Karen Harris/Jill Sherman; Produced by James Parriot/Chuck Bowman
Directed by Kenneth Gilbert

Enticed by the research that Dr Claudia Baxter is undertaking at a zoo, David Bradburn (who now changes his name at every new place he momentarily settles) acquires a job as a cleaner so he can get more involved.  It turns out that Baxter is actually a follower of the 'deceased' David Banner's work (although he refrains from revealing himself at this point), working on analysis of the source of aggression in animals.  She's also impressed that a janitor possesses quite a high degree of scientific knowledge...  It's not all as straightforward as that though: several malicious individuals are intent on smuggling via use of the animals themselves, the misfortune being that David and Claudia are about to become a touch too aware of what's going on for their own good.

A timescale is acknowledged in this episode when David says to Claudia that his wife died 'last year', suggesting that the appearances of the Hulk are less frequent than the TV series would suggest!  Engaged in mutually comprehensible scientific discussion, David and Claudia strike up a rapport almost immediately - his relations with females would become periodically more prominent but things could never quite work out for him, particularly as he would always feel it necessary to get back on the road once the Hulk showed up.  Occasionally I wouldn't have considered this to be the best strategy, for instance in this case - because Claudia appears to be on route to discovering a way forward that might help Banner - it would have made sense to lay low until the National Register attention died down before assisting her with the research (as she offered).  However, McGee arrives on the scene and again this is David's prompt to move on.

This is the episode where Hulk is caged with a giant gorilla, a fight that the primate naturally cannot win, and as has been hinted at previously, the monster demonstrates knowledge of what was happening prior to transformation (or what's somewhere in his own/Banner's brain) because he carries out logically necessary deeds to ensure the threat itself is banished, rather than some innocent bystander.  The story overall carries itself quite well.

Number of Fists: ***

03: The Final Round (1.03)

1978; 51 minutes
Written by Kenneth Johnson; Produced by James Parriot/Chuck Bowman

Director of Photography John McPherson
Directed by Kenneth Gilbert

Arriving in New Orleans David is welcomed to the city with a partially successful mugging, which is fortunately (for the muggers?) interrupted by a passing jogger who turns out to be a wannabe world champion boxer.  'Rocky' lets David stay at his apartment for a few days and gets him a job at the gym, taking advantage of David's medical expertise.  However, Rocky is essentially being led along by the gym's owner, who knows the fighter doesn't have the talent to make it to the top but keeps a carrot dangled so he can keep him making local drug deliveries.  Once David clicks on to what's happening his attempts to stop Rocky being deliberately killed in a boxing match attract the unwanted attention of the manager.

Once again Banner's tendency to do what's right at all costs brings him into conflict with those who have a diametric approach to life.  The boxer himself is a character worthy of sympathy and actually exhibits a trait common to many people - he thinks he knows what's best for himself, blind to the truth.  Everyone around him who cares about him can see what he should and shouldn't be doing, but there is no telling the guy until tragedy looms.

The two appearances of the Hulk are very good here.  Throughout the episode the lighting is harsher than episode 2, producing a highly contrasted image (somewhat akin to how The X Files would often look twenty years later), and this in turn enhances the creature's arrival, first in a back alley brawl, and second in the boxing ring itself.  The latter is a great sequence - McGee has been invited along to the fight to see Rocky in action (although he is really there after gossip of the first Hulk sighting has obviously made its way back to his ears), while David has been knocked out and gagged before being left in a cage suspended above the ring in order to be dealt with later on.  When the Hulk breaks out there's a brilliant moment of silence across the crowd before hell explodes, bringing Hulk and McGee momentarily face to face.  This is nicely played by Jack Colvin, whereby McGee's excitement clearly exceeds his fear.  The Final Round is a nice episode that embraces the now-established conventions of the series.

Number of Fists: ****

02: Death In The Family (1.02)

1977; 94 minutes
Written and Produced by Kenneth Johnson

Director of Photography Charles W Short
Directed by Alan J Levi

Taking place perhaps a few days or weeks after the events of the pilot, this season 1 opener begins as many subsequent episodes would begin; with David on the road.  On his way to an institute where some new radiotherapy equipment is being pioneered, he finds and helps a collapsed crippled woman back to her estate and is offered a temporary job there as a reward.  The girl is routinely being injected with something to apparently help her condition but David's scientific knowledge informs him that the solution being delivered is not what her guardians are saying it is.  He becomes deeply embroiled in a plot to end the girl's life without arousing suspicion so that insidious people can acquire her inherited fortune.

Perhaps too long at feature length, the story features David receiving his first beating that causes a transformation.  Hulk is shown more clearly than in the pilot, which is possibly not the best creative decision but they no doubt wanted to advertise what this show is partly about.  I mentioned in the pilot entry that David can be stubborn and it is this trait that gets him into trouble here - his insistence on interfering (albeit with altruistic intentions) is what lands him in deep water throughout the whole episode.  McGee is hot on the creature's trail (as soon as there is news of a sighting he would generally,  like a recurring odour, materialise).  Interestingly his newspaper is provided with a little expository background - The National Register, which does not have the best reputation due to certain liberties ostensibly being taken with the truth.  Stories about a giant green abomination are likely to do little to help that I would imagine!  McGee also comes into very close contact with Banner on a couple of occasions, an entertaining occurrence that would often happen throughout the show (McGee, of course, believes that Banner is dead, killed by the monster).

Parallels with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein monster can be drawn whilst considering this episode: the Hulk is shown having a more sympathetic side and is not just the personification of base-level rage.  After a 'Hulk-out' (as the show's creators would refer to it at the time) he comes across an old tramp in the swamp and shares the man's food (followed by alcohol, which the creature promptly spits out on to the fire!).  His actions, when not in a temper, sometimes suggest perhaps the intelligence of a canine, whereby he is able to carry out simple actions as a result of seeing something and adding elementary factors together.

Overall, a none too exciting, periodically fleecy episode that carries a reasonable story which also happens to determine many of the series tropes that would follow.

Number of Fists: **½

01: Pilot (1.01)

1977; 94 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson, and Howard Schwartz
Written, Produced, and Directed by Kenneth Johnson

Scientist Dr David Bruce Banner enjoys an idyllic domestic life with his wife until her tragic death in a car accident, where his attempts to save her proved to be in vain.  In the morose aftermath of her death he continues to work at the laboratory where he and a colleague are attempting to tap into 'hidden' strengths of human beings.  Their studies bring them into contact with various people who have found previously unknown resources of great strength in times of need, including a woman who was able to save her son from a burning car by lifting the vehicle with her bare hands.  Considering the similarity to his own incident Banner is frustrated by the element of difference that refuses to reveal itself, until one night he realizes that gamma is the missing link.  He exposes himself to a high dose of gamma radiation in the lab but there initially appears to be no effect - what he doesn't realize is that another technician was modifying the equipment resulting in a much higher radiation exposure than Banner anticipated.  On the way home he's driving in a thunderstorm and a blown tyre tips his anger over the edge, sparking a metamorphosis into a primitive green creature that would appear to be driven by Banner's own primordial instincts, particularly rage.

The following day, Banner - aware that something happened but not sure what - and his colleague embark on a journey of discovery where facts are uncovered through their own experiments as well as local reports of what occurred in the preceding hours.  Banner learns that he has little to no control over the actions of the creature and in a fire at the laboratory where he loses another loved one, he is presumed dead ('murdered', according to the news, by the very creature that he himself has become), and reasons that he must maintain his anonymity by travelling out on the road until he can find a cure for his new affliction.

The feature length pilot of The Incredible Hulk naturally sets up the premise on which the proposed series was to be based.  Despite the fact that Joseph Harnell's famous concluding music for the show's end credits was written right from the beginning and used here, the alternative more alerting score for the opening credits of course did not exist (presumably until the show was given the green light [no pun intended] and such credits could be created).  Therefore the pilot opens with ominous ambient sounds that eerily puts you on edge for the opening montage whereby the traumatized David's historical marriage is ruined by the car accident.  For a show that some might consider to be for children or family entertainment, there is a surprisingly dark undercurrent running from this point on where the central character's life is marred by tragedy, and unbelievable bad luck (as you see throughout the series, it seems to follow him everywhere!).  Slower paced, and naturally less sophisticated, than today's television the pilot is nevertheless very well put together and aside from occasional lags there is some fantastic drama going on here, all leading up to a rousing finale.

The Hulk (dubbed as such in the show by reporter Jack McGee) is of course played by Mr Universe Lou Ferrigno, looking physically amazing at 6' 5" with prime, deliberately carved physique - in the role he looks kind of bizarre and I suspect the post CG-Hulk audiences would not take so kindly to this appearance.  Obviously, because I grew up watching this show in the seventies and eighties, I'm probably biased but I see the positives of the look here (as well as, from more mature eyes, the negatives).  Personally I think the Hulk borders on the ridiculous and the creepy, and whichever way it teeters depends largely on how he was shot in any given scene.  The pilot features some beautiful introductory footage of the creature, especially the first change which occurs at night during a thunderstorm - this first transformation is an absolute thrill.  Later on, Hulk's destructive escape from incarceration inside a massive pressure container is a fantastic piece of film, possibly one of the best set-pieces of the entire run.  His relentless nature is revealed and the sequence progressively results in absolute wreckage, all witnessed by the aforementioned colleague Dr Elaina Marks, who actually manages to calm the monster down to the point of reverse-transformation.

The pilot also introduces the show's recurring sub-character, the persistently interfering Jack McGee, played with relish by Jack Colvin.  He's a man who becomes obsessed by the monster and will not stop chasing it at any cost.

One of the real strengths of this opener and the whole series is undoubtedly Bill Bixby as Banner.  An established actor at the time he brought a tangible emotional core to the show, and made you feel for this guy.  Occasionally stubborn but innately caring, from this point on he lives under the shadow of the monster - a physical manifestation of his own rage, which was possibly intensified by the anger he felt over his wife's death and the anger he feels towards himself at not being able to save her.

Far less 'comic-book' than Marvel's source character, the show dared to take a fantasy idea, remove it from its super-villain-fighting origins, and place it into an adult's world of problems and emotional disturbance.  Kenneth Johnson's pilot really lays the groundwork for that approach and was fortunately impressive enough to warrant the creation of season 1.

Number of Fists: *****