37: Brain Child (3.03)

1979; 48 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson 
Written by Nicholas Corea; Produced by Robert Bennett Steinhauer;
Directed by Reza S Badiyi

Jolleen is a child prodigy who was 'abandoned' at a research institute as an infant by her disenchanted mother, an ordinary woman of ongoing misfortune who found herself unable to cope with the girl's rapidly advancing intellect.  Tricking the institute's security system, the 16 year old escapes and befriends David on the road, where he appears to have acquired a car.  After the super-smart helps to fix his car, he agrees (unaware at that point that she is technically a 'minor') to take her to LA to help her to search for her mother.

Jolleen is a person who struggles to fit into the world simply because she is too intelligent too early for her years, a factor that exists irrespective of her lack of maturity, and something that can get her into trouble in the world outside the cocoon of the institute without the guidance of an adult, intellectually inferior or not.

Her search later brings her into a dramatic confrontation with the mother who felt as though she would not be able to handle her.  There are one or two overly soppy moments along the way aside from some reasonably good drama, although Hulk's cutting off of a bus carrying away the girl's mother at one stage requires a greater-than-usual suspension of disbelief. 

Number of Fists: ***

36: Blind Rage (3.02)

1979; 48 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson 
Written by Dan Ullman; Produced by Nicholas Corea;
Directed by Jeffrey Hayden

David is helping out the family of an army officer who is blinded a few hours after handling a chemical cannister, although the affliction is put down to the neural shock of a damaging fall in the night.  The soldier who was with him is later found to have crashed his vehicle, being killed in the accident.  Obviously the two events are not the product of coincidence when both had contact with the cannister.  David investigates, uncovering experiments in chemical weapons and military cover-ups.

When I read Hulk comic-books in the seventies one of his greatest foes was the army itself and whilst the TV series actually has little to do with its literary (if I may call it that) source material, this episode provides the opportunity to witness the TV Hulk do battle with a small portion of the army.  Naturally, the conflict is better realised in the Ed Norton movie from 2008 (back when Marvel in cinema showed tons of promise, yet to morph into the unnecessary social preaching flag-carrier that it eventually became), but for someone who grew up in the seventies reading those comics (and watching this series) there is a degree of satisfaction to be derived from Hulk going up against a tank and being shot at by soldiers.

Number of Fists: ***

35: Metamorphosis (3.01)

1979; 48 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson 
Written by Frank Dandridge; Produced by Robert Bennett Steinhauer;
Directed by Alan J Levi

Beginning with a corny Kiss-style female-fronted rock show, the escalating frenzy of the crowd results in one of the fans being trampled and, ultimately, paralysed.  Hearing about the injured girl on the car radio the star of the show, Lisa Swan, drives increasingly erratically and crashes off the side of the road.  David is resting nearby and after helping out Swan and her manager he's offered a job assisting on the show as a roadie.  He aids Swan in combating her own demons whilst finding himself on the receiving end of the jealous actions of one of the crew.

Reasonable season three opener, although its enticing title really becomes descriptive of Swan's own internal struggles as she fights an instinct to create music that she favours, against her manager's more money-oriented plans.  The same cheesy rock song is heard about three times and unfortunately sticks in your head for a while afterwards, but the episode does tackle some of the genuine issues faced by musicians (exposure to the world of drugs, and to a greater extent, the conflict between what they want to do artistically, and what their managers instruct them to do out of commercial motivation).

McGee is on the scene quickly, eventually being in the right/wrong place at the right time to witness the Hulk's second appearance and continuing to demonstrate the perplexing tendency of a reporter who never thinks to carry a camera.  Also of note, Banner's first transformation is unusual in the fact that it is actually triggered by Hulk himself (Banner is drugged with LSD, against his knowledge of course, setting off the kind of psychedelic trip he would rather have avoided).

Number of Fists: ***

34: Vendetta Road (2.22)

1979; 48 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson 
Written by Justin Edgerton/Michael McGreevey; Produced by Nicholas Corea;
Directed by John McPherson

David stops at a service station to refresh, shave, etc., unaware that it is about to become the explosive target of a Bonnie & Clyde type couple whereby the father of one of them died as a result of some kind of corporate struggle between his small-fry gas station and the chain company that the son is now trying to bring down.

David is rescued from the station before it goes up in flames by the very people who set the explosive (they're not interested in actually killing anyone), and is then taken on the road with them for a while.  He tries to persuade them to do what's right but something bigger is planned that David knows can only really lead to tragedy, particularly as the woman has become pregnant.

An explosive finale to season 2, literally but perhaps not figuratively.  Initially this episode showed promise but ultimately I felt disappointed by the manner in which the Hulk scenes were handled, which came across as a tad lame.  The underlying theme echoes the slightly superior Wildfire episode, but the story is quite different.  From my perspective this was not the best way to close season 2, which was otherwise on the whole very good.

Number of Fists: **

33: The Quiet Room (2.21)

1979; 48 minutes

Director of Photography Edward Rio Rotunno
Written by Karen Harris/Jill Sherman; Produced by Nicholas Corea;
Directed by Reza S Badiyi

Operating as an attendant at a mental hospital, David notices that one of the senior doctors is pioneering unethical techniques in mind control with the claimed motivation of reducing crime, violent behaviour, etc. Stealing a VHS tape that contains evidence, David attempts to get out of the place altogether, but escape from such a place is never going to be easy if one's intention is to whistle-blow: he is promptly caught, drugged, and put in line for procedures that will effectively lobotomise him, thereby protecting the doctor’s future money-spinner.

David really lands himself in a pickle in this slightly disturbing episode. He spends most of the time drugged up and either attempting to escape or trying to convince one of the other doctors about what is really going on, inadvertently sounding like someone who is genuinely deranged in the process. I thought the story may wander into A Clockwork Orange territory for a while but, probably due to its basis in family television entertainment, the writers refrain from taking the central theme too far.

Number of Fists: ***