10: Life And Death (1.10)

1978; 50 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by James D Parriot; Produced by Chuck Bowman
Directed by Jeffrey Hayden

David heads into Oregon to meet a doctor conducting ground-breaking research into DNA manipulation that might help with the affliction that he aquired during his tests with gamma raditation.  On the way he meets and assists a pregnant woman who is going to stay at the nearby 'Matrix' institute - leaving her to continue about her business he heads to the hospital.  Doctor Rhodes performs some tests with David and organises the necessary injections for later that day, but in one of the rooms David overhears a newly admitted patient panicking over her lost baby and muttering something about Matrix.

Prior to his later appointment David heads back to the building to warn the girl he met earlier but they won't allow him entry, hence, ever persistent he climbs the wall anyway and manages to locate the girl.  She explains to him that she is actually giving the baby to them so that it can be purchased, presumably by a couple who can't have their own.  There appears to be some ambivalence on her part and, as David is trying to explain the pros and cons of what she is about to do, they are spotted by the owners of the institute, and one of the participants turns out to be Rhodes himself.  David quickly departs, unaware of who has just been present, and later attends his own appointment while the girl gives his thoughts some consideration.  Rhodes, concerned and persuaded that David and the girl are actually collaborating to either blackmail or incriminate them, appears to proceed with his experiment on David, but actually injects him with a lethal overdoes of morphine-sulfate instead.

What initially looks like it is going to be the sugary tale of David helping a pregnant woman (which he does of course) actually turns out to be one of the best episodes of season one.  The plot, aside from being inevitably afflicted with the usual coincidences (without which there would be no series!), is well thought out, tense, and leads to an unusual appearance of the Hulk.  This occurs after David is injected by Rhodes - what viewers who missed the pilot may not be aware of is that the beneficial side effect of David's problem is advanced replenishment of cells, so he heals at a far greater rate than normal.  Therefore the injection does not kill him, but locked away in the theatre (to die), the Hulk emerges completely delirious.  He staggers through the hospital causing mayhem before managing to get out, leaving David in an excessively dreary state but nevertheless intent on getting back to Matrix to alert the girl of his new knowledge (which Rhodes revealed to David as he was strapped down and expected to die).  Ironically the very thing that David wants to cure is the thing that saves his life.  David also replies early to a statement that he is alone with 'sort of', suggesting that he believes the creature is something that accompanies him rather than simply being an extension of himself.  This resonates later when Rhodes is working on David's DNA via extreme magnification - it actually feels like the experiment the doctor is about to perform will 'kill' the Hulk, and there's an unexpected element of sadness evident there.

I also think Hayden's direction is less generic than the TV norm, for example with an excellent camera pan during a prolonged dialogue between Rhodes and one of his amoral associates, plus a number of Hulk point-of-view shots that add an element of interest to his trajectory through the hospital.  In addition, the second transformation is executed in a novel manner with Banner's hands pulling himself up the stairs as they become progressively greener.  This episode is topped off with a funny near-miss with McGee in the hospital as David leaves.  Overall, a stand-out moment in season one.

Number of Fists: *****

09: Never Give A Trucker An Even Break (1.09)

1978; 49 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by Kenneth Johnson; Produced by Chuck Bowman
Directed by Kenneth Gilbert

Clearly David has learned nothing about trusting strangers/people after what he's been through: a woman picks him up as he's hitchhiking and after getting to know one another she asks him to do a favour to surprise her 'boyfriend' with a note while she waits in the background to give him a birthday kiss.  It's all a pack of lies, naturally, and the note is actually a threat - David narrowly escapes a beating when she nearly mows everyone down in a HGV.  What follows is an extended back and forth chase as the girl reveals that the tanker is her vehicle and she was hijacked by the guys, who want it to transport stolen computer equipment.

Unusually Never Give A Trucker..., written by the show's developer, takes on a comedy slant as David and his new friend drive back and forth, swapping between a car and tanker depending on who has managed to get what.  It's quite entertaining but does run a little out of steam towards the end.  Continuity is established with the previous episode when David says he is travelling from Vegas.  He also mutters, after the first Hulk-out, that he should get stretchy shirts.  

McGee is mentioned but this is the first episode in which he does not actually appear.  The conclusion to this episode also differs from those before (and mostly after) it - instead of walking off out of town alone it would seem that he hooks up with the woman for a while, who wants to share 'more than the reward' with him...

Number of Fists: ***

08: The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas (1.08)

1978; 50 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by Justin Edgerton; Produced by Chuck Bowman
Directed by Larry Stewart

While helping out at a casino in Vegas, David witnesses a hit and run accident that is perhaps not actually an accident at all.  while administering help, the man hands him a tape recorder (for any gen-z readers, technology that existed back in the seventies...) containing evidence that he has just obtained against crooked casino bosses.  Unfortunately one of the henchmen sees the exchange, placing David in hot water.  Not only that but the dying man asks David to get the recorder delivered to a reporter with whom he and his partners have been sharing information for the purposes of exposure - that reporter is Jack McGee of course.

Obviously the inclusion of McGee as the intended recipient for the evidence that David acquires brings a higher degree of tension than might have been the case otherwise.  The conversation that Banner is forced to have with McGee on the phone is golden,  Later, when a captured Banner is thrown into the same car as McGee who 'luckily' has been knocked unconscious, they're both taken to be executed in suitably elaborate gangster style, but Hulk's appearance saves McGee as well as himself.  A great slant is added after the crooks have been put virtually out of action as a calmed Hulk begins transforming right in front of McGee, but a bullet from one of the crooks sends the Hulk running before the fixated reporter is able to learn the truth.

I also liked the way the first Hulk-out is shot - after Banner is thrown down some stairs Hulk emerges in silhouette as he makes his way back up, with thudding footsteps accompanying the ascending shadowy behemoth, which is especially effective more than usual.  This episode features the underused but stunningly attractive Simone Griffeth (primarily a TV actress, she reveals more of her talents in Death Race 2000...) adopting the role of a card dealer who David befriends.

Number of Fists: ****

07: 747 (1.07)

1978; 50 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by Thomas Szollosi/Richard C Matheson; Produced by Chuck Bowman
Directed by Sigmund Neufield Jnr.

Upon discovering a scientist who is conducting similar research to his own into the links between gamma radiation and aggression, David arranges to fly to meet the man with a hope of finding a cure.  Aboard the plane one of the pilots and a stewardess are aiming to steal a cargo of Egyptian artefacts, such is David's bad luck.  In flight they drug the other pilots (accidentally drugging the passenger next to David also, which is what alerts him to something being amiss) with the intention of parachuting out of the plane with their hoard.  As soon as David attempts to question the (last remaining conscious) pilot he is quickly bungled into a secure container within the plane's cargo hold.  Of course he still cannot keep is mouth shut at which point the pilot attempts to push the cage out of the plane, triggering the arrival of the Hulk.  The pilot is concussed and the theft-plot thwarted, but the problem now is that there is nobody to fly the plane back down to the ground...

Quite a tense episode where the wrong-doers spark off a much greater threat than themselves.  The plane is populated with characters who help or hinder matters, including a middle aged shoe-shop owner whose attempts to beguile a rich woman lead only to embarrassment, the woman's overly knowledgeable son obsessed with aeroplanes, an elderly couple on their second honeymoon, etc.  David is put into the terrifying position of having to control the plane via audio instruction from the ground, and Bixby pulls off this sweaty-palmed fear adeptly.

Number of Fists: ****

06: Terror in Times Square (1.06)

1978; 50 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by William Schwartz; Produced by Chuck Bowman
Directed by Alan J Levi

Sandwiched between scenes of Jack McGee talking to his editor about closing in on the creature in New York, this story reveals that David has indeed recently got himself a job in the city (at one the old amusement arcades).  A gangster has long held the small businesses in the area to ransom, attaining a monthly income from each of them, and this includes the arcade.  The business owners plot to overthrow the perpetrator and David, who has come to care about several of the people involved, lands himself right in the middle of trouble when he snoops around himself, even going so far as to break into the gangster's headquarters to obtain evidence.

A fairly generic soup of mob criminality and protection rackets is injected with a big boost for the Hulk's second appearance.  Who out there has needed to get somewhere and they can't move any faster than the traffic will allow, the resulting anger of which does not proceed to get you moving any quicker?  That's the situation David finds himself in when he's on the way to prevent catastrophe at a rendezvous - jumping into a taxi he finds himself stuck in New York traffic with the clock ticking away.  Rage leads to Hulk of course, who smashes out and makes his way through the New York streets on foot.  Not only was this amazingly brave of Lou Ferrigno - it's winter in Manhattan and I can tell you from personal experience it gets very cold there! - but much of it was obviously shot live and with busy streets there are some priceless moments of utter bewilderment as onlookers are fixated by the charging green giant.

A timeline is shaped with this episode as McGee's editor states that he's been chasing the monster for six months.  Despite a lull during the middle act, if there is such a thing, this episode makes up for any dragging with the titular Times Square action.

Number of Fists: ***

05: Of Guilt, Models and Murder (1.05)

1978; 50 minutes

Director of Photography John McPherson 
Written by James Parriot; Produced by James Parriot/Chuck Bowman

Directed by Larry Stewart

I tend to like the episodes that sway to some extent from an established formula, and this one does at least attempt something a little different, albeit still essentially within the now familiar context of David discovering that unscrupulous people are up to something nefarious before the same people then aim, somewhat fruitlessly, to dispose of him.

This story begins with a confused David emerging from transformation in someone's house.  Unsure what happened he looks around the damaged room and discovers a dead woman, the evidence obviously pointing towards the Hulk as murderer.  He attempts to piece together what happened during the preceding hours but is limited due to the memory lapse that he inevitably suffers every time he becomes the Hulk.  The press is all over the story, and on implication of the big green giant, so is the National Register (i.e. Jack McGee).  Hearing of an assistant position going at the very house where the death took place, Banner immediately applies with the hope of finding out what happened - he doesn't want to walk away feeling as though he/Hulk is truly a murderer and clearly there is something amiss with the whole scenario.

Opening in a manner which partially reminds me of Alex Proyas' stunning noir/sci-fi film Dark City, Of Guilt... builds up a genuine sense of intrigue in addition to adopting the fairly novel approach of having the same events recounted differently by each witness spoken to.  Unfortunately it does lose momentum for the final third - some of the direction does not appear to be up to scratch (e.g. Hulk runs towards three ill-doers, throws one of them across the yard, while the other two simply stand there watching, no more than three or four feet away - there's just no reaction!), and the explanatory sections don't logically add up.  Nevertheless, for its mysterious set-up and early intrigue,  this story is worthwhile.

Number of Fists: ***

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

Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by Kenneth Johnson; Produced by James Parriot/Chuck Bowman

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

Director of Photography Charles W Short
Written and Produced by Kenneth Johnson

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.  This would, however, be at odds with some of his more deliberate behaviour at various points later in the series.

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, in the early episodes at least, 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: *****