Airdate: Airdate: 22 January 1986 Writer: Stephen Kandel Director: Alexander Singer Opening Gambit Writer: Jerry Ludwig Opening Gambit Director: Cliff Bole
Guest Cast: Wendy Schaal as Karen Blake, Christopher Neame as Quayle, Dana Elcar as Pete Thornton.
Opening Gambit: Funeral in Berlin Posing as a corpse, Mac escapes East Berlin by turning his coffin into a jet-ski. (Includes clips from the 1966 film "Funeral in Berlin" starring Michael Caine)
Main story: A safe-house turns out to be anything but, when MacGyver discovers it is jam-packed with deadly booby traps set by a vengeful enemy.
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votes on 21 Feb 2006 Poor [ 0 ] [0.00%] Average [ 0 ] [0.00%] OK [ 1 ] [8.33%] Good [ 3 ] [25.00%] Excellent [ 8 ] [66.67%] Total Votes: 12
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QUOTE (MacGyverGod Nov 8 2004 @ 07:25 AM)
Not as good as Nightmares but still very well found with all those booby traps.
QUOTE (MacGyver Nov 8 2004 @ 08:24 AM )
"Deathlock" is definitely a very cool episode!!! I though the "Funeral in Berlin" opening gambit was awesome too! Very James Bond-esque but that's cool though. This was the last episode to feature an opening gambit, although later on in Season 3, I feel that the opening bit of the "Blow Out" episode serves pretty well as an opening gambit of sorts. We also get to see Pete show up again in this episode and hear his tale of how he and MacGyver met, later causing much confusion when a totally different tale is set forth in "Partners". However, the booby traps were cool and watching MacGyver escape them was even cooler!
QUOTE (rockatteer Nov 8 2004 @ 10:10 AM )
That opening gambit had scenes from a german movie spliced into it.
Very nicely done it was.
QUOTE (sonyab Nov 9 2004 @ 05:11 AM )
Oh yeah this was an awesome episode. Casket turned jet ski! Very clever! The whole episode was great. Mac and Pete lied about when and where they first met because they don't want people knowing that the first time they met was with Murdoc.. Would you want to admit that? it's my theory and I am sticking to it. One thing I'm confused on is that lady who was working with the bad guy, Mac found out she was bad by 2 reasons and he told her. Well one reason is something about the bad guy not following her? Or something.. I just didn't get it. I don't understand. To make that lady calm down and relax he kisses her yuck! Another kissing scene.. He doesn't even know her!
QUOTE (MacGyverGod Nov 9 2004 @ 05:34 AM)
QUOTE
QUOTE Mac and Pete lied about when and where they first met because they don't want people knowing that the first time they met was with Murdoc.. Would you want to admit that? it's my theory and I am sticking to it.
They didn't lie. By the time Deathlock showed there was no mention they would make the Partners episode and there was no mention of Murdoc at all and with the idea of the Murdoc character it sounded like a better way for the two to meet instead of meeting each other in a desert. The fact that Mac and Pete would've met each other in a desert with have been too much of a coincidence so I think it was better to set Mac at the wrong place at the wrong time for their meeting so that they would bump into each other.
QUOTE
QUOTE One thing I'm confused on is that lady who was working with the bad guy, Mac found out she was bad by 2 reasons and he told her. Well one reason is something about the bad guy not following her? Or something.. I just didn't get it. I don't understand.
She was blackmailed to work with the Quayle. They had her brother. The idea was to get Quayle and trade him for her brother. If Mac failed in capturing Quayle he would go after her brother personally.
QUOTE
QUOTE To make that lady calm down and relax he kisses her yuck! Another kissing scene.. He doesn't even know her!
Oh well, when you're young... If he doesn't know her, how did he know then that she was working for Quayle? Because she reacted to fast when Mac found Pete.
QUOTE (Macsrose Nov 9 2004 @ 07:20 PM )
Was GUD! episode...
I liked the whole booby trapped Mansion theme as well.
QUOTE (rockatteer Nov 10 2004 @ 09:03 AM )
yeah, it had a kind of "old adventure game" feel to it, buy which I refer to the old text adventures.
QUOTE (abitcrazy Nov 10 2004 @ 12:38 PM )
I really enjoyed this one. The opening bit was pretty neat. The girl working will the looney toon to save her brother was a good story line. The mansion was cool. Can you imagine someone actually living in a place like that? Then of course the best part was that Pete was in it I liked the kitchen scene where they turn on all the electric things and block Quayles view and sound. The rolling steel target was cool. But I have to admit the last 10 minutes or so of blondie got kinda old. I just wanted to tell her to shut up and go find the mirror. A bit like the scientist in the Human Factor. She got annoying at the end too. Oh, Mac I just can't go on....
QUOTE ( Jacksgirl Nov 12 2004 @ 02:20 AM )
I really loved this episode. I don't know why exactly, it just had a very good feel about it right from the beginning.
I loved the 'Funeral in Berlin' piece at the beginning. Oh if only they'd been looking for a new James Bond at the time - we would have had the perfect candidate
The ep its self Ive always loved. Whether its my penchant for old houses/estates like the one they use I just dont know, but there was so much for Mac to get to grips with for MacGyverisms.
QUOTE (phoenix Nov 13 2004 @ 12:04 PM )
wow, i really enjoyed the opening gambit. i didn't know that it was from another movie. i'll be on the look out for it. i guess every once-in-a-while paramount borrowed/edited material from other movies wisely.
ciao!
phoenix
QUOTE (rockatteer Nov 13 2004 @ 07:22 PM )
yeah I only found out recently myself about the german film clips in it.
In fact it was a guy who came into the MacGyver Cyber-meet that mentioned it, he then went off looking for the film and emailed me 2 days later with teh info.
QUOTE (Lothithil Sep 29 2006 @ 10:13 AM )
This was a really good episode. It spawned a lot of ideas for me, leading up to some of my favourite fanfic writings
I didn't know that the footage clipped for the gambit was from a Michael Caine movie... first 'The Italian Job' now this... I see a patter here, boys!
I just love the dynamic between Mac and Pete!
QUOTE (Hawki Sep 29 2006 @ 07:41 PM )
I was always wondering about this episode if you can make white noise by just connecting all electric machine into network? I'm studying electrotechnics and in can't figure that out. Otherwise i like that episode a lot
QUOTE (Lothithil Sep 30 2006 @ 02:31 AM)
Hawki said:
QUOTE
QUOTE I was always wondering about this episode if you can make white noise by just connecting all electric machine into network? I'm studying electrotechnics and in can't figure that out. Otherwise i like that episode a lot
Considering how much interference I get on my radio and cell phone reception -- I'd say it doesn't take too much!
QUOTE (Hawki Sep 30 2006 @ 03:45 AM)
yeah, but he built some kind transmitter or something like that, don't now in what purpose.
QUOTE (rockatteer Sep 30 2006 @ 03:51 AM )
I don't think that would work these days, becasue there are regulations about eletrical equipment giving out interference.
Back in the days this episode was made... those regulations where a lot less strict and electrical equipment could create a lot of static.
QUOTE (Hawki Sep 30 2006 @ 06:16 AM )
I don't think it was static, I think it was something to do with frequency.
QUOTE (rockatteer Sep 30 2006 @ 10:09 AM )
electrical interference from the unshelded electric motors in the equipment... static interference.
if nothing else the noise of all the things going at once would have drowned out the voices in the room.
QUOTE (Hawki Sep 30 2006 @ 07:46 PM )
That makes sense, but i still don't know why he builted some kind of transmitter
QUOTE (rockatteer Sep 30 2006 @ 08:29 PM )
you mean the rotating dish thing he had going?
that beats the heck out of me too.
QUOTE (Hawki Sep 30 2006 @ 10:51 PM )
Yes, that rotating dish Maybe this dish was source of white noise i don't now really
QUOTE (Lothithil Oct 4 2006 @ 07:41 AM )
I think Mac said he was trying to heterodyne the frequency. Not being an engineer or an electrician, I had to look that one up:
–adjective 1. noting or pertaining to a method of changing the frequency of an incoming radio signal by adding it to a signal generated within the receiver to produce fluctuations or beats of a frequency equal to the difference between the two signals. –verb (used without object) 2. to produce a heterodyne effect. –verb (used with object) 3. to mix (a frequency) with a different frequency so as to achieve a heterodyne effect.
QUOTE (Hawki Oct 8 2006 @ 12:50 AM )
And how did he found the right frequency by this rotating dish?
I too liked this episode. Loved all the booby traps and how Mac methodically figured out the girl was working for the bad guy. Quail did have a sneaky sort of mustache lol
The main draw on this episode for me is that it feels very much like the old text adventure games I use to play on my C64 computer, one of which actually took place in a big old mansion, very similar to this episode.
I could probably say that about quite a few early MacGyver episodes actually, and its' probably one of the reasons I like MacGyver. I'm a text adventure nut from way back, and theres a number of early mac episodes which are like watching an adventure game being played out, but this episode in particular reminds me of The Secret of Bastow Manor game, which was my all time favourate.
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I didn’t care for the opening gambit. I just kept wondering why the guards didn’t open and inspect the casket. Jet ski was kinda too.
As for the episode, I hate this kind of episode. I really like it… but the villain is so utterly pathetic. A putz. A prissy little weasel. A can of spray on hair gone terribly wrong. Are you a killer or a poster child for GQ? And what’s up with the fish tank??
I thought the premise for the episode was kewl… but that Quayle!!! They should have written the character into the show differently or something.
Okay... outside the building where MacGyver flew in. Those three doofs. Standing their hands in their pockets. The words “Break up! You look like a cadet review.” popped into my head. What was the problem? 60 seconds earlier there were about to try something on a busy street corner but because the loud mouth blonde was there they couldn’t pull it off anymore?
There was someone working on the first season that had a habit of doing bad fill in splices. When Pete got shocked and fell out into the library, the next shot was of him on the floor with a pillow under his head. Cracked me up… oh look! How convenient he fell on a pillow.
MacGyver called Pete “Peter”
Oh! And did anybody else think the third shadowy figure sounded like the Emperor from Star Wars?
~ MacNymph ~
Sometimes the uncontrollable urge to mess with people outweighs the millstone of humility.
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QUOTE
Does anyone else think that Quail's mustache made him look like a catfish?
This episode is good. I liked the opening gambit well enough, but the jet ski coffin was kind of a stretch. Considering you have a six foot tall man in the box and the engine components for a jet ski would have to weigh about 500 pounds. Four people are carrying the coffin and they aren't even straining like its a little bit heavy?
The things I liked most about this episode are the MacGyverisms and Quayle's booby traps. Its an early look at how people were thinking technology could be used to revolutionize the way we run our homes. Mac's tinkering in the kitchen produced a gadget to jam Quayle's electronic spying and a motorized suit of armor on a modern day charger to distract the machine guns. Quayle's booby traps were clever and sneaky and a good test for MacGyver.
The things I didn't like about this episode are Quayle and the blonde chick. Quayle is a pale shadow, literally, of Neilson from Nightmares. He had the potential to be a real bad guy, but just didn't pull it off. From his sleazy 'stache to his wimpy sounding name, he just doesn't come across as a bad guy. He has no substance, no backbone to give him credibility. Why does he hate MacGyver? And why doesn't he show it more vividly? There was a lot of potential here for Mac vs real baddy and it was wasted.
The blonde chick, what can I say? Another vapid, vacant blonde with minimal acting ability. I sometimes wonder if the producers didn't have a stack of them on the shelf that they pulled down and inflated whenever they needed a blonde female.
Overall, this is a good episode. Not great but not too disappointing. RDA is coming into his own as MacGyver and his confidence in the role is evident in the later episodes of Season 1.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein
The stuff is already here, I just find a different way to use it. MacGyver
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Quayle amused me and now I can liken him to a catfish (thanks for that!) I will be amused even more from now on. He was so terrible that he was funny. The way he was so easily goaded by MacGyver and the others. He was like a big kid. That woman was annoying and unlike Quayle there wasn’t anything I found amusing about her to allow me to enjoy watching her. She was just pesky. The whole idea of being stuck in a booby trapped house was cool but I would have liked more traps and more MacGyverisms to get them out of the traps…though that would have needed a longer episode. I vote good for this one.
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QUOTE (MacNymph @ 24 September 2007 - 12:00 AM)
Okay... outside the building where MacGyver flew in. Those three doofs. Standing their hands in their pockets. The words “Break up! You look like a cadet review.” popped into my head.
Ah, another Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home fan!
I think if you try hard enough and make the best of a situation, the situation won't get the best of you. -MacGyver
I wonder if the Three Nameless Men are the forerunners of Homicide International Trust
I'm wondering the some thing, because Crain from Silent world also reported to a "board" of 3 nameless people. So it does make you wonder if its the same organization?
Could Quayle's problem simply have been bad acting? didn't Christopher Neame do an equally bad job of playing Erich Von Leer later on? I haven't seen the episode for quite some time, but I have a vague memory of not thinking much of him.
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For me, this is one episode where it’s probably best not to think too hard about it, or it begins to fall apart at the seams. One can enjoy the romp – the gadgeteer vs. the giggling lunatic – or not. Certainly, if the producers were test-driving Quayle as a potential nemesis, he didn’t take the corners at all well.
It was certainly hard to find Quayle threatening, but I didn’t have a major problem with Karen Blake; I think the actress did her best with a thinly written part. The confrontation scene with Mac in the kitchen was good. And I even liked the scene with Mac getting out of the ‘hit’ by behaving in an outrageous and ridiculous manner guaranteed to draw attention. (It’s Mac’s being a loudmouth that does it, not The Blonde – he wasn’t a blonde yet.) I mean, you can’t see James Bond doing that.
Other favourite bits:
An opening gambit that’s actually part of the main storyline (just before the gambits were dropped entirely); and it must have been cheap to film, since most of the footage was appropriated! I did think they did a good job of matching the “new” and “old” footage.
Quayle may have been a wimp, but I really liked Mac baiting him – eavesdropping as its own punishment. And I loved the line "His gears don't mesh" -- I've even found myself using it.
The MacGyverisms are plentiful and generous; the tinkering in the kitchen is classic.
Best of all: the establishment of Pete’s character (finishing up from Nightmares); watching them work together. (And I continue to be immensely grateful to Loth for patching the gaps between the two completely different backstories!) Since the idea was to show them as an already solid team, they needed an easily-told story that didn’t show Pete in a light that pre-cast him as Mac’s Superior/Boss/High Muckity-Muck Who Would Only Appear in a Suit and Give Orders. He is a ‘suit’, but he’s also an operative who can and will move between a command position and active field work.
The two actors just shine together, and their interactions – whether they’re giving each other a hard time or dealing with a threat – are always a high point.
I did notice signs that the producers were still figuring out what the DXS was going to be, probably having reluctantly decided that Mac needed his assignments to come from a less shadowy and inconsistent source. Not that this episode was anything like consistent – sometimes they call it the “Department”, sometimes the “Company”, which is (or at least used to be) standard shorthand for the CIA. But I’m veering off into nitpick territory, and that isn’t the point here.
------------ 'Beth
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QUOTE (MacBeth @ 28 September 2007 - 08:05 PM)
Best of all: the establishment of Pete’s character (finishing up from Nightmares); watching them work together. (And I continue to be immensely grateful to Loth for patching the gaps between the two completely different backstories!) Since the idea was to show them as an already solid team, they needed an easily-told story that didn’t show Pete in a light that pre-cast him as Mac’s Superior/Boss/High Muckity-Muck Who Would Only Appear in a Suit and Give Orders. He is a ‘suit’, but he’s also an operative who can and will move between a command position and active field work.
The two actors just shine together, and their interactions – whether they’re giving each other a hard time or dealing with a threat – are always a high point.
thanks Beth!! I only just now read this... like what... 5 months later! LOL! Me=oblivious geek!
Love Mac and Pete together. They romp!
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Just watched this the other night. It was merely ok for me. A bit TOO campy/hokey for my tastes. It felt more like a cartoon, with the "MWAHAHA!!! I'll GET YOU THIS TIME, MacGyver!" attitude of the villain. Would probably make a better Scooby Doo episode than a MacGyver episode.
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Quayle certainly didn't impress me or scare me as a villain. He was a bit over the top, more like a melodrama villain. I laugh at him usually when I watch that episode.
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
Quayle certainly didn't impress me or scare me as a villain. He was a bit over the top, more like a melodrama villain. I laugh at him usually when I watch that episode.
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Well, with Murdoc, you have to kind of expect him to be melodramatic and accept it--that's the fun of the character. I'm sure the writers knew he was over the top when they conceived of his character--I mean who realistically could die and revive so many times unless they were a vampire or something (hmmm...possible fanfic, anyone)? He's entertaining, but he does have enough menace and creepiness about him to make you fear him as much as you laugh at him. When it's a one-time villain like Quayle, you kind of expect something more. A recurring villain like Murdoc can take more liberties because you get to know him.
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
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Yes, I've actually come to think of Murdoc as a combination of Quayle (the twisted humor) and Piedra from The Assassin (the smarts, the sneaky, inventive killing methods and the creepiness).
A very good early eppy, in my opinion. The cat-and-mouse element was what made it fun, with Mac trying to stay one step ahead of Quayle's traps. I agree with MacBeth that you can't think too hard about this one... you just have to go along for the ride and enjoy.
I also loved the line, "his gears don't mesh." I too have found myself using it on occasion!
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at the very beginning we see Quayle standing before 3 unknown men who are mostly in shadow, they appear to be his boss, he is telling them that MacGyver is the only blemish on his record.
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I'm pretty sure it was a trick question... since Mac didn't know Karen, he needed some proof that she was with the DXS, beyond her ID card, which could have been forged.
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QUOTE (Rockatteer @ 24 March 2009 - 09:55 PM)
at the very beginning we see Quayle standing before 3 unknown men who are mostly in shadow, they appear to be his boss, he is telling them that MacGyver is the only blemish on his record.
Sound familiar?
It´s true... seems to a Murdoc episode!
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