Every week I will be posting a new topic titled "Episode Discussion". In this we will discuss an episode, what we liked about it, what we didn't like, etc.
Episode 53 - Hell Week
MacGyver is set to judge a physics competition for his old mentor. But the professor’s son becomes despondent when he fails to win the contest and barricades himself into the lab with a bomb.
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votes from March 2006
Poor [ 0 ] [0.00%] Average [ 0 ] [0.00%] OK [ 1 ] [7.69%] Good [ 7 ] [53.85%] Excellent [ 5 ] [38.46%] Total Votes: 13
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QUOTE (MacGyverGod Aug 28 2005 @ 11:53 PM )
I voted good on this episode. This is unfortunately the only episode set on a college while all the other teen episodes are set in highschool. I liked the school contest as well all these barricades and stuff. Great episode.
Ryman and Son! Ryman and Son! Ryman and Son, yeah!!! Professor Ryman and Professor Son!!
QUOTE (MacGyver Aug 29 2005 @ 01:08 AM )
I liked this episode really well. "Hell Week" definitely had a great overall message about Professor Ryman who had been so involved in his work that he was neglecting his duties as a father and came down really harsh on his son. So it was really good to see a family reunion at the end. The barricade contest was pretty cool- obviously MacGyver won that in 1973 with no problem! smile.gif And it is neat that we get to see Mac's alma mater and we note that he graduated in 1973. And of course, he bypassed security alarms to even get inside a room to get to the bomb and he was able to keep the bomb stable while he defused it on the elevator.
Another great episode!
QUOTE (rockatteer Aug 29 2005 @ 11:36 AM )
Interesting to note that the picture used on the "Hall of fame board" is a real picture of him in his earlie 20's. Not one they made for the show.
QUOTE (MacGyverGod Aug 30 2005 @ 12:27 AM )
The man had a moustache in his early twenties? What a joke!! biggrin.gif Oh, well, he had everything a man can have of facial hair. Moustache, beards, goatees.
QUOTE (MacNymph Aug 30 2005 @ 03:38 AM )
Professor Ryman was a peckerwood. He's the kinda guy that doesn't know his kid knows where the keys to his gun cabinet are. Just because his kid wasn't #1 he wasn't good enough.
This is one of those inadvertant social commentary episodes. A Dublane or Columbine before there were such things. sad.gif
But the look into Mac's past was cool.. and so was the contest. smile.gif
QUOTE (MacGyverGod Aug 30 2005 @ 03:46 AM )
QUOTE
QUOTE Professor Ryman was a peckerwood. He's the kinda guy that doesn't know his kid knows where the keys to his gun cabinet are. Just because his kid wasn't #1 he wasn't good enough.
Professor Ryman was the Russian they saved in Prisoner of Conscience.
QUOTE (MacGirl Aug 30 2005 @ 03:17 PM )
Interesting observation! It's been an awfully long time since I saw this, but I remember it pretty well. Great commentary on parental expectations and how well-meaning parents can take it too far sometimes. I think Professor Ryman was one of those who honestly didn't realize how much pressure he was putting on his son, until it was almost too late. He had always been very driven to succeed, and he basically expected his son to be a carbon copy of him... he was totally oblivious to real life, with nearly catastrophic results.
I do remember the scene with the bomb... great tension there, and all Mac could do was get it somewhere where the damage would be contained. Didn't they wind up getting it into the elevator or something?
QUOTE (Amy Sep 20 2005 @ 02:28 PM )
This was a good episode. Obviously it makes you think about parent/child relationships. More subtle, I think, is the idea that what you choose to do with your life can have a profound affect on a lot more than you think.
The barricade thing was very MacGyver--the barricades themselves, but mostly how the kids were getting past them--especially magnetizing the locks--very cool.
QUOTE (brent2112 Jan 4 2006 @ 02:52 PM )
Loved this episode, I mean the Dad in this episode should of paid more attention to his son instead of his Job. sad.gif Also that was a great bomb the kid made during that episode !!! biggrin.gif
QUOTE (penny Jan 5 2006 @ 10:37 AM )
Excellent episode, but does beg a question from me. According to this episode, how old was Mac when he won the contest, and what "degree" did he receive from that school?
QUOTE (MACGYVERISMYDAD Jan 7 2006 @ 02:42 AM)
good episode. does anyone remember when his son is on the phone with his dad and his dad says "but david your my son" or something along those lines and janice goes "since when" and david says "yea you tell him janice!!" great scene jump.gif
QUOTE (rockatteer Jan 7 2006 @ 10:00 AM )
QUOTE
QUOTE Excellent episode, but does beg a question from me. According to this episode, how old was Mac when he won the contest, and what "degree" did he receive from that school?
BUT in the episode of Flames End he talks to Amy about a physics degree. (I think?)
So I guess its either a general science or a specific physics... my guess would be a general science degree.
QUOTE (MACGYVERISMYDAD Jan 28 2006 @ 02:32 AM )
great episode i voted excellent. the father and son team are played very well. there is one thing that always bothered me about davids barricade. now i know if i was trying to crack his barricade the or anyone elses the first thing i would try and do is open the door. gotta love the part when the professor introduces MacGyver to the class and he says "MacGyver is not on your level...he was gifted"" harhar.gif
QUOTE (rockatteer Jan 28 2006 @ 09:53 AM )
Yeah the professor had some funny lines.
I liked the other line where he invites Mac to observe the class...
"You can be depressed along with me."
QUOTE (MacsChick Jan 28 2006 @ 05:22 PM )
I felt sorry for the son in this episode. It's tough watching someone you know struggle with parents like that. Thank God mine were a little bit more understanding! As always, though, Mac saves the day! I also liked the professor's line about him being "gifted." clip.JPG sak.gif That's an understatement!
Other things I noticed:
The professor is the same actor from A Prisoner of Conscience--he played the political dissident MacGyver and Pete save.
I liked how MacGyver, in his own clever way, told that one arrogant jerk student who thought he knew everything off. harhar.gif
MacGyver has got to be the sexiest, least nerdy physics student ever! blowup.gif
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I agree with everything. However, I just watched this one, while waiting for my laundry to dry and I can't help wishing they had done more with Professor Ryman and his son, like a follow up episode, also with the friends of Mac's in Blood Brothers. Delving into Mac's past is fun.
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yea it would be nice to see what happens to david, janice and his father after the incident. Possibly david gets kicked out of school but gets into another where he majors in chemistry? His father changes his actions towards david. Does his girlfriend stick with him? Would make a nice fan fiction.
Now technically I'm driving a stolen car following a kidnapping... and I didn't even get to have my first cup of coffee. (Mac) Your burning hot MacGyver... And so is Pete! ! (Murdoc) Does anyone have a knife?? Yes...it has lots of different blades (Macgyver music plays while mac examines the knief) ...I know Why are you taking your pants off?? You got a better idea? I'm still trying to figure out what yours is!!
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Yeah, it's very possible, almost certain, that David would be kicked out of school. He could always apply to another. However getting free of the drug and seeking family counseling for him and his dad would take priority to going back to school. I am uncertain about Janet. She seemed like she was serious enough about David and he about her, but outside of college in real life, who knows.
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Excellent episode.
Things that I didn't like:
Actually I have no complaints.
Things I liked:
Great plot, Great characters (especially Professor Ryman and Jeffrey Kramer), one of the best bomb defusing scenes and hottest woman we have ever seen on this show; Janet.
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OK I have been wonder where Macs college is located in the show. I know it was Western Tech. But was that location ever given in the epo. of Hell Week. I know the real location was in Canada.
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Just watched this one for the first time in a looooong time....playing hookey from work and just had to watch an episode.
I vote excellent on this one. I enjoyed it when I first watched it in my youth and now really appreciate it even more as a parent. Defintely has a lesson worth repeating - "Spend time with your children and you never will regret it later in life."
I loved the premise behind hell week. I went to an engineering college (aka geek school) and we didn't have anything like this on campus, but man it would have been a lot of fun....Love the fact we get a bit more background on Mac from this episode and we get to see more of his righteous compassion. I love how he talks to Professer Rymand , confronting him about he doesn't see what's happening to David.
A great episode that I won't mind sharing with my yound kids.
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This is one of my favorite episodes in season 3 as well.I like the challenge that students are supposed to create original ideas and to learn more about Mac's background (Did he ever fail about sth in his life?=))
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Oh, you're right, MacGyver was before Legend, I didn't know... Anyway, I agree with you about the moustache, I would even say that it's a bit "ridiculous"...
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Superb eppy. I love it when David asks Mac to bring a six pack when he suggests they talk about things. I guess it's just the way he says it. I laugh every time.
OK I have been wonder where Macs college is located in the show. I know it was Western Tech. But was that location ever given in the epo. of Hell Week. I know the real location was in Canada.
No I don't believe it ever was. Although it might marry up with the information given in Flames End.
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This episode is my favourite. I vote it as being excellent. It's the one episode I can clearly remember watching when I was a little kid. I used to refer to it as the 'Mercury Episode' - on account of them defusing a bomb containing mercury.
I love it.
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This is an "Excellent" episode from my point of view. It has a little bit of everything; suspense, drama and a thought provoking story.
Science contests can be great fun, and watching these creative kids setting up their experiments was a delight.
However, this episode also brings up the downside of competition--this price awarded professor pushing his kid way too hard. It's obvious he hasn't even been present enough to even remember his son's birthday. Even from the beginning, you can see what's most important for MacGyver--he asks the professor about how David *feels*, and corrects him when he starts talking about how he's performing in school... But the professor can't answer the real question!
I think that having parents also acting as teachers for their own children--especially on this level--is always posing a great risk. I'm not a parent, but I can't even imagine how difficult it would be to rate your own kid's performance against the other students! I think it's easy to project your own shortcomings onto your kid--creating a hard to break circle of guilt. You think you've failed as a parent, taking out your anger on your kid, making the kid feeling useless since he or she thinks he/she has failed everyone. And if even those closest to you are disappointed with you, what's the point with life?
It's obvious that David is stuck in that circle, and he's doing everything to make his father love him. When he loses the competition, his entire world is shattered. His drug addiction is probably the straw that breaks the camel's back (I'd say combined with the alcohol, but I seriously doubt he'd be able to put together that bomb under the influence of that much alcohol!)
There are some things that *have* to be overlooked while watching this episode, but it isn't really a problem with me. But, to mention some of them--I really doubt any college/university would have that much equipment in store, furthermore to be used by any student as a common practice (without being a part of a research project).
You can tell that this episode was written by someone who has some knowledge of physics, but in all honesty, not all of the barricade inventions were based on physics only (well, in a way, everything in this world is, but not that kind of physics that might have been intended for this experiment). David's solution was ingenious--but he also took great risks. OK, considering that the periscope image surely was far from perfect, but it's often rather easy to tell the difference from a model shot and the real thing. Today, it might have been different since he could have made up an accurate computer animated image with the opener moving in real time.
However--even if the garage opener was visually pushing against the door--what were the guarantees that anyone wouldn't have tried to open the door regardless? It might have been a fake blocker, and really, it's a very unscientific reaction to try the door--yet, it is rather human. Humans are soo illogical... ooops, wrong series, sorry.
But anyway--I think that had it not been for the fact that Geoffrey mentioned that he knew it was an optical illusion *before* he tried opening the door, they wouldn't have had any reason to accuse him of cheating, since they couldn't prove anything. He would easily have been able to shrug it off as a case of human intuition.
However, they need to be able to tell the story in just 47-48 minutes...
I also found it interesting that they kept dangerous amounts of Plutonium in what seemed to be low-security facilities at the school... that seemed a bit improbable to me. Well, I'll try to ignore that.
Anyway--the point is, MacGyver is a show that evolves much around science--but the moral of this episode, and what's clearly always the most important thing to MacGyver, despite his high degree of education--is that relationships and family always should come first. Some of you who posted in this thread have speculated about David's future. Well, I think it's rather safe to assume that he might have been forced to change schools after going through some kind of rehab, but to be honest, I think his potential of succeeding in life (whatever path he'd choose to take) will become much greater after going through all this--and sorting things out with his dad, once and for all... Sometimes, those things *will* require drastic changes.
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QUOTE
I really doubt any college/university would have that much equipment in store, furthermore to be used by any student as a common practice (without being a part of a research project)
What equipment are you referring to?
QUOTE
I also found it interesting that they kept dangerous amounts of Plutonium in what seemed to be low-security facilities at the school... that seemed a bit improbable to me. Well, I'll try to ignore that.
Well we don't actually know what security there was on the labs where it was held. But then I'm not sure why your saying about security on a physics lab?
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QUOTE
What equipment are you referring to?
I think the lab equipment in general; tools, machinery, materials etc. Of course, some of it is necessary for their classes, but considering that even scientists working with government funded projects sometimes have a hard time financing their equipment, I just got the impression that this school was a little on the generous side.
QUOTE
Well we don't actually know what security there was on the labs where it was held. But then I'm not sure why your saying about security on a physics lab?
I should have included "safety" in that sentence too. I just found it a bit odd that they didn't keep the Plutonium in the basement instead of the top of the building, or at least high up. Come to think of it, it was a bit odd that they didn't evacuate the building as soon as they heard about the bomb threat...
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QUOTE (NightTinkerer @ 22 October 2012 - 01:46 PM)
I think the lab equipment in general; tools, machinery, materials etc. Of course, some of it is necessary for their classes, but considering that even scientists working with government funded projects sometimes have a hard time financing their equipment, I just got the impression that this school was a little on the generous side.
I didn't. We played with stuff like that in high school. It wasn't out in the class all the time but when we needed it for specific lessons it was brought out of storage. So I have no problem believing that a university would have properly equipped science labs.
Remember also that being a university, the students would be going for higher level and specialized doctorates and diplomas which would increase my expectation of seeing well equipped science labs even more.
QUOTE
I should have included "safety" in that sentence too. I just found it a bit odd that they didn't keep the Plutonium in the basement instead of the top of the building, or at least high up. Come to think of it, it was a bit odd that they didn't evacuate the building as soon as they heard about the bomb threat...
Yeah true. It does seem more like a plot device than a reality doesn't itl... I often think to my self when watching this episode "who would want to be in the lab under (or above) the nuclear research lab... that stuff's radioactive ya know! They must have lead lining in the floors and walls surely?"
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I mostly like this episode, especially for the glee of all the Bright Young Students competing at cleverness.
But the plutonium and the "threat of radioactive contamination" -- NO. Just, no. Blatant use of gratuitous handwavium to crank up the stakes to a ridiculous level. The part just makes me cringe.
As far as the Very Well-Endowed Lab goes: I get the impression that the university itself is roughly based on or inspired by MIT, as far as the emphasis on having the Best of the Best, in terms of students, faculty, and physical plant. In a top-flight US university, you can get an amazing feedback loop going: the Very Good Students become Highly Successful Scientists, the institution gets handsome donations and bequests, it buys better equipment and hires better teachers, beefs up its research facilities, lures in Famous Scientists, lands Massive Grants, buys better equipment, draws better students, graduates another round of future Nobel winners . . . and the beat goes on.
My own father did his doctorate at Cornell back in the 1950's, and had Freeman Dyson on his graduate advisory committee. Dyson was a baby physicist at the time: in one of his letters to my mother, Dad referred to him as a 'wunderkind'.
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This is the first episode I remember watching when I was a kid. I'm watching through the entire series right now and none of the other episodes before this one ring a bell. I remember seeing David and thinking "Hey! He's from the Edison Twins!", which was another show I watched a lot back then.
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I like how fast Mac flinches back in the lift when he thinks the bomb is going to go off. Reasonable response and all that, I just love how fast he moves!
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