In the Who Would you liked to have seen less? topic we started discussing Murdoc's "deaths", so I thought I'd start a new topic for that cuz it got me to thinking...

I can't think of one of Murdoc's supposed deaths that he could have realistically survived. So I started wondering, if Murdoc actually hadn't "died" all those times, but maybe instead (in typical shocking style) disappeared or at least "died" in less fantastic ways (where he could have conceivably survived), would it have changed the feel of the show? After all, the show was pretty largely realistic...except for the one detail of Murdoc's spectacularly surviving against all odds.

Whaddaya think?

I don't know...I'm a little ambivalent about this one. Yes, it's a little silly when he dies repeatedly in situations where most people wouldn't survive, but at the same time, it made the show entertaining because it gave Murdoc an even more mysterious, creepy quality. How did he survive? Shouldn't he be dead by now? No, he's back! Ahhh! It made him more difficult to beat--a powerful adversary for MacGyver. His character keeps you wondering and guessing, and the surviving of fantastic scenarios where most people would die adds to that. After all, he's "not your normal professional killer." The most intriguing episodes for me when I was growing up were the Murdoc episodes, and they still are. Maybe the surviving through extraordinary circumstances is part of that.

Hmm. I kind of liked his repeated faked deaths and then coming back when he was least expected. It kind of made the point that all of us have things we can't escape, whether it's a part of our past that haunts us, a bad habit that we can't quite break, or whatever. Also, it kept me off balance... wondering, is he really dead this time, or is he going to come back yet again?! It lent a kind of ongoing tension to the show.

I think the idea is probably ok.. but the execution was off.

They needed to either come up with believable explanations for how he survived or have more escapable endings…

I mean.. Murdoc fell from just about the same spot that Mike fell.. she died.. he didn’t’

He's Murdoc!

But really- much as I hate to admit it- MacGyver is a fictional show. Therefore, it doesn't have to be realistic- just fun.
It was definitely pretty creepy and fun for me as a child watching Murdoc come back again and again- it just added to the fun of the show.
And as long as it's fun and enjoyable- I don't care. If I want boring and realistic- I watch the news- (sometimes)

Nope, he should've die more often.

But I have the explanation: he has all twin brothers!!!

And they all happen to have an unnatural and creepy obsession with killing the same guy?

I like this explanation better: Murdoc's a super cyborg from the future whom HIT keeps sending back every time he dies to finish the job.

And they all happen to have an unnatural and creepy obsession with killing the same guy?

I like this explanation better: Murdoc's a super cyborg from the future whom HIT keeps sending back every time he dies to finish the job.

Murdoc is a renegade Time Lord (Doctor Who). He doesn't die, when he gets too badly damaged he just regenerates.

Maybe it shows us that Murdoc is exactly like MacGyver (only reversed) in that he can escape from any situation... no matter how bad or impossible.

As Pete said in two different episodes...

"your like a cat, you've got 9 lives"
"MacGyver's damn hard to kill."

Murdoc is a bad version of MacGyver.

When Mike was hanging on the rope, she hit her head against the rock. So when she fell, she was probably unconscious and she was unable to do anything to save herself.
On the other hand, Murdoc - we see only that he fell. Who knows if he has managed to grab some protruding fragment of rock or something like that to survive the fall?

We see Murdoc fall at a great height and great speed, he wouldn't be able to hold something. Actually I'm glad Murdoc surviving his deaths were remained unexplained. He just comes back.

But I agree on MacGyverOnline, Murdoc is the bad version of MacGyver.

Yes! I never thought about it this way; very interesting.

I love all the Murdoc episodes. Although his Terminator-like rise from under the rocks (in "Strictly Business") is more than just a little bit silly

I keep waiting for something like this to happen on the reboot. I mean, it MUST happen if Murdoc shows up in the Season Finale!

It would've been even more hilarious if indeed a Terminator skeleton rose from under the rocks and that we got to see the P.O.V. of that thing with all the gizmos, indicators and scanning systems saying Target: MacGyver. Objective: Termination.

What if they're twins?!?!?!?!







jk!!!

That statement got me thinking. Imagine they did have a villain that was exactly like MacGyver but just evil. He could also fix anything, even carried a knife but he was the evil version?

Almost like Quantum Leap with the "Evil Leaper" or Knight Rider's "Karr".

Keep thinking... remember how MacGyver "felt" that Murdoc was alive? PYSCHIC TWIN CONNECTION!!!

This says it all!!

I think going back to the roots of the threads title, I think not. Had he received less traumatic deaths, it would have been less traumatic to the audience. Watching the extreme happen to him and then getting him to return was the Pulitzer.

Actually it's too bad, that that wasn't worked out better or more. In almost every Murdoc episode, MacGyver is pretty much shocked or surprised that Murdoc is still alive. With Strictly Business he is less surprised because he had Murdoc's message, so he knew he was alive. And by Obsessed he was convinced he was alive and the phone call confirms he still is.

Murdoc was basically Wyle E. Coyote: He always came up with absurdly over-the-top ways to kill MacGyver (I kept waiting for an ACME anvil to fall on his head), always failed, and always survived things that would easily kill anyone else. It was definitely fun, but the Murdoc episodes tended to be among the most campy/silly episodes of the series. I kind of preferred Dr. Zito for that reason-- he was more genuinely creepy, and less cartoon-like.

I kinda mist a whistling sound and a poof when he fell of the mountain or in the mineshaft.

I always loved how mysterious Murdoc's deaths were. It makes you think like... how on earth did he survive!?

They did that with Albert Wesker a couple of times, though fans still debate if he's "alive" are not. Last time we saw him, he was taken out by two rockets to the face while waist deep in lava. XD

But Murdoc is still my favorite because even though he's comical, those are always the most dangerous because people don't take him seriously. In a weird way, he reminds me of the Joker.

Even though it was unrealistic, I always liked the Murdoc episodes because of that vaguely supernatural aspect. I also liked the season 3 episode with the super-virus that causes people and animals to rapidly age and die. I guess overall I don't mind the more fantastic stuff(especially if it's creepy), even though MacGyver is generally an otherwise real-world show.

There were a couple of deaths I disliked not because of how unrealistic the possibility of survival was for Murdoc, but because they kinda made Murdoc look dumb for getting himself "killed". His very first "death" had him run into an abandoned building just before it was demolished. You'd think someone as cunning as Murdoc would have been observant enough to realize he should have picked a different building. Then there's the jeep death at the end of Obsessed. What did he expect to happen, driving full-speed at MacGyver as Mac stood with his back to a sea cliff? Even if Mac didn't move in time, the jeep would have still sailed off the cliff.

I think, and it's just a thought, that by this time, Murdoc wanted Mac dead so bad he didn't care if he died with him.

Either the good guy wins or it's a draw. In Obsessed I figured Murdoc perhaps didn't care anymore, Mac had to die. Yet the game will never end. It is just something they're supposed to do forever.

Look at how they work together in Halloween Knights...twins...

It seems to me like there are a lot of relatively reasonable explanations for how Murdoc could have survived, but explaining it takes away from the mystery of the character. Part of Murdoc's greatness as a villain is that he's like a magician: you never find out the secret. Which means that he could crop up literally anywhere, unexplained, to terrorize MacGyver just because he can. Just for the kicks & giggles of it.

Since Murdoc is a professional and the best in the world at what he does, it's safe to assume that he never goes into an area without an escape route. He seemed to somewhat know where he was going when he ran into that collapsing building. Maybe he knew that it was going to be demolished and planned to use that as a smokescreen---only he botched the timing and didn't make it out as quickly as he'd planned. But if he knew that he'd have to escape the building, then he probably still had a plan that allowed him to make it out alive, if not unscathed.

The dynamite in the truck is obvious; he had plenty of time to roll out and run off.

In "The Widowmaker," perhaps he had a rope somewhere that he could use to lasso a rock? My brother speculates that perhaps he had a hidden parachute, which seems the most likely explanation to me.

"Cleo Rocks" is harder to explain, because the electrocution and the boiling water complicate things. But they did say in the episode that there was a pipeline leading out, and Murdoc is clever enough to get through there. Not without injury, but he might be able to do it.

"Halloween Knights"---we don't really see what actually happens to him, so it's possible that he could've found a way to shield himself from the explosion or gotten far enough away or something.

In "Strictly Business," he wasn't falling too fast down that mine shaft, and if memory serves, he also had a knife and a rope. He could've grabbed a ledge or a wooden beam or something to stop himself from falling all the way.

I haven't seen "Obsessed" yet, so I don't want to speculate on that one until I have the full story.

Personally, I don't really want to know for sure how Murdoc manages to survive, and I don't necessarily think that he should have died less. I just enjoy seeing how clever and inventive he must be, as well as how resourceful and just pure awesome, to be able to get out of those tight spots. He's a professional assassin who cheats death on a regular basis; how cool is that?
But, given that I tend to think of Murdoc as the hero of the story, I'm probably a little biased. I enjoy seeing him overcoming all odds to be resurrected for another chance at victory.

Although I do think it's interesting to speculate on how Murdoc would handle all that physical punishment when he got older. He's in his forties during the run of the series, I guess, so he was still fairly young and physically fit, in theory. But we know that after "Cleo," he at least had gotten facial surgery; is it safe to assume that he'd gotten some other surgeries as well? I'm sure that falling off of mountains and diving away from explosions would have given him at least a few health problems later in life. But that's probably getting a little off-topic, I suppose.