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 48 - Ghost ship

While out setting survey markers in Alaska, MacGyver finds a seemingly abandoned ship with a stowaway Russian girl aboard who tells him they where all scared away by a creature... one the locals call Bigfoot.

Votes from March 2006
Poor [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Average [ 0 ] [0.00%]
OK [ 2 ] [11.11%]
Good [ 3 ] [16.67%]
Excellent [ 13 ] [72.22%]
Total Votes: 18

Archived comments

laugh.gif Yeah, but OMG he's Russian impersonation is Sooooo Bad!

Gotta love him anyway. wub.gif

ok.. hands up.. who jumped out of their seats when bigfoot's hand smashes through the window?

Erm....

*sheepy looks around shyly and slowly raises hand*

Yeah... more like I yelped and tried to scramble under my seat!

And now, every time I re-watch that scene, I think:
"He must have been afraid Mac was going to drink his coffee!"

*indignant* I most certainly did not!



Okay, yeah I did.

I remember, I was laying on the floor in front of the TV watching this episode and got a hell of a fright. I said something to my parents about it and they both said they got a fright as well.

I wonder if thats the single scariest moment in the whole series.. as far as real fright factor goes. I can't remember another scene where something like that happens completely out of the blue.. absolutely no warning.

Hitchcock would be proud.

Hehehe. Yeah, I think I jumped, too. My brother looked at me really weird...

I think Mac did too. Seriously... RDA's reaction was truly lifelike - he was scared (pooless). I wonder how they rehearsed this... maybe they just just told him he'd see bigfoot's face in the window? - Meanwhile, the director and actor protraying bigfoot were planning something else - to really frighten and surprise RDA. I know from my acting class, you can't give up too much in the rehearsal because for the reaction of the actor to be real - totally surprised... you HAVE to be really, totally surprised.

"Acting is truth"



Hey Rocky... I noticed that you took my bad word and modified it... That's OK - I don't usually use bad language - it was just to make a point.

Actually the forums did it automatically. We have bad word filters.

Thats not to say that people can start using bad words all the time though.

I think RDA is a good enough actor that he knows how to be portray scared. But it could be that the crew saw a good opertunity to get back at RDA for some of the pranks that he's pulled on set, so they set it up to scare him good.

In the Wish Child, when the cobra peeps out of the bag, he gives a great realistic reaction as well. They used it in the intro for quite some seasons. Later on, they changed it, as Mac's look changed as well and somehow the reaction wasn't as realistic as before.

By the way, I like the end scene of this ep as well. When they've just convinced themselves there's no such thing as Big Foot and all of a sudden they here this cry coming from the forest! Brilliant!

well theres an oxymoron if ever I heard one.

I got definitely got a fright! Some episodes I enjoy more the second time I watch them but not this one. Once you know what’s going to happen any suspense has gone and then you are just watching MacGyver walk in silence around the boat for ages .

I wouldn't put it past a crew to do something like that, actors do similar adlibs and such all the time.

We all know how good RD is in ad-libbing,

Just saw it again (about 12th time) and jumped out of the seat allright

This episode would've been better if they didn't play it to death on TV. I can probably act the whole thing out. The Bigfoot was kinda hokey but frightening. The revelation that it was a guy was anticlimactic. Not to mention predictable. But the twist ending really threw me for a loop. A great "what-if?" moment.

the title doesn't seem to fit the episode.

but, that big foot did make me jump in surprise when he tried to grab mac the first time.

i love seeing mac in the wilderness.

The term "Ghost ship" is used to refer to a ship found floating with no crew.

So the title refers to the empty ship MacGyver finds, and which is somewhat the starting point of his creepy adventure with Bigfoot.

Another fright besides Bigfoot's hand/foot through the window: door slamming right behind Mac!!

When I first saw this episode it scared the pee out of me.

pretty creepy episode.
the thing is really frightened the life out of me. the old huge ship looks cool but creepy as hell

And another one: skeleton arm dropped from a tree above Mac before the toten pole!

The episode has all the things I like to see on Mac: hairstyle, shirt with jeans, wilderness, campfire, language skill. He also got hit hard by the bigfoot, poor him.

I jumped out of my seat the first time i saw the arm dropping out of the tree.

This episode demonstrates what a good actor RDA is. With minimal dialogue during the first half, he was able to nonverbally express his fear, and convincingly too. I really believed he was frightened out of his wits!

I voted excelent. Amazing suspense in the ship, while Mac see strange signals in the ship. When the bigfoot down the steps towards him and he closed the door just in time!!!
RDA acting is very well in this situation. He looks scary.

Nice epi, I love it when he's looking out for kids and all.

I jumped out of my skin when the skeleton fell down from the tree, I crapped myself honestly! I read a book long time ago about mysteries of the bemuda triangle (probably haven't spelt it right) when I was young, about all the boats that go missing, or found empty with no crew, creepy stories and the empty boat took me straight back and was very eary for me to watch!

Hadn't seen it in ages, watched it last night. Loved it!!

This is another episode that I have revalued recently, after new visions..
Great suspense and mystery in the first part (I'm scared too, when the arm of bigfoot enters the window..)maybe a little less effective in the second.
Also the direction of this episode is of good level.

Had to vote this one as being just average. I thought it was ridiculous. RDA did a good job, but the plotline was just so far out there, it turned the episode into a laughfest.

I'd expect to see someone attacked by a giant Bigfoot in a low budget horror movie starring B grade actors, not in my favourite TV show.

This one didn't do it for me, I'm afraid.