Slow Death

Episode:  019

Production No.: 40191-019

Airdate: 02 April 1986

Writer: Stephen Kandel

Director: Don Weis

Nielsen Ratings:  17.4 rating / 27 share / 2nd (23rd overall)

EPISODE

MacGyver’s train trip through India is derailed by hijackers seeking revenge on two unidentified Westerners who sold poisonous medicine to their village.

CAST

MACGYVERISMS

Made a doll from a sock and handkerchief.	Sprayed carbonated water into a bowl of Salt causing it to splash into bad guys eyes.
Spread local moonshine along top of train and set fire to it to stop bad guys from chasing him.	Booby-trapped the engine control circuits to overload.
Made a high-pitched whistle from a bottle spout to annoy the horses.	Made a lie detector from a sphygmomanometer and an alarm clock.
Threw boot onto roof of carriage to distract bad guy.

TRIVIA

• MacGyver eats a roast lamb sandwich with a glass of milk.
• Although not specified in the episode, the TV Guide says the episode is in India, however, this article refers more specifically to the hijackers as Bengali peasants. Bengal is the most eastern state of India and boarders Bangladesh and the engineer states that the train is is heading to Rājāmehār which is in Bangladesh.
• MacGyver gives two versions of his mission in India. While catching the train he says that he intercepted plans for a guerrilla raid, then tells Andrea later that he hijacked proof of an illegal arms-oil deal and if he gets the proof out of the country in time, it could help thwart a little war.
• Diana’s mother (the dragon) was played by Candice Bergen’s (Murphy Brown) mother.
• The German episode title is “Halt auf freier Strecke”, meaning “Stopped Between Stations”.

MEMORABLE QUOTES

• if you’re gonna slay a dragon, I know where you can find one.  -MacGyver
• Another day. A whole ‘nother set of fresh possibilities.  -MacGyver
• He has a right, but he’s wrong.  -MacGyver
• We shell be on this misbegotten excuse for a railway for a long dusty ride and if we don’t at least drink together, we shell have to drink separately.  -James Grant
• I’m a cripple; you’re black; neither is a condition for sympathy.  -James Grant
• The sight of beauty invariably dizzies me.  -James Grant
  The stink of liquor does the same thing for me Mr. Grant.  -Eleanor Kingman
• Well, you know that old saying, “Lord, give me the strength to deal with what I can, and endure what I can’t”? Well, I’m enduring.  -MacGyver
• He is no doubt a thief and a lier, but he is not the man I am looking for.

NIT-PICKS

• When MacGyver and the Doctor are talking at the train’s bar the bartender changes locations between camera angles.
• This episode is supposed to be set in India, yet the villagers who stop the train don’t look even close to Indian.

FILMING LOCATIONS

Rail Bridge Indian Dunes 30058 Henry Mayo Dr, Castaic, CA