Curing the Plague

[Paradox Eyes]

I've often seen negative responses to the episode “Night of the Plague”. I don't care for it myself and yet every time I watch it, I really want to like it. Cal Gal's recent posting of caps from this episode has caused me to think about it again.

I like the premise and a lot of the storyline. I think for me, it's Lana Woods character that ruins it most. She's such a hideously spoiled brat of a grown woman, I just want to stop watching it.

In order to “cure” the Plague, I think her character should honestly have been a spoiled brat, ten to eleven ten years old? A feisty and belligerent little runaway, maybe from a broken home where she and her mother live with wealthy grandparents. And the little girl wants to live with her daddy. I think it would have been more entertaining to watch Jim West manage something like that. The series never dealt with a child situation. I wonder why? They did one with a baby elephant.

I also would have like to see a little more angst during the search to deepen the drama. A race against time should cause a lot more thought about life and death situations then a sudden gun-fight.

The doppelganger surprise could remain, just make the JW look-a-like the little girls daddy. That could have been a funnier tag. Can you picture Artie teasing Jim over that in the end?

How about the rest of you? Any thoughts on this episode?

[Double Take]

I never minded this episode. I actually prefer Lana Wood in this over Firebrand. In Firebrand, Vixen was prepared to be an accomplice to multiple murders and never appeared in the least remorseful nor was she punished. At least Avery wasn't out to murder anyone even if she was a love-sick, spoiled ding-bat.

The only thing I didn't like about it was all the baddies suddenly getting sick at the same time...right on cue!

[rielle]

I love the idea of Avery being a child in fact! What a great solution! Someone needs to write a story like that! NO, NO, NOT ME! I'm up to my eyelids in my novel and fanfics and stories I'm trying to work on right now [including, hopefully... hint, hint, hint, more of the Round Robin] !

And RL is getting better here, but part of that means we're likely to be moving next month or in March! Yeah, total chaos is on the way!

HOWEVER
There are a coupla things I really like about this ep. No, no, no! I said things, not guys!

First:
I love anytime we get to see and hear RM with any snippet from Shakespeare. And here we see Artie having a terrific time playing Falstaff. It seems clear to me that RM was having a fine time doing it, too, not just bc it said in the script. And I actually love whenever RM plays an actor. It's just about the only saving grace I find in eps like Running Death, in fact.

Second
there's that line of Artie's which I've always wondered whether or not it was an adlib on RM's part... Artie catches up to Jim and says 'I can't leave you alone for an hour, can I, without you getting into some kind of trouble?' First we know RM had only recently returned to work, and second, the show IS an hour! [well 47 minutes w/commercials] ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

So RM gives the line and RC as Jim just cracks up... Yes of course they're both fine actors, I've always said that. But I still think RM adlibbed that line or RC wouldn't have seemed so surprised. imho Wish there was someone who knew the answer. Did those two ever get to adlib?

Okay, there are three things.
Third
I really like the villains being an acting troupe. A very clever idea, bc it lets them freely travel the countryside...

Now,
'm sorry but I really cannot say much good about Ms. Wood's two performances on W3. She's just ... grating... whining, stiff as a board mostly, and... both her characters are spoiled brats, with little or no understanding or human compassion for the troubles they're involved in.

[California gal]

I know the guys think Lana is the bee's knees but it seems all she can do is play spoiled brat characters (though I admit I don't recall ever seeing her in anything else--at least nothing notable). I guess when someone submitted this script the PTB thought, hey, Lana can do this one too!

Having Averi be an adolescent would have been at least unusual and probably hilarious. Love the idea of having Jim's double show up as her daddy! LOL! (No, I can't write it either. Got too many WWW stories going or boiling. Oh, PE!?)

The other thing that might have helped improve the script would have been more scenes with Jim & Artie together. I think there's only 2 or 3 minutes total with them together. Have to wonder if they were worried about overtaxing RM. He was not in Cossacks much either, compared to pre-heart attack episodes.

One really has to speculate about that "hour" line. Their amusement seems so genuine, and both appear to have to control it and move on. It was either ad lib or perhaps they joked around with it in rehearsal. I don't suppose RC would remember.

I often wonder if, in the later seasons especially, RM and RC had any input into the scripts about how their characters would react. In the relatively few scripts we have access too, a number of scenes were altered (most specifically in Pistoleros), and I can almost see one of them protesting that Jim/Artie wouldn't say/do that in that situation. I know the writers for The Lost World sought input from the actors about their characters. I have no idea how common that is among scriptwriters.

[California gal]

Jan 15, 2010 4:54:56 GMT -8 Double Take said:

I never minded this episode. I actually prefer Lana Wood in this over Firebrand. In Firebrand, Vixen was prepared to be an accomplice to multiple murders and never appeared in the least remorseful nor was she punished. At least Avery wasn't out to murder anyone even if she was a love-sick, spoiled ding-bat.

The only thing I didn't like about it was all the baddies suddenly getting sick at the same time...right on cue!

Didn't you ever hear of the time-release virus?

I agree regarding Lana's character Firebrand. At least she was one of the rare females in seasons 2-4 who "got away with it." They were most prevalent in season 1. I know that in that era, appearance often counted more than actual deed. A beautiful woman wasn't capable of dire deeds, nor was a well-dressed man. Or so they liked to believe!

[Apple]

I agree that an adolescent would have made the episode more bearable. I don't like Lana Wood's characters very much in either episode she appears in, either. Now who could have been the young actress to be the spoiled child?

PE you MUST write this story as it was your 'proposal' ;D

[kelly]

I read Law and Order fan fiction story where Lenny Briscoe blood cure the NYPD being expose to disease that was airborune I don't know where it is at now since Geocities got cancel by Yahoo it was good story

[Paradox Eyes]

Jan 15, 2010 8:54:37 GMT -8 Apple said:

I agree that an adolescent would have made the episode more bearable. I don't like Lana Wood's characters very much in either episode she appears in, either. Now who could have been the young actress to be the spoiled child?

PE you MUST write this story as it was your 'proposal' ;D

Well thanks for the vote of confidence Apple! It never occured to me to rewrite the whole story, I was just exploring hindsight. I also don't have time to start any more stories. I've got to finish some of the ones in progress. I do have one already in progress from last year that involves the agents having to escort one very precoscious child. I was hoping to finish that one this year too.

The one I'm currently working on was in fact seeded by this plague episode but then takes off in a totally different direction. If only there were two of me so one could stay home from work and write. Sigh.

[artiesniecewannabe]

I was going through the Eye Candy thread, saw the pics from Plague, thought of something, then saw there was this thread, so...

Artie as Kevin Kimble -- I can see Kimble being the drunken Hamlet from Casual Killer, you know? I too love hearing Artie/Ross do Shakespeare.

Also, I like at the start of the episode when Jim joins the people on the stage and he moves Miss Bratty's I-paid-for-two-seats luggage so the lady with the baby can have a real seat, then he sits on the floor. Chivalry rules!