"Dragon Slayer" – Establishes the concept of the series with narration: Australian-accented Jim Hawkins lives in the pirate port of Porto Bello, where his guardian is Long John Silver. There’s lots of outrageous pirate acting and brawls. Ron Whelan stars as Redbeard who cons Silver into abducting Purity.
"Eviction" – A better episode (Martin Rackin did the script) with a pompous fat Lord of influence (Kevin Brennan) being a major pain in Porto Bello. He causes Purity’s tavern to be shut down, meaning Purity has to live on Silver’s ship (so they’re having sex, huh?). There’s a neat twist with the lord being an impostor and a Spanish spy – although this does let Silver and the governor off the hook.
"Execution Dock" – Long John Silver is ill despite insisting he’s got plenty of good years left, and its poignant to watch as Newtown died not long after filming wound up on the series. Silver has hallucinations enabling William Constable to show off his stuff. But it gets wearying after a while – there’s no real story.
"The Pink Pearl" – Silver is visited by a handsome lunk who practically announces “I’m a young male romantic lead” (John Bonney). He asks the pirate to help him find his brother. They visit an island where the natives are played by a combination of browned-up white actors and Maoris. It turns out they’re being exploited by Spaniards – because you know the English would never do that. However the young Brit agrees to stay with his native lover (Jeannette Craig)– isn’t that miscegenation in mid 50s television? Bit racy.
“Devil’s Stew” – Long John gambles away his money. A flat effort.
"Miss Purity’s Birthday” – one for Miss Purity – it has some low comedy and a funny scene where Jim attends a party at the Governor’s house.
"Ship o the Dead" – strong concept – Hawkins discovers a ship with its crew murdered but no one believes him. This one has a feel for Stevenson, an undercurrent of violence lacking in the series. There's a real threat. It is admittedly a little bit unconvincing how Hawkins saves the day.
“Sword of Vengeance” – this feels like the gang stumble into another person’s story: Owen Weingott is found floating in a boat on his own; he asks Silver’s help in attacking the evil Spaniard who stole his woman. There is actually a fair bit of swordplay in this one, all involving Weingott - Silver and company mostly just look on at the action.
“Dead Reckoning” – Jim Hawkins’ guardian calls him back to England, resulting in a lot of syrup from Long John and Jim at the thought of being parted. So Jim goes to school in Bermuda where he’s flat mates with a bratty kid. Jim refuses to inform; lots of scenes of Aussie kids acting in Aussie. Dreadful performance from the bratty kid.
“Pieces of Eight” – in order to pay taxes, Silver gets involved by a dodgy Greek on an expedition to find gold in Panama – Hawkins comes along which is downright irresponsible. There is a lot of trudging around the Australian bush, substituting for Panama. Not very good.
“The Tale of the Tooth” – a funny episode centering around a bad tooth of Silver’s. There’s another decent character in the tight-fisted Scottish dentist (Lou Vernon) who gets kidnapped by Spaniards. Good fun.
“Turnabout” – a more pirate-y story: Silver and his crew are captured by the French and Silver has to con his way out of it. An engaging story flatly handled. David Nettheim plays a Frenchman.
No comments:
Post a Comment