Friday 3 January 2014

06: Terror in Times Square (1.06)

1978; 50 minutes
Director of Photography John McPherson
Written by William Schwartz; Produced by Chuck Bowman
Directed by Alan J Levi

Sandwiched between scenes of Jack McGee talking to his editor about closing in on the creature in New York, this story reveals that David has indeed recently got himself a job in the city (at one the old amusement arcades).  A gangster has long held the small businesses in the area to ransom, attaining a monthly income from each of them, and this includes the arcade.  The business owners plot to overthrow the perpetrator and David, who has come to care about several of the people involved, lands himself right in the middle of trouble when he snoops around himself, even going so far as to break into the gangster's headquarters to obtain evidence.

A fairly generic soup of mob criminality and protection rackets is injected with a big boost for the Hulk's second appearance.  Who out there has needed to get somewhere and they can't move any faster than the traffic will allow, the resulting anger of which does not proceed to get you moving any quicker?  That's the situation David finds himself in when he's on the way to prevent catastrophe at a rendezvous - jumping into a taxi he finds himself stuck in New York traffic with the clock ticking away.  Rage leads to Hulk of course, who smashes out and makes his way through the New York streets on foot.  Not only was this amazingly brave of Lou Ferrigno - it's winter in Manhattan and I can tell you from personal experience it gets very cold there! - but much of it was obviously shot live and with busy streets there are some priceless moments of utter bewilderment as onlookers are fixated by the charging green giant.

A timeline is shaped with this episode as McGee's editor states that he's been chasing the monster for six months.  Despite a lull during the middle act, if there is such a thing, this episode makes up for any dragging with the titular Times Square action.

Number of Fists: ***

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