Michael Dunn makes his third of four first season appearances as Dr. Miguelito Loveless in “The Night of the Whirring Death.” The episode has a lot of things goig for it. It is a Christmas themed story, Voltaire is allowed to speak, there are some iconic guest stars, including Norman fell 9Mr. Roper on Three’s Company) and character actor Jesse White, plus the episode is directed by Mark Rydell of On Golden Pond and Mel Gibson’s The River fame. Yet it does not quite measure up to prior Loveless appearances.California is on the verge of bankruptcy. It is iexplicably not mentioned, but one has to assume the state’s money troubles extend from Horatio Bolt’s spending the treasury on rare artwork in “The Night of the Torture Chamber.” The new governor has a plan to offer government contracts to some shady busiessmen for $ 5 million apiece in order to restock the treasury. That sounds like a crime I and o itself, but Ulysses s. Gant was a corrupt man himself, so it is no surprise that he signed off on the plan.
Jim and Artie act as couriers between the businessmen and the goernor, but cannot stop Loveless from using exploding toys in assassination attempts in which he also stealsthe money. Loveless’ ultimate plan is to kill the governor in order to take over the state himself.
Loveless is at his usual weirdness here. His hideout is a toy store with all sorts of killer--literally--toys within it. But his scheme does not come across as all that grandiose. He has not actually killed the busiessmen caught I his explosios, but he does intend to kill the governor. I think the dichotomy is meant to portay Loveless’ twisted sense of fair play, but it did not resonate with me.
There is a poitless fight with a bridge building tycoon’s bodyguards which was thrown in solely to have a fight scene. It happens o and around a staircase. When it is inished, Jim jumps up onto the top railig and climbs up instead of simply walking up the steps. Shall we chalk that up to an adrenaline rush? The guy had been caught in two explosions in less than two hours prior. E gets knocked ucoscious three times in one night, too. Jim probably has had more concussion’s than Troy Aikman at this point.
One other annoyance-- the bride building tycoon is playing with an electric train set Loveless sent him anonymously. At this time period, toy trains were run with clockwork mechanisms. Electric trains like his were not invented until the 20th century. You could defend the anachronism by claiming loveless invented electric trains, since he has shown a penchant for inventions ahead of their time, but no one around the train set acts like it is an oddity. Make up your own mind about the matter.
Voltaire gets to speak for the first time. I think the character loses some mystique because of it. Previously, it was assumed he was a mute who commented only through gestures and facial expressions. You could arue that was true. Perhaps Loveless cured him of whatever ailment caused his muteness. Artie even comments at his surpise upon hearig hi talk, which adds to the idea Voltaire is miraculously no loger mute. I would grig my axe about this, but as the story goes, Richard Kiel was upset he would beappearing for the third time, but still have no lines, so Robert Conrad insisted he be given some dialogue. I have to give some udos when the star of the show makes a selfless gesture for one of the guest stars, so I will not critique the matter. Voltaire speaks as a professional courtesy.
“The Night of the Whirring Death” is average for a Loveless story, but ay Loveless story rises above the rest. Dunn makes such an interesting villain. He looks like he is having such a good time playing the character, too. The joy of his insane villainy is infectious.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
