We have finally reached the merciful end to the lackluster third season. The good news is the fourth season is a considerable up tick. The d news is the fourth season is also the show’s swan song. At least it goes out on a high note. For my money, the third season is the only detriment to the series. “The Night of the Death-Maker’ is a key example why. The episode takes all its elements from past episodes, mixes them together, and calls it a new story.. To be fair, this was not intended to be the season finale. Filming of the final four episodes was cancelled because Robert Conrad suffered a serious skull fracture performing a stunt. The episode with the injuring stunt was completed for the fourth season, actual accident making it to the screen and all, so I will address it in more detail in a few days. Suffice to say, if there was a big bang planned for the end of the third season, neither “The Night of the Death-Maker,’ nor Conrad’s skull fracture was anyone had in mind.
Gen. Gullen Dane, a disgraced general fired by Ulysses S. Grant, has hidden away in a monastery he is holding hostage with a private army. He plans to assassinate grant with a stolen gattling gun so he can take over California for his own. Our heroes are looking for possible hiding places near the railroad where such a gun could be shipped quickly. They just happen to discover the monastery is Dane’s base of operations after noting a monk appearing at the local hotel plus the wine the brothers make tasting unusually bitter. It turns out the imprisoned brothers have been sabotaging the wine in a pitiful attempt to attract outside attention.
Our heroes free the brothers and stop Dane from assassinating Grant We have seen all this before, right down to a disgraced military officer hiding out in a church/monastery with a private army ready to take over California. “The Night of the Death-Maker” is literally a cut and paste script with every part, sans the imprisoned brothers, taken from previous. It is not bad necessarily, but it is disappointingly unoriginal.
Rating: ** (out of 5)
