Post by niecie on May 4, 2014 19:05:38 GMT -5
So how come the princess' boyfriend gets to have a belly button? Back in the 60's, no one on tv had a belly button! (Jim never does; Jeannie the genie never did, etc, etc.)
The town is well named; Gravetown is a ghost town. But Artie's horse is gorgeous!
The laughter announces the entrance of the Big Bad just before we see his face -- our favorite doctor! (Well, of the non-Gallifreyan variety.)
Very nice little action sequence when Jim and Artie disarm Loveless' men and Artie draws on Loveless. Shows that Artie is no longer being written as the guy who can't fight. And did Jim take out that one guy using his hat??
Loveless reacts with applause. (Well, so do I!) But he still has the ace up his sleeve in the form of the princess.
Synchronized floor-sitting.
Wish I could read those Wanted posters!
Synchronized eye-rolling too, though Jim's roll up and Artie's down.
Wash away the sins of Man? Messianic complex much?
Artie's lockpick is a Chekov's gun, right? We see it here so we'll recognize it later. And James West, as my mother always used to say, always has exactly the right thing in his boot heels.
Artie keeps a match in an odd place: the back of his belt! Jim adjusts the flame to the right intensity, a clear blue flame. Yet when we see the flame in close-up, it's back to the showy, less efficient yellow flame. (Ok, so that's a pet peeve. I'll probably complain about it again when I get to Eccentrics.) But the flame is back to clear blue in the two-shot again.
Ah, synchronicity! Artie knocks on the door, then yanks the first guy through the door and throws him into the cell bars even as Jim kicks the metal door shut again right into the second guy's face. Then Jim yanks the door back open to let the second guy keel over into the room. Beautiful teamwork, just beautiful!
The princess' campsite is so phony-looking, and then she walks into the rest of the room and we understand why it's phony-looking. (No comment on the authenticity of the 'Indian' princess.)
Loveless' joke about the princess going for a walk or something is NOT funny.
A guest, right. Somewhat like staying at the Hotel California.
I always get a kick out of the drawings on the side of the tepee; they look like something out of the old-fashioned Sunday funny pages, not Indian at all.
Both Jim and Artie have lost their hats.
I like Artie's quote 'Said the spider to the fly' as he points toward the open window. And Jim, so typically for him, goes ahead and trips the trap.
That's really RC skinning up there, isn't it? You know, I can just imagine him as a kid, getting into everything. :-)
And the sign on the inside of the window. Loveless knew it wouldn't be Artie coming into the house that way!
So did Artie just give himself up? As Act Two opens, we see both agents in the princess' 'camp' as the manacles are being locked around their ankles.
The princess is full of fire and vinegar towards Our Heroes. Well, considering all she knows of them is that they have been captured and locked up along with her, I suppose she doesn't see any reason to be hopeful just because they are there.
The 'Cheery-bye all' line is a favorite.
Is it my imagination, or does the amount of grey at Loveless' temples change, sometimes more, sometimes less? It looks good on him, of course.
Artie is sarcastic, lifting the ankle chain and quipping, 'Just like home!'
The princess points out, quite rightly, that the only 'evil spirit' in Gravetown is the doctor -- but then she snarks that perhaps Jim and Artie are evil spirits as well. Artie comes back with his line about how she'll never be the president of their fan club. Yeah, that's another favorite line!
Oo, she doesn't just disapprove of Jim and Artie, she's downright insulting, calling Jim a chicken! She thinks pretty highly of her beloved Chawtaw though.
Is that the titular raven Antoinette is feeding in the background of the doctor's lab? Lovely monologuing scene, introducing the mysterious white powder and its antidote.
Jim is using the tiny torch on his ankle manacle. Glad he doesn't catch his pants on fire, but I do wonder how he still has the torch? He put it away in a pocket instead of loading it into his boot heels after he used it in the jail cell, and when was there time after that for him to hide it properly again? Or is it that Loveless still adheres to his policy of not searching his captives? (He said that in a first season episode, I'm pretty sure, calling it rude. I don't recall which episode though.) I suppose Loveless would consider that permitting West to keep and use his gadgets is a way of making things more sporting -- after all, otherwise the agents would have no hope against the doctor's towering intellect, right?
I wonder why the henchies only bring two trays of food for the three prisoners?
I like the escape scene! Artie doesn't have time to remove his own ankle chain, but he sure takes advantage of Jim's chain to back off the henchies while Jim disappears.
Oh, and the tray Jim kicked wound up almost out in the hall!
Antoinette rushes to tell Dr Loveless first thing. Loveless is in the midst of being a tobacconist.
We come back to Jim in the middle of a fight. Nice fight!
And now we see the garden room. Loveless has a group of pet plants that look very familiar. Didn't Morticia Addams have the same sort of carnivorous plants?
Loveless certainly puts a lot of store by Jim giving his word they won't escape. I'm not sure if the look on the princess' face when Jim promises not to escape is relief that she won't be killed, or disappointment that Jim will not be able to escape and get her out of there.
Love the doctor's scene with the plants, his petulance with the one plant that won't behave.
Jim and Artie's dialog about the promise not to escape.
Well, the girl seems to be warming up to the agents. Irrelevant note, but is the back of Wanakee's headband held together with velcro?
My, my, but what might Antoinette be sewing over there, hmm???
When Loveless talks about not having to look up anymore, where does Antoinette fit into that? Where will she be?
At the start of Act Three, is it my imagination, or does Artie have the manacle on his ankle again?
That line about an Indian girl being like any other girl who is in love is a bit annoying nowadays, since of course an Indian girl is like any other girl! But the line fits historically, unfortunately, since for a long time Indians (and other darker-skinned people) were considered somehow inferior to lighter-skinned people -- and for some, that crazy idea still persists.
Jim is so sure (and of course ultimately he's right) that none of them are going to die.
More of the titular raven.
Loveless starts out sounding like a pirate, then manages to quote Frost despite the fact that the poet was a baby at the time.
More Artemus snark. Jim might do well not to be so sociable. And Antoinette is oh so flirty! So much so that Loveless tells her to back off.
Perhaps the fact that Loveless was so attentive regarding the cigar should have warned them. Artie looks so freaked out when Jim topples into his arms.
The bedroom set is great! The huge bed, Jim's ordinary clothing hanging up in the corner. The illusion is marvelous; it's hard to keep in mind that the set is oversized, that Jim isn't really six inches tall! (But if Antoinette made Jim's small suit, she sure paid attention to details.)
I wonder if perhaps they borrowed some of the sets and props from Land of the Giants -- when was that show in production that season?
Man, can't the cat have a more inventive name than 'Pussycat'?? And for that matter, Loveless constantly calls the cat 'she,' but, um... Well, there are a couple of times we get a rear-view on the cat, and I don't think that particular cat is exactly a 'she'...
The reappearance of the James West doll. I know it's in TNOT Brain as well, but where else does it show up?
And we find that there's someone else in the dollhouse. I wonder why Artie wasn't given the doll treatment as well. It certainly would have changed the remaining storyline, wouldn't it?
Into Wanakee's room? Does she mean the tipee? And did Antoinette replicate the princess' outfit too?
Dancing on the table!
The musical interlude. Now, that song of course would have made the audience think of the Beach Boys, but I think it's a pretty old song, isn't it? The smile and forehead bump at the end, along with the perfunctory applause.
Artie's face when he sees Jim!
The 'pass the butter' bit is a nice effect.
Does anyone blame Artie for having no appetite?
Dr Loveless the nature-lover. Yeah, right.
Artie snarks again, with the reference to the snake in the Garden of Eden.
Back to the dollhouse and the cat!
Now we know why the window in the lid of the dollhouse has bars on either side...
Loveless already knew Jim could get down from the table. Wonder why he didn't do something more to keep Jim in the dollhouse?
Loveless sure tosses that cat aside hard!
The cobweb is impressive. The strands might be a bit thick, I think. And does that type of spider even spin a web?
After all the shots of the spider menacing Jim, we don't actually get a battle between them. Well, that might have stretched the special effects budget too much -- and would have looked even fakier than the coming fight between Jim and the cat.
Resourceful Jim takes a length of spider silk with him.
Ok, how did that mousetrap get in that position inside the wall? There's no way for a hand to have placed it there, right? It's nowhere near an opening.
I do wonder a bit why Jim tries to sneak past the trap first; I'd have thought he'd just get trip it and get it over with.
Styrofoam cheese.
Another thing: how on earth did Loveless set up the sliding board? That is, how would he know that Jim would spot the knothole and use it to escape the wall? It's a lovely sequence with Jim using what he has to hand to get up to the knothole, but the fact that he then comes down a ramp and into the arena really stretches the ol' credulity, unless you just don't think about it, eh?
Antoinette releases the cat and Artie facepalms.
Somewhat cheesy special effect of the giant cat with Jim and the girl. The shadows don't match up, but hey -- 60's special effects.
Artie's hand starts going for his inside jacket pocket...
What does Loveless mean by 'We've gone as far as we can, the three of us'? Since he's standing with Artie and Antoinette, I immediately think those are the three he's referring to, but that doesn't make sense.
Loveless goes from 'I could just cuddle her [the cat] to pieces' to 'Sic him, pussycat, sic him!' in less than a second.
Ah, and Artie tosses the 'Chekov's gun' (the lockpick) to Jim.
So if Loveless thought the fight was unfair because Artie intervened and gave Jim a weapon, he could have just reached in and stopped the fight. But then we wouldn't have the 'you fraidy cat!' line, eh?
As has been pointed out before by others, Jim poked the cat in the front left paw, but we then see the cat licking its front right paw.
Can't blame Artie for not caring when Loveless accusing him of cheating. I mean, Artie could have pointed out all the myriad ways in which Loveless could be called a cheat here, not least of which is the fact that the little doctor shrunk Jim and the girl -- but it's much more fun for Artie to spread his hands and say, 'So sue me!'
Where did that little net come from all of a sudden?
Oh, Loveless! He just had to carry the antidote on him and pull it from his pocket to wave it around and gloat!
Artie lunges for it. Can't blame him for that either, but maybe if he'd been a bit more subtle about it, he could have gotten the vial in hand before Loveless knew what he was doing.
I love this next bit. Loveless in his petulance flings the vial toward the door to smash it, and lo and behold, Artie gets himself free, snatches the vial right out of the air, and lobs it to Jim! Yay, Artie! Pity he gets clobbered in the next instant and it's back to one-punch-and-Artie's-out -- but he rescued Jim, bless his heart! (Make that two punches and a clonk on the head from a gun butt...)
So the glass vial doesn't shatter on impact after all. I wonder that Jim reaches up inside to get some of the liquid when there's a puddle of it outside on the floor. For that matter, why is it later that the girl doesn't get bigger again until Jim and Artie pour some from another vial? There was plenty in the first vial; she could have helped herself once J&A untied her from that stake.
As soon as Jim's back to size and the fight begins, Loveless and Antoinette run from the room. The next thing we see of them, they are gobbling down the shrinking powder. Makes me wonder how they will get the antidote to get back to normal. Also there's the question of the clothes: after such a big point was made of Jim having two sets of clothes, large and small, his clothes grow with him when he gets back to normal, and so do the girl's clothes. So what becomes of the clothing Dr Loveless and Antoinette are wearing when they escape?
And on the other hand, maybe that's an image I'd rather not comtemplate...
Jim fighting four men at once! We see an example of a kick while he's airborne, which really should not work. (Without Jim having something to anchor him to the floor, instead of the energy of his kick being transferred to the other guy, the kick should have simply made Jim go flying back away from the guy he kicked. But this is WWW so ordinary physics need not actually apply, right? *grin*)
And having knocked that guy down, Jim wades into the other three and takes care of them in short order. It's interesting (to me, since I write fights for Jim in fanfiction) to watch him work in slow motion.
Ah, all minions accounted for, so Artie can regain consciousness now. I do like pretty much all the seasons of WWW, but I like so much better the writing that includes Artie in the fights (sadly, unlike here). And I love the training sessions on the train (teaser of Golden Cobra, tag of Green Terror) when we get to see Jim teaching Artie to fight. Yeah, both times it's played for laughs, but you just know that Jim really would see to it that his partner learns to handle himself in a fight.
Let's see: Artie was knocked unconscious by a gun butt over the noggin. Jim helps him upright, asks him how he is -- and the next second, Artie is running after Jim to find Loveless. These guys have the healing abilities of Wolverine!
Synchronization again. Jim and Artie move and stop and move and kick all together like they, um, rehearsed it.
No clothes on the floor... And at last we see the reason for the name of this episode! The titular raven is the means by which Loveless and Antoinette escape! Never mind that you can't see any passengers on the raven's back. Never mind also that that bird flies and flies and flies and is still framed by the full moon. Right?
So they get back to the girl and she's free from the stake now. But why does she makes that helpless little what-are-we-going-to-do-now gesture? There should still be plenty of the grow juice just out of frame to her right. Not to mention, how on earth would Jim and Artie know if the stuff in the tube they do give to her is the right thing? (On further thought, maybe the tube in Jim's hand is the same one that he got some of the grow juice from earlier, in which case the question is now: why did he even bother to pick it up??)
The 'here goes nothing' / 'you mean everything' exchange must be a favorite of the writers, don't you think?
And end laughing.
(Hey, don't get me wrong. I like this episode. It has Loveless, one of his maddest, most science-fictional inventions, Antoinette at his side, and some lovely snarky lines. But it's not without its plotholes and doesn't stand up too well to scrutiny. One of those episodes, as Cal Gal says, that they didn't expect us to be able to watch endlessly with a remote in hand. But it's still fun. And y'know, sometimes the fun is the stuff they threw in there that they really shouldn't have been able to get away with, but do anyway.)
The town is well named; Gravetown is a ghost town. But Artie's horse is gorgeous!
The laughter announces the entrance of the Big Bad just before we see his face -- our favorite doctor! (Well, of the non-Gallifreyan variety.)
Very nice little action sequence when Jim and Artie disarm Loveless' men and Artie draws on Loveless. Shows that Artie is no longer being written as the guy who can't fight. And did Jim take out that one guy using his hat??
Loveless reacts with applause. (Well, so do I!) But he still has the ace up his sleeve in the form of the princess.
Synchronized floor-sitting.
Wish I could read those Wanted posters!
Synchronized eye-rolling too, though Jim's roll up and Artie's down.
Wash away the sins of Man? Messianic complex much?
Artie's lockpick is a Chekov's gun, right? We see it here so we'll recognize it later. And James West, as my mother always used to say, always has exactly the right thing in his boot heels.
Artie keeps a match in an odd place: the back of his belt! Jim adjusts the flame to the right intensity, a clear blue flame. Yet when we see the flame in close-up, it's back to the showy, less efficient yellow flame. (Ok, so that's a pet peeve. I'll probably complain about it again when I get to Eccentrics.) But the flame is back to clear blue in the two-shot again.
Ah, synchronicity! Artie knocks on the door, then yanks the first guy through the door and throws him into the cell bars even as Jim kicks the metal door shut again right into the second guy's face. Then Jim yanks the door back open to let the second guy keel over into the room. Beautiful teamwork, just beautiful!
The princess' campsite is so phony-looking, and then she walks into the rest of the room and we understand why it's phony-looking. (No comment on the authenticity of the 'Indian' princess.)
Loveless' joke about the princess going for a walk or something is NOT funny.
A guest, right. Somewhat like staying at the Hotel California.
I always get a kick out of the drawings on the side of the tepee; they look like something out of the old-fashioned Sunday funny pages, not Indian at all.
Both Jim and Artie have lost their hats.
I like Artie's quote 'Said the spider to the fly' as he points toward the open window. And Jim, so typically for him, goes ahead and trips the trap.
That's really RC skinning up there, isn't it? You know, I can just imagine him as a kid, getting into everything. :-)
And the sign on the inside of the window. Loveless knew it wouldn't be Artie coming into the house that way!
So did Artie just give himself up? As Act Two opens, we see both agents in the princess' 'camp' as the manacles are being locked around their ankles.
The princess is full of fire and vinegar towards Our Heroes. Well, considering all she knows of them is that they have been captured and locked up along with her, I suppose she doesn't see any reason to be hopeful just because they are there.
The 'Cheery-bye all' line is a favorite.
Is it my imagination, or does the amount of grey at Loveless' temples change, sometimes more, sometimes less? It looks good on him, of course.
Artie is sarcastic, lifting the ankle chain and quipping, 'Just like home!'
The princess points out, quite rightly, that the only 'evil spirit' in Gravetown is the doctor -- but then she snarks that perhaps Jim and Artie are evil spirits as well. Artie comes back with his line about how she'll never be the president of their fan club. Yeah, that's another favorite line!
Oo, she doesn't just disapprove of Jim and Artie, she's downright insulting, calling Jim a chicken! She thinks pretty highly of her beloved Chawtaw though.
Is that the titular raven Antoinette is feeding in the background of the doctor's lab? Lovely monologuing scene, introducing the mysterious white powder and its antidote.
Jim is using the tiny torch on his ankle manacle. Glad he doesn't catch his pants on fire, but I do wonder how he still has the torch? He put it away in a pocket instead of loading it into his boot heels after he used it in the jail cell, and when was there time after that for him to hide it properly again? Or is it that Loveless still adheres to his policy of not searching his captives? (He said that in a first season episode, I'm pretty sure, calling it rude. I don't recall which episode though.) I suppose Loveless would consider that permitting West to keep and use his gadgets is a way of making things more sporting -- after all, otherwise the agents would have no hope against the doctor's towering intellect, right?
I wonder why the henchies only bring two trays of food for the three prisoners?
I like the escape scene! Artie doesn't have time to remove his own ankle chain, but he sure takes advantage of Jim's chain to back off the henchies while Jim disappears.
Oh, and the tray Jim kicked wound up almost out in the hall!
Antoinette rushes to tell Dr Loveless first thing. Loveless is in the midst of being a tobacconist.
We come back to Jim in the middle of a fight. Nice fight!
And now we see the garden room. Loveless has a group of pet plants that look very familiar. Didn't Morticia Addams have the same sort of carnivorous plants?
Loveless certainly puts a lot of store by Jim giving his word they won't escape. I'm not sure if the look on the princess' face when Jim promises not to escape is relief that she won't be killed, or disappointment that Jim will not be able to escape and get her out of there.
Love the doctor's scene with the plants, his petulance with the one plant that won't behave.
Jim and Artie's dialog about the promise not to escape.
Well, the girl seems to be warming up to the agents. Irrelevant note, but is the back of Wanakee's headband held together with velcro?
My, my, but what might Antoinette be sewing over there, hmm???
When Loveless talks about not having to look up anymore, where does Antoinette fit into that? Where will she be?
At the start of Act Three, is it my imagination, or does Artie have the manacle on his ankle again?
That line about an Indian girl being like any other girl who is in love is a bit annoying nowadays, since of course an Indian girl is like any other girl! But the line fits historically, unfortunately, since for a long time Indians (and other darker-skinned people) were considered somehow inferior to lighter-skinned people -- and for some, that crazy idea still persists.
Jim is so sure (and of course ultimately he's right) that none of them are going to die.
More of the titular raven.
Loveless starts out sounding like a pirate, then manages to quote Frost despite the fact that the poet was a baby at the time.
More Artemus snark. Jim might do well not to be so sociable. And Antoinette is oh so flirty! So much so that Loveless tells her to back off.
Perhaps the fact that Loveless was so attentive regarding the cigar should have warned them. Artie looks so freaked out when Jim topples into his arms.
The bedroom set is great! The huge bed, Jim's ordinary clothing hanging up in the corner. The illusion is marvelous; it's hard to keep in mind that the set is oversized, that Jim isn't really six inches tall! (But if Antoinette made Jim's small suit, she sure paid attention to details.)
I wonder if perhaps they borrowed some of the sets and props from Land of the Giants -- when was that show in production that season?
Man, can't the cat have a more inventive name than 'Pussycat'?? And for that matter, Loveless constantly calls the cat 'she,' but, um... Well, there are a couple of times we get a rear-view on the cat, and I don't think that particular cat is exactly a 'she'...
The reappearance of the James West doll. I know it's in TNOT Brain as well, but where else does it show up?
And we find that there's someone else in the dollhouse. I wonder why Artie wasn't given the doll treatment as well. It certainly would have changed the remaining storyline, wouldn't it?
Into Wanakee's room? Does she mean the tipee? And did Antoinette replicate the princess' outfit too?
Dancing on the table!
The musical interlude. Now, that song of course would have made the audience think of the Beach Boys, but I think it's a pretty old song, isn't it? The smile and forehead bump at the end, along with the perfunctory applause.
Artie's face when he sees Jim!
The 'pass the butter' bit is a nice effect.
Does anyone blame Artie for having no appetite?
Dr Loveless the nature-lover. Yeah, right.
Artie snarks again, with the reference to the snake in the Garden of Eden.
Back to the dollhouse and the cat!
Now we know why the window in the lid of the dollhouse has bars on either side...
Loveless already knew Jim could get down from the table. Wonder why he didn't do something more to keep Jim in the dollhouse?
Loveless sure tosses that cat aside hard!
The cobweb is impressive. The strands might be a bit thick, I think. And does that type of spider even spin a web?
After all the shots of the spider menacing Jim, we don't actually get a battle between them. Well, that might have stretched the special effects budget too much -- and would have looked even fakier than the coming fight between Jim and the cat.
Resourceful Jim takes a length of spider silk with him.
Ok, how did that mousetrap get in that position inside the wall? There's no way for a hand to have placed it there, right? It's nowhere near an opening.
I do wonder a bit why Jim tries to sneak past the trap first; I'd have thought he'd just get trip it and get it over with.
Styrofoam cheese.
Another thing: how on earth did Loveless set up the sliding board? That is, how would he know that Jim would spot the knothole and use it to escape the wall? It's a lovely sequence with Jim using what he has to hand to get up to the knothole, but the fact that he then comes down a ramp and into the arena really stretches the ol' credulity, unless you just don't think about it, eh?
Antoinette releases the cat and Artie facepalms.
Somewhat cheesy special effect of the giant cat with Jim and the girl. The shadows don't match up, but hey -- 60's special effects.
Artie's hand starts going for his inside jacket pocket...
What does Loveless mean by 'We've gone as far as we can, the three of us'? Since he's standing with Artie and Antoinette, I immediately think those are the three he's referring to, but that doesn't make sense.
Loveless goes from 'I could just cuddle her [the cat] to pieces' to 'Sic him, pussycat, sic him!' in less than a second.
Ah, and Artie tosses the 'Chekov's gun' (the lockpick) to Jim.
So if Loveless thought the fight was unfair because Artie intervened and gave Jim a weapon, he could have just reached in and stopped the fight. But then we wouldn't have the 'you fraidy cat!' line, eh?
As has been pointed out before by others, Jim poked the cat in the front left paw, but we then see the cat licking its front right paw.
Can't blame Artie for not caring when Loveless accusing him of cheating. I mean, Artie could have pointed out all the myriad ways in which Loveless could be called a cheat here, not least of which is the fact that the little doctor shrunk Jim and the girl -- but it's much more fun for Artie to spread his hands and say, 'So sue me!'
Where did that little net come from all of a sudden?
Oh, Loveless! He just had to carry the antidote on him and pull it from his pocket to wave it around and gloat!
Artie lunges for it. Can't blame him for that either, but maybe if he'd been a bit more subtle about it, he could have gotten the vial in hand before Loveless knew what he was doing.
I love this next bit. Loveless in his petulance flings the vial toward the door to smash it, and lo and behold, Artie gets himself free, snatches the vial right out of the air, and lobs it to Jim! Yay, Artie! Pity he gets clobbered in the next instant and it's back to one-punch-and-Artie's-out -- but he rescued Jim, bless his heart! (Make that two punches and a clonk on the head from a gun butt...)
So the glass vial doesn't shatter on impact after all. I wonder that Jim reaches up inside to get some of the liquid when there's a puddle of it outside on the floor. For that matter, why is it later that the girl doesn't get bigger again until Jim and Artie pour some from another vial? There was plenty in the first vial; she could have helped herself once J&A untied her from that stake.
As soon as Jim's back to size and the fight begins, Loveless and Antoinette run from the room. The next thing we see of them, they are gobbling down the shrinking powder. Makes me wonder how they will get the antidote to get back to normal. Also there's the question of the clothes: after such a big point was made of Jim having two sets of clothes, large and small, his clothes grow with him when he gets back to normal, and so do the girl's clothes. So what becomes of the clothing Dr Loveless and Antoinette are wearing when they escape?
And on the other hand, maybe that's an image I'd rather not comtemplate...
Jim fighting four men at once! We see an example of a kick while he's airborne, which really should not work. (Without Jim having something to anchor him to the floor, instead of the energy of his kick being transferred to the other guy, the kick should have simply made Jim go flying back away from the guy he kicked. But this is WWW so ordinary physics need not actually apply, right? *grin*)
And having knocked that guy down, Jim wades into the other three and takes care of them in short order. It's interesting (to me, since I write fights for Jim in fanfiction) to watch him work in slow motion.
Ah, all minions accounted for, so Artie can regain consciousness now. I do like pretty much all the seasons of WWW, but I like so much better the writing that includes Artie in the fights (sadly, unlike here). And I love the training sessions on the train (teaser of Golden Cobra, tag of Green Terror) when we get to see Jim teaching Artie to fight. Yeah, both times it's played for laughs, but you just know that Jim really would see to it that his partner learns to handle himself in a fight.
Let's see: Artie was knocked unconscious by a gun butt over the noggin. Jim helps him upright, asks him how he is -- and the next second, Artie is running after Jim to find Loveless. These guys have the healing abilities of Wolverine!
Synchronization again. Jim and Artie move and stop and move and kick all together like they, um, rehearsed it.
No clothes on the floor... And at last we see the reason for the name of this episode! The titular raven is the means by which Loveless and Antoinette escape! Never mind that you can't see any passengers on the raven's back. Never mind also that that bird flies and flies and flies and is still framed by the full moon. Right?
So they get back to the girl and she's free from the stake now. But why does she makes that helpless little what-are-we-going-to-do-now gesture? There should still be plenty of the grow juice just out of frame to her right. Not to mention, how on earth would Jim and Artie know if the stuff in the tube they do give to her is the right thing? (On further thought, maybe the tube in Jim's hand is the same one that he got some of the grow juice from earlier, in which case the question is now: why did he even bother to pick it up??)
The 'here goes nothing' / 'you mean everything' exchange must be a favorite of the writers, don't you think?
And end laughing.
(Hey, don't get me wrong. I like this episode. It has Loveless, one of his maddest, most science-fictional inventions, Antoinette at his side, and some lovely snarky lines. But it's not without its plotholes and doesn't stand up too well to scrutiny. One of those episodes, as Cal Gal says, that they didn't expect us to be able to watch endlessly with a remote in hand. But it's still fun. And y'know, sometimes the fun is the stuff they threw in there that they really shouldn't have been able to get away with, but do anyway.)