episode #34 - Iron Ships and Dead Men

episode #21 of 2nd season / Air Date: 3/30/77 written by James D. Parriott directed by Mel Damski

It's the origin of Oscar episode! Yes, Oscar Goldman's (Richard Anderson) family history is looked upon in a rare instance. Turns out, Oscar had an older brother who disappeared during the attack on Pearl Harbor in WW2. It was this event that paved the way for Oscar's career path in army intelligence and OSI. But, he was never able to find out anything about his bro's vanishing. Now, the brother's dog tags have suddenly turned up on a ship about to get dismantled (and, unknown to Oscar, a skeleton). Oscar asks Jaime to go on a mission this time as a personal favor, in a touching scene.
This has its ghoulish moments (all the stuff with the skeleton) but is mostly ludicrous in its plotting. The whole thing with a character waiting for 36 years to retrieve a case of a million dollars (which no one on the ship ever found) stretches the boundaries of believable stories. And why uncover the skeleton first, before getting to the money? Then there's the whole idea of the frail-looking Jaime assigned to work a big man's job on the ship. There's an absurd tone to much of this episode, but I liked the whole subplot of the big guy taking care of some local cats. I don't think this added to Oscar's backstory very well; it suggests that his entire career was based on this one incident in December of 1941. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10