The Deadly Test
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| Production 43017 Original Airdate: October 19, 1975 | |||
 Episode-at-a-glance. | |||
| Teleplay by James D. Parriott | |||
| Directed by Christian I. Nyby II | |||
| Guest Cast | |||
| Guest Star(s) Erik Estrada as Major Aram Sakari Tim O'Connor as Commander Joe Gordon Leigh Christian as Jan Simmons Martin Speer as Sol Levy Harry Pug as Pratt Frank Marth as Winslow | |||
| Broadcast Order | |||
| Season 3 | |||
| ← Previous | Next → | ||
| "The Wolf Boy" | "Target in the Sky" | ||
| Related episodes | |||
| - | |||
Contents |
Summary
A subversive electronics system is set up outside Edwards Air Force base, aimed at destroying student pilot Prince Sakari's plane, but mistakenly fells a jet piloted by student David Levy, who is from a hostile neighboring country. Steve is serving his required 2 weeks of Air Force Reserve duty by filling in for the vacationing pilot school commander. To avert a possible conflict between the two countries, Steve, anticipating another attack on the youth, replaces the prince and takes off in the jet trainer to determine the origins of the electronics system. Lt. Jan Simmons, the first woman to graduate from the test school, insists on going up with Steve.
Novelization
"The Deadly Test" is one of several episodes whose storylines were combined by Mike Jahn for his Six Million Dollar Man novel, International Incidents.
Deconstructed
Quotes
Margaret: (on speakerphone) It's Mrs. Madden.
Commander Gordon: (sighs deeply) What is it this time?
Margaret: She says she's heard that we have a Chinese pilot being trained here. She thinks he's a spy.
Commander Gordon: Hmpf. Spies, eh? Well, tell the old bat that the only spying the gang does is in the centerfold girly magazines.
Prince Sakari: I will not allow you to take my place in the air. I came here to fly!
Steve: That's right, but not to die.
Winslow: Now who are you, the King of Persia?
Levy: Levy, the man you almost killed the first time.
Winslow: Oh? Well, your friend's not gonna be so lucky
Jan: I never thought I'd be sad to see the world's biggest male chauvinist leave. Can't you stay and finish school?
Prince Sakari: With my prime minister in jail, my country needs me. Perhaps next year.
Commander Gordon: Doggone it, Cowboy. Year in and year out, all I ever get is routine. Then you come down here for two weeks, I go on a vacation and what happens?Everything! You space cowboys have all the fun. Come on, jump in. No sense wearing out your feet.
Steve: Did you catch any fish?
Commander Gordon: What do you think, marshmallow arm?
Trivia
Storyline
- This is one of the few episodes in which we see Steve in a position of command, rather than simply taking orders from a higher military authority, or Oscar.
- It's established that Austin is currently in the Air Force Reserve, and that this is at least the second time that he has helped run a Test Pilot School.
Gaffes
- Steve is shown flying in an F-104 on the way to the base, but the plane he is shown landing in is an F-105.
- As the jet plane crashes to the ground (in stock footage), the sound effect of a plummeting propellered airplane is used!
- In trying to make his escape in the red van, the central villain shoots out a tire in the MP's vehicle. In the scenes immediately following, the tire is not flat.
Gallery
