Synopsis
A scheme to let a young scientist fall into enemy hands so that he can spill false information is interfered with by the man's father, an Army general.
[Location: Italy]
French title: Tout le monde est son père
Italian title: Padre Abramo
Guest Stars
Tony Bill (Gary), David Sheiner (Vaccaro), Jill Donahue (Senja), Austin Willis (General Shaw),George Sawaya (Georges), Bobby Herron (Pietro), Tony Epper (Rundig)
Written by
Stephen Kandel
Directed by
Tony Leader
Original Airdate
21 December 1966
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Currently available on DVD
(UPC: 14381983326)
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Review
Kelly and Scotty are given the task of preparing a young scientist, Gary, for his capture and interrogation by the enemy, so that he might convincingly pass along bogus information about his solid-fuel research. Once that's done, they troll him through the Rome nightclub scene to attract the wrong kind of attention. Instead, they discover Gary's father, an Army general, who chastises his son for being so careless as to expose himself to capture. Kelly and Scotty are ready to scrub the mission when Gary is abducted, taken to a villa, and tortured. He's about to give up the false information when Daddy arrives to rescue him, placing Kelly and Scotty in the unusual situation of having to thwart Gary's rescue. Once the information has been spilled, they must then carry out their own operation to recover Gary. All goes well, and Gary's father can finally be informed that his son is a real hero.
The premise is an interesting one, but it's squandered on a rather hackneyed script. Stephen Kandel has, in essence, rewritten the much superior "So Coldly Sweet" -- only this time it's the good guys trying to run a scam on the bad guys. The villain of the piece, Vaccaro (played by David Sheiner, who had previously appeared in "Carry Me Back to Old Tsing-Tao"), too readily accepts the fact that Kelly and Scotty are globetrotting sportsmen; we learned in past episodes that the Soviets know all about Robinson and Scott -- apparently Vaccaro was completely out of the loop. He also readily accepts that Gary and his father knock themselves out trying to scale the villa wall during their escape, which is thwarted by Kelly and Scotty. Apart from a stock opening shot of the Roman ruins, the episode is filmed on uninspired sets, and even the banter between Robinson and Scott seems forced at times.
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