By the way, I've always been tickled that the opening narration for
The Incredible Hulk described David's change as "a startling metamorphosis." I found it an interesting choice of adjectives, "startling" instead of something more like "shocking" or "terrifying" or something. But when I was reading that collection of early Hulk comics last week, I noticed that Stan Lee's narration did use the word "startling" a couple of times to describe the transformation and/or the Hulk himself, though never the actual phrase "startling metamorphosis." But it's, err, a bit startling, because generally this show strove to stay as far as possible from Stan Lee's approach to writing the Hulk.
The Incredible Hulk
"747"
Originally aired Apr. 7, 1978
The first of three
Hulk episodes by Thomas Szollosi and Richard Christian Matheson. The latter is the son of the great fantasy/SF author Richard Matheson and the older brother of
Bill & Ted co-creator Chris Matheson. I thought he
was Chris Matheson until I checked IMDb just now.
Pretty much a by-the-numbers airplane disaster story, but it's an interestingly odd situation to put the Hulk into. Maybe a bit too odd, since it's pretty contrived how they manage to pull it off, rather than having the Hulk smash the controls and accidentally kill everyone on the jet, which was the far more likely outcome.
When Mr. Leggit was saying "You have to believe me, there's a creature on the plane," I found myself lamenting that they didn't cast William Shatner in the role. In the earlier comedy bit where he opened the door, saw the Hulk, and closed it again, I was hoping that the second time he opened it, David would be on the other side. But I guess the reverse metamorphosis takes too long. Would've been funny, though, and neat if they'd done it in one continuous shot.
Well, the trip being from San Francisco to Chicago doesn't fit in with my earlier speculation that this might have been his trip to California. Instead, in either airdate or production order (if that list that I mentioned upthread accurately represents the latter), this seems to take place after David's openly California adventures. For a homeless bum, he sure gets from one end of the country to the other easily...but at least winding up in Denver puts him within credible distance of Las Vegas for the next episode.
I think we have to give up on any kind of logical order to David's travels. And I'm sure that the doctor's return in three months will never get a followup, although it would've been nice if it had.
"Stephanie" might have made a good Jean Grey if adapting the X-Men to live action had been on anyone's radar at the time.
I dunno, I tend to think of Sondra Currie as specializing in villain roles, although that's probably based mainly on this and her
RoboCop: The Series appearance. I've always been more partial to the other flight attendant here, Denise Galik.
This just might be the most unintentionally humorous episode of the series...partly because of the absurd circumstances of the Hulk-Outs, but mainly because it draws upon so many of the same airplane disaster movie beats that would soon be immortalized in a classic parody film that I don't think I need to name. From the annoyingly chatty seatmates, to the attempt to discretely find a qualified pilot, to the grizzled old pilot trying to talk David through a landing and having his vocal moment of doubt about their chances, to the plane overshooting its mark while landing....I was LOL'ing at the alternate versions of those scenes that were playing in my mind.
Which, of course, is because these were standard tropes of the actual movies that
Airplane! was sending up. That movie pretty much ruined them as serious plot devices forever, although they were pretty played out anyway.
...but again, once he is fully transformed, it's definitely pushing things that he stays in his seat and actually sees the landing through! (He even finds the time to flex one arm's muscles even though he's supposed to be struggling with the yoke the entire time!) This episode definitely supports the notion that the Hulk's actions are primarily motivated by whatever Banner was trying to accomplish when he changed.
Actually the Hulk seemed pretty confused and didn't know what to do, needing Kevin to point him toward the right controls. Nice trapped/bewildered acting from Ferrigno. Like, "Where the hell did I wake up?"
...then we add as many as three characters to the list of people who know that David turns into the Hulk, though they don't learn who he really is: Kevin, Denise, and one would have to assume Phil after he comes to, though his bump on the noggin could have caused amnesia if the story had felt the need to get into that detail at all.
Well, Kevin overtly said "Who are you? Where's David?" So he may know jets, but he's not that bright otherwise. And Denise was probably too confused and frightened to realize where the creature came from. Honestly, the authorities might chalk the whole thing up to mass hysteria. (Come to think of it, there probably would be a lot of imagined Hulk sightings once the idea of the Hulk got into the public consciousness through the tabloids. McGee probably wasted a lot of time chasing after false leads.)
TREK_GOD_1 said:
I take it Banner does not drink coffee(?), hence his avoiding the drugs.
No, only the two coffee cups meant for the pilot and navigator were drugged. Mr. MacIntire took the cup meant for the navigator while Stephanie was distracted.
MacIntire, by the way, was played by Don Keefer, the Mission Control director from TOS: "Assignment: Earth." Between him and Ed Peck, that's two people in this episode who were in
Star Trek episodes set in the 1960s.
The Columbia airplane flight scenes were recycled footage from the movie Airport '75 (Universal, 1974), and would not be the last time TIH borrowed from the work of others, as we will see two episodes later in "Never Give A Trucker an Even Break."
Also "Earthquakes Happen."
I figured that footage must've been from a movie, but I didn't know which one. By the way, at about 12:00 before the end, I noticed a shot where there was a small chase plane (military jet?) visible on the far right of the screen, just briefly before it disappears behind the 747's tail fin. I wonder if that aircraft was part of the plot of the movie, or just a camera plane that got into the shot by accident. Either way, it wasn't supposed to be part of this story.
Anyway, the fact that it was written around footage from that movie helps explain why it's so formulaic, and why it's an awkward story to shoehorn the Hulk into.
