Pilot Error, October 28, 1995

As Reviewed by Rosepetal

As Reviewed by Shirley

By Rosepetal

In this episode, Meg and Harm are sent to investigate the death of a pilot, Lt. Pendry.  Lt. Pendry was one of Harms best friend's but he doesn't tell anyone that because then he wouldn't be able to investigate.  He learns that while testing a new autopilot for the Tomcat, Lt. Pendry apparently turned off the autopilot and instead inverted and ended up crashing.  Or at least that is what it looks like.  Harm doesn't believe that Lt. Pendry would have done that.   

Harm goes to visit Lt. Pendry's widow, Annie and her son Josh.  He tells her what the scuttlebut is concerning her husband's death.   

He will stop at nothing to prove that Lt. Pendry is innocent of the charges surrounding his death.  The representative for the Auto Pilot company threatens to reveal to the newspapers that Lt. Pendry was having an affair with Tess, his Rio and that she is pregnant, unless they drop the investigation, which Harm knows is false.  Harm tries every way possible to prove that it was a malfunction in the auto pilot and not Lt. Pendry's fault.  Finally, he decides to go up in the Tomcat to recreate the flight.   As he is flying the Tomcat, he proves that it was a malfunction in the autopilot and not pilot error.

By Shirley

This was a good episode. At first I was afraid that this would be another formula episode. However, TPTB rose above that.

I found the flashback sequences particularly effective and evocative, although I must be petty and say that I didn't think TPTB did a good job of casting the young Harm. Our favourite sailor never looked like that as a child!

I loved the bar brawl. It was funny and fun, and I would say that Harm enjoyed every second of it. It was cute the way he tucked Tess under his arm, popped her hat on her head, and ran. And of course, next night, there was Tess and Meg, back in the same bar, and meeting up with the same Marines. You just had to love it!

The characters made their stance very clear on moral and ethical grounds. Adultery is wrong. Men don't hit women. Friendship and loyalty matter.

It was interesting to watch Harm interact with Annie and Josh, particularly with Annie. With Josh Harm was pretty much the standard good friend of the family. But with Annie ... note how carefully he gave Annie a hug to comfort her. And his demeanor was very diffident. Of course, she had just lost her husband and he could simply be unsure of how to deal with the situation.

It was very satisfying to watch Harm fly again. We knew he was a top gun, but it was another thing to see him successfully handle a situation that another lesser pilot couldn't.

And, we got to watch Harm and Meg flirt, and Meg admit that she would certainly consider sleeping with Harm. Oh my!

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