#545072
Sea Bride
Original Air Date: May 2, 1990
Directed by: Joe Napolitano
Written by: Deborah Pratt
Leap date: June 3, 1954
This time: Sam leaps into a ship’s cabin where a woman bursts in, kisses him, then slaps him. He is Phillip Dumont and she is Catherine Farrington, his ex. They were married but he went on a sailing trip and was presumed lost. Catherine moved on but not Phillip who is aboard the same ship Catherine is on, with Catherine due to wed a gentleman named Vincent.
As Catherine prepares to make her exit, her father, Weathers, bangs on the door demanding to talk to Phillip. She hides in the closet as an angry Weathers bursts in and commands Phillip not to interfere further. Just then, porters arrive with flowers Phillip ordered for the bride but were refused. Weathers is infuriated but is convinced to accept the flowers as a wedding present. He leaves but not before getting Sam to promise not to interfere with the wedding.
Al arrives telling Sam that there is an eighty-seven percent chance he is there to get Phillip and Catherine back together again. Vincent has some nasty connections and while he can help save the family financially, it does not go well. Sam remembers Catherine hiding and she comes out to thank Phillip but leave.
In comes Jennifer, Catherine’s kid sister. The two were in cahoots to bring the couple back together, but Vincent ordered his Best Man/Henchman to kill Sam if he gets too close.
The Wedding Party has a moment to themselves in which it is made clear that Catherine is having jitters, Vincent is a sleazeball and Weathers is very eager for them to wed, though mainly because Vincent can buy them out, though Weathers also tries to smooth things over with his daughter.
Catherine does a good job at avoiding Sam forcing him to ramp things up in the ballroom. Sam and Catherine do a literal and verbal tango during which she agrees to meet him on the condition that he leave her afterwards. As Sam leaves, Vincent and Best Henchman take him out to the deck only for Sam to be saved by the Captain, who is impressed that Phillip was able to navigate his way home after being lost at sea. Sam tells the Captain about Vincent’s rap sheet.
Sam eventually meets with Catherine and the two share a genuine moment, but Catherine still cannot bring herself to admit her love for Sam/Phillip, though they do kiss. She runs off and Sam is intercepted by Best Henchman.
The next morning on the wedding day, Sam is nowhere to be found even though Jennifer has searched the entire ship. She did not search the garbage bin, because Vincent has dropped Sam into that mess and releases it into the ocean before leaving Sam to be thrown out with the trash.
At the wedding, Catherine cannot go through with it and has the support of her father. Sam shows up and tells the captain what happened. The Captain confines them both to their quarters, though Vincent does not go down quietly. Weathers is able to take care of that obstacle and Catherine professes her love. Sam leaps …
… into a person wearing women’s clothing and wig. As he laments his fate, some hooligans run out and the radio in Sam’s ‘purse’ shows that he is an undercover cop while the hooligans make their way to him.
Stop talking to yourself: Leaping in is bad enough without seasickness on top of it.
Only Sam can see and hear: Al is able to put his inner Romeo to work in getting the couple together.
Mirror images that were not his own: After taking a few moments to get accustomed to his surroundings, Sam sees Phillip in the mirror before he is immediately hit with the door to the cabin.
Brush with history: Sam tells a mobster about ‘an offer he can’t refuse,’ which the mobster likes.
Something or someone: Sam gets to smooch with Catherine before leaping out.
It’s a science project: Al is disgusted with the waste the ship dumps into the ocean, a good deal of which is not biodegradable.
Let’s up the rating: Sam spends the last ten minutes of the episode in his underwear, though he is covered in garbage for a good chunk of that.
One more time: “I am going to marry Vincent tomorrow and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Now just get out of my room.” “I think this is my room.”
Catherine and Sam as Sam proves quite adept at his bearings.
The Rainbow Treknection: There are actually quite a few Trek alumni in this. Beverly Leach played Dayla, one of the aliens in Voyager’s Nightingale after playing Catherine here. Not just that as after playing Evil Guy Vicent, James Harper went on to play Evil Guy Rao Vantika on Deep Space Nine.
But the big draw here is J. G. Hertzler who would not only go onto recur as Martok but would co-star with Scott Bakula as Advocate Kolos.
Put right what once went wrong: “Vinnie’s creepy but I doubt he’s actually murdered anybody.” Like any good farce, this episode depends on the caliber of actors and each one delivers on that front. There are a lot of characters in different roles and they have an excellent script to work with. Even throwaway roles like the Captain or Catherine’s mother have some meat on the bones.
The villain is both well played and fleshed out. A lot of his characterization comes from other characters, but Harper embraces it. He is a scumbag you can see coming a mile away and I love every minute of it. He follows the line of ‘villain willing to bail out woman’s family for marriage’ area, but he is fully in mafia mode.
The Farrington family comes off very well, too. Hertzler is not quite auditioning for Martok, but you can see the through line. One of the consequences of him playing a Klignon warrior for roughly four years is that we really did not get to see many comedic beats, but he able to show his chops here, particularly at the first act where he goes from challenging Sam to fisticuffs to calmly accepting a wedding gift. He and Bakula have great chemistry, particularly when both slug out some bad guys and commiserate over their experiences at Harvard. As Catherine, Leach goes well beyond the crying bride-to-be that the script calls for. She has vulnerability and great scenes with Bakula.
Juliet Scori almost steals the show as Jennifer. She can get a bit bratty/coached at times, but she handles the role like a champ. She has great scenes as she tries to bring the family back together. This is not the best performance by a child star I have ever seen, but I am impressed. She can hold her own with adults and that is saying something given the caliber of adults we see.
Of course, every good farce needs great writing and boy is this episode on point. The first act can very much be a Marx Brothers sliding doors comedy with characters rushing in and out of a room while hijinks ensue. Most importantly we are introduced to the characters, even those not present. Catherine kisses and slaps Sam, Weathers challenges him to a fight and Jennifer snoops around. We know what is going on and how the characters fit in with one another.
There are also scenes with a lot of characters, and everything hold up from the bridal party to wedding. I generally look froward to Deborah Pratt scripts due to social justice, but she is quite adept at comedy and director Joe Napolitano is great with letting the actors do their thing. The writing is solid, and I eventually gave up at just finding a couple good lines out of the bunch. The tango scene is fun both with the actual tango and the characters talking to each other.
A great way to spend the hour and a fun romp from an actor we have seen in another capacity.
Original Air Date: May 2, 1990
Directed by: Joe Napolitano
Written by: Deborah Pratt
Leap date: June 3, 1954
This time: Sam leaps into a ship’s cabin where a woman bursts in, kisses him, then slaps him. He is Phillip Dumont and she is Catherine Farrington, his ex. They were married but he went on a sailing trip and was presumed lost. Catherine moved on but not Phillip who is aboard the same ship Catherine is on, with Catherine due to wed a gentleman named Vincent.
As Catherine prepares to make her exit, her father, Weathers, bangs on the door demanding to talk to Phillip. She hides in the closet as an angry Weathers bursts in and commands Phillip not to interfere further. Just then, porters arrive with flowers Phillip ordered for the bride but were refused. Weathers is infuriated but is convinced to accept the flowers as a wedding present. He leaves but not before getting Sam to promise not to interfere with the wedding.
Al arrives telling Sam that there is an eighty-seven percent chance he is there to get Phillip and Catherine back together again. Vincent has some nasty connections and while he can help save the family financially, it does not go well. Sam remembers Catherine hiding and she comes out to thank Phillip but leave.
In comes Jennifer, Catherine’s kid sister. The two were in cahoots to bring the couple back together, but Vincent ordered his Best Man/Henchman to kill Sam if he gets too close.
The Wedding Party has a moment to themselves in which it is made clear that Catherine is having jitters, Vincent is a sleazeball and Weathers is very eager for them to wed, though mainly because Vincent can buy them out, though Weathers also tries to smooth things over with his daughter.
Catherine does a good job at avoiding Sam forcing him to ramp things up in the ballroom. Sam and Catherine do a literal and verbal tango during which she agrees to meet him on the condition that he leave her afterwards. As Sam leaves, Vincent and Best Henchman take him out to the deck only for Sam to be saved by the Captain, who is impressed that Phillip was able to navigate his way home after being lost at sea. Sam tells the Captain about Vincent’s rap sheet.
Sam eventually meets with Catherine and the two share a genuine moment, but Catherine still cannot bring herself to admit her love for Sam/Phillip, though they do kiss. She runs off and Sam is intercepted by Best Henchman.
The next morning on the wedding day, Sam is nowhere to be found even though Jennifer has searched the entire ship. She did not search the garbage bin, because Vincent has dropped Sam into that mess and releases it into the ocean before leaving Sam to be thrown out with the trash.
At the wedding, Catherine cannot go through with it and has the support of her father. Sam shows up and tells the captain what happened. The Captain confines them both to their quarters, though Vincent does not go down quietly. Weathers is able to take care of that obstacle and Catherine professes her love. Sam leaps …
… into a person wearing women’s clothing and wig. As he laments his fate, some hooligans run out and the radio in Sam’s ‘purse’ shows that he is an undercover cop while the hooligans make their way to him.
Stop talking to yourself: Leaping in is bad enough without seasickness on top of it.
Only Sam can see and hear: Al is able to put his inner Romeo to work in getting the couple together.
Mirror images that were not his own: After taking a few moments to get accustomed to his surroundings, Sam sees Phillip in the mirror before he is immediately hit with the door to the cabin.
Brush with history: Sam tells a mobster about ‘an offer he can’t refuse,’ which the mobster likes.
Something or someone: Sam gets to smooch with Catherine before leaping out.
It’s a science project: Al is disgusted with the waste the ship dumps into the ocean, a good deal of which is not biodegradable.
Let’s up the rating: Sam spends the last ten minutes of the episode in his underwear, though he is covered in garbage for a good chunk of that.
One more time: “I am going to marry Vincent tomorrow and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Now just get out of my room.” “I think this is my room.”
Catherine and Sam as Sam proves quite adept at his bearings.
The Rainbow Treknection: There are actually quite a few Trek alumni in this. Beverly Leach played Dayla, one of the aliens in Voyager’s Nightingale after playing Catherine here. Not just that as after playing Evil Guy Vicent, James Harper went on to play Evil Guy Rao Vantika on Deep Space Nine.
But the big draw here is J. G. Hertzler who would not only go onto recur as Martok but would co-star with Scott Bakula as Advocate Kolos.
Put right what once went wrong: “Vinnie’s creepy but I doubt he’s actually murdered anybody.” Like any good farce, this episode depends on the caliber of actors and each one delivers on that front. There are a lot of characters in different roles and they have an excellent script to work with. Even throwaway roles like the Captain or Catherine’s mother have some meat on the bones.
The villain is both well played and fleshed out. A lot of his characterization comes from other characters, but Harper embraces it. He is a scumbag you can see coming a mile away and I love every minute of it. He follows the line of ‘villain willing to bail out woman’s family for marriage’ area, but he is fully in mafia mode.
The Farrington family comes off very well, too. Hertzler is not quite auditioning for Martok, but you can see the through line. One of the consequences of him playing a Klignon warrior for roughly four years is that we really did not get to see many comedic beats, but he able to show his chops here, particularly at the first act where he goes from challenging Sam to fisticuffs to calmly accepting a wedding gift. He and Bakula have great chemistry, particularly when both slug out some bad guys and commiserate over their experiences at Harvard. As Catherine, Leach goes well beyond the crying bride-to-be that the script calls for. She has vulnerability and great scenes with Bakula.
Juliet Scori almost steals the show as Jennifer. She can get a bit bratty/coached at times, but she handles the role like a champ. She has great scenes as she tries to bring the family back together. This is not the best performance by a child star I have ever seen, but I am impressed. She can hold her own with adults and that is saying something given the caliber of adults we see.
Of course, every good farce needs great writing and boy is this episode on point. The first act can very much be a Marx Brothers sliding doors comedy with characters rushing in and out of a room while hijinks ensue. Most importantly we are introduced to the characters, even those not present. Catherine kisses and slaps Sam, Weathers challenges him to a fight and Jennifer snoops around. We know what is going on and how the characters fit in with one another.
There are also scenes with a lot of characters, and everything hold up from the bridal party to wedding. I generally look froward to Deborah Pratt scripts due to social justice, but she is quite adept at comedy and director Joe Napolitano is great with letting the actors do their thing. The writing is solid, and I eventually gave up at just finding a couple good lines out of the bunch. The tango scene is fun both with the actual tango and the characters talking to each other.
A great way to spend the hour and a fun romp from an actor we have seen in another capacity.
New places for old(er) keywords: Continuing Mission
Cardassians and Federation posturing it out: Showdown: Four Lights
Cardassians and Federation posturing it out: Showdown: Four Lights