
the "is it worth watching this for lawrence dane" rating: 2/5
most of his role is just standing around and looking pretty, though he does do a damn good job of it. comparatively few lines of note and you can see that he's still refining his approach to acting. his turn in s06e07 is much better and more significant in terms of the script. still, the big bad (played by albert paulsen) is one of the better actors of the episode and enjoyable to watch as well so it's not too boring overall. put this one on for the occasional eye candy while you're folding laundry. at least he doesn't die in this one!
the plot: shrugs, your average cold war hijinks. some creative theatrics with the staging of a fake earthquake but honestly the episode with leonard nimoy in the fake submarine was more interesting to me in that regard. when i read this episode's description i was hoping dane's character was one of the scientists being kidnapped but alas he just plays one of the heavies. he's very talented at smirking sexily though so it's no wonder people always wanted him for that.
At six-feet-two, with his sonorous voice, long, swarthy face, and dangerously hooded eyes, Dane seemed born to be a TV heavy. He played bad guys in 70 episodes of such series as Mod Squad, Mannix and Bonanza. “I didn’t mind at all,” he says. “If I’d been short and cherubic, I would have starved to death. There are only two major parts on any television show, the hero and the villain. The economics of the medium don’t allow for anything else.”
But by 1971 he had grown tired of being dispatched by every square-jawed television hero.
-- "The face is familiar but you can't place the name? It's Dane, Larry Dane" by Ron Base for Macleans magazine, 1976
HE'S TOO FUCKING TALL FOR THE STOOL LOOK AT HIS LEGSSSSSSSSS

( lotta good noses in this episode )