Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing The Master, which ran on NBC from January to August of 1984.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, the action moves off the mainland!

Episode 1.10 “The Java Tiger”

(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on April 13th, 1984)

Max and McAllister go to Hawaii!

I have to admit that I was really excited about this episode, precisely because it did feature Max and McAllister heading to Hawaii.  I love Hawaii.  Some of my favorite memories come from the summer that me, my sisters and our mom spent in Hawaii.  It doesn’t matter how bad a show or a movie may sound, I’ll give it a chance if it features the promise of Hawaii.

Unfortunately, this episode of The Master never really takes advantage of the beauty of the islands.  In fact, other than for a few generic shots of Honolulu, it appears that this episode was filmed in California.  About the only thing that says Hawaii about this episode are the shirts worn by the bad guys and the lei hanging around Max’s neck when he and McAllister check into their hotel.

Max and McAllister are in Hawaii because McAllister has received a letter from an old friend of his, a private investigator/treasure hunter named Leo Fairchild (Dick O’Neill).  Just as with last week, one has to wonder how McAllister got the letter when he doesn’t have a fixed address and he’s supposedly been laying low in America to avoid getting track down by the ninjas who want him dead.  As well, how does McAllister have all of these old friends in the United States and how do they all know that he’s a ninja?  When the series started, the whole idea was that McAllister had been Japan since the end of World War II and that he had spent the majority of that time either being trained or training others.  And yet, as of last week’s episode, McAllister is now suddenly a minor celebrity.

When Max and McAllister arrive in Japan, they meet Leo’s daughter, Shelly (Cynthia Cypert).  Shelly tells Max and McAllister that her father was killed while searching for the location of a priceless statue, the fabled Java Tiger.  Leo, she explains, was the only person in Hawaii to have a map leading to the tiger’s location.  However, whoever killed Leo, stole half of the map.  Now, if she’s going to fulfill her father’s dream, she needs to get that half of the map back.  She’s pretty sure that Kruger (Kabir Bedi), a notorious and greedy practitioner of the martial arts, has the missing half.  So, once again, it’s time for McAllister to put on his black uniform and break into a compound with Max!  When things don’t go as well as Max and McAllister might have hoped, they’re saved by an old friend of McAllister’s….

As you may have guessed, Leo isn’t actually dead.  He faked his own death so that McAllister would agree to help him find the Java Tiger.  As Leo explains it, he needs McAllister to enter the cave where the Tiger is hidden because the cave is full of booby traps and McAllister, being a ninja, is the only man alive who can dodge falling rocks and darts.  And, of course, time is of the essence because the cave is on an island that is also home to a volcano that is about to erupt.

This is what the volcano looks like:

To be honest, there’s something oddly charming about how fake the volcano looks.  I was pretty annoyed that the episode didn’t have any pretty shot of Hawaii but, as soon as I saw that miniature, plaster volcano spewing smoke, I couldn’t help but smile.

McAllister, Max, Leo, and Shelly arrive at the island with Kruger’s men closely behind.  With the volcano erupting all around them, they find the cave and eventually McAllister grabs the Java Tiger.  But, when it appears that Kruger might be killed by a booby trap, McAllister drops the statue and saves the life of his enemy because McAllister is a man of honor.  As a result, no one gets the tiger but McAllister stays true to his ideals.

To be honest, this episode was so silly that it was almost charming.  Unfortunately, the usually reliable character actor Dick O’Neill gives an annoyingly mannered performance as Leo Fairchild, hamming it up and chewing every piece of scenery in sight.  Leo is one of those characters who never stops talking and it’s hard not to get annoyed both the character and the actor playing him.  In fact, so much time is devoted to Leo talking and talking that the episode almost feels like a pilot for a Leo Fairchild show.  Who knows?  Maybe it was.  All I know is that the episode needed more Hawaii and less Leo.

This was a underwhelming week for The Master.  There’s only three episodes left and Max and McAllister don’t seem to be any closer to finding Teri than when they started.  Get to work, guys!  You’re running out of time!