Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Baywatch Nights, a detective show that ran in Syndication from 1995 to 1997.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, Mitch is struck by lightning!

Episode 2.4 “The Strike”

(Dir by David W. Hagar, originally aired on October 20th, 1996)

While working as a lifeguard, Mitch saves a young man named Jake (Sean Blodgett) from drowning.  However, no sooner has Mitch pulled Jake out of the ocean and shaken his hand than they are struck by a sudden lightning bolt.  (Being struck by lightning is a scary thing but I have to admit that I chuckled a bit at the random lighting bolt in this episode.  It seriously just came out of nowhere!)  A bunch of Baywatch lifeguards run out to rescue both Mitch and Jake.  What’s interesting is that none of these lifeguards were from the main series.  (Seriously, I would have thought that at least Michael Newman would have shown up.)  Baywatch Nights was trading on the Baywatch name but, other than David Hasselhoff, it couldn’t afford any of the Baywatch actors.

Due to being struck by lightning (and, oddly, the show seems to suggest that the lightning truly was just a random thing that happened), Mitch and Jake become psychically linked.  Mitch can hear Jake’s thoughts in his mind and when it becomes obvious that Jake is an alien being pursued by a mysterious organization, Mitch, Ryan, and Daimont set out to track Jake down and rescue him.

This episode, with its hints of government cover-ups and alien conspiracies, owes a lot to The X-Files.  (Actually, the entire second season of Baywatch Nights owes a considerable debt to The X-Files.)  As a student of conspiracy theories (albeit a skeptical one), I appreciated the episode’s attempt to create a genuine atmosphere of paranoia.  That said, this is still Baywatch Nights and that means that the majority of the episode was basically Mitch and Jake being chased from one location to another.  It all got to be a bit repetitive but it remained entertaining.

The best part of this episode is that it allows David Hasselhoff to embrace his inner William Shatner.  Hasselhoff has always been a natural overactor and he’s at his most likable when he’s not being at all subtle.  This episode not only features the Hoff getting mad about a conspiracy but it also involves a few scenes where he starts to speak in Jake’s voice as a result of their mind-meld.  Hasselhoff throw himself into the performance.  Again, there’s nothing subtle about any of it but that’s the Hasselhoff charm.  As a friend of mine once said while we were watching Starcrash, “Every country should have a Hoff.”

This episode ends on a sad note, which gives Hasselhoff an excuse to get teary-eyed.  How can Mitch continue to be a skeptic after everything that he sees in this episode?  Will he finally be willing to admit that there are things out there that cannot be rationally explained?  You would think so but Mitch can be remarkably stubborn.  We’ll find out next week!