Romeo and Juliet and Mark Harris
Didn’t William Shakespeare have a rough first draft of his classic “Romeo and Juliet” where a mysterious water-breather popped up and rectified things in the end? Well if he didn’t; he should have :))
This is another “Man From Atlantis” episode where Mark gets transported back in time. It worked like a charm with “Shoot-Out at Land’s End” so why not give it another go! Here; Mark gets trapped in an underwater cave and suddenly wakes up in the 14th century just when Romeo and Juliet are about to tie the knot.
It was a bit silly in “Shoot-Out…” but it was an excellent, fast paced and funny episode. Here it’s mostly just silly, not that funny and oh so weird. But give full credit to Duffy as he plays this absolutely straight when Mark gets caught up in this classic and tragic love story. Decent support is given by familiar names like John Shea (the future Lex Luthor in “Lois and Clark”), Lisa Eilbacher (“An Officer and a Gentleman”) and Ahna Capri (“Enter the Dragon”) who all perform admirably in what is essentially a very strange and silly entry in this wholly uneven adventure series.
I’ll admit the sets are good and there’s a plausible aura of authenticity in it’s 14th century setting. Duffy and the rest look sorta’ funny in those tights and medieval garb but the costumes are solid. If you let yourself get into the story it’s actually fairly well played out and it’s nice to see Romeo and Juliet have a happy ending for once.
But don’t kid yourself; you’re going to be rolling your eyes at least a few times in disbelief. But this is, I guess, part of the charm with a series like “Man From Atlantis”. You never know what they’re gonna come up with next and it must have been a hoot for viewers to tune in when this aired initially.
If I were able to transport myself back to ’77 and had a whole lot of cash to spread around I’d easily bankroll another season of this show just to see what they’d come up with.
Not a good episode per se but it sure is interesting and fun in many ways.
