Cliffhangers!
Episode 11
This was the final episode of Cliffhangers!, shown only
in international markets, never in
the U.S. even though that left U.S. viewers with no resolutions
to the Secret Empire and Stop Susan Williams
serials. Because The Curse of Dracula
was completed in
Episode 10, this
episode features two chapters of The Secret Empire and
one of Stop Susan Williams, completing the three
serials of Cliffhangers! These three chapters were
presented in the episode as indicated from top to bottom below,
with the single Stop Susan Williams chapter breaking up
the two chapters of The Secret Empire.
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Chapter 13
"PARTISANS UNCHAINED"
Written by Jeri Taylor and David
Bennett Carren
Directed by Dick Harwood |
Didja Notice?
There is a scene at the beginning of the chapter in which Taz is
trying to get the humans' attention to lead them to the
partisan rebels, but is rebuffed. Finally, Donner says, "What is
it, fella? You trying to tell us something?" The scene may have
been influenced by the long-running Lassie TV series
(1954-1974) in which the eponymous female collie usually seemed
to be smarter than the humans with whom she interacted and her
owner, young Timmy, would frequently say similar phrases to
Donner's, substituting "girl" for "fella".
At 7:08 in the episode, a Shadow Guard refers to Taz as "Tazmarian".
Tazmarian must be the species of creature and how Maya came up
with his name. It also lends credence to my speculation in
Episode 3 that Taz is based on the
Looney Tunes character the Tasmanian Devil.
The cliffhanger ending: Yannuck shoots Donner in the leg,
bringing him down, then fires point blank into his chest to
finish him off!
Don't miss the conclusion, Chapter 14: ESCAPE TO THE STARS
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Chapter 12
"CRYPT
OF DISASTER"
Written by Peggy Goldman
Directed by Reza S. Badiyi |
Didja Notice?
When Jack starts up the generator in the mine shaft and brings
the lights on, Susan exclaims, "Schoengarth, you light up my
life!" This is probably a reference to the 1977 hit single "You
Light Up My Life" by Debbie Boone.
While Bobby and the other conspirators are captured by U.S.
forces, Korf and Eddie seem to escape on Korf's Learjet. Korf
also remarks, "We'll achieve our goals yet. I already have a
plan. And I promise you something else. Susan Williams is going
to live to regret the day she interfered with Anthony Korf."
This may indicate that Kenneth Johnson intended to continue the
adventures of Susan Williams in another serial if Cliffhangers!
had gone on to have future seasons. Alas, it was not to be. |
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Memorable Dialog |
Didja Notice?
For some reason the chapter number and title are omitted from
this concluding part of
The Secret Empire. The only way I know the chapter
title is from the "Don't Miss" portion at the end of
Chapter 13.
Keller pulls his battle coach into town in time to see a fistfight in
the street outside a saloon. Perhaps this is an example of what
Donner meant in the previous chapter when he said, "Listen,
you've never been in Cheyenne on a Saturday night when the
cowboys get paid."
There seems to be a dialog flub at 35:21 in the episode. As
Donner is watching the partisan rebellion taking place over a
visilink, one of the rebels shouts, "The compliatron is
destroyed! Chimera is free!" But he pronounces the "chim"
in Chimera as in
"chimney" instead of as in "shimmer".
Yannuck seemingly intended to kill Donner at the end of the
previous chapter by firing his neutronic weapon into his chest
at close range, but the shot was deflected by Donner's Marshal
badge right back at Yannuck, who collapses from the shot. But
later we see Yannuck being dragged up from the floor by the
rebel leaders as he
regains consciousness. So why didn't the
blast kill him? Perhaps the power of the beam was reduced during
the deflection?
| At 38:36 in the
episode, we get a partial look
at the exterior of Emperor
Thorval's escape ship. It
appears to be a slightly
modified version of the Lunar Avion,
a sleeper ship from a human
colony known as Lunar Seven in
the
Battlestar Galactica
episode
"Greetings From Earth".
The Lunar Avion may
have also have been modified to
become Ranger 3, Buck
Rogers' NASA shuttle in the TV
series Buck Rogers in the
25th Century. |
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| Thorval's
escape ship |
Lunar Avion
from
Battlestar Galactica
episode
"Greetings from
Earth" |
Thorval tells Tera that their escape destination is the planet
Hyperia, where they have allies.
As Thorval, Tera, and Hayter make their escape in the ship,
Demeter tells Donner to let them go, saying, "The fate that
awaits them is far worse than their fate here." What does that
mean? Does he know something we don't? |
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The ending credits of this final
episode of
Cliffhangers! replaces
the normal triptych of photos of
Donner, Dracula, and Susan.
Dracula is replaced with a photo
of Taz since there is an
additional chapter of The
Secret Empire replacing the
already completed Curse of Dracula
serial. |
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Normal tryptich |
Finale tryptich |
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Episode Studies
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