Nov. 18-24, 2012 TV Club-The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries- Season 1-Ep. 12

[MacGyver]

Leave your thoughts, comments and reviews of "The Mystery of the Ghostwriters' Cruise" episode (featuring Nancy Drew) of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries here.

[MacGyver]

Being a Nancy Drew episode, the opening theme song credits Pamela Sue Martin first and then Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson. Then we have the opening set at sea with a cruise ship getting ready to set sail. (Important note- this episode is most likely a nod to Pamela Sue Martin?s appearance in The Poseidon Adventure, since that movie was a disaster movie wherein Pamela Sue Martin's character was a passenger on an ill-fated cruise ship.) And we have a mysterious gloved hand looking through pictures and writing out a note that utilizes chess to make a message. (As we?ll find out later, the man the message is being written to- John Addams- is a chess aficionado.) Here?s the message as written- ?Castleing to protect King- Two moves to Checkmate- This will be your last cruise- Mr. Addams, your going to die.? (Misuse of grammar at the end there in the note.)
       And then we see a reporter interviewing famous mystery writer John Addams, who is announcing that he?s retiring. He and his niece Cathy are being accompanied by Nancy and George on the cruise as Ned and Carson Drew drop them of. (Ned looks a lot more relaxed in this episode, with a suit jacket on unbuttoned over his pink shirt [but no tie] an no glasses on. I just happened to notice that as I don?t recall him going for such a look in any other episodes.) And of course, Nancy and George are looking fancily dolled up in their nice dresses as usual- Nancy with some bright blue and pink diagonal designs on her dress. And some dude is looking on during all this of course and he?s looking suspicious. And of course Ned is worrying about Nancy- Carson tells him there?s nothing to worry about- and we see that threatening note on screen once more.
    Captain Powers introduces himself to Addams and crew and invites them to eat at his table that evening. Again, we have a suspicious looking woman looking at the group. Then we move on to the cabins area where George Fayne meets a male George who is the cruise director and tells them about the activities.
     A journalist named Peter Howard is waiting for them in Addams? room and wanting to get the scoop on the autobiography that Addams is rumored to be writing. Addams refuses and sends the man off. George and Cathy go to look around the ship and Nancy discovers the book that the mysterious hand had left out earlier- and discovers the note. Addams waves it off as nothing more than the work of a crank, but Nancy is certainly not sure of that. Addams is about to take a nap and Nancy hits the lights- but then he asks her to turn a lamp on so he won?t wake up in total darkness- but then when Nancy goes to turn on the lamp, the bulb explodes and gives Nancy a shock. Nancy is okay, but if Mr. Addams had taken the shock, his weak heart may not have been able to take it. The handyman (played by Reb Brown- who also played Captain America in 2 TV-movies in 1979 ) fixes things and mentions being a big fan of Addams? novels. He even comments that it looks like something out of one of his books- and even Addams acknowledges to his niece that someone from his past has come to get him.
         Nancy and George are on the trail of the mystery as they try to figure out who wants to kill Addams, while getting dressed for dinner. (Nancy has a beautiful red dress on, with some kind of garland she wears in her hair- I wonder if any of her outfits are similar to her appearance in The Poseidon Adventure?) The captain lets us know the ship is facing bad fog. Nancy is then walking to dinner and we again see the mysterious gloved hand and mysterious figure in a trench coat. (I love these kinds of suspense-building shots. Of course, we never see a face or anything- just the hands and body walking around- and the hands rewiring something on the ship.)
      Nancy asks the captain to see the guest list but he refuses as it?s confidential. After dinner we have some dancing. Nancy dances with Peter Howard and of course tries to fish some information from him as he does the same with her. Then Nancy dances with the handyman and he tells her that there?s no way a stowaway could be on board. And George dances with George.  The mysterious woman introduces herself to Cathy as the sister of someone who dated her a while back. Her name is Adriane. And she sits with Addams and Cathy.
       George brings George Fayne on stage to partake in a popularity contest the ship is doing. Meanwhile, Addams is walking about the ship by himself and hears an echoing voice that repeats the written message and also reminds him of characters from his books that he has killed off- and then says he is going to die again. Nancy runs into him and joins him. The voice keeps luring him forward (along with some weird laughs)- and finally Addams and Nancy find the source- a tape recorder.  Cathy then finds them and they all head to the captain to show him the tape recorder. Nancy plays the tape for the captain but there?s nothing on the tape. The captain is of course skeptical after this and so they leave.
      Nancy realizes that the events and threats are following the pattern of one of Addams? books, which Addams finally remembers the title- The Mystery of the Ghostwriters? Cruise. Nancy can?t find the book in the ship library- though she does find books by a Martin Carroll, some of which have quite similar names to the Nancy Drew books! (The Phantom of Fire Valley is close to The Phantom of Pine Hill, The Mystery of the Spider?s Web is close to The Spider Sapphire Mystery, The Double Heist Mystery is close to The Double Jinx Mystery, and The Haunted Riverboat is close to The Haunted Showboat and then there's one other title- The Mystery of the Haunted Cruise??.) Also, the author's name seems kinda close to Nancy Drew's author's name- Carolyn Keene.
       Of course, Nancy can?t find the book- which she determines is the only one not there- because the dude in the trench coat has it! (Which we see on screen as the guy puts the book in his pocket.) Handyman dude finds Nancy on the ship and warns her to be careful.

[MacGyver]

   The next morning Addams and Adrianne play a game of chess. And the handyman, Tony, comes by and says ?Hi? to them and Nancy again. Nancy borrows The Mystery of the Ghostwriters? Cruise book from Tony and then Nancy looks in the scrapbook that was left in Addams? room and finds an article talking about how Martin Carroll claimed that Addams stole from him in writing that book, as they were supposed to write the book together, but Addams did it all by himself. Nancy then calls home, via ship radio of course, and Carson and Ned are both there to hear Nancy?s request to look up information on Martin Carroll.
       Nancy and George are reading through the book when Nancy gets a cablegram from her dad, saying that he will meet them on the island they?re about to stop at soon. Nancy finds out that Carroll died 6 months ago in a sanitarium. Nancy then goes to see Mr. Addams and mysterious trench coat person is on the prowl again. Nancy sees him by Addams? room and chases after him. Nancy goes after him into the engine room and he knocks Nancy down so that she?s left hanging from a railway of a set of stairs above a boiler of some sort. Tony then comes to her rescue and pulls her up. Tony says no one passed him and Nancy heads out.
         Then we see the captain looking at the instruments and says that the radio is out- and there?s a tidal wave coming to the ship. Back at ship?s dinner that day, George pulls George Fayne up to sing a song, despite her protestations. She then sings, It Doesn?t Matter Anymore. It seems that while on The Hardy Boys side, Joe sings a tons of songs, due to Shaun Cassidy?s singing career- but for the Nancy Drew side, George Fayne winds up doing a couple of songs. Her song gets cut short though because the ship?s crew lets the passengers know they must stay inside until the storm passes and they must wear life jackets. The cruise director George breaks down under Nancy and George Fayne?s requests and tells them that a tidal wave is coming. Nancy thinks it?s impossible and runs off to see the captain. She claims that it?s a hoax to a crew member, who assigns Tony the task of taking Nancy to her cabin- but Nancy gets away from him. Nancy manages to get to the captain to tell him that it?s a hoax but he doesn?t listen until the image fades of his radar and nothing happens.
       The captain seems willing to believe Nancy now, but she doesn?t have much to offer him on who is doing this. Nancy then runs into Cathy and lets her know that the tidal wave was a hoax. Nancy then goes to talk to Tony. Tony tells Nancy he knows about Martin Caroll and that he wrote a book about a cruise ship too- The Mystery of the Haunted Cruise. Nancy rushes back to the library for a copy of the book and sees that it?s dedicated to Caroll?s wife Celeste and his daughter Adriane.
     Nancy rushes off to find Addams, and then we see Adriane confronting Addams on the ship and she is ready to throw Addams overboard. But Nancy brings in the ship?s captain and crew before she can do it.
      Then we have Nancy, Ned, Carson, Addams, Cathy and the captain all walking on the ship and wrapping up the case. We find out that Adriane was a systems engineer and that?s how she pulled off the fake tidal wave. Addams decides not to press charges in the hopes that psychiatric help with help Adriane and then tells Peter Howard he?ll give him the interview. And then George and George both com and join them, where we find that George Fayne won the contest. George takes George off for more activities and we wrap up the show.
      And there you have it. Wow- this episode particularly did a good job of throwing in a lot of possible suspects- everyone from the captain to Tony to Cathy to Peter Howard were all acting suspiciously at some points- and then we also have the random dude who seems to be watching the scene but doesn?t really have anything to do with the episode. It was a great mystery and seemed to be true to the Nancy Drew books- with a good couple scenes of danger on Nancy?s part and some good detective work as well. And it was cool to see Nancy Drew solve a mystery in the library. This is one thing that I really enjoy from the TV series- and of course, this happens in the original books for both Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys many times. They all spend time doing real in-depth research in the library many times for cases. This is not to discount newer technology that allows for information to be retrieved on a computer or even a cellular telephone, but there is something nice about seeing the extra effort of poring through old books and newspaper clippings and microfilm. That is always nice to see. Anyway, overall I think this was a great episode.