Original Air Date: 1/22/79
Written by: Mitch Markowitz
Directed by: William Jurgensen
The 4077th is visited by a young doctor, Captain Simmons (James Canning), who will be delivering a lecture on new surgical techniques.
Simmons is very young, so young that Winchester immediately assumes he knows nothing of value. Col. Potter, currently feeling his age while suffering from Phlebitis, now feels even older when faced with such a young whiz kid.
Wounded arrive, and Simmons helps out. At first he's stunned by the volume of casualties, but he quickly gets up to speed, filling in for Col. Potter after his Phlebitis gets even worse and causes him real pain.
All during the session in OR, Winchester is condescending to Simmons, assuming he doesn't know what he's doing. But Simmons proves to be a superb surgeon, fully capable of keeping up with the others.
A day later, Col. Potter refuses to get out of his bed, shirking his responsibilities. Winchester too is not dealing well with being shown up by a young surgeon, drinking to excess for three nights in a row.
Radar tries to boost Col. Potter's spirits, while Hawkeye and B.J. try to comfort Winchester. When Radar's efforts don't work, he turns to Hawkeye, B.J., and Margaret for help. Margaret offers to try.
Margaret is sweet but tough with Col. Potter, refusing to let him lounge around in bed--at one point grabbing his sheets, literally dragging him out of his cot.
Later that day, wounded arrive, forcing Winchester and Col. Potter to suck it up and go back to work. They argue with each other before going in over who's the better surgeon, inspiring each of them to put in their best performance over the course a grueling OR session.
Fun Facts: I thought this was a nice change up: having Potter and Winchester be the ones affected by a younger whiz kid surgeon, while Hawkeye and B.J. take it all in stride.
Favorite Line: Klinger's scam du jour is pretending that he's living in Toledo, treating everyone in camp like they live in Toledo, too.
After going through with this plot for a couple of days in a row, Col. Potter offers to give "Mr. Klinger" a Section 8, which Klinger goes along with. He answers Potter's routine questions to fill out the form, but gets tripped up when Potter asks for Klinger's rank.
Klinger automatically responds with "Corporal", which causes Potter to exclaim: "A-ha! Gotcha, soldier!"
Klinger's scam was hilarious. There was no way it proved he was crazy, but it was fun to watch Col Potter trip him up. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned this earlier, but this is one of Klinger's best ever scams. The final scene, where Potter busts Kilinger by nonchalantly asking him his rank is an absolute classic moment. Kilnger also outdoes himself in verite throughout- it never gets old for me.
ReplyDeleteI think this is the episode where Charles remarks that Potter is indeed the better surgeon, and is more than a little miffed when Potter doesn't automatically return the compliment. When I was younger, I thought that Sherm was being a little harsh- now, I see it as Potter exercising his authority, one very much earned. You always had to respect Potter, and he wasn't above insisting on it when he felt the situation warranted it. Not so much respect the rank, but respect the work and dedication that led to the rank. I find this admirable.