Carlos Casal, the premier of San Marcos, South America, is in the United States on an official visit. He has been receiving unknown threats urging him to stand down, so he calls on U.N.I.T. for protection. They send along their top man - Thomas Sloane.
A group of men break into Casal's residence, overpower Sloane, and make off with the Premier's daughter Marja. Sloane identifies the leader as an old enemy of his called Tanaka. Highly skilled in the martial arts, Tanaka escaped from a Jakarta prison and founded a mystic cult, though he does odd jobs ( murder and kidnapping ) for KARTEL.
Casal is told that in order to save his daughter's life he must resign on live television. San Marcos will then be run by a new KARTEL-friendly Premier.
The one lead Sloane has is Carrie Baldwin, an ex-disciple who left the cult on realising that the 'Samurai' was just another charlatan. He visits her at the Kabuki Theatre, Tokyo, where she works, and here is attacked by one of the players, Sato.
Sloane tricks Sato into thinking he has killed him and follows at a discreet distance. Sato leads the agent back to Tanaka, though the wily Samurai has expected this and prepared a neat little trap in the form of an exploding ivory puzzle box...
The second contribution to the series by Dick Nelson, his first being 'Tuned For Destruction', this is unique in that its the only episode to feature something resembling a believable plot. It also looks noticeably cheaper. Had the series lasted longer its my guess we would have seen a few more in similar vein.
The late Japanese actor Mako is very good as 'Tanaka', providing a serious physical threat to the agent as well as getting rough with KARTEL boss Mr.Prentice ( Earl Boen ). Nancy Conrad ( daughter of star Robert ) plays 'Carrie Baldwin'. Fortunately, there's no lovey-dovey stuff between the characters or else the connotations could have been most unfortunate. She also acted alongside her old man in one of his previous shows: 'Black Sheep Squadron'.
Sloane's gadgets - a bugging device hidden in a badge. Torque's van comes equipped with a nifty little periscope.
There's an amusing scene where Torque is caught breaking into Tanaka's place. He gives the guards a quick demonstration of his cybernetic hand, and then gasses them where they stand!
The episode climaxes with a sword fight between Sloane and Tanaka. My only beef is that the latter is defeated a bit too easily. A longer fight would have done the story a power of good. At least Conrad manages to look a lot more proficient in karate than Roger Moore did in 'The Man With The Golden Gun'.
A group of men break into Casal's residence, overpower Sloane, and make off with the Premier's daughter Marja. Sloane identifies the leader as an old enemy of his called Tanaka. Highly skilled in the martial arts, Tanaka escaped from a Jakarta prison and founded a mystic cult, though he does odd jobs ( murder and kidnapping ) for KARTEL.
Casal is told that in order to save his daughter's life he must resign on live television. San Marcos will then be run by a new KARTEL-friendly Premier.
The one lead Sloane has is Carrie Baldwin, an ex-disciple who left the cult on realising that the 'Samurai' was just another charlatan. He visits her at the Kabuki Theatre, Tokyo, where she works, and here is attacked by one of the players, Sato.
Sloane tricks Sato into thinking he has killed him and follows at a discreet distance. Sato leads the agent back to Tanaka, though the wily Samurai has expected this and prepared a neat little trap in the form of an exploding ivory puzzle box...
The second contribution to the series by Dick Nelson, his first being 'Tuned For Destruction', this is unique in that its the only episode to feature something resembling a believable plot. It also looks noticeably cheaper. Had the series lasted longer its my guess we would have seen a few more in similar vein.
The late Japanese actor Mako is very good as 'Tanaka', providing a serious physical threat to the agent as well as getting rough with KARTEL boss Mr.Prentice ( Earl Boen ). Nancy Conrad ( daughter of star Robert ) plays 'Carrie Baldwin'. Fortunately, there's no lovey-dovey stuff between the characters or else the connotations could have been most unfortunate. She also acted alongside her old man in one of his previous shows: 'Black Sheep Squadron'.
Sloane's gadgets - a bugging device hidden in a badge. Torque's van comes equipped with a nifty little periscope.
There's an amusing scene where Torque is caught breaking into Tanaka's place. He gives the guards a quick demonstration of his cybernetic hand, and then gasses them where they stand!
The episode climaxes with a sword fight between Sloane and Tanaka. My only beef is that the latter is defeated a bit too easily. A longer fight would have done the story a power of good. At least Conrad manages to look a lot more proficient in karate than Roger Moore did in 'The Man With The Golden Gun'.