I don't remember this episode particularly fondly. And I'm not totally surprised: the antique pipe is another "murder weapon only" like the badge in "Badge of Honor". It lets Ray, Ryan's father, perform clean murders. But it doesn't give him anything as a result: it's just a "light 'er up and it kills" sort of antique. It's boring.
However, where the episode shines when most previous ones haven't is that it gives us people we care about. Ray isn't a totally unsympathetic ogre, and his final sacrifice to save Ryan helps redeem him. His relationship with Ryan is given some time to shine, and we hear more about the Ryan/Bobby relationship. It was mentioned in 'Scarecrow', which was also a Marc Scott Zicree-written episode. We also as learn a few things about Ryan's past. They crammed all of this in to half the length of "The Quilt of Hathor": credit to Zicree, in his last of four episodes for the series. All of his episodes were class acts, and none better than this one.
IMO Zicree is the best writer the show had. In part because his stories are _about_ something. "Tales of the Undead" dealt with the comic book industries' ripoff of its creative minds. "Dr. Jack" was about the parasitical nature of doctors, hospitals, and patients. "Scarecrow" had some decent thrills, a creepy antique/killer, and more Ryan backstory. "Pipe Dream" looks at a broken, middle-aged man and his dreams. Compare that to "Cupid's Quiver", "Root of All Evil", or "Badge or Honor". They're not _about_ anything.
We also get Connie, who brings a human moment to the whole tragedy in a way that most episodes in the first season don't. She's lost her would-be husband on the day of her wedding. Connie isn't some young chippie. In fact, the whole thing is subtly about the onslaught of middle age. Jack sums it up best at the end with his little speech about how the future isn't filled with possibilities for middle-aged men.
Michael Constantine gives a nuanced performance as the middle-aged man at the center of this. I've never noticed much with Constantine in it in the past: he's pretty much a non-entity in that one 'Star Trek' episode, for instance. And I barely remember 'Room 222', or even his performance as an Isaac Asimov clone on 'Probe'. The next time I see anything with him, I'll have to pay him some closer attention.
Constantine's Ray goes from "hungry middle-aged man", to shocked learning he has a destructive weapon in his possession, to turning it into a perfect murder weapon, to negotiating the rocky road with his relationship with Ryan, to getting everything he wants to realizing that it hasn't "fixed" a thing in his life, to paranoid, to demanding father, to regretful killer when he has to eliminate Micki, to "give up his life for love of his son" at the end.
Jack shows up after a couple of episodes' absence, and his charmingness with Connie is a welcome presence. Even if Jack doesn't do much in the episode other than have Wiggins' stunt double wrestle with Constantine's stunt double. Ah, Chris Wiggins, we missed you!
John D. Lemay gives a good performance, too, as someone who has just reconciled with his father only to have watch said father die horribly and painfully. Granted, he mostly just cries. But up to that point Lemay is still good. Robey... well, she still doesn't have much to do in the first season.
Part of it is that Lemay is a better actor than Robey. Part of it is that Lemay gets to bounce off of vet Constantine. And part of it is the writing and Constantine's acting. we care more about Ray, who has killed two people, then we do about Lloyd or Tim. And they weren't antique-wielding killers. Why is Ray more likeable and thus Lemay? Because Constantine and Zicree make Ray a better character.
It also helps that the pipe is an impressive antique despite it's bland murder-weapon nature. Its little devil head pipe body and the ominous red smoke help. Even if the pipe doesn't make much sense: Ray says that it always has to take a life, after two isolated instances where he's seen it kill. How can he tell? And Micki describes the pipe effect as flames, but we never see any fire and it doesn't look like the victims are burning as much as dying from some kind of Red Death. And why would flames totally disintegrate a victim?
Director Zack Dalen (in his only F13 job) helps, by having Ray stalk his second and third victims. Why he has to follow the smoke along, is never clear. If the pipe can't have a presence, at least Constantine and the direction give it one.
Overall, "Pipe Dream" is a surprisingly good episode for late 1st season. The antique isn't much, but Zicree wisely brings the whole tragedy home by focusing on the relationships and the actor performances. The antique is mostly secondary, which is probably how it should be so the focus is on Ryan and Ray.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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