His Majesty Donlon

My Review

As season 5 continues to take it's stories from other films, plays, books etc... This is a rip off, this time of "The Prisoner of Zendor". I don't recall seeing that movie so I'm not sure how close it is to the story here. Although this episode can be very silly at times, it is really good fun and enjoyable to watch, if you don't take it too seriously. What it's really got to with the kids seeking Fame, I'll never know but there is lots of laugh out loud humour in this episode, which I like. Particularly with Danny suspecting Chris isn't really Chris and talking about “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” film. I can only imagine the fun they could have had with Mrs Berg if she was in the episode and the confusion she would have had seeing 2 Chris Donlons!

The story does stretch credibility some what. I could just about buy Chris had a duplicate but for Nicole to have one and for Chris' duplicate to be engaged to Nicole's duplicate too, really does push believability too far. Especially as Chris has suddenly developed a crush on Nicole and gets to play on that with his relationship with the Princess.

This strange land of Vatonia must actually be full of duplicates of other people, particularly those that are connected to the school of the arts because not only is Chris the duplicate of the Prince and Nicole the duplicate of the Princess but one of the guards Rolfe had previously been on the show as the bodyguard of Chris’ girlfriend Sasha back in season 4's "Czech Mate". Then one of the party singing Hail Vatonia is one of the regular dancers Dwayne Phelps. Presumably the rest of the people singing are also dancers or extras that normally work on the show but I couldn't seem them clearly enough to pick anyone specific out! The producers probably didn't think we'd notice or didn't care if we did! I have to say I find the repeated "Hail Vatonia" a little over the top though but presumably it is meant to be as someone thought this added to the comedy.

There is some great continuity from season 4 with Dwight's crush on Holly still very evident and his jealousy of Chris adding to the humour.

Debbie only appears briefly in this episode to have a dance and a quick line of dialogue. Also Gene is there for the outside scenes, at the start and end of the episode, which were filmed in New York. Then we see him dance a little when Chris is telling Prince Freddy about his friends but we never see him have any encounter with the Prince.

I'm a little confused by the timeline of events in this episode because we start at the United Nations building where the students had been performing with students from other Countries in support of World peace. We then see the kids get on a coach and arrive back at the school. Chris then gets asked to play the Prince for 48 hours. I assumed when we see Prince Freddy arrive at the school it is the next day as everyone is wearing different clothes and we see them going to lesson but at the end of the episode we are back at the U.N. Building and they are performing again and all wearing the same clothes as at the start of the episode. The announcer at the start of the episode says the eyes of the World are watching that day so it seems odd for us the then see the performance at the end.

That said I do love the song "One Dream" and it's great that all the kids are singing together. Sadly the writers are not listed in the end credits for strange reason so I have no idea who wrote the song. I also like Billy and Nia performing Billy Ocean's "Suddenly" which is another great song.

Episode Pictures