A Friend in Need

When Doris is having difficulty with a song for a show she contacts Jim Hamilton the blind teacher she'd had a crush on the year before. However she is soon unhappy when he seems to be developing a relationship with Lydia. 

Lydia is uncomfortable with the unsolicited attention and tries to let Jim down gently. Meanwhile Morloch hires Hamilton to direct the school play but when he suddenly disappears it leaves the kids in the lurch. 

I find this episode a little confusing and feel the writer doesn't entirely know what direction to take the story in. Just when we think it's set up as Jim's unrequited love for Lydia and Doris' jealousy and unrequited love for Jim, those parts of the story get quickly glossed over and it changes to be all about Jim the director scared of failing. As the story suddenly changes, to me it feels that neither parts of the story are fully fleshed out, leaving it all a little unsatisfying.

There seems to be so much build up to both story lines but then very little else happens and many of our Characters, like Leroy, Sherwood, Shorofsky, Mrs Berg are pretty ignored.

I do think it's interesting to see Tom Sullivan back on the show and enjoy this episode slightly more than his Season 2 appearance. There is some nice continuity with the references to AEIOU, Doris getting that song wrong, Lydia teaching Jim to dance and Danny performing Gilbert and Sullivan but we seem to have a major lack of continuity regarding Jim's surname. 

On first watch I didn't notice and having this episode on video after it's original broadcast I always thought his surname was Hamilton. It was only after I'd written the character into my fan fiction story and referred to him as "Hamilton" that I was re-watching "Solo Song" from season 2, where he's referred to as Jim Landon. At first I thought I'd misheard it and even turned on the subtitles to check but there was no mistaking it, in season 2 he's Landon and here he's Hamilton. Was the change deliberate or a mistake? They obviously went back to check on the storyline from his previous episode so how could they get his name wrong? To me it smacks of poor writing once again.

I like the story that Jim falls for Lydia and that she doesn't feel the same way about him but I hate that he accuses her of prejudice because he's blind. He's supposedly fallen in love with her and I understand that he's lashing out because he feels rejected but to come to the conclusion its prejudice after Lydia taught him to dance seems crazy. If she really was prejudices because he's blind she would never have wasted her time trying to teach him to dance. It just seems the story was lacking a little drama so they build this up until the second half of the story kicks in. To add to it Sherwood role is to question whether Jim is correct. I'm not sure why Sherwood doubts her friend and it doesn't ring true for her character. If they wanted drama then build up Doris' jealously maybe leading to a confrontation between her and Lydia. 

I find Holly particularly annoying in this episode and her ranting about not getting into Summer School feels totally over the top. After everything she's done at the school I'm sure she could audition for that without someone having to see the current play she's working on.

At the start of the episode when Jim is talking to Mrs Berg she tells him Doris is in Dance class, he then says Lydia Grant's dance class. There are supposed to be other teachers at the school so it's strange he assumes it's Lydia's class. Mrs Berg says something about if he hurries he'll get there before the bell. The Bell had literally just rang when Jim entered the school and the students rushed off to class. Then a few seconds later the bell rings again while he's still talking to Mrs Berg. However this has no affect on the dance class and Jim still sees Doris so Mrs Berg's comment seems pointless.  When we see the class Doris is nowhere to be seen until the dance routine was over! 

I also find the scenario with Doris and the answer machine ridiculous. We've already seen Doris leave Bruno a message on his answer machine in the second episode of this season and had no problem what so ever. She a performer so is used to dealing with nerves, if that was the reason for messing up the message. I just thought it was filler and unnecessary. 

We see her in this episode jump in and start chatting to a complete stranger when she talks to Allan at Carsuso's. That all feel a little convenient to me but then at the end of the episode Allan is backstage after "Running With The Night" and hugging Doris like they are best friends, they then go off together! Did I miss part of the story?

When Morloch tells Lydia that Bill Clancy is out sick and she needs to take over the exam play. Why isn't it Reardon who is out sick? If he's not sick wouldn't he be the first person they'd call on to replace the sick teacher? He is the drama teacher after all.  

I also don't buy that when Doris finds out the truth about Jim being fired from the show that she goes straight to Lydia. Previously she's been jealous annoyed by Lydia so personally I don't think she'd want to go to Lydia with what she's found out. It would be nice if we'd seen her telling Danny, Holly, Leroy etc.. and they tell her to talk to Lydia but Doris refuses only to get a lecture from one of her friends. 

The resolution to the story comes a little too quickly for me. A quick chat from Lydia and Morloch and everything is okay again!  

This episode is saved by some good music. Valerie is in strong voice as she belts out "Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend" and Lionel Richie's "Running With The Night". The staging and lighting for the latter is really good. Also I've always really loved "The Lady Dancer" it was so fitting for the story but how come all the tables at Caruso's had been moved to give Lydia room to dance? 

Original  air date in U.S.A 01st April 1984

Original  air date  in U.K. 29th June 1984,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992

Original  air date  in The Netherlands 17th July 1984

Original air date in Italy 15th August  1986

Original air date in Belgium 11th August 1988      

Original  air date in France 11th February 1989