Appearances

Danny falls head over heals in love with Marya who is from the Soviet Union and needs a place at the School to stay in the country. Danny does all he can to help her, even asking her to marry him but soon he discovers that she doesn't really care for him and is only using him.

 Meanwhile Chris and Holly play the romantic leads in the latest School production, where the feels of their characters start to spread over into their real lives. 

The Season of doomed love continues and now it’s Danny’s turn with a little side romance for Holly and Chris.

This isn’t a favourite episode of mine and the story doesn’t really go anywhere for me. At least all the cast are back with the exception of Bruno, although he is mentioned as he supposedly wrote the song Danny sings to Marya.

Danny seems to fall for this girl very quickly and it’s almost love at first site. Personally I think she’s just like Holly’s love interest from the previous episode, where she doesn’t come across as a nice person and seems very cold. What does Danny see in her? 

What’s wrong with our characters that they only fall for not very nice people? At least Doris saw her true colours but Danny doesn’t want to listen. I love how Doris goes after Marya when Danny gets slapped.

 I also don't see very much chemistry between the two of them and so never really bought that Danny was so besotted or so in love that he’d ask her to marry him. Yes, Danny was a ladies man and lusted after all the girls but I never saw him as the type to settle down and get married so early in life.

Obviously Danny is being used but I can’t work out if Marya actually does have any feelings for Danny or if she is just acting the whole thing. The final scene always throws me. It’s as though the writers who have spent the episode building a not particularly nice character now want us to feel sorry for her because she’s all alone. I certainly didn't care about her and the last scene is really too late to try and establish any connection to a guest character. Had Marya pretended to be a nice person who was interested in Danny, so everyone believes her lies and tries to help her, then the episode would have been better. The audience would have been taken in by her too so when we find out the truth at the end it would have more impact. It would have been so sad for Danny to be used like that.

The Chris and Holly story isn’t much better and whatever is going on with them doesn’t really get mentioned again, so there seemed little point in doing it. I think Chris and Holly had great chemistry and think it's strange that the writers never pursued a proper relationship for them. There always seemed that link between them especially in season 4's "Reflections" when Chris dances with Holly after she returns to school after her anorexia but it just didn't go anywhere.

 I have to ask did people really wear leather trousers like Chris’ to school? Not at my school they didn’t! They are fine for on stage or even for wearing outside school but don’t really seem appropriate here. Holly’s reference to “Fantasy Island" is funny though.

At least they acknowledge that some students have left which is obviously a comment about Coco although she’s not referred to by name.

Morloch is great as usual and I love the scene with Lydia when he talks about the memos he’s sent, which she obviously doesn’t read. Then Lydia feels sorry for him when his dog dies and decides that they can trust him and tell him about Danny’s situation. They really gave Ken lots of different things to play wth as Morloch so that he was a fully rounded character and not just the 2 dimensional bad guy. I just love rewatching his scenes with Carol and Debbie and there is so much humour in them.

“Love Takes Time” is an okay song as is “Whatcha Gonna Do” although neither of them are particular favourites for me. I do love that Danny, Holly and Leroy give a few second reprise of “Drive Me Wild” which is a nice reminder of a much better episode.

In the first dance auditions scene as Lydia walks round the rehearsal room the door opens and Danny is standing out side. The scene then focuses on Lydia but after a few seconds cuts to the door, which is now closed and Danny opens it to watch Marya audition!

Original  air date in U.S.A  04th February 1984

Original  air date  in U.K. 27th April 1984,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992

Original air date in The Netherlands  28th April 1984

Original air date in Italy 07th August  1986

Original air date in Belgium  23rd  June 1988      

Original  air date in France 10th December 1988