Self Defense

The school becomes the target of vandalism when it is repeatedly broken into and trashed.

Meanwhile Nicole becomes sacred when a secret admirer keeps sending her flowers. Worried what this might lead to she and the other girls persuades Lydia to teach them karate.  

For me this is one of the better episodes from season 5 and a personal favourite that I really like it. With Valerie and Erica no longer on the show Nia had quickly become my favourite. It feels like she is now the lead female student and the opening musical number really spells that out with Nia out in front and the other 3 female characters, who are all new this season, on back up vocals.  It's not just on the song but all the way through this episode as the other three's only purpose seems to be for Nicole to interact with. Anyway there's no complaints from me about that as I love Nia and she is really on top form here.

The story itself is fairly simple and in some ways unrealistic for Nicole to go from being afraid for her own safety to apprehending the vandals plaguing the school but it's fun, has a little mystery  and more importantly empowers the female characters.  I love that when they need to learn self defence, it's Miss Grant that teaches them. Other shows would probably bring in a man to do that. Here the girls are able to beat the boys! We already thought Lydia was tough but this episode demonstrates it. The scene where she's being chased and has to fight off the bad guys throws us a little at first because we think it's real even though the sets she is running down wobble like crazy! So it's a nice touch when it turns out to be part of the movie, although a little bit of a coincidence that the female students just happen to be watching it at the right time!

Dwight is obviously well and truly over Holly now as he turns his attentions to Nicole although this storyline is never mentioned again. Goodness knows where Dwight is supposed to be getting all the money from for the flowers and I can't help wonder if Cynthia Gibb had stayed would this have been her storyline? 

"Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" is an excellent song and why Tina Turner relegated it to just a B-side I'll never know. Although at the time I didn't realise this was a cover version and thought it was an original song. The song really suits Nia's voice and she gives a fantastic performance.  My only gripe is that parts of it are talked over, which is really frustrating. It would have been so easy to have the guys talking as Nicole comes off stage and walks past them. We could have already seen them watching and enjoying the performance, maybe nudging each other and Jesse looking frustrated and then all the lines could have been spoken after the song. If there was a problem with timings then they could have cut some of the vandalism scenes as there was no need for them to go on so long. Talking over songs happens quite a bit this season and to me it's like the producers don't have a clue about why the audience is watching. 

I was most intrigued by Mrs Berg stating that she'd worked at the school for 25 years. I think this is the first and only time the actual number of years have been mentioned. Although it doesn't make any sense regarding what is stated in previous and future episodes. In Season 4, she knew Trevor Kane as a student and in season 6 she knew Michael Taftner as a student. As both the actors playing these characters were well in their 50's at the time, it's natural for us to assume that both of the characters were of a similar age.  For them High School would have been 30 plus years previously so Mrs Berg couldn't have been there unless both characters were much younger than we thought.

Also at the start of the episode we see the vandalism then Dyrenforth arrives and finds the mess. Then we cut to the show and I find it strange that none of the characters mentions what has happened to the school. There are then a couple for other scenes at it's obviously at least the next day, and it's 11 minutes into the episode before the vandalism is mentioned. Apart from Dwight and Nicole at the end none of the students mention the vandalism at all, which I find really strange.

Original  air date in U.S.A 05th April 1986

Original  air date  in U.K. on The Children's Channel  Broadcast early 1993.

Original air date in Italy 28th September 1987

Original  air date in France 03rd March 1996