A gun-runner, Hartington (William Franklyn), in Burma has acquired a cache of WWII-era Japanese rifles. He intends to get them out of the country and into the hands of the highest bidder. The Champions are sent to stop the shipment. When this fails, their off to Africa to use any means available to get the guns.It's entertaining in spots, but overall, The Gun-Runners is a very inconsistent episode. Other than Craig's escape from a cellar, the scenes supposedly set in Burma are some of the worst of the entire series. We're introduced to far too many characters to keep up with who is who and why we care. It's pretty confusing. I mentioned Craig's escape, now that was terrific. His acrobatic escape was plain old cool. Once things shift to Africa, the episode picks up quite a bit. The scenes where all three sneak through the jungle to get near the shack holding the guns is very well done. And the final explosion and death of Hartington are, once again, plain old cool. The African scenes are as good as the Burmese scenes are bad.
A few other thoughts: 1. The Gun-Runners includes some very tacky looking rear projection. It's laughable. 2. Hartington's head bandage is ridiculous looking. It's impossible to take him too seriously with that thing on his head. 3. I'm sure William Franklyn was a fine actor, but he's hardly menacing enough for The Champions.
Overall, The Gun-Runners is a real mixed bag. I think a 6/10 seems about right. Too bad, I had hoped the second-to-last episode in the series would have been better.
6/10
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