I don't normally write about episodes of Numb3rs, but this one ended up being a very emotional one for me. They started the show with the actor who plays Charlie Eppes. He explains that the show had already been written and filmed, on September 12th, which was the day a Metrolink Train and a Union Pacific freight train collided in Chatsworth. He goes on to explain that this show may be difficult for some people to watch and to exercise caution in viewing. As it ended up, the parallels between the the crash and the show, were so very similar in many ways and it must have been very hard on the cast and crew, to see something they had just done, happen in real life.
Even to the engineer getting a phone call from his young son, while driving the train. By the way, I have seen that happen in real life, on my own trains. I am glad that I don't travel with a particular engineer and his wife anymore, because she would be on the phone with him the entire 2 hour ride. I have a feeling that he tuned her out...but what do I know. :-)
Thankfully, things turned out better in their crash, then in the crash of Metrolink 111, but I don't think I will watch that episode again. It just hits too close to home, for this Metrolink commuter.
I got to watch this episode last night. We got it on Netflix as a download. I was surprised that the David Krumholtz content warning was preserved on this downloaded version. I wonder if it'll be on the series DVD.
ReplyDeleteAs expected, I found the episode to be jarring due to the recent Chatsworth crash. As a railroad related drama, I found it to be both enjoyable and full of reality failures. I won't call them errors, since the production took lots of reality license.
I enjoyed the equipment.
The passenger equipment was 1950s style. There is no such equipment in passenger service in California today. F7 locomotives? Stainless steel cars? I wish we had such service. It was really cool to see this equipment, and I hope that "no historical railroad cars were killed or injured in the making of the film."
The freight locomotives shown seem to be old Southern Pacific livery. The name "Desert Pacific" is an obvious allusion to UP or SP, and the shot of the four locos at the beginning of the episode really looked like SP paint.
There were several large impossibilites in the plot, all required to make the story work.
The major one for me was that, had the switch not thrown, there would have been at least two yellow signals leading up to the red at the turnout.
Bottom line, a mediocre Numb3rs episode, using plot devices that don't work in 2008, at least not in this time-space continuum.
I juch preferred the previous week. At least it had a bikini model :)
Yes, lots of inaccuracies, in regard to the train. I am with you there. I am sure they had to use the vintage cars that you can rent out, to make the show. Metrolink doesn't have much rolling stock just hanging around... :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful comments.