Help! Solution to "Skeleton Crew" - anybody?
The Peanut Gallery
Japan. It ended with Harm's fingerprints on the murder weapon and him
being arrested for murder. This was supposed to be continued the next
week, but the next episode was completely different [and weirdly had
the same actress who played the murder victim now as his partner. I'm
completely confused.
I'm new to this newsgroup - only found it because my curiosity is
killing me? Can somebody help me out - how did this end? Who killed
Diane? How did Harm's fingerprints get on the gun? Can anyone
remember?
Any reply REALLY appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.
Randi Lukich
series. It was picked up on CBS. Yes, Catherine Bell became Harm's new
partner. A bit later in the series they show how Mac looks like Harm's old
love interest who was killed. Of course, the guilty party is not Harm:)
The USA network in the states have only shown the last episode of year once
to my knowledge. They hyped it as the "show the other network (I assume
CBS) wouldn't show.
Hope this helps. I'm sure others could give a more detailed account.
Randi
Ann
of it, "Death Watch" once or twice, but I'm interested in seeing the
original cliffhanger. I wrote to USA's comments/suggestions/questions
email for JAG not too long ago and suggested that they show it, so with
any luck maybe they will...
The Peanut Gallery
is who the killer was and how did he put Harm's fingerprints on the
murder weapon.
My husband and I watched it again last night, looking for clues - I
think the killer was supposed to have been Ensign Roberts - then when
they decided to re-vamp the show and make him a regular, they couldnt
use the original ending, so they just dropped the episode. I dont
know why they showed it to us here if it didnt have a second part to
it. I feel cheated.
However the episode itself was really well done - atmospheric, spooky,
and a good mystery too. It's the best episode of JAG I've seen so
far. Maybe if the producers get enough requests we could get them to
put it on a DVD along with the remake, and maybe an interview with
Bellesario about it.
Ann
do remember in the remake that Mac gets caught out in the rain or
something, and borrows an extra uniform that Harriet had at the office,
and goes to where Harm is about to confront and kill Diane's killer, and
whoever it was sees Mac in a Navy uniform and think's it's Diane's
ghost or something, and falls in the water and gets squished between the
ship and the dock, but I don't remember who it was. Can someone else
fill in the missing pieces?
USA network is showing "Deathwatch" (the remake) towards the end of this
month, I'll have to watch it!
The reason that Skeleton Crew has no resolution is because NBC cancelled
JAG at the end of the first season, so they never aired the episode in
the US. When it moved to CBS, they sort of started over - new partner,
etc. I have read somewhere that Bellisario originally intended Agent
Tourque (however you spell it - in Deathwatch they refer to him as
"Agent Turkey") to be the murderer, I think, but by the time they even
thought about making the second episode some of the actors, including
the one playing the murderer, were no longer available, so they made it
into the flashback episode Deathwatch so they could change the ending
and resolve everything. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be Turkey - I
know it wasn't supposed to be Roberts. I can't remember where I read
that about the episode. If I find it again I'll post again and let
everyone know. Or if someone else knows of a source, that would work too.
Sorry it wasn't more helpful - like I said, maybe someone else can fill
in some of the missing pieces.
Randi Lukich
supposedly did it because he never took Diane's (Mac in year one) complaints
about sexual harassment seriously. She was supposedly going to report him
when they landed...."not for myself, but for all other women who serve under
your command." (Words to that effect.) Harm found a letter that she had
written to the Captain in the pile of letters that Agent Tourque returned to
Harm. He says in "Deathwatch" that it has taken him a couple of years to
look at them. The Captain also set up the other guy that died on board the
ship making it look like a suicide.
Ann's explanation about why they didn't continue the story line is right on.
New NETWORK, they want to make the show entirely their own, new actors in
many cases, etc. I agree it would be interesting to have seen how they
would have found that Harm was innocent. I think you will like "Deathwatch"
when you see it. Of course, the best part is the "kiss", even though Mac
says, "I know, you were kissing her:)"
Jack Bagley
officer.
--
Jack
Check out the finest in independent science fiction novels at Fine Line
Publishing:
http://www.Fine-Linepc.com/AC.html
http://www.Fine-Linepc.com/TWLB.html
"Randi Lukich" <rlu...@3-cities.com> wrote in message
news:B8E215FF.6014C%rlu...@3-cities.com...
The Peanut Gallery
> Ya know, I really don't remember! It's been awhile since I've seen it. I
> do remember in the remake that Mac gets caught out in the rain or
> something, and borrows an extra uniform that Harriet had at the office,
> and goes to where Harm is about to confront and kill Diane's killer, and
> whoever it was sees Mac in a Navy uniform and think's it's Diane's
> ghost or something, and falls in the water and gets squished between the
> ship and the dock, but I don't remember who it was. Can someone else
> fill in the missing pieces?
Wow! what an absolutely GREAT ending. I can't wait to see it.
>
> I have read somewhere that Bellisario originally intended Agent
> Tourque (however you spell it - in Deathwatch they refer to him as
> "Agent Turkey") to be the murderer,
Double wow - I never saw this coming at all. Turkey was the killer?
Well, I guess that would maybe explain the fingerprint match - he must
have somehow put Harm's fingerprints into the computer as coming from
the gun - but......... I really wish you had seen Skeleton Crew -
because Turkey being the killer doesnt really make sense [although
it's a great surprise]. Someone was supposed to be stalking Diane
while she was on the ship. That couldnt have been Turkey because he's
not a part of the crew [is he? What's an NCIS agent exactly?]. From
the epiesode he seemed like a shore cop, not someone assigned to the
ship.
In the very beginning, at the crime scene - he' s not acting like this
was a crewmate of his- someone he knew - he's acting like this is a
stranger to him - just another case if you know what I mean - just
like the detectives on Homicide or NYPD Blue or any other cop show. I
certainly never got the idea that they even knew each other, let alone
have been shipmates.
Another strange thing - Lt Lamb had been harassing Diane and was
everybody's No 1 suspect, including Harm's - and he was found dead in
what looked like suicide - but it was Turkey who was the first one to
doubt it - the Jag team probably would have accepted it. Why kill the
guy and then go around telling people he doesnt think it was suicide -
it doesnt make sense.
I'm sure you must have read it or heard it from Bellesario - but I
mean watching Skeleton Crew that solution doesnt really make sense -
maybe it was his second choice solution or something. it certainly is
a surprise - I never saw THAT coming - but I wish you get to see
Skeleton Crew [the original version] and then you can see what I mean
better. It really doesnt fit well with the story there. The Death
Watch ending - that it was the XO or the Captain [who you never see in
SC BTW] fits in a lot better.
But anyway THANKS A LOT TO ALL OF YOU WHO ANSWERED - at least now I
know what happened. I cant wait til they show Death Watch here. I
want to see if they changed any of the premises from the original.
JoAnna Birchwood
first season, was going to wrap all this up and bud was going to be the
killer, but since cbs brought him aboard as a regular they can't have the
little dumpling being a secret killer and stay in the navy and work in jag.
ncis is navy's secret police that starts all criminal investigations on the
premise a homosexual triangle is involved, like the #2 turret explosion on
the uss iowa... i am still waiting for mac and renee to do a steamy lip
lock, try on each other's dresses and do their hair, after a racy dip in the
hot tub.
btw, much of what harm and mac do would be properly done by the ncis in the
real navy. on the show they always start an investigation and then halfway
thru it turn into both prosecution and area defense counsel, which is not
very realistic but it is glamorous...
i think they should bring palmer back to kill off bud, harriet and brumby on
an austrailian sub on a secret mission that crashes into the great barrier
reef where the white sharks eat harriet alive in slo-mo, lots of red water
and screaming, thrashing around you know kinda like jaws... =;-]
palmer gets away to be evil another day...
could someone create ALT.TV.JAG.BUD-HARRIET-BRUMBY-MUST-DIE? my news server
won't let me create newsgroups...
"The Peanut Gallery" <sherlock...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:90003b75.02041...@posting.google.com...
Ann
Bellisario had originally intended for the conculsion of the Skeleton
Crew cliffhanger. It's in the JAG FAQ at
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/pulpfiction/99/jag-faq.html
Go to the actual FAQ itself (which is a text file that I'm not sure
would link right, so I put the first address) and it's in section 4.1.8.
The Peanut Gallery
> ok, everyone, here it is. I found where I read that about what
> Bellisario had originally intended for the conculsion of the Skeleton
> Crew cliffhanger. It's in the JAG FAQ at
> http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/pulpfiction/99/jag-faq.html
> Go to the actual FAQ itself (which is a text file that I'm not sure
> would link right, so I put the first address) and it's in section 4.1.8.
Thanks for the link, Ann. I read everything and it was very
interesting. But I still think that regardless of what he's saying
now, Turkey as the killer is really kind of a cheat. I wonder if the
actors knew who was the killer while they were filming.
I mean, not only does he act like he has never met any of them
before, but they act like they dont know him from Adam. Like he's a
complete stranger to them, not someone who's been on the same ship
with them for 6 months.
[2] If he was the killer he'd be doing everything he could to convict
somebody else. Lt Lamb was an obvious suspect - he'd been harassing
Diane, he followed her off the ship, and he lied about having a date
with her. Harm and Crennick both thought he did it. But Turkey
refused to arrest him saying they didnt have any real evidence. Then
Crennick started being stalked - she was convinced it was Lt Lamb who
was doing it - and Turkey again was extremely skeptical. Then when it
looked like he killed himself and Allison was ready to accept that and
go home, it was Turkey again who was so suspicious of the death.
I think maybe this is his solution now, or his solution as he
remembers it, but I really wonder if it was REALLY what he was
originally thinking. His memory doesnt exactly gibe with what was in
the show. He says in the FAQ Harm was going to be "surprised" in part
2 to learn that Agt Turkey was stationed on the ship. But in part 1
he says he examined the liberty logs - everybody had to sign out when
they left the ship - he should have seen his name immediately. And
you think someone would have said to him "Oh, come on Brian, you know
me. I'm not a killer." But EVERYONE was acting like they never met
this guy before - it was certainly the impression they gave teh
viewer. If he was stationed on that ship, then their behavior in part
1 was truly weird - and not playing fair at all.
The Peanut Gallery
> part 2 which never got made, since nbc dropped the show at the end of the
> first season, was going to wrap all this up and bud was going to be the
> killer, but since cbs brought him aboard as a regular they can't have the
> little dumpling being a secret killer and stay in the navy and work in jag.
Yeah, this makes a lot more sense than Turkey, IF there was some other
way off the ship.
part 1 was so good because it set up so many puzzling facts to be
explained in part 2. Like:
1- How did the murderer get off the ship? [Roberts was standing watch
when Diane left - BUT - he claimed he was having diarrhea and so was
gone for large portions of time - no real alibi IF there was some
other way off the ship where the Chief [saring his watch] wouldnt see
him.
2- Why was Diane's body moved? Acc to the autopsy she was killed,
then placed on her side for a couple of hours, and then moved behind
the wheel of her car - where she was found.
3- How did Harm's fingerprints get on the gun. It seems to me that if
he was just loading the gun, not shooting it, his prints would be in
different places on the gun - and supposedly he hadnt seen Diane for
at least the past 2 months - wouldnt his fingerprints have been
completely obliterated by then? And didnt she ever clean that gun?
His explanation doesnt really make that much sense - I really wonder
how much he now remembers of what they set up in SC.
JoAnna Birchwood
in it, ncis agent turque is not in fact assigned to the investigation; he
was already stationed aboard the uss seahawk for the last 6 month's cruise,
which ncis would have known about and assigned other agents to assist him if
they thought he would not be a suspect, or then he would have removed
immediately for investigation himself.
'deathwatch' was 30 minutes of new footage shot in season 3 with 15 minutes
of the original 'skeleton crew' grafted on to make 'part 2' of 'skeleton
crew'. by this time most of the original actors were not available to
reprise their roles in 'skeleton crew' so dpb was kind of over a barrel as
to where to re-enter the flashback mode and from who's viewpoint? they could
not reshow nbc's copy of the show since they didn't have rights to it.
turque or bud were going to be the original killer[s] at the end of nbc's
part 2 which of course never was made or even written since nbc dropped the
show at the end of season 1. dpb won't say who it was going to be, in fact
he may not have known until he started writing part 2 which of course he did
not. i think bud's diarrhea and absence from his post was to setup a
possible scenario showing him whacking diane because he made a pass at her
and she mocked him and threatened to report him to the captain... even
little dumplings have male egos.
cbs saw no reason to begin season 2 [ie, cbs' season 1] with an ep wrapping
up a previous season on another network, esp considering ep 22 'skeleton
crew' was not shown by nbc in the us, although they did intend to revisit
the part 2 later in the show and did so with the silly 'deathwatch' in
season 3.
in part 2, 'deathwatch' harm's fingerprints on the gun and the captain's
mast for assaulting lt lamb all have to vanish, since it would require
extraordinary feats to extricate him from the corner that dbp painted
himself into by waiting so long to resolve an ep that jag at first pretended
didn't exist since no one in the us had seen it until much later. to be sure
not dpb's fault since he had nothing to do with the show changing networks,
he was just glad he still had a gig producing jag...
i don't think the cast does much lookahead on the scripts, they just read
their own parts when the final draft is delivered to the set. the average
actor does not have much respect for the tv end-viewer or the script writers
for that matter you can see why when you see shows made and know some of the
insiders. duchovny hated x-files and frequently said so.
[unlike the people here and on the fan sites, they don't spend a lot of time
agonizing of what could have been, it's just a very well paid job pretending
to be someone else...]
dbp pretty much just sits down and bangs out an outline and then lets some
rewrite guys flesh it out. re-shooting is very expensive and they just hack
something together to cover the holes, that's why some scenes seem choppy or
don't make much sense in context.
the network loses money on each ep until they can get at least 60 in the can
then make syndication offers when they are ready to fold the show, that's
where all the money is made back. all those shows that get whacked in the
first 2 or 3 seasons cost the networks lots of money, since they will never
be syndicated.
"The Peanut Gallery" <sherlock...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:90003b75.02042...@posting.google.com...