Tour De Force, Killer Aboard (1976) User Reviews (3)

A very good episode...even though Chin Ho and Officer Welles are idiots!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 19 March 2012]

This is a very good episode--even if the officers working for Five-O seemed pretty stupid for once. Most of it is because the plot is solid and the guest star (Cliff Gorman as an assassin) is quite good.

The episode begins with a plane landing in Oahu. After the rest of the passengers have exited, the flight attendant notices one of them in their seat. She thinks he's sleeping--he turns out to be dead. It seems that SOMEONE on the plane killed him during the trip--quietly and expertly. The signs point to an international assassin whose identity is unknown and he might be in a charter tour group sitting with the dead man. However, they can't just arrest all of them...and the proof is lacking.

Soon after they land, the killer arranges to 'accidentally' bump into a lady working for the Ilikai Hotel. He's charming as can be and she's quite taken--but all he really wants to do is pump her for information. And, when she starts to suspect, she's victim #2.

Now with two deaths and the strong likelihood one of the tour group members is a killer, they send perky Officer Welles (Amanda McBroom) to be the tour guide--following and observing. She soon thinks that perhaps one member (Gorman). So what does she do? Yup, like any good cop, she initiates an illegal search of his room (with no search warrant). He catches her and decides to take her along on his job--as insurance. But, Welles is an idiot and when she SHOULD try to alert others for help, she just walks by officers standing by the airplane as the tour group arrives back in Oahu. But, proving she's not the only stupid one, when she and the assassin pass by Chin (Kam Fong), she clearly alerts him in a code ANYONE WITH A BRAIN COULD UNDERSTAND that something is amiss. Much later, Chin thinks perhaps something is amiss!! In real life, Kam Fong was actually a retired cop from Hawaii--and perhaps this sort of attention to clues is why he retired and became an actor! In the end, though, goodness prevails thanks to McGarrett.

Overall, despite idiotic actions of two of the cops, the episode is still rather enjoyable and worth seeing.

Decent story - a few plot holes

[agore3 · 6/10 · 14 August 2014]

This was a decent story of a smooth talking assassin after an OPEC leader to destabilize the oil market.

Unfortunately, as the previous review said, Office Wells really some dumb things such as allowing herself to be taken when she knew what he planned to do. First, she got flubbed tripping him up on his history, then gets caught in his room, and lastly allowing herself to get to hotel. I assume it was not for her safety but exposing others to potential harm but hard to believe. In this episode, there is no book em charge.

I also thought McGarrett's near the end comment that Officer Wells, a police officer no less, should not be allowed to see the dead body was interesting but this was the early 70's.

Interesting Story, Bad Ending

[RedbirdCraig · 6/10 · 23 July 2023]

"Tour de Force" has an interesting premise, a little twist on the old "top-level assassin comes to town to kill VIP" story that we've seen on 5-0 and a bunch of other shows over the years. This guy is a good-looking, charming dude who uses his skills with the ladies to get the inside intel that he needs. However, the execution is a little lacking.

For one, my experience with international assassins honed through years of watching cop shows is that they don't exactly hang out with tour groups and try to pick up babes as part of their MO. I also feel like they don't do things like climb around on narrow ledges 23 floors up to get a shot at their target as the target is walking into the building. I kept thinking, "OK, how does this guy think he's going to escape after doing the deed? He's on a ledge staring at 5 security guards and 100 cops." If he were a political assassin that would make sense, doing the whole martyr for the cause thing, but he's a gun for hire.

Also, as has been pointed out previously, how can Chin not pick up on the vibes Welles is putting out? He's on the top squad on the islands, not some rookie! And they really seem to use the Welles character as the dumb blonde a lot on this show. I know it's the 70's so there weren't as many strong female characters as now, but wasn't "Police Woman" on around that time? She's just used as bait most of the time and she can be counted on to do something totally clueless in every appearance.