The Checklist: Raven (S1 Ep6) “Prey”
It is no secret that the staff of Bulletproof Action are big fans of ninjas… but I questioned my own personal ninja fandom when friend of the site, Andrew Babcock, brought a ninja themed television series to my attention that I had no previous knowledge of. No, I’m not talking about Lee Van Cleef and Timothy Van Patten in The Master, I’m talking about Jeffrey Meek and Lee Majors in Raven.
Created by Frank Lupo, one of the masterminds behind shows like The A-Team and Renegade, Raven had a short run on CBS starting with a seven episode first season beginning June 24, 1992. Then Raven would return as a mid-season replacement on January 2, 1993 before airing its final episode on April 17, 1993… there was one more episode in the can, that CBS never bothered airing. But fortunately for those interested all 20 episodes of Raven are now available to stream on Crackle.
If the ninja theme was not enough to sell me on checking out Raven, Andrew also mentioned the star studded pilot episode. Now longtime readers of The Checklist will know that I am a sucker for some good notable guest stars and I must admit I was tempted to select the first episode to The Checklist test knowing that I would be guaranteed some notable guest stars. But instead I turned to the randomizer once again and landed on Episode 6 from Season 1 and it is that episode, entitled “Prey”, that I will be putting to The Checklist test…
#1. Does the show have a quality open and theme song?
An upbeat song with some mysticism thrown in serves as the soundtrack for an open that includes martial arts training footage of the hero of the show, Jonathan Raven (Jeffrey Meek), spliced in with some show highlights featuring Jonathan and his sidekick/best friend Herman Jablonski (Lee Majors) and some of the sights of beautiful Hawaii… a location that CBS loved to set shows in with two incarnations of Hawaii Five-O, Magnum P.I. and the latest example, NCIS: Hawai’i. 1/1
#2. Does the premise have legs?
Jonathan Raven is pretty badass… he was in the Special Forces AND he is a ninja!!! Jonathan learned the ways of the ninja after his father was killed and he was recruited into the Black Dragons clan… but when Jonathan eventually wanted out of the clan things got ugly. Now when he is not searching the Hawaiian Islands for the son he never met with his private investigator best friend Herman Jablonski (Ski for those in the know), he is using his skills to help others all while looking over his shoulder for members of the Black Dragons who want to eliminate him permanently.
The premise is actually quite similar to the that of the aforementioned The Master and it is one that could have easily went for a few FULL seasons, instead of two abbreviated seasons. 2/2
#3. Were there any notable guest stars?
In “Prey” Jonathan decides to take a four day sabbatical on a remote island, where he plans on testing his survival skills and do a little spelunking. Ski drops him off and Jonathan believes he is all alone on the island… but one of the Black Dragons has managed to track Jonathan down to the remote island and makes his presence felt with a sneak attack of Jonathan in the dark of night. The Black Dragon in question was played by Phillip Tan. I recognized Tan from a ton of things including Showdown in Little Tokyo, Wake of Death and Martial Law.
Now the Young Black Dragon couldn’t just decide to go after Jonathan Raven without the blessing of the Black Dragon Warlord played by none other than James Hong of Big Trouble in Little China and Missing in Action fame. 3/3
#4. Was any ninja weaponry featured?
Jonathan and the Young Black Dragon engage in a game of cat and mouse all over the island… but Jonathan is at a disadvantage, the surprise attack resulted in a wounded arm, plus he had no reason to bring any ninja gear along with him for his planned sabbatical… not even a shuriken or two.
The Young Black Dragon did come prepared and brought along his katana and a blowgun! …later in the episode, once he is back home and believes he has eliminated the latest Black Dragon threat, we do get to see Jonathan Raven and the Young Black Dragon engage in a sword fight in the fountain of a shopping mall! 4/4
#5. Does anyone die?
Ninjas are quite possibly the world’s greatest assassins… so it is tough to imagine a show that features evil ninjas not having some casualties along the way.
After surviving two encounters with the Young Black Dragon on the island, Jonathan Raven finds out there is a third person on the remote island, a college student named Dana, on the island as part of a class assignment. Dana has some good news for Jonathan shortly after they meet, her ride off the island is supposed to meet her later that day… unlike Ski who is still days away from returning to pick up Jonathan. So Jonathan and Dana make their way to Dana’s set rendezvous point and that’s when they find that the Young Black Dragon got their first and killed the captain of the ship and damaged the boat so nobody would be sailing away in it. 5/5
- Final Score = 5/5 (100%) Raven made a strong first impression with me, but I am not entirely shocked that it didn’t last long. This episode at least was structured strangely with an ending that seemed rushed. Also I’m not sure if the cold open is always a portion of the final scene, but it definitely was in “Prey” and that seemed odd to me. Viewers may also been taken aback by the voice that Lee Majors decided to go with for Ski… it sounded like he was either gargling with razor blades, punched repeatedly in the throat before the episode started shooting or was feeling the long term effects of chain smoking. It certainly wasn’t the Lee Majors from The Six Million Dollar Man or The Fall Guy… BUT even if I had a problem with Ski’s voice, all would have been forgiven by me when Ski is seen not only buying Hostess Cupcakes in this episode but consuming them too… a man after my own heart.
