ORIGINAL AIRDATE: February 5th, 1986 ---
MacGyver is cruising for a bruising with Captain Carole Tanner [SPECIAL GUEST: Ellen Bry!]
MISSION: An anonymous terrorist calling himself Viking demands payment in exchange for instructions on how to defuse a series of bombs on board a luxury cruise liner. DXS reaches out the MacGyver and his old Vietnam War bomb defusing partner Charlie Robinson to get the job done, but soon MacGyver must teach Captain Carole Tanner the ropes as more bombs are discovered and one goes off.

This week's highlights include:
SPECIAL GUEST: ELLEN BRY!

This week, special guest Ellen Bry chats with us about how she was able to parlay doing her own stunts in an episode of Kojak into a full-fledged stuntwoman background that culminated in her doubling Margot Kidder's Lois Lane in Superman! She'll also tell with us about her recollections from the MacGyver set and share some historical perspective on a national tragedy that occurred while this episode was coming together.

Here's more info on the Vistafjord / Saga Ruby / Oasia.

UPDATE (5/9/2015): Listener (Chief Officer) Kosta Dinos passed along the following info regarding Carole's official title:

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Just thought I'd add a tiny input: being a Chief Officer myself in the merchant marine, the character of "Captain Carole Tanner" is that she was the Chief officer (1st Officer) and then takes on the role of Captain as that's what is done in an emergency situation if something happens to the Captain (Master) of a vessel. He/she as the Chief Officer is then the next in command. Also "Captain Carole Tanner" has Three stripes on her uniform indicating that she is the Chief Officer.

Although for promotion to a full time Captain, the relevant time of sea service plus going back to school and passing examinations is required in order to obtain the Master's license and then finally be promoted to work as a Captain by an employer. The same applies for promotion to Chief Officer, 2nd Officer and so on. For the scenes in the engine room, you were right about the engines or engine not running but still you would have an "ear piercing" noise by the vessel's power generators which always run non-stop, regardless if the vessel's main engine is running or not.

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Thanks much, Kosta! If anyone else has information relevant to an episode, like this, please send it along for us to include on the blog!

Midway Atoll (Geography)

Midway Atoll is a 2.4-square-mile (6.2 km2) atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. As its name suggests, Midway is roughly equidistant between North America and Asia, and lies almost halfway around the world longitudinally from Greenwich, UK. It is near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way from Honolulu, Hawaii to Tokyo, Japan.

Check out the article on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Atoll

Watch S1E14: "Countdown" on CBS's website or check the alternative streamability of this episode here.