I\'ve always respected Lloyd Battista\'s talent, and I remember an episode (\"Search for Eden\", I think) where he gave a good if not convincing spanish accent. But, while I hate putting down any actor\'s work, I\'ve talked here before about his \"hoarse Irish cop\" accent which he\'s done several times. When he made that voice he didn\'t sound as if he was acting, but rather play acting.

Also,

- The RMT was very good, often, when they were doing episodes taking place on a boat of some sort. \"The laughing maiden\" and \"The great white shark\" come to mind. In this case, the sound effects were tremendously done...when Dr. Ray and Mr. Manson see \"the Polar bear\" you hear two ship\'s bells, ostensibly chiming one o\'clock in the morning (as Dr. Ray said it was in the darkest part of the night). (Then again, they were near the pole so who knows what time of the day it was.)

- I loved how Dr. Ray attacked the problem as a true physician would, trying to rule out one cause after another as he would diagnose a disease.

- \"The captain of the Polestar\" was the title of a collection of short stories by Conan Doyle. The man was certainly a gifted writer.

- The closest (and only other, frankly) comparable RMT tale to this one was \"Sea Fever\", which took place on a \"blackbirding\" slave ship, in warm waters (as I recall), with a captain who didn\'t give a rat\'s rear end about his crew. \"Captain of the Polestar\" (apart from having a possibly deranged captain) was the anti-Sea Fever.

Interestingly, with the genuine care he seemed to have for his men, Captain Craigie of the Polestar reminded me of another misunderstood but driven commander of a ship, William Bligh. Good thing no one got flogged on this ship, though.<br>