Paper War (7.8)

[J.J. Walters]

This is the official MM thread for Paper War (7.8). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.

Original Air Date: 11/12/1986
It's the ultimate battle of wills when a feuding Magnum and Higgins are trapped in a building elevator that is set to be demolished.

[lutherhgillis]

I know it could not be possible if we are to believe the earlier episodes where Robin makes an appearance and all of the episodes where Robin's friends come by to visist. All of these friends know Robin and Higgins so there is no way Higgins could be Robin. I'm surprized the writers were allowed to go in this direction since it clearly violates any continuity from past seasons. Even though, it would be cool to think that for all of those years, Magnum was sparring with the real owner of the estate. All of the tit for tat exchanges and deals that were made. All of the tricks and jokes played on each other. I still like the show and I am glad they kept it pretty consistent over the years.

[J.J. Walters]

Ah, but what if Robin is real, but he didn't write the novels? What if Higgins wrote the novels, but he didn't want to be associated with it publicly for fear that it might sully his family's name? Higgins is a ghostwriter. Robin gets all of the credit, half of the profits, and occasionally has to make "appearances" to perpetrate the ruse. It all fits nicely.

Of course, we now know that Orson Welles was set to be revealed as Robin Masters before he died, but anyway .....

Great episode though, one of the best! Top 5 for sure. I havn't seen this in over a decade. I can't wait to get my hands on the Season Seven DVD!

By the way, welcome to MM lutherhgillis!

[Doc Ibold]

I agree with James, executed properly, it COULD have worked. However, there is one major issue with that (excluding the J Digger Doyle/Big Blow theories).

Going back to my guilty pleasure of "Birdman of Budapest".

Assume that Higgins is Robin Masters and has some guy jetset around the world to create the Robin Masters mythos (as noted by James above). Now, we would also have to assume that all of the yearbooks in there were of the original Robin Masters (aka Higgins).

So, when this Elizabeth Barret shows up as Robin's old schoolteacher, wouldn't she have recognized Higgins as Robin instead of "Higgins"?

Conversely, given the twist in the end, if Higgins WERE Robin Masters, wouldn't he recognize that this woman was an imposter from the very beginning?

Just my two cents.

Or, now that I think about it, what if there WAS a guy named Robin Masters, and he was going to be a writer. However, he turned out to be a hack, but a hack with a penchant for debauchery. So, Higgins meets up witht his guy, says "I'll write, you party. 50/50 down the middle, and I want an Estate in Hawaii but I don't want you around"

Fascinating...

[IslandHopper]

I too like the twist in the episodes which make you believe that Higgins may actually be Robin Masters. I agree with James that if Higgins was Robin Masters he could have hired an actor to play the part of Robin in order to deflect attention away from Higgins, because Higgins may have been embarrassed to have the novels associated with the Higgins name. I think this could have been pulled off rather easily. In regards to Robin's friends, most of which were celebrities, it can be reasonably assumed that he didn't meet these people until he was a famous writer, so they would not have known he was merely an actor playing a role.

If I had to chose between Higgins being Robin Masters or not, I would have to say "not." The main reason why I would say this is because of the episode, "J. Digger Doyle." In that episode, the bad guys were trying to steal Robin's tapes of his newest novel. Robin even came to Hawaii and was picked up by TC in his chopper in order to retrieve his tapes from Magnum. If Higgins was Robin Masters, wouldn't he have known where the tapes were? Magnum said that Robin had given him the tapes for safe keeping. Why would Higgins have gone through this elaborate charade of the tapes kept in Magnum's guest house if he was really Robin, especially considering that there were bad guys willing to kidnap and kill in order to get the tapes. Would Higgins have willingly endangered Magnum, TC, Rick and himself and exposed them to automatic weapons and possible death merely to perpetuate this charade? I don't think so.

Additionally, during the final episode "Resolutions (part 1 or 2) I believe I recall Higgins telling Magnum that he really is Robin Masters. However, at the very end of Resolutions, while at Rick's wedding, Higgins said to Magnum that he "lied" referring to his earlier comment to Magnum that he really was Robin.

Again, I really like this twist in the show, but I don't really think that the writers and producers came up with the idea that Higgins may be Robin until much later in the series. If they had this idea from the beginning it could have really made for some interesting twists and stories, and could have made this idea much cleaner. I do not have any inside information on how or when the Higgins/Robin Masters idea was born, but it just seems that it was developed much later in the series. What was the first reference to the possibility of Higgins being Robin Masters? I don't remember any reference in the first six seasons, but I am not sure. I'm sure someone out there knows the first reference.

[Doc Ibold]

IslandHopper,

I want to say there is a reference in Season 5 or Six when Higgins says he wants the keys to his Ferrari and Magnum calls him on it.

Something to the effect of "Your Ferrari, when did it become your Ferrari and not Robin Masters?"

[IslandHopper]

Thanks Doc, I'll have to watch for that.

[J.J. Walters]

Or, now that I think about it, what if there WAS a guy named Robin Masters, and he was going to be a writer. However, he turned out to be a hack, but a hack with a penchant for debauchery. So, Higgins meets up witht his guy, says "I'll write, you party. 50/50 down the middle, and I want an Estate in Hawaii but I don't want you around"...

Yeah, that's how I envisoned it, too. The first novel was in '63 I believe. They've been doing it a long time.

You guys are right though, Birdman of Budapest and J. Digger Doyle still present a problem. I'm sure we can come up with a way around it, however.

What was the first reference to the possibility of Higgins being Robin Masters?

It wasn't until after Orson Welles died in 1985 (Season Five). They had plans for Orson to appear in an episode (maybe several) as Robin Masters.

Additionally, during the final episode "Resolutions (part 1 or 2) I believe I recall Higgins telling Magnum that he really is Robin Masters. However, at the very end of Resolutions, while at Rick's wedding, Higgins said to Magnum that he "lied" referring to his earlier comment to Magnum that he really was Robin.

Actually, it's an intentional double entendre (reinforced by the way Higgins says it) which never resolves the mystery. By saying "I lied", does he mean "I lied about saying I was Robin Masters earlier"? Or does he mean, "I pretended to be Robin Masters all these years" (i.e. I lied the whole time you were here at Robin's Nest)? The world may never know.

[N1095A]

While trapped in the elevator, Magnum tells Higgins that he has an uncle Otis who was an elevator repairman. When he was young, TM used to go along with him on service calls. Higgins suspects him of making up the story. TM later admits he did have an uncle who repaired elevators, but his name wasn't Otis.

[IslandHopper]

While traped in the elevator, Magnum tells Higgins that he has an uncle Otis who was an elevator repairman. When he was young, TM used to go along with him on service calls. Higgins suspects him of making up the story, but TM never confirms or denies the story is true.

I think I remember Magnum saying toward the end of the episode that he was joking about the name of his Uncle (Otis), but confirmed that he was an elevator repairman. It's been a while since I have seen that episode, so it's difficult to remember for sure.

[N1095A]

I haven't seen that episode since it first ran, but I do remember that when Higgins questioned him, Magnum didn't say. It's been 20 years, you may be right. He might have confessed later on.
Isn't it funny, the things we remember for so long?

[lutherhgillis]

Guys,

I saw a Tom Selleck interview around 1990 where he was asked about Higgins being Robin Masters. He said, "Magnum believed Higgins was Robin Masters and Magnum was the star of the show; therefore, Higgins was Robin".

I guess it all comes down to what you want to believe. I like the idea James has that Higgins did all the real work and Robin took the credit to keep the unwanted publicity away from Higgins. That makes total sense to me. It became obvious that the implication that Higgins was more than a caretaker of the estate was there during most of the show's run.

Luther H Gillis

[308GTS]

Well we have no date set for a S7 release, this is so annoying and I hope that they do release S7 on region 2. I keep checking with amazon and other sellers but no news as yet.

[N1095A]

Guys,

I saw a Tom Selleck interview around 1990 where he was asked about Higgins being Robin Masters. He said, "Magnum believed Higgins was Robin Masters and Magnum was the star of the show; therefore, Higgins was Robin".

I guess it all comes down to what you want to believe. I like the idea James has that Higgins did all the real work and Robin took the credit to keep the unwanted publicity away from Higgins. That makes total sense to me. It became obvious that the implication that Higgins was more than a caretaker of the estate was there during most of the show's run.

Luther H Gillis

I'm in total agreement with you Luther. I prefer to believe that Higgins was Robin. Or rather, Higgins was the brains behind the whole thing, and the man we knew as Robin was hired to portray the rich author stereotype. If this was in fact the case, wouldn't all those times TM played Robin against Higgins be even more ironic and funny? It would fit right into the humor of the show so well.
I can say for certain only one thing, SELLECK IS MAGNUM. No one else ever could be.

[J.J. Walters]

Wow, what a great, great episode this is, from start to finish. It's even better than I remembered it!

This whole episode is filled with one classic scene after another; the "Siege of the Seventh Galaxy" scene, the "Battle of Wills" (especially the River Kwai Bridge detonation), the elevator lift scene (w/ "The Big Lie" dialog), the "Sinking in the Tidal Pool" denouement! And so many great lines, too!

Higgins: Oh my God!! You've destroyed New Delhi!! LOL!

I love how we see Magnum sneaking into Robin's security computer to play more computer games again! Magnum is a computer gamer ... but apparently doesn't know much about computers! He reformats the hard drive to erase the game?!?

I happened to notice something interesting about the "Siege of the Seventh Galaxy" game cover that is shown briefly in the episode. The cover artwork looked vaguely familiar to me. As I pondered it, the game Starflight (1986) popped into my head. And sure enough, it's the same exact artwork, but with the title changed! I used to play this game on my old IBM PS/2 computer. It was one of the first PC computer games I had, actually. Wild.





And Higgins' neverending laugh in the elevator lift. I just think that is one of the best "long laughs" I've ever heard!

I love, love this episode! One of the best in the series, for sure.