Where We Find Thomas Today
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:50 pm
I have really been enjoying reading the forum posts where fellow fans speculate where Thomas has been the last few decades. I always hesitate to "toot my own horn," but after finishing watching through the episodes, I just had to write out where time takes Thomas. I came up with four tv scripts (my first go ever at tv scripts) for, get this, a Season 9 of Magnum to debut in 2015 (ah, a person can dream). I came up with a two-part series debut, and the scripts of two following episodes. I won't post those scripts here, too long, and probably not the right place for it, but I did post these scripts to the fan fiction site this terrific website links to in case anyone would like to view them. Here is that link for anyone who might be interested.
Season 9 - Episode One "Legacies Part 1" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123285/1 ... eason-Nine
Season 9 - Episode Two "Legacies Part 2" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123291/1 ... Nine-Pilot
Season 9 - Episode Three "Dependable Horses" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123295/1 ... eason-Nine
Season 9 - Episode Four "Beautiful Quiet and Ugly Loud" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123298/1 ... -Ugly-Loud
These were a ton of fun to write. Writing is a bit of a hobby for me (the guy here who wanted to know about Higgins' typewriters). I've penned a couple novels and a bunch of short stories in a very different vein from Magnum, so these scripts gave me a fresh break that helped me recharge my batteries again to knock out more work. I really want to offer them to maybe share some of my enjoyment with some new friends over here at the forum.
The scripts mention a new logo for the Higgins Foundation. I am going to try to link this to my profile in case anyone might be interested in it.
Finally, for those who are still interested. I also wrote episode summaries for the rest of the episodes I dream about for Season 9. None of these scripts are written, just me having some fun one night dreaming about Magnum returning to television. I hope they might spark some of your imaginations as well. Thanks everyone, and forgive me if this post seems too long.
Magnum P.I. - Season 9 (2015) - Characters
Thomas Magnum
Upon the opening of season nine, Thomas Magnum serves as curator and archivist of the Robin’s Nest Writer’s Retreat and board member of the Higgins Foundation. He is happily retired from Naval Intelligence, and season nine will introduce new friends Thomas has made during that time. Most importantly to Thomas’ development is the solid role he has played as Lily’s father. The two are inseparable at the outset of the season, helping one another out with all types of challenges facing the foundation.
Thomas Magnum remains the core character of the show. But his perspective has changed now that he is older, and often, he finds himself realizing that he has taken the role of his majordomo friend he so badly misses. He no longer holds a private investigator license at the season’s start, but he will again apply for such after a few opening episodes as he realizes such a credential will benefit the foundation’s goals.
Thomas is a lonely man at the start of episode one of season nine, a man who wonders where so many of his loved ones have gone. Through the progression of season nine, Thomas is given the opportunity to make new friends, especially with Dalton Booker, and such reminds him that plenty of years and life remain in front of him. A pensive, reflective Thomas will slowly give way to the humorous and playful Thomas found in the first seasons of Magnum P.I.
Lily Magnum
Lily is in her early thirties with the start of season nine. The little girl has grown into a tall and stunning woman with long, black hair, in whose face can so easily be seen the traces of her mother and her father. She is as intelligent and competent as she is beautiful. Educated and raised by Jonathan Higgins as much as her father Thomas, Lily serves as the head of the Higgins Foundation, guiding its philanthropic pursuits across a wide spectrum of causes.
Though she can be stubborn, and though a temper can fire in the backs of her eyes, Lily is a gold-hearted soul. Though an Ivy-league graduate, Lily is no shy bookworm, for growing up on the Robin’s Nest in the company of Thomas Magnum and Jonathan Higgins will teach a girl a strange set of skills.
Season nine will also introduce a coil of romantic tension between Lily Magnum and Dalton Booker. The two characters very quickly care for one another. This romantic tension may not evolve into much during the first season, but it will smolder and lead to a possible relationship during any additional seasons.
Dalton Booker
In many ways, Dalton Booker fills the role occupied by Thomas Magnum at the very start of the series over thirty years ago. The foundation hires Dalton to help provide security for the Robin’s Nest, though through season nine viewers will learn that perhaps a greater purpose for Dalton’s hire was to provide some company to the estate’s current proprietor, Thomas Magnum. Like Magnum, Dalton is a war veteran, a member of a special Marines operation unit (whose history is revealed throughout the first season).
Dalton’s experiences in war have scarred him. He has lost both legs from the knee down to an explosion (an important point for the new season as the show will strive to show how a character with such physical hurts can still show great strength, courage and competence), and nightmares plague his return to the states.
But unlike Thomas, Dalton is very quiet and reserved, on the border of appearing shy. Like Jonathan Higgins, Dalton Booker loves dogs, and the two german shepherds named Hansel and Gretel that he introduces to the estate fill an emptiness Thomas has felt since the loss of Higgins’ doberman lads.
Dalton’s character may appear weakened due to the loss of his legs. But the opposite proves true. Dalton is a very athletic, young man, competing in marathons and maintaining the highest of proficiency in the Japanese martial art of Aikido. Dalton also trains dogs.
* Dalton and Lily will both play an increasing role in solving various cases and puzzles presented in season nine. Thomas Magnum never vanishes, and he never relinquishes his central role in the series. But Dalton and Lily introduce new youth, along with the problems of the young, again to the show; and thus, help keep the show dynamic and new.
Jonathan Quayle Higgins - Pseudonym, Robin Masters
Though the character of Jonathan Quayle Higgins is now deceased with the opening of season nine, his spirit retains a powerful presence upon the show. Season nine resolves the mystery - Robin Masters was indeed a pseudonym for Jonathan Higgins. Before his death, Jonathan established the Higgins Foundation, an organization dedicated to the principles of peace, enlightenment and understanding. Thomas and Lily Magnum work through the foundation throughout season nine, the foundation providing a focus for the action in many of the season’s episodes as Thomas and Lily strive to promote the principles of the Higgins Foundation in honor of their friend.
The charitable success of the Higgins Foundations has been built largely upon the fame that Higgins’ memoirs received following season eight of the original series. Higgins’ memoirs of his life serve as testimony to the tumultuous twentieth century, and the memoirs have become a kind of required text for any student of history and sociology. In this sense, the memoirs have become far more famous than any of the pulp novels Jonathan penned as Robin Masters.
Higgins’ presence throughout season nine can also be recognized in the leather journal Thomas gifts to Dalton Booker in the new season’s two-part premier. Dalton suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder following his tour in Afghanistan. Through the journal, we learn that, though Higgins did not share them with Thomas during the original series, that Jonathan as well dealt with lingering nightmares of war - thus a bit of an explanation for so many of Jonathan’s hobbies and pursuits. The character of Higgins in a sense continues to speak through this journal to Dalton, helping that young man cope with his trauma.
Jonathan Higgins was as vital a character to the success of Magnum P.I. as was Thomas Magnum himself, and thus season nine strives to maintain a place for Higgins. Thomas’ maintenance of the estate reminds us of Higgins. The values the characters and the foundation promote remind us of Higgins.
Thomas, Rick & T.C. / Season Nine Is Not A Reunion Episode
Season nine does not serve as a reunion between Thomas and his closest friends Rick and T.C. Thomas, Rick and T.C. have never parted through the years. They have always remained on the closest of terms.
T.C. & Bryant Calvin
T.C.’s Island Hoppers has expanded into a large shipping business, with occasional tourist flights still given on the side. Aches in his joints may limit the amount of time he sits in a helicopter, but T.C. shows no signs of slowing down as he runs his burgeoning business. T.C. remains ready to help Thomas, now that the foundation covers the cost for Thomas’ gas.
Bryant Calvin has grown into a father and helps T.C. run Island Hoppers. Bryant often pilots the trademark Island Hopper helicopter during season nine, as well as drives the foundations prototype electrical car. Bryant’s character increasingly appears as much as T.C., again helping to introduce new and young elements into the show.
Rick Wright
Rick has not lost one ounce of energy in the years between season eight and season nine. As owner of one of Hawaii’s most popular hotels, Rick now funnels that energy into the operation of his resort, which includes a five-star restaurant, beach bar, ballroom, spa and luxury hotel rooms. Ice Pick has passed away some years ago, and so Rick has drifted further away from the connections with Hawaii’s Underworld he once cultivated through his old mentor. But Icepick’s grand-daughter now sits on the Underworld throne, and will often tip Rick onto a lead or clue from one occasion to the next.
Rick and Cleo have remained married since the final episode of season eight. Cleo runs a program that helps women escape addiction and the streets. Both Rick and Cleo are very philanthropic, and Rick never hesitates to make his resort available to a worthy cause - perhaps sometimes to his detriment.
Inanimate Characters
The Ferrari - Thomas’ red Ferrari is iconic of the series. The car makes its return in episode three of season nine. Having been neglected in the garage, after Thomas comes to fear damaging it if taking the car back on the roadway, the Ferrari receives a make-over. A fresh layer of paint. New wheels. New stereo. And a new, electric engine. Its conversion to electric power sacrifices no horses, and a silent Ferrari becomes an even more impressive tool in helping Thomas get to the bottom of a case.
Robin’s Nest - Thomas Magnum has worked hard to keep the estate in top shape since serving as the proprietor following Higgins’s passing. He fights even the slightest change to a room. He vows to never allow a computer to be installed in the study. He refuses to sleep in Higgins’ old, upstairs bedroom. The estate is a link to the past, for Thomas and for the viewer. But like all nostalgia, it can become caustic if entertained for too long, and Lily is ever mindful to keep an eye on her father when he turns pensive and stares too long at the ghosts he sees lurking in the corners of the estate.
The Higgins Foundation - Founded by Jonathan Quayle Higgins, the Higgins Foundation strives to promote the three core values expressed upon its seal of a white hibiscus flower upon a green circle: PACEM (Peace), ILLUSTRATIO (Enlightenment) and INTELLECTUS (Understanding). A few of the many goals of this philanthropic organization might include the fight against the spread of AIDS throughout the underdeveloped world, bringing fresh water to the third world, and the rights of girls to attend school. This organization strives to steer clear of politics, and the effort to remain viewed as a neutral organization is a constant challenge Lily Magnum faces.
The Higgins Foundation represents Jonathan Higgins’ last masterpiece given to the world. It follows on the heels of the success of his memoirs, and the foundation continues to put the wealth garnered by the Robin Masters novels to the utmost use. Many of the episodes throughout season nine center around conflicts and dilemmas Lily and Thomas face as they attempt to guide this young foundation, and its timeless values, into the twenty-first century. The Higgins Foundation also plays a crucial role in preserving the spirit of Jonathan Quayle Higgins throughout the show.
Magnum, P.I. - Season 9 (2015) - Episode Ideas
S9. E1 - Legacies - Part 1
- Thomas Magnum, retired Naval Intelligence officer and current proprietor and archivist of the Robin’s Nest Writer’s Retreat, prepares the estate to host the first annual Higgins Foundation Literary Symposium. A new character arrives at the estate to help deal with threats to the symposium’s keynote speaker, a human and women's right advocate whose words have inspired enemies. As the threat intensifies, memory of a lost friend inspires courage in those who strive to promote the foundation’s core values.
S9. E2 - Legacies - Part 2
- The attack on Delaram Sahar at the airport leaves little doubt that Dalton Booker’s nemesis, the Mongoose, has followed Delaram from Afghanistan to Hawaii. Dalton has come closer than anyone ever has to tracking down the Mongoose, but he still has no idea of the Mongoose’s face, or even a name. The crew hurries to track the bomb-maker down before the symposium, and Delaram Sahar, is silenced.
S9. E3 - Dependable Horses
- After Bryant Calvin suffers a crash during the Higgins Foundation electric car time trials, Lily Magnum pushes her father to relinquish his cherished, red Ferrari for the sake of the trial. But the event Lily hopes will promote alternative fuel choices itself is put in jeopardy when the race track’s owners suffer a string of misfortune that threatens to close the track down. Lily, Dalton and Thomas soon have good reason to suspect sabotage.
S9. E4 - The Beautiful Quiet and the Ugly Loud
- The Higgins Foundation hosts a popular and controversial political pundit who plans to conduct his interview of a state Senator candidate on the neutral ground of the Robin’s Nest. The pundit’s interview is thrown into jeopardy when photos are sent threatening to blackmail the pundit off the airwaves, photos that involve a woman Cleo Wright saved from the streets.
S9. E5 - A Man’s Best Friend
- Dalton Booker’s old, rough, one-eyed mentor visits the Robin’s Nest to help the estate plan for its first-ever dog trial. Relations between the men are frayed, but when the mentor’s prized dog is kidnapped to coerce the mentor to plan one last heist, Thomas and the crew race to locate dog and blackmailer before the Dalton’s teacher is framed and sent upriver - where an old street enemy waits for the mentor.
S9. E6 - So Comes the Flood
- A typhoon / hurricane natural disaster ravages a Pacific Southwest nation. But the tragedy also provides an opportunity for government and guerrilla forces to end their hatred and fighting to come together at the peace table - secretly hosted by the Higgins Foundation. But when Lily loses her smart phone to thieves in the street, the talks become compromised, with deadly consequences. The Higgins Foundation will be pressed to keep both parties from reverting back to war.
S9. E7 - Doppelgänger
- This episode works as a flashback to late 1950’s Geneva, when Jonathan Higgins runs the Arlington Arms Hotel. A young Higgins first assumes the name of Robin Masters as he enters the world of cold war espionage to help broker a peace accord that may prevent the world from spiraling into a third world war. This episode explains why Higgins was forced to hire the body double (voiced by Orson Welles) who we see chased in the early seasons of Magnum P.I. The episode also shows Higgins sitting down at his new Underwood typewriter for the first time to write his first Robin Masters novel based on his diplomatic efforts.
S9. E8 - Cloaks, Daggers and Rock N’ Roll
- Lily Magnum and the Higgins Foundation agree to play host to the thirty-year old rock and roll band, Twilight Hammer. The band’s lead singer, Simon Herald, has become a renowned human right’s activist, who has made enemies in the process. An assassin’s death threat throws their Hawaiian reunion concert int peril, and Thomas and Dalton have all they can handle to keep Simon, and his precocious bandmates, behind the secure walls of the Robin’s Nest.
S9. E9 - Scared Crooked
- Lily Magnum suspects that someone is using a youth outreach program, to which the Higgins Foundation donates funds, to smuggle narcotics into prison. At Lily’s urging, Dalton agrees to be planted in the prison as a mole to uncover how certain boys of a popular television program about prisoners frightening delinquents into good behavior are being employed as drug mules. Thomas disguises himself as Dalton’s attorney. It doesn’t take long before Dalton is in over his head.
S9. E10 - The Boys Are Back in Town
- Thomas Magnum encourages Dalton Booker to host a couple of his Marine unit’s comrades at the estate after his friends leave service. Hustling to give the veterans a fitting celebration, Thomas stocks the estate just before a typhoon slams into Hawaii. As the storm rages, Dalton’s friends, and the party, spiral out of control, and Thomas discovers himself assuming the role of the estate’s grumpy majordomo.
S9. E11 - The Lost Treasure of Jonathan Qual Higgins
- Dalton one afternoon discovers a cipher sketched over the course of several pages in Higgins’ journal. The cipher leads to a hidden code contained in the estate’s library; and before Thomas and Dalton catch a breath, they find themselves on the trail of one of Higgins’ hidden treasures, which Dalton and Thomas are led to believe may be a new Robin Masters manuscript.
S9. E12 - Cold and Corrupted
- Lily chases Thomas and Dalton, who have both become locked in a time-consuming, epic battle on their favorite massively, multi-player, online game, out of the Robin’s Nest to get both men away from the computer. Attending a vintage computer conference, Thomas and Dalton discover a serial killer’s journal on a 5.25” floppy disk that reopens a string of cold cases and puts the men back on the trail of vanished killer.
S9. E13 - Ring, Buried Beneath the Snow
- Thomas leaves Dalton and Lily behind at the Robin’s Nest to attend the funeral of a Vietnam team member in Alaska. Thomas promises the man’s widow to help carry out one more time her husband’s tradition of planting an American flag in the cold, winter barrens. But when a pack of poachers and a pack of wolves fall upon his trail, Thomas finds himself in an unexpected test of survival.
S9. E14 - A Delirium from the Stars
- Trent and Kylie Richards approach Lily Magnum to help check in on the mental health of their reclusive father, Harold Richards, host of a popular radio show focussing on aliens, the paranormal, and conspiracy theory. Lily discovers that Harold has tripped over a dangerous truth, and Lily and Harold must hustle to defend the radio host’s isolated station while they wait for help to arrive.
S9. E15 - The Pride of Building Alone
- Dalton Booker’s mood sours as the anniversary of his father’s passing approaches. Dalton then surprises Thomas when he orders a shipment of lumber and construction material to the estate. Dalton chases off any help as he begins a mysterious project, his mind drifting back while he works, remembering a cherished adventure with his father. This episode pays tribute to the season four’s “Home From the Sea.”
S9. E16 - A Blank Piece of Paper
- Victor Essington, an old friend and contemporary of Jonathan Higgins, visits the Robin’s Nest one week with hopes of shattering the writer’s block that is hampering his efforts to compose his new spy novel by deadline. Lily is then approached by Maxine Rogers, who claims Victor’s previous novel stole her book premise. As she works to discover who owns the best claim to the new material, a third party assaults Lily, bringing Thomas and Dalton into the challenge to determine who will reap the rewards of Mr. Essington’s newest spy thriller.
S9. E17 - A Cobra Wields Its Head
- Officer Hansen arrives at the estate to inform Dalton that he is being called back into active duty after intelligence finds reason to believe a bomb blast in France is tied to a notorious bomb maker believed to be a mortal enemy of the mysterious Mongoose. Intelligence wants to locate the bomb maker responsible for the attack of French soil in order to use him or her as bait to lure the Mongoose.
S9. E18 - And a Mongoose Hisses
- This episode is a continuation of “A Cobra Wields Its Head” and serves as the finale to the ninth season of Magnum P.I. Dalton and Thomas learn at the end of the previous episode that the Mongoose has his sights aimed at New York City. Dalton and Thomas race to stop the Mongoose before he can detonate a radioactive bomb in the middle of delicate talks conducted at the U.N., and so effectively derail fragile hopes for peace amid a warring region.
Season 9 - Episode One "Legacies Part 1" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123285/1 ... eason-Nine
Season 9 - Episode Two "Legacies Part 2" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123291/1 ... Nine-Pilot
Season 9 - Episode Three "Dependable Horses" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123295/1 ... eason-Nine
Season 9 - Episode Four "Beautiful Quiet and Ugly Loud" - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10123298/1 ... -Ugly-Loud
These were a ton of fun to write. Writing is a bit of a hobby for me (the guy here who wanted to know about Higgins' typewriters). I've penned a couple novels and a bunch of short stories in a very different vein from Magnum, so these scripts gave me a fresh break that helped me recharge my batteries again to knock out more work. I really want to offer them to maybe share some of my enjoyment with some new friends over here at the forum.
The scripts mention a new logo for the Higgins Foundation. I am going to try to link this to my profile in case anyone might be interested in it.
Finally, for those who are still interested. I also wrote episode summaries for the rest of the episodes I dream about for Season 9. None of these scripts are written, just me having some fun one night dreaming about Magnum returning to television. I hope they might spark some of your imaginations as well. Thanks everyone, and forgive me if this post seems too long.
Magnum P.I. - Season 9 (2015) - Characters
Thomas Magnum
Upon the opening of season nine, Thomas Magnum serves as curator and archivist of the Robin’s Nest Writer’s Retreat and board member of the Higgins Foundation. He is happily retired from Naval Intelligence, and season nine will introduce new friends Thomas has made during that time. Most importantly to Thomas’ development is the solid role he has played as Lily’s father. The two are inseparable at the outset of the season, helping one another out with all types of challenges facing the foundation.
Thomas Magnum remains the core character of the show. But his perspective has changed now that he is older, and often, he finds himself realizing that he has taken the role of his majordomo friend he so badly misses. He no longer holds a private investigator license at the season’s start, but he will again apply for such after a few opening episodes as he realizes such a credential will benefit the foundation’s goals.
Thomas is a lonely man at the start of episode one of season nine, a man who wonders where so many of his loved ones have gone. Through the progression of season nine, Thomas is given the opportunity to make new friends, especially with Dalton Booker, and such reminds him that plenty of years and life remain in front of him. A pensive, reflective Thomas will slowly give way to the humorous and playful Thomas found in the first seasons of Magnum P.I.
Lily Magnum
Lily is in her early thirties with the start of season nine. The little girl has grown into a tall and stunning woman with long, black hair, in whose face can so easily be seen the traces of her mother and her father. She is as intelligent and competent as she is beautiful. Educated and raised by Jonathan Higgins as much as her father Thomas, Lily serves as the head of the Higgins Foundation, guiding its philanthropic pursuits across a wide spectrum of causes.
Though she can be stubborn, and though a temper can fire in the backs of her eyes, Lily is a gold-hearted soul. Though an Ivy-league graduate, Lily is no shy bookworm, for growing up on the Robin’s Nest in the company of Thomas Magnum and Jonathan Higgins will teach a girl a strange set of skills.
Season nine will also introduce a coil of romantic tension between Lily Magnum and Dalton Booker. The two characters very quickly care for one another. This romantic tension may not evolve into much during the first season, but it will smolder and lead to a possible relationship during any additional seasons.
Dalton Booker
In many ways, Dalton Booker fills the role occupied by Thomas Magnum at the very start of the series over thirty years ago. The foundation hires Dalton to help provide security for the Robin’s Nest, though through season nine viewers will learn that perhaps a greater purpose for Dalton’s hire was to provide some company to the estate’s current proprietor, Thomas Magnum. Like Magnum, Dalton is a war veteran, a member of a special Marines operation unit (whose history is revealed throughout the first season).
Dalton’s experiences in war have scarred him. He has lost both legs from the knee down to an explosion (an important point for the new season as the show will strive to show how a character with such physical hurts can still show great strength, courage and competence), and nightmares plague his return to the states.
But unlike Thomas, Dalton is very quiet and reserved, on the border of appearing shy. Like Jonathan Higgins, Dalton Booker loves dogs, and the two german shepherds named Hansel and Gretel that he introduces to the estate fill an emptiness Thomas has felt since the loss of Higgins’ doberman lads.
Dalton’s character may appear weakened due to the loss of his legs. But the opposite proves true. Dalton is a very athletic, young man, competing in marathons and maintaining the highest of proficiency in the Japanese martial art of Aikido. Dalton also trains dogs.
* Dalton and Lily will both play an increasing role in solving various cases and puzzles presented in season nine. Thomas Magnum never vanishes, and he never relinquishes his central role in the series. But Dalton and Lily introduce new youth, along with the problems of the young, again to the show; and thus, help keep the show dynamic and new.
Jonathan Quayle Higgins - Pseudonym, Robin Masters
Though the character of Jonathan Quayle Higgins is now deceased with the opening of season nine, his spirit retains a powerful presence upon the show. Season nine resolves the mystery - Robin Masters was indeed a pseudonym for Jonathan Higgins. Before his death, Jonathan established the Higgins Foundation, an organization dedicated to the principles of peace, enlightenment and understanding. Thomas and Lily Magnum work through the foundation throughout season nine, the foundation providing a focus for the action in many of the season’s episodes as Thomas and Lily strive to promote the principles of the Higgins Foundation in honor of their friend.
The charitable success of the Higgins Foundations has been built largely upon the fame that Higgins’ memoirs received following season eight of the original series. Higgins’ memoirs of his life serve as testimony to the tumultuous twentieth century, and the memoirs have become a kind of required text for any student of history and sociology. In this sense, the memoirs have become far more famous than any of the pulp novels Jonathan penned as Robin Masters.
Higgins’ presence throughout season nine can also be recognized in the leather journal Thomas gifts to Dalton Booker in the new season’s two-part premier. Dalton suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder following his tour in Afghanistan. Through the journal, we learn that, though Higgins did not share them with Thomas during the original series, that Jonathan as well dealt with lingering nightmares of war - thus a bit of an explanation for so many of Jonathan’s hobbies and pursuits. The character of Higgins in a sense continues to speak through this journal to Dalton, helping that young man cope with his trauma.
Jonathan Higgins was as vital a character to the success of Magnum P.I. as was Thomas Magnum himself, and thus season nine strives to maintain a place for Higgins. Thomas’ maintenance of the estate reminds us of Higgins. The values the characters and the foundation promote remind us of Higgins.
Thomas, Rick & T.C. / Season Nine Is Not A Reunion Episode
Season nine does not serve as a reunion between Thomas and his closest friends Rick and T.C. Thomas, Rick and T.C. have never parted through the years. They have always remained on the closest of terms.
T.C. & Bryant Calvin
T.C.’s Island Hoppers has expanded into a large shipping business, with occasional tourist flights still given on the side. Aches in his joints may limit the amount of time he sits in a helicopter, but T.C. shows no signs of slowing down as he runs his burgeoning business. T.C. remains ready to help Thomas, now that the foundation covers the cost for Thomas’ gas.
Bryant Calvin has grown into a father and helps T.C. run Island Hoppers. Bryant often pilots the trademark Island Hopper helicopter during season nine, as well as drives the foundations prototype electrical car. Bryant’s character increasingly appears as much as T.C., again helping to introduce new and young elements into the show.
Rick Wright
Rick has not lost one ounce of energy in the years between season eight and season nine. As owner of one of Hawaii’s most popular hotels, Rick now funnels that energy into the operation of his resort, which includes a five-star restaurant, beach bar, ballroom, spa and luxury hotel rooms. Ice Pick has passed away some years ago, and so Rick has drifted further away from the connections with Hawaii’s Underworld he once cultivated through his old mentor. But Icepick’s grand-daughter now sits on the Underworld throne, and will often tip Rick onto a lead or clue from one occasion to the next.
Rick and Cleo have remained married since the final episode of season eight. Cleo runs a program that helps women escape addiction and the streets. Both Rick and Cleo are very philanthropic, and Rick never hesitates to make his resort available to a worthy cause - perhaps sometimes to his detriment.
Inanimate Characters
The Ferrari - Thomas’ red Ferrari is iconic of the series. The car makes its return in episode three of season nine. Having been neglected in the garage, after Thomas comes to fear damaging it if taking the car back on the roadway, the Ferrari receives a make-over. A fresh layer of paint. New wheels. New stereo. And a new, electric engine. Its conversion to electric power sacrifices no horses, and a silent Ferrari becomes an even more impressive tool in helping Thomas get to the bottom of a case.
Robin’s Nest - Thomas Magnum has worked hard to keep the estate in top shape since serving as the proprietor following Higgins’s passing. He fights even the slightest change to a room. He vows to never allow a computer to be installed in the study. He refuses to sleep in Higgins’ old, upstairs bedroom. The estate is a link to the past, for Thomas and for the viewer. But like all nostalgia, it can become caustic if entertained for too long, and Lily is ever mindful to keep an eye on her father when he turns pensive and stares too long at the ghosts he sees lurking in the corners of the estate.
The Higgins Foundation - Founded by Jonathan Quayle Higgins, the Higgins Foundation strives to promote the three core values expressed upon its seal of a white hibiscus flower upon a green circle: PACEM (Peace), ILLUSTRATIO (Enlightenment) and INTELLECTUS (Understanding). A few of the many goals of this philanthropic organization might include the fight against the spread of AIDS throughout the underdeveloped world, bringing fresh water to the third world, and the rights of girls to attend school. This organization strives to steer clear of politics, and the effort to remain viewed as a neutral organization is a constant challenge Lily Magnum faces.
The Higgins Foundation represents Jonathan Higgins’ last masterpiece given to the world. It follows on the heels of the success of his memoirs, and the foundation continues to put the wealth garnered by the Robin Masters novels to the utmost use. Many of the episodes throughout season nine center around conflicts and dilemmas Lily and Thomas face as they attempt to guide this young foundation, and its timeless values, into the twenty-first century. The Higgins Foundation also plays a crucial role in preserving the spirit of Jonathan Quayle Higgins throughout the show.
Magnum, P.I. - Season 9 (2015) - Episode Ideas
S9. E1 - Legacies - Part 1
- Thomas Magnum, retired Naval Intelligence officer and current proprietor and archivist of the Robin’s Nest Writer’s Retreat, prepares the estate to host the first annual Higgins Foundation Literary Symposium. A new character arrives at the estate to help deal with threats to the symposium’s keynote speaker, a human and women's right advocate whose words have inspired enemies. As the threat intensifies, memory of a lost friend inspires courage in those who strive to promote the foundation’s core values.
S9. E2 - Legacies - Part 2
- The attack on Delaram Sahar at the airport leaves little doubt that Dalton Booker’s nemesis, the Mongoose, has followed Delaram from Afghanistan to Hawaii. Dalton has come closer than anyone ever has to tracking down the Mongoose, but he still has no idea of the Mongoose’s face, or even a name. The crew hurries to track the bomb-maker down before the symposium, and Delaram Sahar, is silenced.
S9. E3 - Dependable Horses
- After Bryant Calvin suffers a crash during the Higgins Foundation electric car time trials, Lily Magnum pushes her father to relinquish his cherished, red Ferrari for the sake of the trial. But the event Lily hopes will promote alternative fuel choices itself is put in jeopardy when the race track’s owners suffer a string of misfortune that threatens to close the track down. Lily, Dalton and Thomas soon have good reason to suspect sabotage.
S9. E4 - The Beautiful Quiet and the Ugly Loud
- The Higgins Foundation hosts a popular and controversial political pundit who plans to conduct his interview of a state Senator candidate on the neutral ground of the Robin’s Nest. The pundit’s interview is thrown into jeopardy when photos are sent threatening to blackmail the pundit off the airwaves, photos that involve a woman Cleo Wright saved from the streets.
S9. E5 - A Man’s Best Friend
- Dalton Booker’s old, rough, one-eyed mentor visits the Robin’s Nest to help the estate plan for its first-ever dog trial. Relations between the men are frayed, but when the mentor’s prized dog is kidnapped to coerce the mentor to plan one last heist, Thomas and the crew race to locate dog and blackmailer before the Dalton’s teacher is framed and sent upriver - where an old street enemy waits for the mentor.
S9. E6 - So Comes the Flood
- A typhoon / hurricane natural disaster ravages a Pacific Southwest nation. But the tragedy also provides an opportunity for government and guerrilla forces to end their hatred and fighting to come together at the peace table - secretly hosted by the Higgins Foundation. But when Lily loses her smart phone to thieves in the street, the talks become compromised, with deadly consequences. The Higgins Foundation will be pressed to keep both parties from reverting back to war.
S9. E7 - Doppelgänger
- This episode works as a flashback to late 1950’s Geneva, when Jonathan Higgins runs the Arlington Arms Hotel. A young Higgins first assumes the name of Robin Masters as he enters the world of cold war espionage to help broker a peace accord that may prevent the world from spiraling into a third world war. This episode explains why Higgins was forced to hire the body double (voiced by Orson Welles) who we see chased in the early seasons of Magnum P.I. The episode also shows Higgins sitting down at his new Underwood typewriter for the first time to write his first Robin Masters novel based on his diplomatic efforts.
S9. E8 - Cloaks, Daggers and Rock N’ Roll
- Lily Magnum and the Higgins Foundation agree to play host to the thirty-year old rock and roll band, Twilight Hammer. The band’s lead singer, Simon Herald, has become a renowned human right’s activist, who has made enemies in the process. An assassin’s death threat throws their Hawaiian reunion concert int peril, and Thomas and Dalton have all they can handle to keep Simon, and his precocious bandmates, behind the secure walls of the Robin’s Nest.
S9. E9 - Scared Crooked
- Lily Magnum suspects that someone is using a youth outreach program, to which the Higgins Foundation donates funds, to smuggle narcotics into prison. At Lily’s urging, Dalton agrees to be planted in the prison as a mole to uncover how certain boys of a popular television program about prisoners frightening delinquents into good behavior are being employed as drug mules. Thomas disguises himself as Dalton’s attorney. It doesn’t take long before Dalton is in over his head.
S9. E10 - The Boys Are Back in Town
- Thomas Magnum encourages Dalton Booker to host a couple of his Marine unit’s comrades at the estate after his friends leave service. Hustling to give the veterans a fitting celebration, Thomas stocks the estate just before a typhoon slams into Hawaii. As the storm rages, Dalton’s friends, and the party, spiral out of control, and Thomas discovers himself assuming the role of the estate’s grumpy majordomo.
S9. E11 - The Lost Treasure of Jonathan Qual Higgins
- Dalton one afternoon discovers a cipher sketched over the course of several pages in Higgins’ journal. The cipher leads to a hidden code contained in the estate’s library; and before Thomas and Dalton catch a breath, they find themselves on the trail of one of Higgins’ hidden treasures, which Dalton and Thomas are led to believe may be a new Robin Masters manuscript.
S9. E12 - Cold and Corrupted
- Lily chases Thomas and Dalton, who have both become locked in a time-consuming, epic battle on their favorite massively, multi-player, online game, out of the Robin’s Nest to get both men away from the computer. Attending a vintage computer conference, Thomas and Dalton discover a serial killer’s journal on a 5.25” floppy disk that reopens a string of cold cases and puts the men back on the trail of vanished killer.
S9. E13 - Ring, Buried Beneath the Snow
- Thomas leaves Dalton and Lily behind at the Robin’s Nest to attend the funeral of a Vietnam team member in Alaska. Thomas promises the man’s widow to help carry out one more time her husband’s tradition of planting an American flag in the cold, winter barrens. But when a pack of poachers and a pack of wolves fall upon his trail, Thomas finds himself in an unexpected test of survival.
S9. E14 - A Delirium from the Stars
- Trent and Kylie Richards approach Lily Magnum to help check in on the mental health of their reclusive father, Harold Richards, host of a popular radio show focussing on aliens, the paranormal, and conspiracy theory. Lily discovers that Harold has tripped over a dangerous truth, and Lily and Harold must hustle to defend the radio host’s isolated station while they wait for help to arrive.
S9. E15 - The Pride of Building Alone
- Dalton Booker’s mood sours as the anniversary of his father’s passing approaches. Dalton then surprises Thomas when he orders a shipment of lumber and construction material to the estate. Dalton chases off any help as he begins a mysterious project, his mind drifting back while he works, remembering a cherished adventure with his father. This episode pays tribute to the season four’s “Home From the Sea.”
S9. E16 - A Blank Piece of Paper
- Victor Essington, an old friend and contemporary of Jonathan Higgins, visits the Robin’s Nest one week with hopes of shattering the writer’s block that is hampering his efforts to compose his new spy novel by deadline. Lily is then approached by Maxine Rogers, who claims Victor’s previous novel stole her book premise. As she works to discover who owns the best claim to the new material, a third party assaults Lily, bringing Thomas and Dalton into the challenge to determine who will reap the rewards of Mr. Essington’s newest spy thriller.
S9. E17 - A Cobra Wields Its Head
- Officer Hansen arrives at the estate to inform Dalton that he is being called back into active duty after intelligence finds reason to believe a bomb blast in France is tied to a notorious bomb maker believed to be a mortal enemy of the mysterious Mongoose. Intelligence wants to locate the bomb maker responsible for the attack of French soil in order to use him or her as bait to lure the Mongoose.
S9. E18 - And a Mongoose Hisses
- This episode is a continuation of “A Cobra Wields Its Head” and serves as the finale to the ninth season of Magnum P.I. Dalton and Thomas learn at the end of the previous episode that the Mongoose has his sights aimed at New York City. Dalton and Thomas race to stop the Mongoose before he can detonate a radioactive bomb in the middle of delicate talks conducted at the U.N., and so effectively derail fragile hopes for peace amid a warring region.
