Dossier on a Diplomat

Diana Hyland has a great role in this episode. She's smart, funny and independent. Late 1960s TV was beginning to allow women to be sexy without being sex objects and she's very good. It's a fun character for her, after the intensity of her other Fugitive appearances. Her character, Alison, works at the embassy and she flirts with and helps Kimball. One would have thought that Kimball would have been more appreciative of her efforts but the writers didn't write it that way.

Ivan Dixon as Ambassador Unawa is fine. He has some good scenes with David Janssen as Dr. Kimble. The ambassador's wife provides the conflict in this episode. It's what drives the plot. It's an unsympathetic role and is played well enough by Diana Sands. But I wish the writers could have done more with Diana Hyland's character. She has a confident air about her and I was very drawn to her performance, which I found to be both strong and charming.

For me, it was a flat ending and the whole episode was kind of unexciting. It didn't seem that Dr. Kimble did much. Usually, at the same time that he gets help from other people, he's solving a problem of theirs. Here, he just kind of exists. Ivan Dixon and Diana Hyland had both worked with David Janssen before and they had good rapport. Too bad they didn't have a better script.

An African ambassador stumbles and hits his head. Dr. Kimble walks Ambassor Unawa (Ivan Dixon) back to his residence but the Ambassador insists he stay for dinner. Soon, Unawa has Kimble living there...and even when he learns that Kimble is a convicted murderer, he offers to allow Kimble to stay. But there are two things also working against Kimble and his staying...the Ambassador's wife who has taken a strong dislike of Kimble and the Ambassador's ill health. What's next?

The biggest problem with this episode is that the Ambassador just meets Kimble and almost instantly befriends him. There is no natural or reasonable progression of this friendship...and it makes the whole thing seem unreal and contrived. Apart from that, it is still quite enjoyable.

This is a very clever episode. The plot is such a delight that we will purposely be vague about it. Ivan Dixon plays an ambassador from an unnamed African nation, and puts on a stellar performance. Kimble has a mission that takes him to Washington DC, where he ends up meeting Ambassador Unawa.

For reasons of his own, the ambassador takes Kimble under his wing. For a while things look bright but, unfortunately, a situation that appears secure for Kimble suddenly becomes very insecure when information about his identity becomes known to the wrong person.

Lieutenant Gerard becomes involved, and things look bleak for Kimble.

I thought this was a very enjoyable episode. The three main guest stars are all very good. Ivan Dixon's portrayal of the doomed Ambassador Unawa is touching. Diana Sands is effective, if not maddening, as his overly protective and meddlesome wife Davala. And Diana Hyland is both funny and touching as Alison, the Ambassador's secretary, who comes to Kimble's rescue.

The thing that I thought that was funny about this episode is that for all of Ambassador Unawa's wife's concerns about keeping trouble away from her husband and their country, it is she who brings the heat down on not only Richard Kimble, but on their embassy as well when she calls the police. Go figure.