Pop quiz! What do this pilot and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have in common? Answer? Both changed the nature of primetime TV. Twenty years later, Joss "Long Arc" Whedon would develop a sense of TV narrative that went further than even the infamous daytime soap operas had ever gone -- and changed the nature of TV scripts permanently. Here in the 70s of all places Ed Spielman and Jerry Thorpe did something no one had ever done before -- combing real time action and flashback in a ratio something like 4:1, that is 4 parts real time, 1 part flashback. This technique on top of the "wicked clever" story based on a real sect of monks in China (I reviewed the show in another IMDb review) and a standout performance by Carradine produced one of the most satisfying TV movie pilots ever. The finale is brilliant -- in other reviews I have explained over and over the importance of "step laddering" the fight scenes so that each is more challenging and more complex. The finale here, against another Shaolin trained monk, is wonderful! Trust me on this (unless you were there) it was as good as anything in a theatre at the time. And the device stuck. (Although as I have noted in my review of Arrow, it can become over-used. I wonder if the writers of Arrow were, as children, were locked in the closet with a DVD looping Kung Fu? The ratio of real-time to flashback they use is crazy, beyond the point of reasonable, and that remains the only failing of that specific show).
