This Ironside episode is about the exploitation and tough lives of immigrants - legal and illegal - in 1973 America. Needless to say, it still holds up because it still can be the case. The really interesting aspect is that it's not a black/white stance by the writers. Ironside himself is careful not to take a stance on the illegal immigration issue, instead he focuses on the lives of legal and illegal immigrants who are pressed into quasi-slavery in America. In fact, while the protoganist is illegal, the focus of the show shifts toward the legal immigrants who are working in what looks to be a pretty nasty sweatshop and also the legal immigrant who is delusioned the the U. S. is not the land of bread and honey he imagined it to be.
This is an impressive program in that the crime-related plot is exciting as a procedural but it hits on so many aspects of the immigration concept.
There's even a cool scene with Fran Belding giving a speech in the sweatshops, pleading with the workers to help.
I should say here that Elizabeth Bauer as Fran has a come a long way since her first few episodes, where she was well, let's just say, not very good.
She's now found her voice a bit and this scene is good moment for her.
The Ironside/Star Trek connection is served here by Garry Walberg, who plays Judge Thompson, being in an original series Star Trek episode, and Eric Server, who appears at the end as the DA, who was on an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
This is an impressive program in that the crime-related plot is exciting as a procedural but it hits on so many aspects of the immigration concept.
There's even a cool scene with Fran Belding giving a speech in the sweatshops, pleading with the workers to help.
I should say here that Elizabeth Bauer as Fran has a come a long way since her first few episodes, where she was well, let's just say, not very good.
She's now found her voice a bit and this scene is good moment for her.
The Ironside/Star Trek connection is served here by Garry Walberg, who plays Judge Thompson, being in an original series Star Trek episode, and Eric Server, who appears at the end as the DA, who was on an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
