Basically, even though this one wasn’t made for TV, we are talking about your standard TV style detective story about a serial killer.
Only there’s more nudity.
It’s a fairly crowded corner of the film world and there are a lot of gimmicky detective stories in the Seventies and Eighties. This time around, it is mildly science fictional, although perhaps the main point of interest here are the special effects which make use of some very early computer animation.
The hero — Jonathon Ratcliff (Joseph Bottoms), a fashion photographer who loses his sight in an accident — has a device implanted which allows him to “see.” It’s actually a sonar device which sends images directly to his optic nerve. From the sound of it, this would cause permanent damage to his brain (and there does not appear to be a physical cause for his blindness!) but I guess this doesn’t matter as long as the plot calls for it.
The sonar device looks just like a Walkman. Now, obviously this saves a lot of money building props, but it may be a product placement, as they were brand new at the time and the serial killer has one as well. The images it produces are fairly sketchy and mildly familiar to those of us who remember the early efforts at computer graphics with everything reduced to brightly colored vector outlines.
As it their staggering new technology is based on a Walkman, Jonathon can record what he sees on an audio cassette and replay them, but only in his head. He can even plug an 8-Bit videogame into his head.
And, of course, this limited sonar vision is exactly what he needs to find the serial killer and save a former flame.
Star Trek fans, however, will say that the most important part of Blind Date is that a young Marina “Counselor Troi” Sirtis shows up and even bares her breasts.
But I imagine most of those who would be interested have an old beat-up VHS copy with one section which is nearly worn out from being rewound and played over and over at low speed again and again.
Still the cast was reasonably good, with Keir Dullea showing up as the genius doctor (sadly he seemed forever doomed by 2001 to play bit parts in Science Fiction films) and Kirsty Alley, not long after her official debut in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, playing a prank on her boyfriend which would probably end your relationship if you ever tried it.
However, Blind Date does give her a topless moment as well, which I’m sure will also please those Trek fans.
This is actually a fairly good thriller, but ultimately it is gimmicky and I don’t think it any great loss that we never got the sequel promised in the end credits: “Run, Stumble and Fall.”
No matter which Star Trek actors they would have shown naked in it.
rivets on the poster 
2 thoughts on “Blind Date (1984)”