COMBAT HOSPITAL: WELCOME TO KANDAHAR {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The first in this drama series about the medical personnel of the International Security Assistance Force stationed at an Afghanistan hospital in 2006. In this episode, Major Rebecca Gordon of the Canadian Army secretly takes a pregnancy test in an airplane bathroom during a bumpy landing in Kandahar. Once there, she meets American Army Captain Bobby Trang, and they are both taken aback when the other busy doctors put them on cleanup duty as soon as they arrive. Colonel Xavier Marks, also of the Canadian Army, gives them a quick tour of the base and assigns Trang to be the Trauma Team Leader, despite his protests that he is more of a diagnostician. A badly-injured soldier is soon brought in, and when Trang hesitates, Gordon defies orders and jumps in to save the man's life. At the same time, Commander Will Royal, a nurse with the Royal Canadian Navy, kindly reassures another injured soldier as he awakens, and Gordon is annoyed to learn that her ex-fiancé has sent her a personal message on her official e-mail account.
Marks questions Gordon about her decision to take over with Trang's patient, feeling that she should have given him the chance to handle it without her. Trang and Gordon are shown to their bunks, and Gordon talks with lecherous British neurosurgeon Simon Hill, who has an upscale bunk to himself, and tells him about her recent breakup with her persistent ex. He presents her with a variety of black-market sleep aids, though she turns down his offer of alcohol. The doctors are then summoned to treat a high-ranking Taliban member who has been shot, and this time Trang makes swift, competent decisions and saves the man's life. Gordon is shocked when Marks casually shoots a snake that has made its way into the OR, and she later meets her roommate, Australian psychiatrist Major Grace Pedersen, who tells her about their off-base volunteer clinic for the local women, though adds that it has no budget, forcing them to steal supplies from the main pharmacy.
Gordon questions Pedersen about certain confidentiality rules, and Pedersen states that a pregnant officer would likely be sent home right away. Major Samizay then tells them that the base is likely to be attacked because of the Taliban leader, Nawabi, and Marks quickly orders all of the patients and staff into the bunker. Gordon is frustrated to see that Nawabi requires another surgery, worried that she may have failed to notice his injury because of her fatigue. As bombs land nearby, Conrad and other young soldiers joke around with Vans, the local interpreter, and Gordon and Trang successfully complete Nawabi's surgery, though Gordon finds herself nodding off during rounds. She later requests a pregnancy panel for "a friend" from another doctor, and everyone is shocked when Conrad suddenly collapses and dies from internal bleeding, having brushed off his earlier injury as minor. Gordon then finds that Nawabi has been forcibly taken from the hospital by persons unknown and, dazed from lack of sleep, learns from Trang that she is not pregnant after all. Seemingly relieved, she smashes her phone rather than deal with her ex's ongoing messages and finally heads off for an overdue nap, but she is forced back to work when several more ambulances arrive with patients. Includes commercials and promos.
(Asset cuts off abruptly before the final scene and closing credits.)
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: June 21, 2011 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:53:36
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 106648
- GENRE: Drama, medical
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, medical; Afghanistan
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2011
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - "Winnie the Pooh" motion picture
- TV - Commercials - ACE Hardware stores
- TV - Commercials - AT&T wireless networks
- TV - Commercials - Benefiber drink mix
- TV - Commercials - Best Buy stores
- TV - Commercials - Boys Town National Hotline
- TV - Commercials - Buick automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Chevrolet automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Dell computers
- TV - Commercials - Hebrew National hot dogs
- TV - Commercials - Listerine mouthwash
- TV - Commercials - Lowe's stores
- TV - Commercials - Make-A-Wish foundation
- TV - Commercials - McDonald's restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Olive Garden restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Samsung cellular phnes
- TV - Commercials - Subaru automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Target stores
- TV - Commercials - USAA insurance
- TV - Commercials - Verizon Wireless services
- TV - Commercials - Visa credit cards
- TV - PSA - Feeding America organization
- TV - PSA - Let's Move exercise website
- TV - Promos - "ABC Primetime Nightline"
- TV - Promos - "Charlie's Angels"
- TV - Promos - "Expedition Impossible"
- TV - Promos - "Pan Am"
- TV - Promos - "Rookie Blue"
CREDITS
- Simon Vaughan … Executive Producer
- Patrick Irwin … Executive Producer
- Gub Neal … Executive Producer
- Justin Thomson-Glover … Executive Producer
- Jennifer Kawaja … Executive Producer
- Julia Sereny … Executive Producer
- Daniel Petrie Jr. … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Douglas Steinberg … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Sara B. Cooper … Co-Executive Producer
- Michael J. Maschio … Producer
- Jinder Oujla-Chalmers … Co-Producer, Created by, Writer
- Elise Cousineau … Associate Producer
- Julian Stevens … Associate Producer
- Angus Fraser … Consulting Producer
- Iain B. MacDonald … Director
- Edmund Butt … Music by
- Samuel Sim … Music by
- Michelle Borth … Cast, Maj. Rebecca Gordon
- Luke Mably … Cast, Dr. Simon Hill
- Terry Chen … Cast, Captain Dr. Bobby Trang, MD
- Arnold Pinnock … Cast, Cdn. Cdr. Will Royal, RN, CF
- Hamza Jeetooa … Cast, Vans
- Gord Rand … Cast, RSM Graham Kelly
- Ellen Wong … Cast, Maj. Suzy Chao
- Anne Bedian … Cast, Maj. Hasti Samizay
- Karan Oberoi … Cast, PJ Talwar Mehra
- Dwain Murphy … Cast, PJ Terrel Ford
- Trenna Keating … Cast, Sgt. Hannah Corday
- Deborah Kara Unger … Cast, Maj. Pederson, MD
- Elias Koteas … Cast, Col. Xavier Marks, MD, CF
- Lisa Berry … Cast, Capt. Pam Everwood, RN
- Gerry Morton … Cast, Larry Alexander
- Elena Silina … Cast, Christine Ezrin
- Cherisse Woonsam … Cast, Captain Mary Ann Raith
- Shane Kippel … Cast, LCPL Chuck Braddock
- Steven Yaffee … Cast, PFC George Lowen
- Farzad Sadrian … Cast, Fahran Nawabi