Dr Greg House (Hugh Laurie) undoubtedly needs to put a new team together. If nothing else, he needs a new bunch of regulars to bounce his acerbic comments off, let alone have a more efficient method of solving the mysterious medical maladies that come his way.
So as the fourth series settles uncomfortably into its stride, the miserable maverick medic comes up with a clever - if somewhat anoraky - method of whittling down the 40 poor souls who have applied to join his new team. He gives them all numbers, sets them a medical problem, and awaits their diagnoses. The most inventive of the applicants will be short-listed.
And that's pretty much how this episode shapes up. A tricky case presents itself immediately - a female fighter pilot has confused vision and hearing, which is causing her to hallucinate. It's important that she keeps her condition secret - she's desperate to join the Nasa astronaut training programme and fears her condition will disqualify her. She's even willing to pay House $50,000 in cash if he treats her in secret.
Needless to say things do not go smoothly, House shakes his stick a great deal, the poor woman is accidentally set on fire at one stage, and there's some tricky admin that House needs to negotiate if he's to solve the case. Naturally there's an answer to the fighter pilot's condition, and House successfully reduces the number of applicants for his new team.
It's an OK-ish episode, but you do get the feeling that the show is definitely on half-power at the moment. Paul Strange
(5 Star)
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