ELEANOR KINGMAN

Eleanor Kingman was traveling with her daughter, Diana, on a train to Rajmir, India, with fellow passengers that included Andrea Collins, a courier for the US State Department, Andy Ellis and Laura Dillion, Americans who had recently met and had begun a relationship, James Grant, a British surgeon who had recently lost his right arm in an accident, Peter Kramer, a mysterious European traveling alone, Paul Webster, an American, Lyman and Blade, who wore the uniform of a conductor, and MacGyver. Her meek and painfully shy daughter, Diana, struggled with low self-esteem in light of the condescension and verbal abuse from her haughty and domineering mother.

During the journey, Hassan, a leader from a nearby village, hijacked the train by blowing up a trestle bridge and forcing it to stop. Hassan explained that he came from a poor village that had struggled to build a clinic but that when they had bought medicines from two Western businessmen, the medicine turned out to be poisoned, and 26 of his people had died. The businessmen had boarded the train, but because Hassan did not know their identities, he announced that all Westerners aboard the train would be held hostage without food or water until they themselves identified the two men and turned them over to face justice.

Having secured Hassan's promise that the men responsible would be given a fair trial, MacGyver fashioned a makeshift lie detector using Dr. Grant's sphygmomanometer and an alarm clock in order to question each of the passengers. Once attached to the device, Paul Webster was unable to respond truthfully, and he set off the alarm, revealing as he did so that his partner was Blade and that they had been responsible for the tainted drugs. Webster attempted to escape by restarting the train engine, however MacGyver had previously booby-trapped the control panel circuits to overload, and despite MacGyver's warnings, Webster threw the switch and received a fatal electric shock. His partner, Blade, who was forced to return the gold coins that Hassan's people had paid for the medicines, was taken into custody to face trial in Rajmir.

As the passengers returned to the train and were allowed to continue their journey by another route, Hassan made an offer to Dr. Grant to remain and to use the gold and his medical expertise to help rebuild the clinic, but at first Dr. Grant insisted that it wasn't possible to take on such a responsibility "single handed." However, during their ordeal, Dr. Grant and Diana had spent time together and had found a mutual attraction, and when Diana offered to stay behind and help with the clinic, Dr. Grant cautiously agreed. At first, Eleanor objected, but when Diana explained that for the first time in her life she was finding out what kind of person she was, her mother simply replied that it was about time. Although she still thought that her daughter's decision was crazy, Eleanor promised her support should they ever need anything.

Portrayed by: Frances Bergen

Cross Reference: Badur, Batu Das, Blade, Andrea Collins, Laura Dillon, Andy Ellis, James Grant, Hassan, India, Diana Kingman, Peter Kramer, Lyman, Paul Webster

Episode Reference: Slow Death