Happening

DVD, The Champions (Happening)

In the first episode all three of them were lost or captive, but even then, they separated. In the second episode it was Craig who wound up captured by the villains. In the third, it was Craig again, then it was Sharron, and now, in the fifth episode, the formula continues with Richard separated, stranded, and eventually trapped by a villain! Okay, so their powers are more acute when we see them having to contact each other or search for one of their number, but it would be nice to have an episode where they all work together and in proximity the entire time. But the formula has worked pretty well so far, so it's not a bad thing. What isn't such a good thing is that this is the first episode you get the impression their imagination and vision exceeded their budget as we get indoor sets standing in for the Australian Outback (or Simpson Desert to be precise, according to the big map that opens each episode). Indoor, sand-covered sets or the bunker are the only locations used, for the most part, and so the production does come across as a bit scrappy - when Richard's pushed out of the helicopter we see a stiff dummy drop out which might have been better not seen at all, just use an existing shot of the chopper rising up and zoom out of it as if it's his point of view (though it did look as if the chopper footage had been filmed for the episode). Then there are the backdrops which are clearly painted and you can even see a stage door over which the scenery is painted behind the 'Joe's Motel' billboard which brings to mind something like 'The Truman Show' - none of it is real!

Except, for some reason you soon find yourself being immersed in Richard's plight. Despite the old chestnut of amnesia, things hang together rather well, and I don't know if this was Brian Clemens' influence, he who created 'The Avengers' and various other TV shows, and even had a hand in 'BUGS,' the modern equivalent of 'The Champions' when I was growing up in the Nineties, but it's the characters that shine forth and make you forget about any shoddiness at the production level and draws you in like it could be a stage play. And everyone knows that in a stage play the sets are almost immaterial to the drama created by the players (see 'Spectre of The Gun' from 'Star Trek' for an example of how sets can be unimportant and stylised). And so it was here. I wouldn't even say the sets were shoddy, they probably had a deal of work put into them, with interest in the landmarks, sizeable enough that they don't feel constrained, and good direction all papering over the obvious lack of an outdoor, naturalistic setting. I imagine the sets were expensive really, and the episode put me in mind of an old 'DS9' story called 'Progress,' a similar tale of an old man that refuses to leave the area of some new project that will effectively destroy everything that is his home, and only one person can persuade him to leave. It's not quite the same story, but there are a lot of parallels, not least of which is an impressive house, or in this case, Joe's Place, a bar that is empty because, and get this, there's nobody there.

That's the kind of humour that comes from the mouth of one Banner B. Banner (his Mother didn't have much of an imagination, apparently), and no, this isn't the kind of radioactive test area that this Banner would be turned into The Incredible Hulk in, nor is he a doctor. Far from it. He's a grizzled old Outbackian, or whatever you call them, a colourful fellow with equally colourful language - a couple of swearwords he gets away with you wouldn't expect to find in a Sixties TV show! But, though his accent wanders from Aussie to almost Irish or American, he's a fun guy to be around and has a lot more life than most of the guest cast have been imbued with so far on the series, and I think this genuinely must be Clemens' mark. Mind you, he doesn't have to deal with many characters, as there's only Banner, General Winters and Major Joss, the nasty villain you can have a touch of sympathy for in that he bravely, and without question, accepts his superior's decision not to send another chopper to get him out of the coming blast radius. I like a villain you can respect, and we haven't had that many of them so far. He's a soldier (in both attitude to death, and skill - he isn't fooled by Richard's diversion to try and get around him, firing both sides of the bomb tower), and therefore ready to die (plus he's played by Michael Gough who went on to play Batman's butler, Alfred, in the Eighties/Nineties films).

Having such a small guest cast means Tremayne gets to come along on the action along with Craig and Sharron, so that adds a further positive spin on things. When Winters (whom I assume was an Australian General, though he didn't have much of an accent), suggests Nemesis are a pessimistic lot, Tremayne says they always expect the worst, then when it's only half as bad they feel they can deal with it! It's typically modest, but reassuring of the man in charge and I only wish we'd been allowed more of him, though it's always a pleasure to see him out of the office. The bunker from where the test site explosion for a clean bomb is controlled, is a busy place with a lot of extras contrasting strongly with the majority of the episode where we're in the 'wide open' spaces of desert and only two people: Barrett and Banner. The memory loss allows time for things to heat up, otherwise Richard would probably know exactly what to do too quickly. But because we meander a bit it gives the ending a good buildup and Joss the time to prevent any sabotage of his sabotage. I must say, the Australians didn't do a very good job of making sure everyone was out of the test area. Was it really enough to make sure everyone knew about it, surely they should have enforced the evacuation? That's why Banner is still there, he refuses to leave and doesn't believe they'll go through with it, but they don't know he's still there! Maybe he half thought they would and so he might as well die there as somewhere new?

The old man looks like Worzel Gummidge, drinks like a fish, and has a laid-back attitude to life, but there's more to him than that, which speaks to the good writing - when he helps Richard discover his forgotten identity and they stumble on the body of the man he shot during the scuffle in the chopper (I assume he was the Aston from the credits, as although he doesn't have any lines, this scar-faced character is the only other person you could pin a name on, unless you're counting 'Razor Red' the codename for the superior Joss speaks to on the radio), he quickly assumes the worst about Richard, who then proceeds to try and rescue him from a snake and gets beaten down for his trouble, then bitten, before Banner shoots the thing's head off! But when Richard eventually comes to in the grave Banner's burying him in, the old man shows great remorse and regret - he was sure Barrett was dead and you see a different side to the old goat. His musings about how nice the grave would have been, and the colourful poem he planned to put on the headstone only endear him to Richard and us more. Obviously we don't want Richard to get blown up, but we don't want that to happen to Banner either so the drama does a good job of making us care about the situation they're in, Richard shaking the truth out of his host: there's a bomb in the well that's going to go off soon and they don't have time to escape.

The rising tension is well handled as just as Richard finds out what danger he's in, Major Joss shows up to protect the radioactive addition that will spread death for fifteen hundred miles or more. We never know the motives behind this terrorist, or perhaps Soviet powers' plot, but it's enough to know that some foreign faction wants to cause this chaos. One of the best uses of their powers in the series so far is when Richard, pinned down by Joss' rifle from behind the billboard, uses Banner's hunting knife as a throwing blade, homing in on Joss' heartbeat with his superior hearing and blasting that knife right through the billboard to take out the enemy! Clemens' inventiveness again, I'm sure. The quick cutting between Richard's intent face, the image of the board as we glide across it, and Joss behind it, was excellently done and it's probably the best moment of the episode. There are other examples of their powers being used, but as often is the case, they are inconsistent: the biggest flaw is that Richard doesn't seek to communicate with the others. They get occasional pictures of the hot sun, sense confusion, feel when he's been bitten, and Craig even takes cover against a wall in the bunker as Richard's shot at, but they never directly communicate until Craig sends pictures of which wires to cut to deactivate the bomb. Much of the episode this can be explained away as Richard not knowing who he is or that he has these abilities, plus he didn't know how relatively close they were. I suppose actual speech needs to be within hearing range, even for the champions.

Hearing, or a sixth sense of danger, is another power that is inconsistent: when Richard first enters Joe's Place and relaxes with a drink and the blast of air from a fan, he knows Banner's approaching by a sense of danger and hears the creak of a rocking chair outside so he's prepared when Banner sneaks up on him. But in exactly the same circumstances, when Joss creeps up on the place and is able to steal Banner's gun and bandolier of bullets which he'd left out on the porch, he doesn't sense or hear him. That could be because he was distracted since he'd just remembered who he was and was discussing it with Banner, because when he goes outside he does sense the danger hidden behind the billboard. All three of the gang get a brilliant use of their powers in this episode, another reason why it's one of the better examples so far: Richard's knife trick is one, but Sharron has the ability to restart Richard's heart just by pumping her hands together, which was a terrific and personal moment that she should have the sensitivity to do something like that. And of course Craig's moment of greatness is in relaying the cable cutting order that saves Richard and Banner's lives, so it's some good stuff here. Craig's earnest ferocity that the General explain the schematic of the bomb's deactivation leaves he and Tremayne puzzled, but unable to refuse him even at such a critical moment as mere seconds before the countdown to detonation is complete.

This leads to one of the most hard to explain 'coincidences' of the series: Tremayne saw with his own eyes Craig demand the exact method of deactivation, pausing each time to shut his eyes, then the bomb doesn't go off and Craig rushes off to check the test area and says they might even run into Richard! How could anyone not be suspicious of such a sequence of events? Okay, so it's unlikely anyone has the ability to send a telepathic message to prevent the detonation, but once they found out that the metal control box had been pried off (another good moment of Richard displaying his physical strength), and manually disconnected from the bomb, and that Richard was the one to do it, surely questions would be asked? Tremayne is a very rational man, though, and it's possible they somehow covered up exactly what happened and that's one reason why Craig and Sharron wanted to be first on the scene, as well as to see Richard was alright. It wasn't as blatant a thing as if Craig's original plan had been put into action: he was willing to risk being gunned down in the bunker when he saw the only chance for Richard was if he went wild and wrecked the machinery, and that could have been an amazing scene to see him tear the place apart, but it's even better when he's about to go crazy and pull two technicians out of their chairs and he gets a picture of the fuse box that Richard's found, stopping him just at the moment he begins to act! Sometimes the absence of action can be more powerful than the action itself.

It might have been the time to come clean to Tremayne about what happened to them in 'The Beginning,' if only to save Richard's life, but then they have the hidden civilisation to think of, too, and if Tremayne knew the secret he'd be duty-bound to inform his superiors, whoever they are, and it would put him in a difficult position. Plus, it would sound like a cockamamie story and would take time to convince Tremayne, who would then have to convince Winters to stop the test, so it would be just as risky. Tremayne isn't necessarily always the most sensible, either, his temper getting the better of him perhaps, because it seemed a little silly that Richard's last assignment was to check out the likelihood of any saboteurs trying to tamper with the test, then he disappears, but Tremayne doesn't see any connection because Craig's too insistent about the fact that the helicopter is an important link and there are helicopters being used in the test area! So he won't authorise a search of the area because it's too big and would take too long. That's about the only part where the reality falls down and Nemesis, or the Australian army, look a bit lazy in their thinking. Then again, Richard was a bit cryptic, too, in his phone call to his boss (does Tremayne record every phone conversation?), saying that he's onto something so mad he can't say what it is, but he should have just said that these guys were trying to turn a clean bomb dirty!

The other inconsistency I found was in Richard's strength - he peels off the metal casing on the fuse unit, he throws a knife hard enough to smash through a board, but when he's in the chopper fighting with Aston and Joss he doesn't seem to have superior strength, but about equal. The same whenever he deals with Banner. It also shows the vulnerability the champions have when he's killed by a mere snake - they aren't invulnerable, although he does land on his back from falling out of the chopper and survives, so resilient, at least. It's odd they chose to use Richard and Richard alone in the post-credits sequence where they show an example of their powers, since we'd already seen he was in the Outback solitary and injured so it didn't fit to see him in a London building that's on fire. What interested me is that we'd just seen him fall a distance and survive, but be damaged, and then in this sequence he makes a leap from several storeys up to escape the flames, and lands on his feet. You can see that he wasn't in control when he flew out of the 'copter as he unbalanced, so couldn't land properly, and that must have made all the difference.

The title is somewhat ironic when you consider that not a lot actually happens, just as the bad joke of Bad Joke Springs is that the well is dry, but then, as I said before with Craig's almost attack in the bunker, sometimes the lack of happening can be more powerful than much. The weight of danger does hang over the episode because it's such a major destruction that is coming, something that no amount of hand-pumping is going to bring Richard back to life from. It's like Chernobyl, the ghostly streets of a once busy place, only this is before the bomb goes off. It's an effective use of such a small group of characters and in only a couple of settings to craft a doomsday drama that has a sizeable scale to it even with the modest budget of such a series, and added to the more intelligent characterisations, makes it work. Brian Clemens, I salute you!

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