The Fanatics

DVD, The Champions (The Fanatics)

Fanatics, terrorists, suicide bombers, intelligence leaks… It's an episode that is just as relevant for today's audience as it was back then, perhaps more so now. The series never had a recurring villain organisation as Bond did with SPECTRE, or 'Mission: Impossible' with The Syndicate, but if it had, then it would probably have been something like the villainous group in this one. Like most such things you only have to look at the top to see how wrong it is: while those under Croft may be there because of misguided notions of morality (Carson, the man Richard impersonates in order to infiltrate Croft's gang, claims: "No country has a moral right to exclusive knowledge on weapons of mass destruction," explaining why he gave away state secrets to the enemy), but Croft himself is the usual dictator, drunk on the fumes of power and greedy for more, his operation designed to become the power behind whatever throne invests in his assassination-to-order scheme, thereby expanding his control - he's not truly driven by ideology, but power lust. We get a sense of the scale thanks to the stock footage used for a motorcade at the beginning (another good use of this device, seen on a TV screen, just as they showed the inside of the missile silo in 'The Dark Island,' something they couldn't have built for themselves without great expense), and the grenade attack on an official, not to mention use of a helicopter (similar to the events of 'Happening,' another episode in which Richard works alone after infiltrating a gang - clearly a format that works, as of the three he's more of a Bondian character, a lone wolf agent, where Craig and Sharron bounce off each other).

The scale is achieved to some degree, but for all the accomplishments in production value they pull off with this one, it can't help but seem small when it boils down to Richard confronting the leader and his band in the usual house set, complete with the staircase (the room which our champions are forever creeping through and which you always expect a massive fight to erupt within, though that was relegated to the radio room this time - the police station or office Craig and Sharron visit also looks like the records room where he searched for clippings on plane technology in 'The Ghost Plane'), and Croft showing how small-minded he is by boasting his grand plans and being beaten so easily: when he's lying whimpering on the floor after Richard flipped him over his desk, he looks pitiful and there's a sense of childishness, brattishness about him that shows up his suave, confident attitude as a sham when push comes to flip. His grand schemes are talked about, and one almost comes off when Tremayne is targeted (I didn't remember what happened, but it was easy to guess that it was going to be the Nemesis boss since few others would generate as much drama unless they went ridiculous and it was the Prime Minister!), but more often it's talk, we don't get the full impression of the organisation's scope, even down to Croft going on the mission to 'free' 'Carson' (Richard), from his prison transport, when he could have left it to his men. Perhaps he likes to be in on the action, maybe he prefers to do a job himself to see it done right, but he can't always be there in the thick of it if the number of assassinations and attacks are to be believed.

Croft is a villain worth exploration, as his little asides with Richard demonstrate. This is some of the best stuff in the episode, and if the production side might not quite have pushed it over the border into one of the better episodes category on its own, this is what solidifies its position. Infiltration becomes incarceration, the torture of Richard by electrocution, with the lone lightbulb hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles, as a kind of sadistic lie test, was the start, though it's more for seeing Richard's genuinely in extreme pain than a mental tennis match - that comes when Richard's freed himself, warned Nemesis using the villains' own radio setup, and then beats up Croft and Anderson, gains the upper hand and holds the gun on the great and glorious leader. Croft makes to talk him down from further violence and Richard plays along to win the trust of the enemy in some kind of reverse psychology: now you have to prove yourself to me. As soon as he's handed over the gun to Croft, the man takes great pleasure in telling him viciously he's going to kill him, pulls the trigger and nothing happens. He laughs it off, pretending he knew there were no bullets left, then Richard turns the tables saying he knew it, too, by the weight of the weapon - he wouldn't have given it back to him otherwise! It's a brilliant exchange that shows how Richard's abilities put him a step ahead in a simple way. The other scene is with the safe when we learn there are only thirty seconds between the first and second dials being correctly set before explosives are set off. It shows how distrustful Croft is, as well as how daring Richard can be when he takes on the challenge, warning Sharron away for her own safety.

On balance, I think the episode was more fun when the three main characters were together. It's become an instant cliche that one of their number must be kidnapped at some point, and though Richard 'uncaptures' himself by getting into Croft's trust (as far as it goes), he's still kidnapped, effectively, drugged and tied down, so it's the usual thing. This time, Craig and Sharron are almost superfluous, they don't really do a lot except feel his pain. They were supposed to keep track of him, but they can't follow a helicopter, an unexpected development. One thing I found interesting about their scenes together was how they share their abilities. You'd think that if one of the three was injured and in great pain all three would feel it, but in most of the episodes we only see one of them get that sense. Usually it's Sharron, as a more naturally empathetic person, but this time it's Craig that feels the electric shocks coursing through Richard - Sharron even asks if it happened again so there's no question that she wasn't getting the signal this time. A similar thing happens when she focuses on the sound of the motorbike exhausts so they can follow the prisoner transfer before Richard's retrieved by the villains - Craig appears to concentrate on the driving, relying on her to provide the directions, like some kind of supernatural Sixties satnav. I wonder if these events are an indication of their relative lack of experience and skill with their powers. We haven't seen any great improvement in skill or learning, but then the episodes were made out of sequence, and in fact there wasn't designed to be a sequence, other than 'The Beginning' setting everything up. The revelation of their unfolding powers and gradually increasing understanding could have made the series more satisfying, but it wasn't in the nature of TV at the time.

One area we don't usually see is in the consequences of their actions, here very potently dealt with through the overly emotional (for a military officer), Colonel Banks. He'd already lost one man to an escape attempt made for Carson, and now, thanks to Nemesis' plan, he's lost three more, with two others badly injured. No wonder he's fuming. He seems a rather highly strung person anyway, showing his contempt for Carson, as Richard points out. He doesn't like working with an outside organisation such as Nemesis, and he doesn't hide it. But it is shocking that so many are killed just to put Richard in the position he needs to be. We can presume they didn't know he wasn't a criminal and may well have been going about their duty as normal. But Craig and Sharron aren't without compassion, they just know that time is of the essence and Richard's infiltration is integral to bringing down such a deadly, uncompromising organisation. The guards who were killed have been sacrificed for the greater good, but that doesn't make it all fine and dandy as can be seen in Sharron's shocked eyes. But they're agents of Nemesis and their mission must continue to the end. It adds a touch of reality to proceedings, reminding us that the 'redshirts' of any series are people, often sacrificed for the sake of victory (admittedly, they're often sacrificed for the sake of drama, but in this case the escort being routed made the villains look powerful, an essential component in the audience taking them seriously). The Colonel should have known that losses are necessary in the line of duty, it was only his anger that asked them how they could justify what happened.

If the ambush and helicopter escape sets the scene for an episode on a larger visual scale, and the interactions between Richard and Croft, or the three main characters, adds a seasoning of goodness, the ending supports everything that went before by having Tremayne be the next target, and not only that, but at a party in The Houses of Parliament itself! Something else that assists in the episode's quality is the reliance on external filming. Aside from another back-projection bungle (the car journey where Croft and Krasner transport Richard to the mansion is shot from high in the vehicle, looking down to the rear windscreen, so we should be seeing the road, but the film is shot as if the car is coming level towards the camera!), the use of natural environments only enhances the story, even with a little day-for-night shooting. To crown it all, we get the champions outside Westminster and Big Ben, a delight that they didn't skimp on. The room where the party at which Tremayne is shot in is a little poky, but I can imagine there are such rooms in Parliament and it only adds to the tension that there are these cramped quarters with tight pillars all around and thronged people from which the unknown assassin could strike at any moment. It's hard to believe that the woman could have smuggled a gun in there in her purse, but perhaps security was less stringent in those days.

It also scores for being a good use of Tremayne, so often kept in his office, barking down the phone or looking concerned. For once he gets to enjoy himself and get one up on his super-powered agents, surprising them by heeding their warnings and putting on the bulletproof vest which saves his life. I like to think that he carries it with him in his luggage because you never know when someone's going to take a potshot at the head of Nemesis. It brings up an interesting point: he must be a known leader of the organisation, while his agents' identities are kept secret because they have to sneak into groups of villainy. Not that they had the internet in those days, and the enemy would have to do some research, they couldn't just pull it up on their laptop at a moment's notice. But it suggests to me that Tremayne is a public figure and makes him and Nemesis more real. As does his conversation with some important person at the party where he reminds him that Nemesis is an international organisation - it's easy to forget when they're in London at The Houses of Parliament, and when so much of the filming looks English, and when three of the four main cast are English, that they aren't a British organisation!

In terms of powers used, there's a fair few, with Richard, understandably, the main source, though the post-credits scene this time features Craig alone of the champions, in a rare moment of romance - he's at a barbecue of some girlfriend who drops her bracelet into the burning coals and he reaches in and picks it out. It's not the best example, as she could just as simply have picked it out with the tongs she was using to turn over the meat, and it's not like he has to rummage around in hot coals to get it, either! So it isn't quite the same as when he tracked down another girl's (I assume, it would be good if it was the same actress), watch in a field by listening to the tick in 'Reply Box No. 666.' The only real interest is from a tiny insight into Craig's personal life, but as it's not connected to anything and is only a brief glimpse, it's an unremarkable beginning, especially after the shocking suicide bombing pre-credits, when a man runs for his Arab target with a grenade, continuing through gunshot wounds in a fanatical attack. It shows the difference starkly between the kind of men that would work for Croft, and Croft himself. You don't get the idea he cares about anything other than personal power, but somehow he's spun a web that has ensnared those looking to embrace an ideal, however twisted.

Craig and Sharron's use is more to reactionary abilities: Sharron's tracking of the exhaust noise; Craig telling Richard they can't follow and he's on his own; the impression that they're kicking Richard's brains out as Craig doesn't know exactly what they're doing, just that Richard's in extreme pain. He does kick open the front door when they arrive at Croft's place, which is in contrast to Richard, who doesn't smash the door to the cellar in when escaping, though that was probably more an attempt to stay quiet rather than alert any of Croft's men. He does a karate punch to break through to the handle and open it from that side instead. Prior to that he has a premonition of the ambush, shows his strength by breaking out of the strap holding him to the electrocution table, and is soon throwing Croft across the room (like he did to a henchman in 'To Trap A Rat'), and shoving a chair into Anderson (which made me think of a similar scene in 'Smallville' when Clark pushes a sofa under someone falling). He also hears the approach of his fellow agents' car and uses it to keep the reign of confusion over who the real Carson is when that worthy appears (he didn't need the help of the organisation after all, able to break out on his own when they'd already made two unsuccessful attempts!). Richard also shocks himself purposefully by removing a lightbulb and sticking his hand in to blow a fuse and put the house in darkness while he creeps up on Croft - he'd already experienced plenty of electrocution so what was one more jolt? Finally, his ability to crack the explosive-timed safe is a show of courage and perception, necessary to bring down the whole organisation as Croft was stupid enough to keep all records in that one place.

Gerald Harper is another to be afforded the distinction of having his credit on the same page as the main cast. I believe he was famous for another Sixties series, playing Adam Adamant. Carson's identity is further confused by being credited as 'Roger' Carson rather than Richard, a change I can imagine took place at some point during the development of the script so as to give Richard the line about it really being his first name, you know, which was fun. The only two characters I wasn't sure of that were credited were Collings and Faber. One of them must have been the grenade bomber at the start, another could have been another of Croft's henchman that brings in the real Carson. Equally, there's some important fellow Tremayne speaks to at the party, so he could have been credited. Thanks to the party and the motorcade there are many extras seen, but the only character of note not to be credited is the female assassin who shoots Tremayne, though she doesn't get a line. The exchange between Craig, who says he'll take care of her, and Richard saying to Sharron he bets he does, seemed to be an attempt to finish off the episode in lighthearted fashion, though it was a bit odd - Richard seems to be joking about some kind of romantic thing (she does look quite like the girlfriend from the post-credits barbecue scene), so it ends on a duff note, but as a whole it impresses enough to cross the border into a keeper rather than a skipper.

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