The Search

DVD, The Champions (The Search)

I understand the needs of production, I really do, so I can see why they made two straight submarine episodes back to back. What I don't understand is why they would show them in that order, too! It's like they were turning the series into 'Stingray,' and while they had a bulbous-eyed villain, he wasn't silver and they didn't have the 'Marina' song at the end, so they should have tried to keep variety week to week (though in actual fact it was 'The Silent Enemy' that was the first to be shot, this immediately after, and 'Twelve Hours' came later, according to the Special Edition DVD booklet). We're relying on Nazi villains again, and they're far from the nuance of 'The Survivors.' I think it's fair to say only the Captain, Conrad Schultz, and his Lieutenant, Haller, were real Nazis, as the young crew were quite jovial and upbeat in their scenes, never having that mad Nazi glint, so I think it safe to assume they were just along for the money. Then again, it sounded like this was a crew that actually fought in World War II, which was how they could be experienced submariners, so I'm not sure what to think - one of them is thoughtful enough to take the captive Craig a ham sandwich and hot drink, and it was only the Captain that seemed drunk on the prospect of revenging the 'wrongs' of Germany's defeat. They looked too young to have served as a sub crew over twenty years previous. Schultz was almost a comical figure, from the moment he boards the sub and takes off his diving goggles, he flops around looking very smug and self-satisfied, like a penguin who's just had a large fish. Consequently, it was hard to take him seriously as a threat, whereas at least Haller looked dangerous and managed to shoot Craig, so maybe he should have been played up?

If the tired villains are the first sign this isn't going to be as good as the last submarine episode, the way our champions act is another: it begins with Richard's unprofessional lateness and lighthearted attitude when he turns up at Tremayne's office. He does become serious when the threat of a sub containing four atomic missiles proves to be genuine, but that's not the only instance of levity in the face of an extremely serious threat. I'm not saying they should go around po-faced all the time, and it's good to have some humour to lighten things up a bit from time to time, but it came across as misplaced, and I can't help thinking that if Geneva, the home of Nemesis, had been the target rather than London, they might have been a lot more concerned than they appeared: the use of powers is part of it, as Sharron tells Craig to come in before he's knocked at the door of the Die Krone guest house they're staying in, and they both have a laugh. She does bring up an interesting point about them not knowing how right or wrong their senses can be, since they're investigating based on a hunch of Craig's, then wonders if, "Maybe super humans make super mistakes." These are areas ripe for exploration, though it would be tough to answer them without unravelling the series, much in the same way as 'Highlander' generally kept the central questions of its premise shrouded in mystery - once certainty comes in on some things it can destroy the element of wonder.

So far we have: reused Nazi villains, the champions not taking things too seriously, and of course, the biggest thing being another submarine episode (HMS Dependable, if the cap of the sailor who gets shot on the conning tower is anything to go by). Another week, another Scottish naval base (this time NATO's). The submarine set is fine, and I quite enjoyed all the blinky lights and whirring machinery, but it really is too much to have episodes there back to back. In fairness there was a lot of external shooting, such as when Craig and Sharron track Haller through the (day for) night, and the little fishing village, though the lighting looked a bit too flat to be real, was well constructed. The guest house bar had all the atmosphere and natural chatter, complete with ruddy-faced old men in sea caps, to make it real, and though the corridor set was used once again, this time it was changed completely with wood panelling that made it quite aesthetically pleasing. That's not to say there weren't faults in the scenery: when Schultz is on the conning tower you can just make out a horizontal line in the blue sky background, and the same in the painted backdrop from Sharron's guest house window, though I must commend the production for the wind and spray effects they use, most notable when Dr. Mueller, Richard and Sharron climb aboard the sub. With reused sets also comes some reused stock footage and reused model shots of the sub underwater, and while there was some good new stock of the sub going through polar ice, or fighters taking off from an aircraft carrier, there was rather too much reliance on it.

When the champions are split up, or when they're in it less, it tends to have a negative effect, and you sometimes feel the story is bending to suit the stock footage they have available (much like in modern films, where CGI action sequences are sometimes thought of and the story has to jump through hoops to get in and out of these moments). There wasn't really anything spectacular in the powers shown, either, which didn't help. I want to see a new power, or one that we've seen before used in a new way. It's tough when we're almost halfway through the series, but they have pulled off a number of cool instances so far. But this one begins with a typically (for the episode), downbeat post-credits scene, with Sharron in a library (when they were filled with books!), and she reads the entirety of 'War and Peace' in the time it takes for the librarian to deal with another customer. She hands it over and says she enjoyed it, and the librarian, nonplussed, says she couldn't possibly have read it in that time, and she responds cheesily: "Couldn't I?" Though these tag scenes were likely filmed separate from specific episodes, since they rarely have any bearing, this sets the flippant tone all too well for the episode. We've seen them read really fast before, and it is somewhat humorous to see the surprise of the librarian and the superior bearing of Sharron, but at the same time it wasn't one of the best introductions.

Craig's power is to have a hunch about where the sub might be heading; Sharron senses him approach the guest house door and bids him come in; the pair of them listen in on the conversation between Haller and the innkeeper across a crowded bar room, which was one of the better examples; as was the use of a noisy box of matches to track Haller through the woods when they don't have any bugs with them - that was probably the best trick of the episode, but even there I felt like the sound of Haller's footsteps through the crunchy fauna was as loud, if not louder, than some matches jiggling in his pocket, so they could have followed that just as easily. Clearly they couldn't hear his footsteps as they lose track once he's dropped the matches, but in that case the audio needed to reflect that and they should have kept Haller's progress silent except for the matchbox. Craig jumps fast when he's shot, but not fast enough, unlike Richard in the previous Nazi episode, where he was able to leap a vast distance to avoid a bullet. I wasn't sure if Craig sensed it first or whether he was reacting to the sound of the gun, in which case it shows that, as Sharron said, their senses can be at fault. In the same way, it seems Sharron, usually the most sensitive to the others' pain, doesn't know about Craig being shot in the arm, while Richard is the one to get the mental projection of it. Perhaps she did sense it, but didn't know what had happened any more than he did, or perhaps Craig sensed that Richard was needed over there when he was all the way back in London, and so automatically reached out for him?

I keep thinking that if the series had come back for a second year of new episodes, they should have begun to hone and understand the limits and textures of their powers. Perhaps one of them could have become more proficient at certain things than the others (like Sharron's keen empathy), in relation to their personal character. It could have added some strong development to the premise. Another instance of super ability is when Craig is able to burst the rope bonds holding his wrists, though it's said he couldn't push through the storeroom door in just his own strength (the three of them manage a concerted effort later), again demonstrating limits. He's able to take out the unfortunate submariner that brings him refreshments, but again, can't break through another door in the sub. Captive again (that trope which happens almost every episode!), he senses Richard and Sharron when they come aboard under the guise of being Dr. Mueller's cohorts (after Richard has once again surprised someone when he enters a room, throwing Allbrecht over his shoulder and across the room, just like in 'To Trap A Rat' and 'The Fanatics,' fast becoming his signature move, like Sharron's chop, then pushing him through a window to his death). Less powers, and more teamwork is Sharron kicking the gun out of one of the baddies' hands, allowing Richard to head-butt him.

Lastly, Craig does some high-speed mathematics to work out coordinates to be able to send the launched missile away from London to a safe detonation point. It's a good moment as he impresses Mueller, the cowardly man in the know (I suspected when he got into the car so calmly, while his secretary, Suzanne Taylor, struggled, that he was in on it and wasn't being kidnapped as it seemed), who really only wanted the five million in gold ransom so he could be… more independent? It wasn't the greatest motivation, although the twists of him being the brains behind it rather than a victim, and the treachery of the Nazis, helped the story become a little more than it was, and it's always good to see some cowardly villain broken down, then try to mend his ways at the last. But the ending was really a return to 'The Dark Island' where that was more exciting in the desperate bid to find the self-destruct button. Good that Craig can work out the figures quicker than a computer, but as I said, use of powers could have been better, or perhaps it was just the story itself that disappointed. Tremayne's special power is pulling another all-nighter, sitting at his desk in dressing gown. Maybe he never goes home? His other superpower is to constantly forget about the strange ways his agents succeed: he does mention at Craig's hunch how ready the man is these days to back his intuitions, but nothing more is said on the matter, and at the end the joke is between the champions when they say he won't believe how they did it this time, and then that Tremayne wouldn't believe the truth either, which I took to be a reference to them getting their powers.

As ever, the credits throw up some interesting points: this time, at least, the majority of those you'd expect to be credited, were. There's only the submarine crew that don't get any, although some did have lines. Obviously the old naval men in Tremayne's office didn't get a credit as they remained silent the whole time, perhaps so they didn't have to be paid as much, since Tremayne talks to them or around them, rather than with them, and it is a little odd that these two men of naval authority just stand there dumb the whole time, and again quite cheesy when Richard looks in shock at each of them and they gaze back impassively! The only other potential credits would be for the presenter of the TV interview with Mueller and the camera crew, but that was a very brief scene. All the main characters are included, not that there were many, and I saw that Joseph Furst who played Mueller, had already been in 'The Beginning' as Chislenkan, the Russian General in Tremayne's office, joining the honoured ranks of those that appeared in more than one episode and/or played more than one role. I was sure that Allbrecht called Suzanne Christina when he first talks to her at the studio, when all other times she's called Suzanne, but checking the subtitles he actually says "Miss Taylor," so that solves that little mystery! I did notice the clock in the sub never changes from 8:50 - you'd hope a nuclear vessel would have better timekeeping! And we got to see the reverse side of Tremayne's map again when he and Craig watch black and white footage of submarines.

Perhaps if they'd spaced out the submarine episodes with more variety it wouldn't have been such a loss. Similarly, if the champions seemed to be more integral to the mission it would have helped, except Tremayne even admits that Nemesis was called in in the general panic and all their information will be secondhand, as if they aren't really that important (the only evidence of other authorities on the hunt for the sub is American fighters searching). Nemesis need to be the number one organisation to call in, not one of many, as this demeans their importance, reflecting badly on the champions. Often things do turn into a small conclusion, like an assassin trying to shoot Tremayne at a party or that kind of local danger which Craig, Richard and Sharron can avert, which is the nature of the stories, but if it were more realistic they wouldn't necessarily be able to tie up a story so neatly and by dealing direct with specific enemies. That's the way it is, and within that format they can sometimes present good tales, only this one wasn't really one of them and could have been improved, even if the brightness and film quality looked very good.

**