Prototype

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S9 (Prototype)

Interesting: an anomaly within the Stargate means that when Carter tries to travel to a particular planet she just arrives right back at Earth, SGC. Interesting: SG-1 find a way around it and take a trip to the planet. Even more interesting: Daniel discovers a Ring Transporter leading to some underground cave/lab… Less interesting: there's a human in stasis with Ancient DNA in him. Even less interesting: they take him back to the SGC for study. And finally, a touch even less interesting: before long he's revealed to be 'Son of Anubis.' It started out well, it's a very 'SG-1' episode with a unique puzzle that hadn't been experienced before, and a trip to a planet to solve the mystery, but then it becomes one of those very 'SG-1' episodes that isn't as good as the ones where they go to a planet and creep around in dark caves: it's the one where they have a guest character and have to learn his secret, then he escapes and puts the base in danger. The typical SGC money-saver episode. Not that they don't have their place in the series, it's just that I'd much rather take a leafy green adventure on an alien planet with the whole team along, than a wander round the ugly concrete SGC.

It's also hard to understand why they would introduce more clone enemies when a couple of episodes ago we found Baal had cloned himself. I could believe they were going to let this Anubis 'offspring' with his genetic memories intact become a third prong on the current enemies of Earth with which the SGC would have to deal, even though it was a bit much to have him running around on top of Baal(s), and the Priors of the Ori. So in one sense it was good that he was killed off (surprisingly gory for the series - multiple bullet holes drooling blood as he totters backwards), but that also seems to negate the need for the episode. If it was just a reminder that they can still do old-fashioned one-offs instead of constant serialised storytelling, that's fine, and perhaps he will come to have greater importance in the defence of Earth as they examine the remains, but it did make this particular episode appear redundant, and if he does become a magic rabbit out of a hat which they can use later in the season it's not very good plotting. But I enjoyed the references to the series' weighty backstory with Anubis, Nierte, the Tok'Ra, etc, thrown in for good measure.

What it doesn't do is explore the most intriguing idea of the episode in favour of the tried and tested base under attack we've seen countless times. They didn't even keep the suspense going that this Khalek was going to be an innocent lab specimen or the embodiment of evil. I would much rather they examined the issue of a 'gate not sending the user to the correct address than a debate about killing Hitler's clone. I was surprised by how cavalier this issue was dealt with, as it's really Woolsey on one side (Robert Picardo back to add some guest star weight), advocating for him to be kept alive and studied, while Daniel suggests he shouldn't be allowed to live. Granted, he killed a number of soldiers, and this is America where corporal punishment is an accepted part of the penal system, but to not even have the debate about whether it's justifiable for the state to murder an enemy in captivity? I was also interested to note something Daniel said about good and evil when they're discussing why it appears you don't need to be moral to become ascended as it once seemed. He says something about the 'cosmic balance' and perhaps they need to be balanced even in the ascended world, which suggests he thinks evil is something to be accepted as a natural part of life that 'balances out' good and coexists with it in some yin-yang expression. I can believe that some of the characters might have that belief, but none of them bat an eyelid, it's taken as fact! I just found it strange when you consider how they've fought against evil that they would be so casual about the concept of evil being something that 'coexists with' or 'balances out' good.

It's possible I misread what he was saying and he was only suggesting that that was the way the ascended might look on it, or whomever is in charge of allowing ascendees to ascend (if they can get away with having an 'ascendometer' I can make up words, too!). The only other issue of note was the background of the SGC's problems of credibility in the eyes of the committee Woolsey represents. It's only touched on, but he intimates that opposing his point of view is like saying they don't need the support of the committee, when they clearly are, if not on borrowed time, then still having to prove themselves still relevant. His argument about Khalek being a potential mine of information that could provide ways of defeating the Priors' powers is understandable, but didn't end well. I almost thought he could have taken the whole episode as more evidence that the SGC wasn't up to the task since it was in their custody that Khalek escaped and was ultimately killed, but at least he learnt something and progressed his character a little in that he was as good as asking forgiveness for his rash approach from Daniel, and there was a little seeing of eye to eye. As usual with 'SG-1' it was a little lightweight in terms of such character or drama moments, but I appreciated the attempt to build on a recurring character.

The effects were pretty good, with Khalek becoming a Sith Lord and stalking through the corridors like Darth Vader, or stopping bullets in midair with his mental power like Neo in 'The Matrix' - funny to think this was only made six years after that film and now so much more time has passed. I just don't find it that compelling when some super-powerful enemy roams the base, especially when the soldiers keep firing their weapons in the vain hope that maybe one bullet will actually get through his defences. Surely they'd have more zats or staff weapons on hand, some energy-based device instead of rapid-fire rifles and other things that have proved to be ineffective. It was one of those that had a good deal of promise from the opening, but meandered too much and never went anywhere, nor used the main cast sufficiently enough for it to be entertaining just seeing them together. And that's all we really watch the series for, isn't it?

**

The Interrogation

DVD, The Champions (The Interrogation)

We come to a point in the series when they felt they could break the format and use a different approach. In production terms they'd passed the halfway point, and whether they thought they'd be coming back for another year or the series had always been planned as one batch of thirty episodes, they addressed some issues and put in place the potential for further exploration, while at the same time satisfyingly putting our minds at rest, with only the hint of doubt that Tremayne always has, but is too practical to question far. In a way, the format wasn't broken: all too frequently, as I've commented many times before, the stories involve one or more of the champions being captured and held prisoner for the others to rescue, not to mention exotic foreign travel and missions in far parts of the world. Both these elements are integral to this episode, but twisted on their head for a unique experience within the series (inspired by 'The Prisoner' according to the Special Edition DVD booklet, which you can certainly see parallels with, even if I don't know that series beyond what has trickled down through pop culture). Though it was a money-saving endeavour, it just shows how unimportant finances are for strong drama, as the reliance on a single cell to provide the location for the 'action,' led to creativity in both dialogue and use of clips from previous episodes, not to mention some of the best working in of stock footage used on the series in its entirety!

When I first saw the episode in the previous decade (I have no idea if it was one of the ones I saw as a child in the 90s), my first thought was to be wary as it seemed to be a potential clips episode that too many series' over the years have put out in the need to save money, without losing an episode from the total run - one of the worst offenders being 'Shades of Gray,' the 'TNG' Season 2 finale. But 'Star Trek' had also shown the possibilities inherent in such a device when Gene Roddenberry cannibalised his unaired original 'TOS' pilot, squeezing it into an 'envelope' of new story to create one of the best of that series. And it doesn't always follow that clips episodes have to be bad, as 'Starsky & Hutch' proved with their Season 3 instalment, 'Partners.' I needn't have worried, though, as 'The Interrogation' proved to be one of the best of the series and far from cramming in overlong clips from old episodes, they were used sparingly and to great effect whenever they were employed: it even opens with the plane crash from 'The Beginning,' played out over Craig's bewildered and guilt-stricken face as he relives those moments, quite a striking way to begin an episode with no explanation and no resolution, just the worried closeup of a man on the edge.

We have to wait over the opening titles, the post-credits sequence, and another scene where Richard and Sharron rather brusquely question their evasive and noncommittal boss, bearding the lion, perhaps, in his den before we get back to Craig's plight. It only increases our concern for his safety and wonder at what's happening to him, where, and by whom. He wakes in what at first appears to be a featureless multi-sided cell with no natural light, only the glaring artificial orb hanging in the centre like the great eye of some unblinking creature glowering down at its prey, this impression only encouraged by the harsh struts going out from the centre where the bright light leaves hard shadows and makes them look like the legs of a giant spider encroaching on its prey. It's an excellent study in atmospheric production design, and as we see the room we learn there are more and more features. A bed, a bedside chest of drawers (which, strangely, Craig never thinks to open), a chair, a sink, a thermometer, a clock, a cabinet, a waste bin and serving hatch, as well as a grille in the wall above. The room is ripe with possibilities, like some kind of puzzle in those old point and click adventures, and though Craig begins to explore, he's interrupted before long, and so begins the other dimension to his incarceration.

Any ordinary prison would have been empty and uninteresting, but by providing a variety of objects and furniture around him, it adds to our suspense about what Craig will do. We already want to know why he's being held, and who's pulling the strings, and we can assume that it's some foreign power, an enemy of Nemesis, but until 'The Interrogator' (as he's credited), appears, Craig's as in the dark as we are. I will refer to him as Colin from now on as that was the actor's name, and the character remains almost as enigmatic at the end of the episode as when we first meet him. There are things about the technology he uses that make it seem more advanced than we would expect in a 60s TV series. The main one being the ability to somehow cloud or make transparent a wall of the cell through which Colin observes and interrogates. You can see that it is just an ordinary wall, yet at other times it's a thick window that Craig can't hammer through (whether because of his drugged and weakened state, we don't know), and there's even one scene where we seem to see a glimpse of it changing from opaque to transparent, though we never see the full transition. It's a mystery piece of engineering, we know that it isn't a wall that comes away to reveal a window because when Craig finally works out how to escape he presses a button that makes it slide to one side, so it's a remarkable thing.

Going on about the fascination of a wall would suggest that the episode isn't very engaging, but far from it! It contains perhaps the best written scenes of the series as the tennis match of barbs, questions and mental games between Craig and Colin serves to confuse the prisoner and put him off balance. You never really know when Colin's being genuine or tricking him and playing a game, and the interplay goes from the philosophical to the psychological as Craig's defences are broken down. Or is that just claimed to be broken down? One of the other mysteries is how Colin got the recording of Craig talking about the Retford case, this question mark mission hanging over the story most of the way through. Was it true that he did talk about Retford at an earlier moment that we never saw, or is it as it appears, and we're with Craig the first time he awakes, in which case is that recording the result of clever technology to simulate a person's voice, or a soundalike? That answer never comes, but the surprise and horror of Craig and the confusion over why he would be there if he's talked, and why would he talk if he's there, starts to get at him, along with the use of the drugs to disorient. Again, I'm not sure if the drugs were always in the water, or whether it was just that last time when he suddenly realises his water is tainted when he'd carefully avoided the food and drink supplied through the hatch.

Nothing in Craig's world is sure, most conspicuously displayed in the promise of hope by the closed door, which is then taken away when he's managed to get it open only to find a brick wall behind (they changed something in The Matrix!). The psychological torture is shocking compared to what the series is usually like, and whether it's the removal of the hope of escape, the disorientation from the drugs, the constant barrage of questions from his interrogator, or the adjustment of the temperature to be freezing cold or unbearably hot, it all adds up to a strain until Craig is hoarsely and pitifully pleading, "No more… no more…" His memories and dreams intermingle, and it's done so well: after his harried recollection of the plane crash, during his exploration of the grille he suddenly feels unbalanced, gripping the wall and falling back into his experience as one who almost jumped from a tall building in Rome (seen in 'A Case of Lemmings'), returning to his surroundings to find the same bloodied knuckles he got from pounding the wall to try and regain sanity, and now he's done the same thing. His sudden violence, flinging the chair to smash into the transparent wall where Colin quizzes him about why he didn't jump, doesn't faze his accuser one bit. For most of the episode you see the chair remains in its dismantled state on the floor, but eventually it's no longer there, and the bin is removed, too, after Craig has discarded the meal. So we know someone is coming in.

This prepares us for when Colin actually does come in, presumably to give Craig another dose, and a strange, but enthralling scene ensues where Craig sees himself in Hong Kong, taking a rickshaw ride, while Colin tries to gain his trust as a fellow agent sent by Tremayne as a contact, to discover what happened, until he pushes his prisoner too far and Craig sees him as an enemy, fortunately collapsing before he can betray his superior strength. The whole scene is terrific as Colin playacts to stay with the imagining Craig, and the expert use of stock footage only enhances what was already well acted. The direction of the episode is superb, whether it be the perfectly judged insertion of stock, or the use of wide angle lenses to create an out-of-body experience, sinister, with an impression of unreality (used effectively in that manner in 'Shadow of The Panther'), to more experimental shots such as the moment we're looking up at Craig through the water in the sink which cuts to a memory of him leaping into the lake to escape the ear-splitting weapon used in 'The Invisible Man.' We also see him dream of the time he was pulled along on a sled in 'Operation Deep-Freeze,' and his arm drops from the bed in the exact manner it did from the sled. And he recalls being shot at, both in 'The Search,' by the guy he was following, and in 'The Beginning' when a Chinese soldier leaves him for dead in the snow, as well as the old man finding him after the plane crash and his otherworldly experience in the secret civilisation where he was given his powers.

Struggling through all of this is his meeting with Tremayne when he returned from the Retford mission, though at first I wondered if he was remembering the first time he met Tremayne. That might have been cooler, but when we come to the reveal that it was his own boss that drugged him, the horror of the situation is strong and incites him to a determined escape attempt. Although Craig gets some good pokes in at his interrogator (the best being his parry when Colin gleefully suggests they're making headway, and he replies: "If that's your idea of success, no wonder you never failed!"), and does a little Sherlock Holmes deduction by using his advanced eyesight to spy the date and time from Colin's watch, and that his shoes are wet so it must be raining outside, he's really brought to the end of his tether. Though the real issue is the secret of he and his colleagues' powers and the potential for unknown consequences should they be revealed, from Tremayne and Colin's point of view it's about the circumstances around so many successful missions. I wonder why Craig was picked on specifically rather than all three of them, but he is the unofficial leader and perhaps he was either less adept at making up solutions in his reports compared to the others, or he had more suspicious single missions that played on the head of security's mind. Whatever the reason for selection, and it could have been that the Retford case was the final straw, he was on his own.

That's the only downside of the episode, really, as there's no payoff to the drama shown here. This story is a payoff of sorts to the first episode and all subsequent times when Tremayne showed suspicion and confusion over how his agents got the results they did, but I sensed that he'd come to an acceptance that as long as they got the jobs done, he wasn't going to pry. He comes across as a neutral bystander neither advocating on Craig's behalf, nor supporting what Colin does, beyond sanctioning it. But he has to listen to the guy who claims security is his responsibility (where was this Colin when the thieves broke in and stole Richard's file in 'The Gilded Cage'? Is this a reaction to his security failure there, that he was looking for a scapegoat to hide his own failure?), and as leader of the organisation he has to go along with the testing of his agents if there is any suspicion. But I think he always believed in Craig and the others, which is why he signs off the case as satisfactory to Colin's disgust (I'd love to be able to read what it says on the first page we see in the Retford file Tremayne closes - I don't know if even in HD or 8K that would be readable!). What I mean about the payoff never coming in episodes after this is that Colin is still unsatisfied, saying so much is unexplained and they can't just leave it at that, so he could have become a regular thorn in the champions' side.

There's also the sense of betrayal that Craig feels so acutely and we see in his conversations with Tremayne and Richard how deeply he's been hurt. He can at least understand his boss' need to ensure security in the organisation, as unpleasant as it was, but it's much harder to forgive Richard and Sharron - one of the most expressive scenes is when he wakes for a second, lifts his head and sees Richard and Sharron standing in the room, flanking Colin, before he falls back again. It's a shocking and excellently created moment, but as Richard said, they couldn't risk revealing their powers by doing anything to help. Maybe they could have sent a telepathic message or something, but they couldn't chance that in Craig's drugged state he might react in a way that would put Colin onto them, there was no safe way to help Craig except for him to go through the punishment and take it. Not that I'd have liked the champions to become bitter and angry with each other, walking on eggshells and being upset all the time (as the main cast did in the final season of 'BUGS,' turning it from an upbeat series to one that was overly soapy and negative), but it would have been good to have seen some bitterness in a future episode to show that not all wounds heal immediately. But it was surprising enough that we got what we did, with that intense scene between Craig and Richard. I was wondering how they could cut to the triumphant theme tune after this, but they found a way by having Tremayne show his suspicions were alleviated and that he was convinced Craig wasn't a double agent.

Powers are almost banned in this episode since Richard and Sharron daren't do anything, while Craig is too disoriented to know what to do. We get the usual post-credits scene where their abilities are reintroduced, but disappointingly for such a good episode we're given another montage of clips from other episodes (Craig gets his hole in one again from 'The Dark Island,' the third time part of that scene was used; also from that episode was Sharron karate chopping a soldier into a balcony; and Richard brakes on a premonition before the little girl runs into the road, from 'Operation Deep-Freeze'). If only we could have had a great new demonstration to complement such a good episode. The first use of powers during the episode is when Craig listens in on Colin's phone conversation through the wall - I think we can assume there's no hidden camera keeping an eye on Craig, and he can only be seen when the wall is transparent, though that isn't definite. But that was the impression I got, otherwise they would have known everything he did, perhaps been alarmed when Craig found the escape button and got out, though I imagine the cell was bugged. Then again, Colin tells the doctor he's going to put the drug in his food, Craig listening in and consequently not eating, yet the drug was in the running water, so did they know he listened in, or was the drug in everything?

Craig uses his strength to prise the hinges off the door, and that's really as far as his abilities go unless we count fighting off the drugs for so long without revealing anything important, staying with it enough to deduce things, and trying out experiments to keep some semblance of control over his reality. But he's really put through it, by the end he has bruised knuckles, reddened eyes and is sweating all over, so it's no wonder he reacted so badly. Though it wasn't such a good experience for him, we get a number of facts that add detail to his character: reading from his file Colin tells us that he joined Nemesis in November 1965, has an excellent record, was born in New York on 1st December 1939 (making him about twenty-eight at the time of the episode), went into the air force service and trained as a pilot, before he trails off, sadly, during one of Craig's memories of meeting Tremayne - it would have been fascinating to hear more, but it is quite interesting to know that he can only have been a Nemesis agent for a couple of years as he gives the impression of being with them for much longer through his confidence and experience. Maybe that's why he was the one selected as a possible double agent, since he's American and everyone else appears to be English?

We also learn more general information about how Nemesis agents operate under Tremayne's leadership: allowed to tackle missions their own way, he says he doesn't keep them on a string, although if they require advice or help he's there to give it, but doesn't ask for daily reports. In the past this has been a boon to the champions, and it's all quite true, but now that Craig's missing Tremayne's vagueness and flexibility become a double-edged sword. He remains noncommittal, and they never ask outright if he knows where Craig is, and even if they did I get the impression he wouldn't have lied, but would have diverted or got angry with them, as was his right since he is the boss. His role in the episode is probably Anthony Nicholls' most nuanced performance as he walks a line between having to respond to the concerns of his security, but remaining above any side, which is why he's able to be evasive, but unrepentant even when the truth comes out, though you can tell he regrets what had to happen and was no happier about it than Craig. The whole thing is made more sinister by Craig's 'abduction' occurring within the usually safe environment of Tremayne's office, and that's why you could file this in the horror category since that is often about the subversion of what is normally safe and secure. When you factor in the strange music, so different from that usually heard in the series, with its alien, muffled sounds, like an orchestra tuning up or the TARDIS dematerialising in old black and white 'Dr. Who,' it cements the impression of discord in a series usually so bright and bombastic.

Though the sets are limited by the nature of the story, you never feel constrained in production terms, partly because of the good use, and shooting, of the cell, and also because of the clever integration of stock footage and clips, but there is one shot we never saw before, which is Craig leaving a real Pan Am plane (the champions' airline of choice!), and more importantly we get to see inside the corridors of Nemesis once again, with Craig entering Tremayne's office through the same door which the thieves used in 'The Gilded Cage' - I love to see whenever they show more of Nemesis, like when you see part of a starship in Trek, that hadn't been shown before. The credits are unsurprisingly empty except for Colin Blakely as The Interrogator, though I wonder why the doctor he speaks to on the phone doesn't get a credit? But it's a unique situation and a unique episode, with Blakely ably pulling off his role and creating another memorable semi-villain, albeit one revealed as a fellow member of Nemesis. I enjoyed Craig's facetious explanation for the success he's had, claiming he polishes a small lamp at home and asks the genie for help. It's a very Craig thing to say. There's also the creepy central case which is a whole other side to the episode as we learn scraps of information about this whole Julius Retford business: famines in India are apparently being caused by Chinese scientists breeding locusts and subjecting them to radiation. It's all very science fiction, but when you have this dark shadow at the corner of everything it only adds to the atmosphere in what is unquestionably one of the standout examples of the series for breaking the formula wide open and showing the potential so strongly.

****

A Case of Lemmings

DVD, The Champions (A Case of Lemmings)

Has absolutely nothing to do with the green-haired, blue-garbed mascots of the Amiga, except they're both based on the real rodent which has the reputation for following its fellows in leaping off cliffs to its doom. Oh no! But the principal is the same, as ably demonstrated by a couple of men we soon come to know were Interpol agents. Rarely does an episode of the series begin in such shocking fashion as two dramatic suicides that appear to come out of nowhere: a man drives fast down the narrow, winding hill road somewhere outside Paris before finally accelerating over the edge to smash on the rocks below. Then we cut to a speeding train where a friendly man suddenly experiences the urge to leap to a rather unfriendly demise. It's a good start, leaving us wondering at this strange turn of events before we get a third suicide, this time told in flashback by Tremayne. That's one of several approaches in the episode that separates this from the norm, as they don't usually play with such devices as the flashback, everything tends to be much more straightforward than that, A-to-B, one plus one equals two. Except the structure is a little different. For another example, we get our champions interviewing witnesses to the deaths, something else we never see: the champions doing some real grunt work. We've seen them going through files on several occasions, as they do again here, but once they've read something once they don't need to read it again, their recall immaculate, as shown before. Here they act like this is a real job.

They also act like the real spies that they are. Okay, so they're usually classed as agents, but this time the enemy is a Mafioso, a boss no less, Prima Del Marco, so they must use their skills to their best advantage for law, order and justice… Which is what they arguably do every week, but this time they're infiltrating using some acting ability, some surveillance, as well as the usual mind-numbing methodical research of scouring files and newspapers with, as Craig says, no shortcut. Or internet search engines, except that once read, all those documents will be searchable within their own brains - that's it, the champions are the inventors of the internet, since they have access to untold reams of recorded information, the only difference being they can't share it, except verbally. So I suppose they also invented those devices that have become the latest fad, that you can operate via speech like a primitive version of the 'Star Trek' computers. Aside from pioneering the future of information technology (yet another reason to wonder what a series set in our present times might entail: the champions coming out with all kinds of obscure facts garnered from devouring everything on the internet perhaps?), they're also good at their jobs, putting the hours in and getting down to business like good agents: their powers haven't made them lazy, they have the right work ethic and attitude to get the job done, and it's lovely to see the trio working on the case all together.

No one gets captured (unless you count Craig under the alias of Hartman, but he's just thrown out of Del Marco's rooms), tied up, or locked in a room somewhere only the other champions can track them to, and so it's a refreshingly different adventure because of that. The fact that they have to knowingly put Craig's life on the line to find out how these 'suicides' are being perpetrated, only adds spice to proceedings. As ever, we wonder what the limits of their powers are - the answer to the champions versus voodoo in 'Shadow of The Panther' was unsatisfactory as we never knew if voodoo was really being used or was merely a dark cover for darker business, and in 'The Experiment' we found that they are resistant to attempts at brainwashing (as we did in 'Panther,' too), but here we find out that they are susceptible to chemical manipulation when Craig is drugged by Mysterious Man in Hat that had dogged the footsteps of the previous victims, and we later learn is called Umberto, works for Del Marco, and developed the formula for this mind-altering substance that creates an urge to destroy yourself. Rather than choose the 'Frogger' method of death, Craig avoids running into the multiple lanes of busy traffic and instead is drawn to the heights of a tall building, there to leap from the roof. 'Lemmings' was arguably a better game than 'Frogger.' The question is, why did he do that and would he have died had he jumped?

It's always interesting to speculate on the limits of their powers, especially as we know they do have limits, otherwise where would the drama be? They aren't Superman, they can't do absolutely anything, resist anything, but they are much more resistant than ordinary humans. We've seen Richard leap from several storeys up to land safely, but it would seem most likely that Craig wouldn't be able to fall from the great height he was at, and survive. I would suggest this was why he refuses the obvious run into traffic: his subconscious must know that he could potentially survive a collision like that, given his greater strength and reactions, which pushed him to something more definite. None of this is expressed on screen, and the real reason he takes more time to die rather than hurling himself onto the road is so Sharron and Richard have time to work out his location and prevent the attempt from working, but I can't help fill in the blanks when details are left open, knowing enough to speculate, which is one of the main parts of the enjoyment of watching: you pick up facts that remain internally (mostly), consistent, then extrapolate on them to reach a viable conclusion. Richard even muses that there must be a limit to their power, though he was specifically referring to how much they can memorise, but the sentiment works across the board on all their abilities, and part of the fun is seeing how far they can push one or the other.

On top of a flashback, scenes of witness interviews, and the main drama of their powers being tested against unknown drugs, we also get Richard behaving in a very human way in his reaction to the fourth suicide we see, that of Claudine Merval who plunges into a roaring river in another daring scene for the series. I didn't think we'd actually see her go in, but you do get a shot of her actually toppling into the raging waters (a stuntwoman, I'd assume), and bobbing about on the surface once drowned. She was feeling the guilt of Jacquet's death as she'd worked herself up into a frenzy thinking it was due to her leaving him, when in fact he'd dumped her and she'd blown it out of all proportion. It only took Umberto's evil intervention to take her out of the equation, too, but at this point Richard doesn't know about that and feels guilt that he should have questioned her more and got to the bottom of it. It's a rare moment of introspection and humanity shining through in what is generally a more simplistic series, and though fleeting, it reminds us that these super-humans are still human, with feelings and the knowledge that their actions have consequences. Again, it adds another dimension, and a refreshing one, to see a realistic response, and makes the deaths more real.

It is quite shocking to see so many violent deaths, and they don't stop there. Although Craig is prevented from testing his wings by Richard in the nick of time (and that view of the street far below still makes my fingers tingle), the villains of the piece, namely, Del Marco and Umberto, get their just deserts for the murders they've committed: when Craig returns unharmed to bother Del Marco again, he believes Umberto's formula is to blame, and if it's not one hundred percent reliable then it's no good, so he shoots him (I thought he was going to stumble over the balcony and fall to the street below, and not for the first time: I also thought Jacquet was going to leap through the open window of his hotel room rather than the less dramatic striding in front of an approaching car), and in the true brotherhood of honour among thieves, Umberto gets his dying revenge by flicking a capsule at his boss' face, activating the drug that will turn him suicidal in seconds. Something else I appreciated with all this, quite apart from the poetic justice, was the way the champions react in horror to death, even to that of criminals and men that tried to kill them. Sharron screams a warning as Del Marco heads for the balcony, then Craig and Richard both move with the speed of their gifts and are just a millisecond too late to grab the Mafia boss as he leaps to his death - another grisly sight as we see him lie twisted on the pavement, one shoe flung off in the violent impact.

The episode can't be faulted for its drama and it's too seldom we see all three characters working together in proximity without it turning into a rescue mission. This time it's more like 'Mission: Impossible' where they're going in with a plan, knowing what's happened, having worked out the villains' motives, and are set to stop them. I must admit I didn't buy the premise that Interpol asked Nemesis to get involved because they felt they were too close since all three agents were from that organisation, as the way it usually works is that people want to do the job for their friends or colleagues and will put every ounce of effort to get the job done. I can only imagine it was an edict dictated by whomever was head of Interpol, as I'm sure the fellow operatives of Carnot, Pillet and Jacquet would have wanted very much to be involved. But otherwise we wouldn't have an episode so you have to accept such things. And it was far from the only flaw in the episode! Once Sharron has inveigled her way into Del Marco's abode, letting her hair down (in what looks like a wig), she gives Richard, keeping the room under surveillance from across the street, a huge thumbs up sign that was as unsubtle as they come and could have been seen by anyone! I understand that they needed to portray the connection of where Richard was, but it was over the top. Where Craig was going to go over the top, on the roof of the building, you can unfortunately see the shadow of the roof on the sky backdrop, breaking the illusion somewhat, though you're supposed to be eyes on Craig, not his surroundings. And you wouldn't normally shake hands with a glove on, but Umberto offers it to Craig anyway, to infect him while protecting himself.

These are minor complaints in a well produced episode which features really good stock footage and location filming that brings out the beauty and elegant architecture of Paris and Rome terrifically - long before the Bourne films made scene-setting in a foreign country an art, they do a beautiful job with what they had. I assume the reckless car driving at the beginning was filmed for the episode, and that too, impresses with some shots looking genuinely dangerous as they skirt so close to the edge, even if the film was speeded up. It also appears that they really pushed a car off a cliff as you get the sense of scale and destruction that isn't there with a model. How they achieved the view from inside the vehicle as it plunges downward I don't know - that must have been some kind of model work because they wouldn't have totalled a camera for the sake of one shot on a TV show in those days. Perhaps the footage was all from a film, but it all goes together so well that anything like that can be excused. It appears Pan Am is the champions' choice for air travel as once again they're aboard one of those planes! And back projection is used inventively and impressively to place Craig on the streets, by having a newsstand part of the screen decor to add depth to the background. Saying that, the backdrop seen from his rooftop escapade was also really good with what appeared multiple levels to add perspective when the camera moved, so despite the shadow I mentioned it was very well done.

I also like that Sharron's qualifications and interest in biochemistry leads her to suggest Umberto's formula could still be found with analysis even though it died with him, though her academic interest is overruled by Craig's morally authoritative directive to let it die with him. The true potential horror of the central device is made apparent when Richard notes they can imagine what such a drug would cause if used on a large scale - then it really would be like lemmings as the chaos of mass suicide swept through. It's not clear why Craig was cured of the urge to die once his first instinct was thwarted, but I imagine it worked something like the Vulcans' need to fight to the death over a potential mate in 'Star Trek' - once the imbalance in the brain had been assuaged the deadly urge was abated and I can see the same thing working here. Craig claims he's strong-willed in answer to Umberto's dying question of how he wasn't affected, and it could be that a normal human wouldn't have been cured until they'd carried out the urge, further evidence of the champions' extraordinary uniqueness. Tremayne doesn't get to comment on them this time, and I was disappointed that even the post-credits sequence didn't lead to him scratching his head. It's not a bad scene, especially as it's one of those rare ones that bleeds straight into the episode: the agents are awaiting the boss in his office and Craig finds the chess set, so he and Sharron share a high speed game, over by the time Tremayne enters. I love the way Sharron nonchalantly glances at her watch when Craig suggest the match, as if checking they had a couple of minutes to spare, but I really thought Tremayne was going to wander over to the board after they'd gone, to wonder how they had time for a chess match.

They don't use their powers quite as much as the average episode, perhaps another reason this one feels different. The speed reading is the main one, taking in all those files, which is where Sharron is also able to recite passages from newspaper and work out the Mafia connection. Once they work out that there is a shortcut after all on this case they only have two days to crack, they quickly get in on the action with Richard thumping Del Marco's heavy when he and his boss intervene in the little argument between Richard and Sharron, and allows himself to be beaten up and chucked out, though he's not really worse for wear (they missed an opportunity when Craig later gets thrown out in similar style - he should have showed his wounded pride, too, by suggesting he wasn't ejected against his will any more than Richard was). From his surveillance post, Richard keeps tabs on Del Marco's rooms, using his advanced hearing to listen in, his sixth sense telling him when to eavesdrop (unless he was just drawn to the noise of talking). Sharron also hears the cacophony that Craig's drug-induced confused state brings on, Richard following suit as they get the sense that he wants to kill himself, cleverly using their locations to triangulate Craig's position. Although Craig tries to fight it by pounding his knuckles into the wall until they bleed (it would have been better if we could have see the wall crack), he succumbs. Then at the end Richard kicks Del Marco's door off it's hinges, leaps acrobatically over the sofa and takes out the heavy with Craig's help. And that's your lot.

There are numerous extras or minor characters with dialogue throughout the episode, and they even went to the trouble of having Italian dialogue in the background of busy scenes, so it's no surprise that only select people made it into the single page of guest credits. Carnot, the first man to die, driving off the cliff, doesn't get a credit, but his wife, Madame Carnot, does, even though she was only in one scene, and so do his fellow agents, Jacquet and Pillet. Likewise, the girl who screamed and is also interviewed, does not, but the Frenchman and Frenchwoman, witnesses to Pillet's final moments, do - although with a name like Jacques Cey, and sounding so French you can imagine he really was of that nationality, but perhaps they could only afford one French actor as his wife didn't have a French name and sounded like she was putting on her accent! In terms of location, I've already mentioned the strong stock footage and back projection, but they also reuse a few sets - the hilly cobbled fishing port (in Paris like some Monsieur Hulot film), had been seen before in one of the submarine episodes ('The Search,' I think), and the various hotel rooms were well worn, from the poky place in Paris (usually used for country pub rooms), to the lavish Italian shuttered abode of Del Marco (such as where Craig and Richard hid from the zombies in 'Shadow of The Panther' or El Caudillo's rooms in 'The Iron Man'). Best line goes to Craig after Del Marco calls him a nut for his violent threats, and he replies, "Maybe, but you're the one that gonna get cracked!" Oh no! Pop.

***

Shadow of The Panther

DVD, The Champions (Shadow of The Panther)

Sharron finally gets a mission to herself and proves she's more than capable without Craig and Richard there to protect and keep her out of the action, whether it's dealing politely, but firmly with the lecherously grinning Raul Prengo, manager of the Kimberly Hotel; errant waiters that think she can be manhandled without consequence; or an American posing as a voodoo god. Now that I think of it, the boys aren't really any help, they come (almost) blundering in to her rescue, forcing her to test her acting abilities to the extreme to avoid discovery, and they even end up being saved by Sharron who rescues herself through use of her powers. Long before 'women's empowerment' Sharron was doing it for herself. Which is part of what makes the episode seem unique when the story was designed as a money saver and takes place on a lot of sets we've seen before (the staircase is cunningly disguised as part of the hotel; the room with shuttered windows that Craig and Richard stay in had been used a few times - for once the usual corridor set isn't in evidence since they needed especially wide ones for the climactic sequence of them being hunted by zombified enemies), it's all indoors, and it all occurs within the hotel, but there's a good sense of brooding evil evoked, and though Sharron never looks weak, seeing the girl of the team dealing with all this weirdness alone, not to mention the overbearing height of David Crayley and his alter ego, Damballah, serves to increase the sense of vulnerability that hangs over her, upping the tension.

Donald Sutherland is one of the best villains the champions come up against, having a sense of humour, a slightly sinister jocularity to him, only enhanced by his bulbous eyes and distinctive voice. Add to that the twist that he is the mysterious 'entertainer' named after some voodoo god, and Sharron's only apparent ally becomes her foe, which helps unsettle. From a production standpoint, the story is only enhanced, with the familiar set landmarks cunningly disguised, much as Crayley was, with garishly bright statues and masks lit with a hidden illumination. You could almost forget what period this was set in amidst all the Haitian paraphernalia, except for the very Sixties shimmery light show projected on a sheet in the middle of the Papa Legba bar where Damballah later shows off his magic tricks, and the appearance of showgirls in a cage. One puzzling thing about the whole story is whether Crayley was a genuine member of the cult of voodoo, or was merely covering his operation using its dark flourishes. It's a surprise to the uninitiated when Damballah takes his great mask off to reveal Crayley underneath, but even when you know who's under there, it's still clever because Crayley goes to the extent of browning up his hands and arms - so effective is his disguise that I always used to think he had a black double performing as Damballah, but in the scene where he removes the mask you see his own hands are actually darkened so it could well have been Sutherland in all those scenes.

The issue of Crayley's association with the dark arts is important because you get the impression he's not a believer. Riley, his co-American associate that runs the 'real' magic of mesmerism coupled with 'ultrasonics and subliminal conditioning' as they call it (the computer operator, basically), always has a twinkle in his eye as if he's in on the joke with Crayley, and when not in front of his audience, Crayley doesn't keep up this pretence of being some great figure - I found it quite amusing that he wearily asks what Prengo wants now, after just finishing his latest control feat and the slimy manager slinks in with information, just because he sounds so eye-rollingly bothered by this annoying little man! Yet how could he turn his stick into a snake, or make people vanish and reappear in the manner that he did unless he was operating under some evil power? Was it all illusion and sleight of hand? Voodoo lends itself to questioning of whether the champions are up to the task, much like when they were confronted by other superior enhanced humans, and much like Superman being vulnerable to magic. Except that's all a bit stupid, and when fantasy goes down this path it's usually all show and glamourising nasty stuff. It seems likely in this case that Crayley was just using what Richard suggested voodoo's place in the culture was: a way of keeping the population quiet, although mesmerism is treated a little more like something in the believable realm, which is no surprise as we've seen hypnosis used by him before, and again in this episode.

All that being said, if Crayley was a fraud, how did he first gain his mesmeric power (which in the Sixties I suppose was more considered a scientific possibility, though now we know that people can't be forced into doing things outside their moral boundaries, like killing in a hypnotised state, unless they were already a killer), over his subjects? Was it supposed to be in the magic show? That seemed to be where the zombification of people took place as they followed Damballah out after the performance, back to his hidden lair through the double-ended lift. And that was where Sharron took it upon herself to join the group. But it wasn't well spelt out as it seemed a bit strange that these great men of science, politicians, and other powerful VIPs, could have their minds overthrown so easily, yet there didn't seem to be any other method which altered them. So it was a little flawed in the story department, but that was all hidden by the moody atmosphere and the way the story is constrained within the walls of the hotel. It doesn't actually answer the question of whether the champions could be susceptible to conditioning of some kind (something similar was tried on Sharron in 'The Experiment,' if I recall), though we'd find out in the final episode of the series that they could be, as Richard is programmed to kill Craig.

The teaser must be one of the shortest ever, as we see the ill-fated scientist, Ralph Charters, whimpering and panicking in his quest to escape some unknown terror, the fear effect heightened with the use of wide angle lens and soft focus, so it sets up the horror quite well, and as I said, sending Sharron into such a thing alone makes her position appear more precarious than usual. It's a shame he couldn't have been more specific in his communication with Nemesis as they might have been more prepared, but then we don't know exactly what he knew, only that something was going on in this place that attracted some of the top men of the world. Then they get turned into zombies, perfect assassins who are in positions of power and can get through any security. Though if you're going to go to all that trouble, why not just invite the most important people and put them under the influence rather than sending their colleagues to kill them? It would look suspicious, but then why did all these VIPs come to this particular hotel anyway? Perhaps it had always been a popular spot and Crayley recognised a kindred spirit in Prengo and set up his operation where he could make inroads. I'm not sure on his ultimate plan, however, as he seemed to want specific people killed, but whether it was for money (like the guy in 'The Fanatics'), a sense of power, or a voodoo-inspired anarchy of killing, it's never clear. It's not even clear if he survived the fear exaggerating nerve gas, though you do see him bonk his head on the table as he falls, so he could conceivably have died.

A couple of things about the episode that bring it down a little are the post-credits sequence and the abrupt ending. The champions wander down some stairs talking about what happened, then make a joke about souvenirs and it's all over. No Tremayne looking askance at how they foiled this latest plot, no witty comeback or bumbling excuses, and no definitive wrap-up on all those people that had been held in thrall. What happened to Raul Prengo, or the 'Girl in Red' as the credits call her - you can just see her running out the door when Crayley falls in the nerve gas room? The post-credits was arguably worse, with a lazy montage of previously seen clips. At least we get one of each (Richard's hole in one from 'The Dark Island,' Craig breaking through a door in a military installation and fighting with soldiers, which is one we haven't seen yet, and Sharron winning at the roulette wheel, taken from 'The Iron Man'), displaying their powers, but it wasn't like they were even the best examples, so that was a poor show, not that it reflects badly on the story, it's just that it could have enhanced the episode rather than taken away from it.

The powers used within the episode were a good selection, helping to make Sharron in particular a formidable opponent for anyone: she uses her hearing to listen in on Prengo giving instructions to his Hawaiian-shirted lackey, then again when the lackey's footsteps give him away, allowing her to wait for him to come round the corner and catch him out, at which he pretends to fiddle about with a plant in front of him. It's no great feat, but it gives Sharron some satisfaction at making him look foolish! When accosted by a large waiter who grabs her arm, she unhands him using her superior strength to crush his arm, leaving him holding it in pain. She also speaks to her colleagues 'telepathically' once the charade is up, letting them know that the sound of drums means she and the others are gathering in the temple for their instructions. She also squeezes Riley's neck until he collapses unconscious, and though captured (someone had to be captured at some point!), by Crayley at gunpoint, she's able to hold her breath longer than any normal woman until he comes back to check the nerve gas has done its work. And then she tears Crayley's mask away, exposing him to the fearful fumes - we don't see her do it, but she must also have broken the bonds strapping her to the chair.

Craig and Richard don't excel for once, providing little more than a distraction for Crayley to keep his mind on, and send his subjects after, though I liked that while Craig is all for charging in and finding out if Sharron's will really is overthrown, Richard is more cautious, saying they should give her time to contact them as it's her case and they don't want to blunder in and mess it up - he might be thinking of 'The Gilded Cage' where he warned Craig not to do that himself, in a round about way! Craig tries to speak to Sharron using the curious earshot telepathy that they do, except she ignores him (though we'd seen before that she can answer back in a split second as in 'The Experiment' when they carried on a conversation between high speed throws and catches - she must have thought any deviation would be spotted). Craig also moves fast enough to dodge the bullets from the waiter who brings them a cuppa, while Richard does his now signature move of grabbing someone near a doorway and hurling them over his shoulder. It's his favourite move, and it works, so why not? In perhaps the most shocking moment, Richard grabs the unsuspecting Sharron when she enters her room, thinking she might be under the influence, throws her to the bed and holds her down. You don't tend to see such violence directed at one of the champions by their fellows (it would be exceeded in the final episode, 'Autokill' when Craig has to batter assassin Richard into unconsciousness), so it's more affecting because of that.

The fascinating quandary Craig and Richard find themselves in is the position of squaring up against the great and good - how do you defeat an opponent you don't want to injure, because they can't beat up these old men, made up of senators and other important folk, so it's a unique situation we hadn't seen them confronted by before. As it happens, they're able to retreat until they find some younger men who could take some punishment without fear of giving them a fatal heart attack, but eventually the oldies catch up and it looks like they're done for. I don't know why they didn't just kick in one of the doors they were near, but they just halfheartedly try to see if they're locked. Before, they did an excellent stunt of hanging off the balcony when the minions broke down their hotel room door, only their fingertips visible as their strength enabled them to hang for as long as it took for the room to be searched. As it is, it's down to Sharron rescuing them for once, as she shoots up the computer machinery playing the drums which somehow kept the subjects under control, waking them from their zombified slumber in the nick of time. The scene where Sharron and all these garishly be-robed old men file out of their disturbing temple, blankly picking up a cruelly curved long sword as they go, was one of the most chillingly effective. It's a shame the budget didn't extend to more detailed costuming than a single cloak each as they did look a bit too bright and cartoonish, yet in some way that makes Craig and Richard's predicament more surreal and worrying. Having powers is all well and good, but if you can't use them on the enemy on moral grounds then you're stuck.

Richard isn't above using his hypnotism (never confirmed whether this was a personal hobby of his before he gained his Tibetan abilities, or something that he found he could do after that), to mind blank the waiter and try to get information out of him, just as he did in 'To Trap A Rat' and 'The Dark Island,' so at least there's consistency across the episodes. Tremayne is usually the main consistency that binds each story to the others as the face of Nemesis, and just as he was the target for assassination in 'The Fanatics' and got a stray beating in 'The Gilded Cage,' it's his face that comes up as a target again amongst Crayley's mesmeric projection show. That must mean he knows Sharron's from Nemesis as each person had a target within the organisation they were from, or a part of, and Sharron does volunteer the information that there are two Nemesis agents in the hotel, in another confusing attempt to send a message (just like Richard's diversionary implication to Craig in 'The Gilded Cage' - you'd think their enhanced brains would be up to deciphering these puzzles!). Tremayne barely features, but he does get off a zinger at Craig and Richard's expense when the former asks when they leave for Haiti, saying he thought they'd have known that already!

Though the decor is accomplished, and all aspects of production work well, there are a fair few questions and oddities that are worth mentioning. One bungled line comes from the doctor who shows the corpse of Charters with whitened hair to Sharron. He says, "I must warn you to be prepared for a shock, Miss M–," and stops short as if he shouldn't say her name. I don't know whether it's a mistake in the soundtrack or the actor fumbling, but it was quite noticeable. When showing Sharron her room, Prengo says the bathroom suite is on the left as she shows him out of the bedroom, but he's gesturing and looking to the right, although this could be a simple issue of him referring to her left. For someone well versed in spy games and all that, Tremayne puts on a very stilted performance when Sharron rings and speaks in code to let him know he needs to put a scrambler on the line! I also don't get why Crayley pretended to be zombified and not recognise Sharron whom he'd been sharing a drink with shortly before. It certainly wasn't going to stop Sharron from investigating, but I suppose it was part of his penchant for misdirection, so she'd never guess he was actually Damballah - as well as the darkened hands, they film it cleverly, with Crayley shown to be smoking mechanically in the bar, then we get Damballah enter for his nightly performance, then when we next look over and see Crayley's table, he's gone, the cigarette left smoking in the ashtray. So you wouldn't associate Crayley with Damballah unless you already know, and Sutherland even did a good job disguising his voice. When the boys are hanging by their fingertips, in one shot you can see Craig's head and they're obviously just crouching down. And lastly, the Asian woman in the bar can also be seen sitting directly behind Craig on the Pan Am flight.

The credits are a mixed bag, as ever, with certain characters awarded a credit, such as the Girl in Red who never speaks, though does have a presence in much of the episode, to the doctor who presents Charter's body, and a waiter. Which waiter isn't specified, but I'd assume it's the one that attacks Craig and Richard as that was the largest role, though there's also the one who gets his arm squeezed, among others, but I think they were the only two that had lines. The girls swinging in the cage don't get a credit, understandably as they were essentially extras, but the various politicians, scientists, the air stewardess that Craig behaves rather ungentlemanly to, aren't included either. Surprisingly, nor is the lackey that follows Sharron (and does get lines), or Prengo's receptionist girlfriend (who also has a few lines), so the equation of who gets in and who doesn't is as impenetrable as ever. But it was a good episode that uses Sharron well, (Alexandra Bastedo a lot more confident than in the early episodes, perhaps because this was one of the last to be filmed), and puts the champions into different situations. It wouldn't be the last time they dealt with the supernatural (if you can call this one dealing with it), something that was always a bit uncomfortable, despite the series starting with that theme, how they received their powers and all, but this one pulls it off acceptably,  and has some fun lines without losing its atmosphere through unbridled levity in the face of danger. Though the title is good it doesn't really have anything to do with the episode, except for the Girl in Red seeming to change into a panther behind the sheet where Damballah stabs her! A loose association then…

***

The Gilded Cage

DVD, The Champions (The Gilded Cage)

One of the episodes that has stayed in my mind as a rather dull instalment, and now I understand the problems with it. Partly it's the same old story of one of our champions being held captive and the other(s) searching for them using their powers to track them down while the captive uses their powers to stay alive/thwart the villains/ discover the evil plan. This time it's all up to Craig, as Sharron's apparently too busy sunning herself on a veranda to give him much help. I suppose part of it is that Richard isn't in that much danger, or at least he's walked deliberately into it and is always confident in what he's doing, but even so, you'd think Sharron would have come back from her leave, if that's what she was on, to assist Craig. The other issue with the episode is that it starts so terrifically and holds a mystery and atmosphere around Richard's position and the faceless enemy holding him there, but then as quickly blows it and loses most of that mystery, leaving behind only bare questions to be answered which never really get a satisfactory wrapping up: who were the two factions that we see (made up of Arthur G. Symons and his two lackeys, Brandon and Orley, and Samantha working for Lovegrove and Haswell), just monied individuals or rogue criminals, or representing some criminal underworld network? The formula that Richard is tasked with cracking turns out to be a joke (a substitute fuel that will actually be more expensive to produce than existing sources), and where did it come from in the first place?

The worst culprit comes in setting up the villain as this Blofeld type with spying monitor at his fingertips - at first we only see a hand with a large silver ring and a cigarette holder in front of his screen, then when he does first bodily appear it's shrouded in mystery, literally, as he steps into the gas-filled computer room, his face obscured by a gas mask. But then the spell is broken when Richard awakes to be confronted by some toff with little character to him except for his hard insistence that he'll kill Samantha Killen, the girl who seems to be working for him, unless Richard does what he asks. It seems she's as much a prisoner as Richard in that though she can come and go as she pleases, Symons has something on her. Ultimately we learn that she's actually double-crossing him, working for some other organisation and it is quite fun when Symons threatens Richard with Samantha's death, then her associates show up to threaten Symons, and finally Craig shows up to get them all in the bag. But it is a relatively slow episode with Richard trying to decipher both the code and Samantha's place in all this, which is why he bizarrely tries to send Craig on a wild goose chase to give himself more time before his colleague comes in to save the day. It doesn't show much faith in Craig, does it! You'd think Richard would know his friend well enough by now to believe in his ability to tread carefully.

Craig gets to play a bumbling Clark Kent character, pretending to be a central heating salesman (funny to think some houses in London didn't have central heating in the Sixties - I like it when we get occasional insights into this period of our history), complete with trench coat, large glasses and a self-effacing, nervous disposition. You'd think Samantha would be suspicious of someone showing up, and the same for the grinning subordinate of Symons (I don't know which was Brandon and which Orley), whose smile is unnerving and reminded me of some assassin from 'The Avengers' or other spy dramas - the kind to relish his killing in a disturbing way, while his associate was more of a basic heavy. We see both significantly less and more of Sharron this episode (there's a riddle for you), so perhaps she was off filming scenes for another episode. I never like it when they effectively write one of the trio out of a story because the strength of the series is in using them all together, but more often than not they have to be separated to create jeopardy.

One great side of the episode was how much more we see of Nemesis: there's a night watchman sat in front of a bank of lights and controls who dashes off when Tremayne presses a buzzer. We get confirmation of what I'd suspected from the last couple of episodes: Tremayne does indeed sleep in an adjoining room to his office, and we see him in bed while Symons' men sneak into the office. And we see a third door which I don't think we have before, on the left as you face the desk, which seems to lead to a corridor. It makes the room a bit confusing geographically because the building we always see externally is rectangular, yet there's a window on the same wall as the main entrance to Tremayne's office, so how does that work? There are now three doors we know of: the main entrance that requires Tremayne to manually activate from his desk; the door to the right of that, which must lead to his bedroom; and this third door to the right of that which is another entry point, though apparently not restricted by the system used for the main door. We also get to see behind the huge map to the right - previously we'd seen a row of chairs on the left, but on this end there are filing cabinets containing records on Nemesis agents standing next to a bookcase. I must say, I found all these reveals to be fascinating as you don't really get a three hundred and sixty degree view of the most important room in their world, so it's a case of piecing together details from various episodes.

Security appears to be quite lax for such an important organisation if some criminals can make their way in, photograph some files, and get away! When Tremayne was informing Craig of the event I wasn't sure if he meant Richard's file had been left on his desk by himself, but he must have been talking about afterwards. In which case, if the thieves broke in to get the file so they could find the information on him, why photograph it - they were disturbed so why not simply take the file? Their original plan must have been to copy it and get out without anyone knowing they'd been, not realising the filing cabinet was alarmed and Tremayne was right next door. I had the impression Richard had a name for code-breaking, otherwise why would they have chosen his file? Or was it a random file they picked and realised he was the best chance at cracking the code? Cracking the code to Richard's character takes a few steps further thanks to this episode: we rarely see much of their lives, but here we find out that he has an apartment in Geneva, at the most fifteen minutes from Nemesis (Craig says he'll be there in that time). He's also revealed to be a man of fine tastes, both ancient and modern: in his swish apartment he has a lot of art, including bas-reliefs on the walls, enjoys classical music (which becomes a minor plot point), and fine liquor, but also has contemporary furniture such as his multi-sided open shelving and a ceiling lamp that can be raised or lowered as desired. It's good to see so much background to a character as in those days they didn't put much stock in exploring personal lives.

Richard's enjoyment of 'The Four Seasons Suite' by some composer called Gressini (which I assume was invented), performed by 'The London Octet,' is what he plays as awaits his kidnappers, and does so again within his gilded cage as Symons also has a copy. This helps Craig realise Richard is likely to be in the building even though he sent a message via pigeon that suggests he's been taken to Liverpool and then by boat to Dublin, but as pigeons aren't going to fly that far Craig works out he must be in London - it's a sort of cheeky message in a way, warning Craig to tread lightly and not come crashing in and spoil the party, though I don't know why he couldn't have left a more specific message. I suppose they have to play it carefully because Tremayne doesn't know they have ways of being in contact beyond mere mortals, though it does seem that they can only transfer pictures or sensations long distances and have to be in hearing distance (though further than normal people), to communicate verbally. This telepathic connection does introduce some rather personal questions in the episode - previously we've seen pain transferred between the champions, but this time Richard kisses Samantha and Craig appears to feel the sensation, judging by his bemused expression. Hopefully this isn't something that occurs every time or it could become a rather awkward talking point among the three and would suggest they've had to give up truly personal lives as a sacrifice for these abilities!

The episode is littered with minor examples of powers, mostly from Craig as he's doing the legwork while Richard's mostly stuck in a room. Tremayne could have done with his own powers of night vision, increased strength and an instinct to dodge since he's injured again (after the assassination attempt on him in 'The Fanatics'), slugged on the head when he interrupts the thieves in his office. The first actual use of powers comes in the post-credits tag scene where, suitably, it's Richard travelling by train on his own (in keeping with the episode's style, since he spends most of it away from his colleagues), even if it's not directly connected to the story: he fills in The Times Crossword Puzzle in the time it takes for the owner of the newspaper to leave their carriage and return, much to his chagrin - I'm sure there must be a serious rule of etiquette amongst those that partake of such challenges that you never fill in somebody else's crossword! Richard overstepped the bounds there, and what's more, found it highly amusing - that doesn't seem to be using his powers for law, order and justice! He does better when he allows himself to be whacked by one of Symons' men, disguised as carpet removals firm Chaudronnier (et Cie.). He's with it enough to know who of the pair hit him, even though it was behind him, as he pays the fellow back in kind later on, and isn't knocked unconscious as he's able to fall to the floor without spilling a drop from his (no doubt expensive), liquor, depositing it safe from harm under a small table for later - he's fine with a hard knock to the noggin, yet winces in pain when he's injected with a needle. Have we discovered his Achilles heel?

Craig senses the attack, but arrives too late, so the only contribution Sharron makes is to help him visualise the van he saw that must have taken Richard - he can see photographically, though it's not clear whether he actually sees it that perfectly or it's for the audience's benefit. As I mentioned, he senses Richard and Samantha's kiss, and is soon honed in on Symons' house, speaking to Richard when he's nearby, though Richard hears and ignores it to give himself more time to work out what's going on. Craig's hearing recognises 'The Four Seasons Suite,' and when he continues following Miss Killen he gains entry into her place by poking the garage door lock in with one finger! He's clumsy enough to knock a stove over, but quick thinking saves the day as he pulls a nail out of the wall so they can attribute the sound to a tyre falling down. Sometimes you can only speculate that it's a power because it may be the nail wasn't that secure in the wall anyway, though it did look like he had to use some strength of grip to rip it out. The same can be said when Richard flicks a bottle cap off with his thumb: it could be an ordinary thing, but as easily could be a display of force that ordinary people couldn't do, and sometimes that's the beauty of it. It doesn't always have to be grand gestures and impressive shows of force, because they'd be able to do little things better, too. Though it's still satisfying to see Richard knock the guy who clobbered him earlier, all the way through an open door, like a bowling pin sent flying.

The main use of special power is Richard's brain magically unravelling the code - Symons gives him twelve hours to accomplish the task (it should have been called 'Twelve Hours'!), and he does it in five, then remembers every detail, not needing to keep it in written form for Symons, or anyone else, to see. It's not among the most spectacular examples, but it's different, akin to Craig hurriedly working out the correct coordinates for a safe location to redirect the missile in 'The Search' - in both cases they succeed without computers, Craig because he needed to be faster than a computer, and Richard, when Symons expresses surprise that he didn't use the prepared computer room to help him, admits that he wouldn't have known how to use it! It's fascinating to see the place of computers in the lives of people a few decades ago, and then compare it to how integral they've become in such a short space of human history. Scary, in a way. It's another example of a question that would be interesting to pose if 'The Champions' was a series made today: seeing how they'd deal with computers as they are now, and how they'd match up, as I suspect that would be the main opposition force they'd be facing, all the villains would be doing things over the internet or running programs.

Once again we find ourselves in the environs of London, the favourite place of crooks and villains in the series. Apart from that and Tremayne's office it's all new, though I suspect the corridor the night watchman ran through (dressed in suitably Swiss attire), was one of the usuals redressed. It looks good, with Craig exploring the London streets here and there, but though I found it less dull than I feared (impressed by the opening, and enjoying the beginning of the mystery), it was too messy a story with too many unanswered questions, not answered because they weren't really important. At least the smaller guest cast is easier to follow: Samantha and her two associates, Symons and his two, and the Manager of Chaudronnier (et Cie.), whose van was stolen and Craig follows up as a line of enquiry. The poor guard didn't get a credit (nor the old man on the train), although I think he marks the first we see of a member of Nemesis (no matter how small in the organisation's pay), other than the four main cast, but he never spoke. Richard's cage was gilded not just with Samantha, but with various statues and objet d'art, including a goodly sized one of what I like to imagine was Mr. Tumnus the faun from 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,' though it was just as likely to be Pan. Richard must have felt quite at home among this lavishly adorned room as it was quite in keeping with his own taste. One thing about his record player I noticed is the previous record was still playing when he put another one in without removing the first, so perhaps it had the ability to store more than one at a time on the turntable? And here marks the halfway point of the series…

**

New Star Trek TV Series' - Picard & Lower Decks

New Star Trek TV Series' - Picard & Lower Decks

With the latest announcement of another new Trek series being produced it's an exciting time. They aren't yet at the output of Trek's heyday in the Nineties when there were fifty-two episodes a year and a feature film every other year, and there's still a long way to go to reach that if the current trend for fifteen or less episodes a season continues as it looks likely to. But still, 'DSC' is gearing up for its second season, the Jean-Luc Picard series, complete with Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role has been confirmed as a planned multiple-season run, and now an animated comedy cartoon, 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' joins the production line.

My first thought is that we don't need an animated series, due to my aversion to non-canon material. My last thought is the same. While it seems in some quarters that 'Star Trek: The Animated Series,' the Seventies Filmation cartoon, is thought to be canon, I still hold to the consensus opinion that, as Gene Roddenberry was unhappy with it and considered it not to be canon, and as the producers since that time have taken the same view, the only true canon of Trek is what is shown in live action film and TV shows. People can argue about the rightness and wrongness of that position, find comments from people back in the day that support 'TAS,' and cite examples of references to it in such things as 'Enterprise,' even expound on how much they love certain episodes, but for me it doesn't change its non-canon status - if we based canon on our preferences then we'd all have different canon and that's not how it works. Canon is the 'true' history, the continuity commonly established for the overarching universe of Trek, and its sense of internal consistency is one of the biggest draws of the franchise and something that appears to be under threat of erosion from the Kelvin Timeline to the 'updated aesthetics' of 'Discovery.'

First, there is canon within 'TAS' by the very fact that those things were referenced elsewhere in live-action Trek, and I'm fine with them making ever more become canon, but it doesn't mean that everything is canon within 'TAS' because of that. Not until it's specifically addressed in live-action. It's all to do with the reality and integrity of the universe, otherwise anything goes… which brings me to 'Lower Decks.' The idea of a series focusing on the lesser crew rather than the Bridge officers has been speculated upon ever since the great Season 7 'TNG' episode of the same name. Whether it could actually work in that structure is debatable, but many would like to see them try, and was something at first suspected for 'DSC' when it was announced the main star wouldn't be the Captain. I still haven't seen 'DSC' yet (waiting on the DVDs), but I get the impression it didn't follow that path. So the idea is sound, but I'm not keen on a Trek comedy series. I wasn't keen on another animation, either, as early as its first announcement, but I would have at least been somewhat interested in a serious animation, perhaps with the voice cast of 'DS9' (rather like the beautifully detailed style that has been shown in the images released for the new documentary on that series, 'What We Left Behind'), or 'Voyager,' though as far back as the Nineties Armin Shimerman wanted to do an animated Ferengi series which never happened.

I'm relieved that the Picard show isn't going to be the animated project as I was fearing that slightly, but an ugly style in the character designs I've seen, and the description of the previous form of the main man behind it puts me right off. If it's also an 'adult' comedy I'll not have the least bit of interest. If it's a family cartoon, which seems to be suggested by the comments about it broadening the Trek to "fans of all ages" as Alex Kurtzman (the current Rick Berman), said, then I can at least get on board with the idea of trying to catch the young early so they grow up into other Treks, much like 'Star Wars' has done with its animated content, but I doubt it would appeal. The difficulty with Trek has always been that at heart it's a thoughtful, mentally stimulating and narratively satisfying exploration. This approach may have been softened vastly from 'Enterprise' on, but it's why those old series' are still popular and still bringing in large audiences on streaming sites, as Netflix revealed a while back. I'm not saying a modern animation can't do what those live action series' did, but everything points to it being the opposite of what people like me want in their Trek.

The argument for bringing in younger generations is of course valid, but I would argue that Trek itself was generally a family affair: I first got into Trek watching 'The Original Series' with my Father in the early Nineties when it was shown on BBC2, and from there slowly discovered the other shows, growing up as Trek seemed to grow with me, and revisiting it as my brain became sharper and better able to discern deeper things than fistfights and weird aliens. 'DS9' was always the best thing for that as I watched and re-watched it over the years on video and latterly, DVD, discovering new things all the time. Since then, beginning with 'Enterprise' there seemed to be a process of dumbing down as the creative forces behind it became largely spent, with a brief flare of creativity towards the end of that series that heralded the last burst of life before burnout of the franchise ready for a new shoot to grow in its place, but one that continued the tradition of simplification in an attempt to bypass the vast canon, rules and established facts and style so as to appeal to a wider audience.

My point is that I found Trek appealing, and that's why I wanted to keep watching it and have never grown tired of it, despite there being over seven hundred episodes and now thirteen films. I didn't need animation to break me in gently, but with 'DSC' they've made the decision to be 'mature,' which is really just another word for being lazy, loosening up on the baser instincts of human nature towards a harder-edged, more visceral experience rather than mental stimulation and satisfaction. If they had kept that series family friendly (and again, I admit to not having seen it, but I know about a lot of the content), they wouldn't need something else to appeal to younger generations, and, as Trek became to me, it could be a progression of itself that the viewer follows. When I was young I preferred the action and ship battles, but as I grew older I took onboard the character and depth of the universe until the action became secondary to that. That's why 'talky' episodes such as 'Duet' from 'DS9,' or 'Tapestry' from 'TNG' remain as compelling as ever - they don't rely on special effects or violence (not to say there isn't any, but it's not integral), such things are in their proper place: to serve the story. Trek at best is a series of good stage plays, sometimes strung out in arcs over many episodes (Dukat's fascinating fall and rise and fall in the viewer's estimation, is spectacular).

With all this talk of deep canon, character and story, I'm not saying a comedic, half-hour cartoon can't do those things, I'm just saying if I want to see more Trek I want to see the Trek I want to see. It's not for everyone, don't try and make it so, but if you do, at least try to advance Trek in some way. If this had been a heavily CGI series that was setting a new trend and new standards for animation then it would be worthwhile, but the trouble with Trek in this century has been that rather than do its own thing it tries to ape other things (such as the Kelvin films following the trend of 'Casino Royale' for Bond and 'Batman Begins' for Batman, of re-envisioning long-lived series'). 'TNG' and its spinoffs were so special because they were unique, they dared to be different and in essence created a whole new sub-genre that led to numerous sci-fi series', from the 'Stargates' to 'Farscape' and many others besides. The films haven't touched people like me, not because we don't like action, but because they aren't true to Trek and seem bland in comparison to the powerful drama and characterisations of what came before. Lightning was caught in a bottle on several occasions in Trek's history, but that doesn't mean that labelling the bottle 'Star Trek' will guarantee a lightning strike every time thereafter.

All this is a long-winded way of getting around to saying that I wonder at the people behind Trek. I'm excited by the possibilities of so much potentially being made in the next few years, but this is tempered by the track record so far. The more that is thrown at the wall, the more chance that at least something will stick (I'm banking on the glorious return to the 24th Century with the Picard series), but 'Star Wars' has been a warning to the faithful: more doesn't necessarily mean good. I haven't loved any of the 'Star Wars' I've seen this century, so much that it's tainted my view of the older films. And 'The Hobbit' so poisoned my view of Middle-Earth that I haven't watched 'The Lord of The Rings' films for many a year, despite them being among my favourites. What Trek really needs is someone like Manny Coto, who both had a strong creative vision for Trek, and one that suited its legacy. Somewhere between the strict, rigorous and disciplined Rick Berman style, and the loose, casual one displayed by those of current Trek, the films and so on. I can't yet really judge Alex Kurtzman (except for his part in the first two Kelvin films), especially as the first season of 'DSC' was designed from the blueprints left behind by Bryan Fuller, a man that on paper would have seemed to be the perfect hand to guide Trek to a new era of success, but in actual fact much of what was changed and created discontent among long-time viewers was down to his mandates. It sounds as if 'DSC' will gradually hew closer to Trek as we know it (such as Klingons having hair again when so much was made about them being bald). I only hope the pendulum effect swings much closer to what I want to see.

Trek is in a good position at the moment, the Prime Universe, if not thriving, ready to burst out when so many said we'd never be going back to that 'tired' old universe. My advice is make what you want to make that you think will bring people in, but don't make Trek what it isn't, in order for people to like it, because eventually it'll turn around, as it has done for some, and become what the people that liked it don't like. And then it needs to change to something to get more people in, and so the cycle continues! Concentrate on its strengths and be careful what you make canon.

Anticipation Rating:

Lower Decks: *
Picard series: ****


The other series' that have yet to be officially confirmed are a Starfleet Academy young adult series (I imagine a 'Smallville' kind of thing), and a miniseries about Khan's reign in exile on Ceti Alpha V, ostensibly with Nicholas Meyer behind it, the man who directed Khan's comeback, 'Star Trek II.' If Meyer is truly involved then there's a chance it could be something worthwhile, though he was paraded as a name behind 'DSC' in its early days and I hear he seemed to vanish from all contribution when the series was released, his involvement still largely undisclosed. I can't imagine it being a good story, just playing off the Khan name, which didn't help 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' it could be argued, but who knows? I'm too old to appreciate Young Adult fare, although if the first two seasons of 'Smallville' were the template it could be good. But I doubt it.

Anticipation Rating:

Khan: **
Starfleet Academy: *


Unrelated to any of this, except very loosely, is seeing pictures of Armin Shimerman back in the Quark makeup after almost twenty years in coverage of a recent convention. It made me warm and happy to see - makeup doesn't age, so (apart from the teeth which didn't look quite right), he was identical to the Quark we knew. And now I really want to see Quark come back in either the Picard series or something else! Genuinely, the character was my favourite of all in Trek, Shimerman's performance an incredible achievement that doesn't get much recognition. Forget Kirk, Spock, Picard, Data, Janeway or Seven of Nine. Quark was always the best!