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.

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