The Silent Enemy

DVD, The Champions (The Silent Enemy)

The third and final submarine episode of the series, and it was actually the first to be filmed, so any duplication of the underwater model sub shots, the full-size sets, or anything else that appears to be reused from a previous episode is actually being created for the first time here. It was the best of the three, with Craig comfortable sailing with his countrymen, an American crew (or at least Captain Sam Baxter is, we don't hear the others speak - even the Chief Engineer remains stubbornly silent when spoken to), to recreate a voyage that ended in the deaths of all one hundred and thirty crewmen from cardiac failures. It's a suitably creepy opening with Baxter's Number One from the Artemis (only known by his title or George), going down alone into the mysteriously silent William J. Keble submarine. Some atmospheric direction is used here and a few other places, having the camera play George's point of view to up the tension as we wonder what will explain this silence. He moves further into the well-designed set of this eerily tomblike submarine until encountering the crew, all frozen at their posts, the victims of… THE SILENT ENEMY!

The authorities have covered up the Keble's true mission, an attempt to assess undersea steaming capability, through the 'publicity gimmick' of an around the world undersea voyage, although making a big deal of it so the press get their noses on a story might not have been the best way to approach a mission that would have been shrouded in secrecy anyway, though it could have been a blind so that the unnamed nation operating from an island off Ascension in the South Atlantic, didn't get suspicious when a sub gets in their waters. But as far as we know they didn't have any idea about this nation and their secret weapon, unless they weren't being entirely honest and the 'real' mission to test their underwater endurance was a blind for a mission to uncover what was going on there… But that wouldn't make any sense because then Captain Baxter would have been expecting to meet with some form of opposition, which makes me think the Keble had a purely accidental encounter originally which led the lead scientist on the project, Minoes, to relish testing his power.

One thing that makes this episode stand out is our characters being mostly separate from the villains of the piece - I don't think Craig or Richard, the only ones to even get inside the island facility, even set eyes on the Minister, or Minoes, dealing only with their soldiers in a bid to escape captivity. Their resilience is the only thing that saves them, initially, with the two seaman who row them ashore victims of the invisible attack, but it gave the episode a unique kind of danger for them to face because you can't outwit air. They have to escape because even their metabolism couldn't sustain a high exposure to the gas, a real sense of peril hanging over their urgent escape from the base while the villains kill each other off: Minoes shows his cruel, calculated mind again by not giving his Minister the necessary medication, instead letting him die in agony to prevent the man ruining him as he threatened to do. Then Stanton, the spy who shows up as a reporter at the Holy Loch Naval Base in Scotland, gets aboard the Keble as a sailor, and then escapes to his countrymen on the island, fights the scientist for the only gas mask in the room (you'd think due to the nature of the experiments everyone would be constantly carrying one around!), pushing him into the greatest concentration of the gas in the chamber he'd locked Richard into. Poetic justice is the order of the day for each of the villains - if the Minister hadn't sanctioned these experiments and constantly exploded with rage he'd still be alive, and if Minoes hadn't tried to test Richard to destruction he wouldn't have destroyed the air filter, and Stanton might not have been killed by the gas if he hadn't tried to shoot Craig. Definitely poetic.

The villains were a characterful and well-drawn bunch. Stanton's a shrewd enough agent that he can infiltrate a military submarine, and I assume he killed the poor sailor he drugged (again some kind of poetic justice, as although the sailor didn't deserve death, he did spoil his chances, getting drunk and not being able to protect himself), because if he'd been left unconscious he'd have awoken eventually and called in an alert. Stanton is cunning enough to use the facts against people, as when he causes a dangerous accident in the engine room through his lack of submariner knowledge and is to be locked up - in front of the Captain he informs the crew of volunteers their special mission is a guinea-pig run, replacing a dead crew, and they could have done more with potential mutiny in the story. I thought at the time it was a good job this Chief Engineer was silent as he might have turned enemy if he'd had the disposition of previous malcontent Raven in 'Twelve Hours'! Stanton manages to escape through violence and swim ashore where we find out he's one of them. Minoes is another eagerly evil man, excited to test out his deadly theories and quite happy to kill as many as necessary, while valuing his own survival as essential, though whether he meant for his own good or the use of the weapon, I don't know. There are some parallels with 'A Case of Lemmings' in that they both feature a dangerous new weapon developed by a scientist with deadly intentions who eventually succumbs to the results of his own creation, the knowledge dying with him. In the same way we have doubt thrown on the effectiveness of the weapon due to the resistance of the champions.

The third triangle of villainy is the wheelchair-bound Minister. He at least has the impression of being penitent for the deaths that have been caused, voicing his hope that by throwing Minoes to the courts it will appease the world governments so as not to come down so hard on their nation when they find out what's been going on. Unfortunately, his judgement was poor, not suspecting the murderous nature of his chief scientist. He was a fascinatingly acted character, with the glasses he wore, one lens much more magnified than the other, almost giving him the look of a Bond villain, with their strange physical quirks - the biggest facet was his volcanic temper, with an explosive head that looked like he was about to blow his top at any time, his face always red and angry through frustration or irritability. It's no wonder he had heart problems. He practically embodies the whole plot: his violent eruptions are similar to the rock face that the Keble surmises was thrown up by volcanic action. Likewise, the weapon is all about stopping the hearts of victims and the Minister is the only one who has any heart in that he feels some shame and concern about the actions he's overseen, and he dies, it appears from heart failure, so it's poetic justice again. He isn't even afforded a name, as if he's a force of nature, though crippled, and this evil nature is defeated by itself.

The sense of remove between the good and bad parties in the story adds realism, as this is the way it would be in conflict, the hero and villain wouldn't really face off for a gladiatorial battle to solve all problems as happens in ninety-nine percent of films! Even here we get Stanton and Craig meeting at the end, though there was no contest thanks to Craig's superior abilities - he just happens to be holding the grille from the air duct, which makes an ideal projectile to knock the enemy back, though Craig wouldn't have been trying to kill him, he just happens to fall right in front of a vent where gas is pouring through, his mask having slipped off in the fall. But Craig isn't sentimental, he advises maximum strike power from the US Air Force to blow the island out of the water and so prevent all chances of the weapon from getting off, presumably meaning all the soldiers were killed unless some had already managed to evacuate. I couldn't decide if Stanton simply didn't like Minoes and took vengeance on him, or if the scientist's desperation to claim the gas mask by right enraged the other man to self-preservation, because there was no need to cast him into the gas chamber itself, it was enough to leave him dazed in the lab, I'd have thought, unless he's the type who doesn't take any chances when he needs to guarantee success of a mission or a personal goal of survival. It was a good action scene with real shock value when Minoes gets hurled about so violently.

An episode is helped by the teamwork of our three champions, and though having them all on a sub narrows the range of what they can do, there was still time to show off their powers in a variety of ways, although, as ever, someone has to get captured (this time Craig and Richard, though they rescue themselves). Richard's big moment comes in the engine room accident caused by Stanton where steam rushes in and everyone has to get out before it turns into an oven, Richard charging back in to rescue an injured man in heroic style, wrenching the lever back into position, braving the heat and lifting the casualty easily. His strength comes back into it as his means to escape the gas chamber later, pulling the all important air filter off the wall so he can crawl into the ventilation. At the briefing in Tremayne's office, Richard and Sharron show their brain power with talk of how to calculate the Keble's original course and location so they can work out where whatever happened to them took place, talking almost in a robotic computer speed, though they stay away from actually doing any calculations in front of the boss! The champions aren't quite as discreet in front of the Captain and crew, with Sharron able to see dead fish on the island's shore when Baxter can't quite make out what they are with his binoculars, and she can't explain her 'premonition' that Craig and Richard are in trouble, the Captain agreeing to send a party in an hour if they hear nothing - that probably worked for the best as more of the crew might have died if they hadn't waited, Craig and Richard able to free themselves.

One thing never explained was the shimmery curtain that must have represented the gas, as we never see it like that after the first sighting on the surface of the island. It looked really nasty, giving the silent and invisible enemy a diabolical presence that wasn't matched by some weedy gas pumping through a vent as it's visualised afterwards. I understand why they felt the need to present the gas as gas so there was no confusion, but it would have been much cooler and more terrifying if we'd had this shimmering wall moving through the corridors as Craig and Richard flee. It was shocking enough when the pair so suddenly succumbed to the intense pain of cardiac arrest, both falling in unison as the weapon hits and only their tougher metabolisms preventing death, but powerful enough to knock them off their feet with the merest breath, paralysing the nervous system - there's something more insidious about silent or invisible killers like gas and electricity, especially considering society is based around their use, so the domestic need turning into a deadly horror holds more terror to conventional methods of execution or opposition. Sharron senses their collapse, but after that her involvement is lessened, though she does get to knock a burly seaman onto his rear when he tries to restrain her when the Captain puts her under guard to stop her doing anything rash - Baxter seems like a shrewd guy, he knows these Nemesis agents are a cut above and he both relies on their expertise, senses they can do things he can't, and might do anything at any moment if they think it necessary.

Case in point being Craig admitting to hearing the turn of the key in the locked cabinet of Baxter's quarters where they find Stanton brushing the Captain's jacket. Baxter doesn't quite believe Craig's claim, but he doesn't argue, he's already been saved from a crushing by the descending periscope which Craig had to hold with all his strength until Baxter extricated himself - you'd think such a heavy item would have a safety mechanism to prevent such eventualities! It was definitely Craig's episode as he gets the lion's share of stunts: breaking the handcuffs tethering him to a pipe in his cell on the island; tracking down Richard through his coughing in the ventilation system; talking telepathically with him, then ripping the grille off the wall so Richard can get out; and his big moment of action where he bursts the door of his cell off its hinges and takes out the guards who attack, though we'd already seen most of that sequence in the post-credits montage of 'Shadow of The Panther,' lessening its impact a little, even if it was a good scene. Craig also gets to be the star in the post-credits scene at the start of the episode, impressing an admiring young lady by throwing all the hoops onto the peg at a fairground stall. It was a charming scene, especially as we get to see all three of the champions having fun together, and it's a sequence of good length, not a quick cameo. If only all such scenes could be this entertaining and original - a number had been reused sequences in recent episodes!

The stock footage, while not being of make or break importance, can really help to sell an episode, and the choices here were expertly woven into the story. It begins with the fairground where we get some great POV of a roller-coaster, and this becomes almost a signature move of the episode's Director (he uses the device of interesting camera positioning for POV when George explores the silent sub, and again when we watch from the inside of the ambulance as the bodies of the crew are loaded in). The images of the island are far away and indistinct enough to work well, and the addition of the US Air Force doing recon gives the episode a larger scope beyond the sets they're on which the action takes place. One thing I noticed with amusement was that the plane they travel to Scotland on was not Pan Am for once, but BEA! The other success is the model work for the sub. Some of it had been seen previously in the other submarine based stories, 'The Search' and 'Twelve Hours,' but this was where it was created and we have more images of it approaching the reef of rock formations that aren't on the charts - I don't know if we were supposed to assume this was the result of experiments on the island, as if so that would mean they weren't only doing work on gas weaponry.

The credits held some interest, with Paul Maxwell (Captain Baxter), being awarded the rare honour of appearing on the same card as the main cast. Whether that means he was considered a special guest or they were saving space on the next card, I don't know, but I'd suspect the former. I wonder if he was related to the guy who played Stanton, as he was James Maxwell? As usual there are some controversial additions and absences, with the Lighthouse Keepers seen in only one scene at the beginning, credited, while one of the main cast, Number One, or George, doesn't get anything! That's the strangest omission yet as he had quite a lot to do, but maybe he was a young actor just starting out so they didn't need to credit him? One of the Lighthouse Keepers (which, interestingly I believe, is the first time two people are jointly credited, with a line between them as if joining the names), Rio Fanning, had played a Telegraphist in 'Twelve Hours,' another of the submarine episodes, although in real terms he did this role first and would have been invited back for the episode produced later. There are many extras, from reporters at the gates of the NATO Naval Base (a couple get lines and aren't credited), the dead crew and the new crew of the Keble, and the soldiers on the island, as well as the Doctor looking after the Minister, who also remains uncredited.

There are just a few mistakes or queries I have with the story. Okay, quite a few, actually: how did the original crew of the Keble die, since we see them all at their posts - how did the enemy blow the gas down into the sub, or was it surrounding the area around the island and they sucked it down automatically when they were forced to surface? The replacement crew isn't massive so you'd think they'd notice one of their number missing, with some stranger having replaced him. Unless they're all from different crews, being volunteers, and so didn't know each other, or maybe the unfortunate sailor whose place Stanton took was known for being an unreliable drunkard. It wasn't the safest idea to send one man down alone into a seemingly empty sub that's been running on automatic. Anyone or anything could have been down there. Then again, maybe George wasn't that important (if he didn't get a credit he couldn't have been), despite being the Number One! The usual problem with the sky backdrop around the conning tower 'resurfaces' again, with the lines in this 'sky' showing it to be a painted piece of scenery as we've seen before. And the Minister flubs one of his lines in his effort to maintain that angry, flustered and forceful manner of talking that was peculiar to him. Regarding the response to international powers he suggests they'll probably only make a cursory 'reconnance' rather than reconnaissance.

Finally, what could be seen as the biggest flaw of the episode comes in the final scene back in Tremayne's office at Nemesis. He wants Richard and Craig to undergo a medical and they both protest until the female Doctor who is to examine them enters and suddenly they're fighting over each other to be examined first! It is a good, funny scene and ends the episode well, but it was entirely inappropriate for the delicate situation they're in - they can't reveal anything about their revamped physiology and I'm sure they've even said that they need to avoid doctors. You only have to look at the previous episode, 'The Mission,' where we learnt they have a unique blood type never seen before, to know that they aren't going to get away with a cursory 'reconnance,' to quote the Minister, especially from someone who works for Nemesis. I can imagine the Security Chief Craig had trouble with in 'The Interrogation' having great interest in any medical results that would be forthcoming from the tests, and in no time their secrets would be out. Unless it was a clever bit of playacting, a bit like that scene in 'To Trap A Rat' where Richard pretends to steal a woman's handbag so Craig can chase after him and get into her good graces, only this time it was to defuse a potentially damaging situation and once they were out of the room they suddenly made excuses to the Doctor and escaped. Except Tremayne wasn't forcing them, and was quite mild in his response, so who knows? The best moment comes as an aftermath of their comical scene when Sharron, sharing a moment of levity with her boss, sits on his desk prompting a stern look that reminds her of her position, which was the cherry on top - getting a laugh on top of a laugh is an art.

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