Project Zero

DVD, The Champions (Project Zero)

Another undercover mission, another 'mad' scientist with plans of power, another member of the champions team discovered and held captive, another rescue mission… Project Zero could refer as much to the level of originality as to its ground zero nuclear inference, but it does show some signs of ingenuity along the way. The dog whistle method of communication for one, the sinisterly empty village on the outside of the underground research lab, for another, and Sharron getting to save the day all by herself for a change. I'm always surprised when the Nemesis agents go in undercover, or in a different guise, only to use their own names! Now I know Dr. Voss didn't have access to Wikipedia (and it wouldn't be too hard for Nemesis to create a false account even if he did!), but you'd think there'd be a 'Who's Who' of 1966 or 1967 on a shelf somewhere that would show that no record of a successful scientist, such as 'Richard Barrett,' exists. Voss and his many comrades (and it did seem to be a sizeable operation, though it could have been a ruse, just as using an annexe at the Ministry in Whitehall was designed to make everything seem genuine and government sanctioned), appeared to be pretty resourceful in tracking down available scientists, so you'd think even a good cover would have been unearthed as fake. But they were coming to the end of the project and perhaps cutting corners, and the whole scene with that unfortunate reporter being tortured makes a strong case for Richard's profession being real. Personally, I think it was slapping on thick glasses that got him into the club…

That torture scene, where a man is strapped to a chair and bombarded with excruciating sound waves, was extreme, showing just how wicked Voss and his gang are, and it is surprising that he actually dies in agony on screen, no sensitive cutting away or hiding the horror of the situation. And this is what the champions must head into. 'The Avengers' and 'The Prisoner' were the first thing that came to mind from the pre-credits scene of a terrified scientist (we know this because he's wearing a white coat), runs haphazardly through the silent village until bursting into the Post Office he begs to use the phone, but is confronted by a seemingly slow proprietor who he can't get through to, but who calmly closes the blind and shoots him with a silenced pistol. From this man's actions you could speculate that the village is, in fact, just an ordinary place, because otherwise why would he need to close the blind if anyone seeing the execution was in on the operation? And why use a silenced pistol? Maybe it was just a quiet day, or early in the morning, and the natural instinct to head to the PO for communication to the outside world was what the villains were counting on if anyone were to escape. Either that, or the Postmaster, as he's credited, really was slow and it wasn't an act, and he was being very careful, or maybe he just liked to do things for effect. And those actions were very effective, the first time, at least. He was fortunate in that he was captured by Sharron rather than being on the plane she blows up like Voss and others of his group.

One approach the episode makes is very effective: that of setting things up first with normal people and seeing how they react (i.e., dying), then later showing how the champions deal with the same trick. So Richard takes to the torture chair we saw a man die in at the start, and Sharron faces the Postmaster's gun. The great thing is how they use their skills to survive. Something that could have done with greater exploration was the slight theme of their abilities versus more traditional technological gadgetry, first proposed by Craig as he and Sharron follow Richard's acceptance into the secret project with the use of a listening bug concealed in a slide rule. Bugs and gadgets are always interesting in this series just from the perspective of the period, showing what technology was capable of at that point, but the answer is 'relatively little' so they don't use them much. The only real advantage would seem to be in making reports where Tremayne can't question how they heard something or got some piece of information. As Craig says, their natural methods are superior to bugs, and it appears to be borne out by Richard's ruler dropping out of his pocket and being trodden on by the air stewardess, losing them their connection. As we've seen so many times before, they have the ability to speak without anyone else hearing, but there must be a limit on how far this works as even from London to one of the Orkney Islands where the secret lab is situated, they don't even try it. We've also seen the ability to transmit a visual message from mind to mind, but they don't try that here, either.

It just so happens that this time Craig tries out a different method of communication while Richard is still in London: a dog whistle that ordinary human ears can't detect, but which can be heard by theirs. It's loud enough that Sharron grimaces in pain sitting next to Craig when he uses it in the car. Convenient plot device aside, it works out well when Tremayne lets them use the same entry point Richard used to infiltrate, when they lose track of him: posing as scientists in need of support and being just the discipline in which someone was needed. It means that when they arrive at their mysterious destination off Scotland (Scotland again!), Craig can let Richard know he's there, and Richard fashions a crude version of a whistle to respond, since he can't actually speak any words unapproved by Voss and his cronies or they'll blow his head off by activating the miniature explosives locked into a metal collar around his neck. For once it shows how their powers can have drawbacks, as there's nothing Richard can say, it would immediately draw attention to his Nemesis colleagues, so the dog whistle in this case proves useful, though even there it's only effective thanks to their superior hearing. You'd have thought this would have been against Richard during his torture, as being so sensitive (as I mentioned, Sharron's in pain just from the whistle trial), would surely make the already deadly sound pressure many times worse, but perhaps it works like Vulcan inner eyelids in 'Star Trek,' and their ears can close off damaging sound?

Dr. Voss has many of the usual flawed characteristics of those who follow the path of villainy, not least of which is a failure to kill his most dangerous opponents quickly and cleanly. Instead, he has to put the collar on Richard and forces him to lie to the other scientists that he's actually an undercover reporter who has been found out, something which they can believe, under the influence, as they are, of the plausible setup that this is a top secret government project. They all seem to be goodhearted British fellows (presumably the other nationalities had already made their contributions earlier in the development), as shown by their horrified reaction to the truth when Craig and Sharron show them 'illustrations' for ideas on the guidance system of the fission gun they've built (cover for a message about what's really going on - fortunate that no CCTV cameras were in use). Antrobus' first thought is that their work must be destroyed, a selfless, but common sense reaction when you consider how thrilled he was by the success of the experiment to fire a microscopic beam of accelerated electrons into the nuclear material, the device said to be the combination of a laser beam and an electron gun (though it looks like an oversized Phaser rifle from Trek when it fires!). The Manhattan Project is mentioned, the famous creation of the first atom bomb by the Americans, and which Wittering, one of the scientists, was said to be involved in. This new device, which the inventors believe is to be used in defence only, is considered the most important breakthrough in twenty years, but that must all be tossed aside to prevent it being used by an enemy.

Voss' motivations or plans are never made entirely clear to us, though he hints that he may either be working for the 'other superpower,' or that he has plans to sell his services to the highest bidder, or that he may just take out all the nuclear weapons, though something tells me he wouldn't be doing that for benevolent reasons. With the power to detonate nuclear warheads within three miles of the gun, wiping out nuclear stockpiles of the major powers wouldn't be out of the question, and perhaps he even had plans to become some kind of world dominator and hold the globe to ransom. His death by explosion doesn't seem so unwarranted in that light. Sharron gets to take the credit for foiling the plot and saving the whole island's skins by rigging the gun to explode on use, but it was a tense moment as Voss' plane speeds overhead for its sighting and bombing runs and there's nothing Richard and Craig can do to avoid destruction. It's fitting that Sharron gets the post-credits sequence alone at the beginning of the episode, though her turn at wine-tasting, accurately correcting the vintner's dating of the bottle, wasn't exactly one of the more impressive feats, as any good connoisseur could probably do the same.

It sets the tone for an episode that in small moments is good, but is lacking overall and not terribly engaging, as we've had several times in a row. It was another that was made roughly in the middle of production, but it feels derivative of other plots we've seen, with their secret labs and nuclear related issues. Obviously undercover operations is what they do, uniquely qualified as they are, although Richard doesn't have opportunity to use his abilities until he's been discovered at the lab when they overhear him talking dissension to another scientist, and, sensing someone's coming for him, he's too late to save himself from soldiers and metal cages that trap him in the corridor. I can only assume that every corridor had these hidden cages in case they needed to stop anyone moving around, and I suppose it was merely that they didn't have time to activate them when the scientists form a teargas-chucking mob and take down the soldiers later in the episode! As already discussed, Richard, though in some discomfort, isn't going to be put out even by the highest setting of Voss' torture device, operated with cruel gusto by his assistant, Miss Davies (I think - I don't remember hearing her name in the episode, but it must be her in the credits as she's the only main female guest), a gaunt-faced woman with steely cold eyes. One of my favourite moments is Richard's smug smile as he realises this is all they've got, baffling Voss' torture device on maximum setting.

Craig tries to speak to Richard when he first arrives, and once contact is made, he's able to do so in close proximity to his friend's ear so the microphone in the collar can't detect it, and he can read Richard's mouthed responses. The scientists are all on board when the truth is revealed and Craig hunts down the bug in their lab, though this didn't appear to be anything other than observation rather than being led to it. Craig and Richard join forces to whack a couple of guards, Craig's strength in evidence in the way he can flip one head over heels with just a twist of the arm, and it seemed rather unfair when they get out into the corridor and both take on one lone soldier! Sharron gets the best demonstration all to herself: when the Postmaster is about to take his silenced potshot she senses the danger and when he fires it's at fresh air, the phone left dangling from his point of view, then she barrels into him from the side and soon has him on the ground with a heel to the neck - I was wondering why they hadn't given her flat shoes in which to mount her escape and this is the reason! As powers go there weren't a lot of them, and the story's largely restricted to the underground lab which is already familiar from other episodes as it's the same square-tiled floor and arched corridors that had been used a few times before. Other sets are familiar, too, such as the rooms Richard's staying in at the Parthenon Club when he gets his visit from Mr. Forster, posing as internal security for the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the annexe for the meeting at the Ministry in Whitehall which I think was used in 'The Invisible Man.'

Tremayne is once again very sparingly seen and only at the beginning, where he briefs them on the disappearance of leading scientists of every nationality during the past year. He doesn't even get a return at the end, which is another conclusion that finishes the episode abruptly as Sharron appears at the lab to sound the all clear. This may be because there were just so many characters in the episode, reflected in the guest credits which run to an unprecedented two pages! A massive thirteen credits covers everyone who had a line, I believe: the scientists, Wittering, Antrobus (played by Peter Copley, more famous to me for playing Abbot Heribert almost thirty years later in 'Cadfael'), Grayson the chemist, Sloane, and Dr. Albert Travis, the man killed at the beginning. The Postmaster who killed him is there, Voss and his assistant, Miss Davies, Mr. Forster, the Chairman who interviews Richard for the role of Chief Research Officer for their computer development division, as well as the pilot of the plane at the end (which we actually see explode via the use of special effects), and even the Stewardess (played by Jill Curzon, a name I recognised, eventually remembering she was in the 'Dr. Who' film 'Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150 AD'). I assume Hedges was the guy tortured to death as there weren't any other speaking characters. I wonder if he was a Nemesis agent or a real reporter who'd made these newspaper stories believing them to be true? I think he was an agent as it's far more dramatic that he stuck to his cover story till death to make sure Richard's cover was believed, showing true bravery and commitment to the cause, and making it another of the moments that stand out.

The episode needed those moments, it didn't have the strongest of stories, or maybe it was just that the situation could have been more tense throughout when you take into the consideration what happens, with Richard's explosive collar, the bombing run at the end, the village with its sinister Post Office… The location filming looked good, both for the village and for the scene where Sharron has to sneak aboard the plane upon which the fission gun will be tested, which is a real plane in a field (even if the backdrop to the outside looks fake and painted when we see her enter the plane set from the inside). The plane set itself had been used a few times, and London as a location is seen a number of times, too. I don't quite know why this is another episode that just fails to succeed, but it may be down to a villain who wasn't as well drawn as others, nor were his associates. Maybe there were too many characters because I'd have liked to have seen more of the Postmaster, while Miss Davies is just portrayed as a bland, if intense, henchwoman. The champions work together closely, and there are the occasional tense moments, like Craig working to free Richard from the collar, but it didn't play up the unique elements of the village or location, which is why I don't have much to say about it, and it's a little forgettable.

**