Nutcracker

DVD, The Champions (Nutcracker)

It wasn't the toughest of nuts to crack, was it? Not for the superior abilities of our champions, and because the challenge was diluted across other areas, the central problem was a mere wisp of a task requiring only a photographic memory to defeat. The premise sets them up for a deadly game of problem-solving that has an added sting of danger from mere heist, but because it's just a basic 'puzzle' rather than a series of difficulties which would tax even enhanced humans, they had to fill out the story with other elements, yet never satisfyingly achieved that, either. If they'd followed the test route to its logical conclusion we'd have had all three trapped in a maze of some kind, physical and perhaps psychological, a chance for the trio to really flex their mental muscles and skills to the utmost because each other's survival would depend on it, but instead it veers off into standard territory of one of the gang being captured and the others trying to track them down. In some ways it couldn't be more like 'The Avengers,' with its London setting (yet again! They can't get enough of old London town, despite being a series where the globe is their oyster), its peculiarly British eccentricities (a secret vault hidden by a quality London shop), and its villain of a medical professional using subliminal messaging to control his patients. It's not the unoriginality that's the problem, though: we'd already seen subliminal or hypnotic suggestion ('Shadow of The Panther' to name one), and a surgeon who controls his patients ('The Invisible Man'), and they were some of the better stories.

No, it's the inability to commit to the premise fully, and give us an internal test in the same manner that the agents were tested by the external threat of the enhanced agents in 'The Experiment' to see how they measured up to people on their level. It's also a bit repetitious, which drags the episode down a little, mainly in the vault sequence, but also in the fake police chasing down first Lord Mauncey's surly, alcoholic guard after he's strangled his charge to death, and then Richard, as pleasing as it was to see footage of cars zipping around London streets rather than stock footage (although scenes inside the vehicles were sometimes back projection - we also get another obviously painted backdrop as the view from the shop window). The vault had stuck in my head from previous viewings, and why I had the impression of a deadly dull episode. The logic doesn't seem to hang together too well, either: that anyone of the few people wanting to access the files contained in the vault have to go through an identification by the Manager of Aberdon & Jones shirt and tie-makers (in the Brummell Arcade off Piccadilly, to be precise), giving the correct code to be allowed in, then take a lift (disguised as a changing room), down to a lower level, then flip the correct switches to form a pattern on a bank of lights, then finish off a tune on a keyboard, and finally set the tumblers to the correct numbers to open the vault door… Just imagine if they had a memory blank and forgot what they came down for!

The files, including the mysterious 'F' file, are said to be NATOs top secret documents, but how useful are they with that level of access? Anyway, ignoring the ridiculousness of how to access these files, we see the sequence played out by Lord Mauncey, and to the episode's credit, the teaser does begin quite mysteriously with all this secret code stuff in everyday settings that would spark off the imagination of younger viewers watching, I'm sure. But then we have the briefing with Major Duncan, head of M7, British Intelligence, talking through each step of the verification procedure, and although it's in different form, with slides and photos, and verbal explanation, it feels like you're going through the whole thing again. And then of course we have to see Richard do it, so by the time he gets back to the lift and starts back for his tie, you're really hoping he's not going through the whole process yet again - it's with relief you see him pick up the tie from the keyboard and leave! Going back to the justification for such sensitive material being treated this way, you have to wonder what benefit could be taken from the files when you're only ever allowed ten minutes down there, no cameras (they say the files couldn't have been photographed, but what about miniature lenses?), and files that contain pages and pages of facts and figures that are not allowed to be removed from the vault! So what actual use are these files with those restrictions upon them?

Admittedly, only nine people, including Mauncey were allowed access, so perhaps they're just sensitive details that can't be destroyed, but aren't necessary day to day, held in storage in case they should ever be needed for whatever purpose, but it's charitable to allow for logic and reason in such staged setups. I can believe in Nemesis being called in in order to test the quality of the security, which had already passed the test of Mauncey since he wasn't able to actually remove the 'F' file, but Duncan wants to make sure there are no holes in the system. I'm not sure why he needed to leave in deadly safeguards that he tells them are there as a last resort, but doesn't say where, how and what, nor does he turn that part of the test off. It's to be dramatic, but even given the record of Nemesis are they really going to risk life and limb to test a security system for a bunch of files? The point is to put the champions in jeopardy, except we never do find out what the final safeguard after the gas would have been - at first it's easy to suppose that the police are on the lookout for anyone exiting the shop, but then you find out they aren't really police (which gets me to another question - how could a couple of dental surgeon John Warre's receptionists impersonate policemen in London without being pulled in by the real coppers, which in those days were always in whistling distance of each other?).

We also don't ever find out what Warre's motivation for stealing the files was, or what other uses he puts to the audible subliminal messages he implanted in the minds of high-ranking patients such as Mauncey or Duncan. Was it all a ploy to get at the files or was he just a baddie for hire, dealing with whatever came his way and infiltrating government departments, or whatever, as the opportunity arose. It's another of those stories that ends with the bad guys being smacked around by Craig and Richard, they walk out shaking the dust off their hands, effectively, a job well done. And that's it, no answers, not even Sharron joining them there, let alone a debriefing with Tremayne where we might have found out what it was all about. I'm sure British Intelligence isn't going to be very pleased with Nemesis since they were already pleading with Tremayne in the previous episode, and now one of their top men is shown to be compromised, albeit not with his complicity, so you have to wonder how they'd save face in front of this international organisation. I wish there had been a bit of international espionage competition in the series, perhaps using the guy that interrogated Craig in 'The Interrogation,' and other countries' official networks to provide some rivalry and drama. In all of this we don't even find out what was so special about the 'F' file itself, it's just a means to an end. Probably the most abrupt finish to an episode so far.

I actually liked the episode ever so slightly more than I expected, as I thought it was going to be the most boring of the lot, but the vault sequence doesn't go on all that long and the car sequences weren't bad, even if bad guys pretending to be police is a bit of a trope of these kinds of series, but what partially saved the story was the interactions of the main trio of characters who were professional, yet lighthearted in their usual way - when Sharron expresses concern about what to do if they encounter the deadly safeguard Craig glibly says, "Send flowers." It's that kind of relaxed interplay they do so well. Having said that, and enjoyed Craig trying to keep up with Richard until the 'police' throw caltrops under his wheels to bring him to a halt (shouldn't he have leapt from the vehicle and followed on foot, given the extreme levels of athleticism he's capable of?), or Sharron showing compassion to the captive Mauncey, after their meetings or briefings, the three don't do all that much together, with Sharron once again being protected by the noble Craig and Richard who take on the challenge of the vault by tossing for it, Richard the 'lucky' winner. At least there was a hint of the characters' personal lives when, on Craig expressing the desire to get this mission over as quickly as possible so they can return to Geneva, Sharron suggests he wants to get back to 'Magda,' whoever she is. It's only a little thing, but it fills them out a bit when they talk about their real lives outside the job, something we're used to in TV shows since that time, but wasn't attempted much in Sixties TV shows like this.

Once again their powers are mostly pushed into the background so that, apart from Richard's photographic memory being key to getting in and out of the vault without any trouble, they could be in just any old ordinary spy series. Even the photographic memory isn't an impossibility as some humans do have that ability naturally so they were still failing to use the qualities of the series to the full at this time. Still, as ever, there are a few instances, ranging from subtle to obvious uses of powers beginning with the post-credits scene, as you'd expect, where Craig's at a stall (the Bar B-Q Dude Ranch, no less), of a funfair, presumably in America (so perhaps he was on leave and maybe the lady he was with was Magda?), since a cowboy comes riding down through the use of stock footage (I'd love to know what film or series it was from), and shows his abilities with a six-shooter, only to be bested by Craig when they both fire at a target. Not one of the memorable post-credits and might be out of place for an episode so London-centric, but maybe it was put in deliberately to add the global feel missing from the rest of the episode. More likely they didn't consider things that carefully and just chucked it in there because it was ready to use! Sharron shows her intelligence by predicting the 'F' file is what Tremayne's about to talk about, then has to cover her leap as if she was being too clever, though it's a stretch to see all that in the scene. She also acts as a human lie detector, able to tell Mauncey is being truthful when he says he doesn't know why he tried to remove the 'F' file, which is her best moment, I would say.

When Craig and Richard break into Duncan's office to track down the codes for the vault as part of their test, they use intuition to find his hidden safe, but not in the manner of special powers, just common sense, so that doesn't qualify. Richard's big moment is recalling all the codes and passes to get through the vault's security, but it was more interesting that he comes to during Warre's men's abduction of him while they consult with the voice on the security camera and he's pretending to remain unconscious even when he gets a slapping from one of them and ignores the smelling salts thrust under his nose. The last instance of their powers being used is when Craig comes to the rescue at Warre's dental surgery, throwing one of the receptionists over his own desk in the way they like to hurl people head over heels. At the same time, in the other room Richard seemingly succumbs to the hypnotic lights and sounds used to condition Warre's patients, but just when we think he might be in danger of coming under the influence he hasn't, leaping up and knocking the other man about, as well as Warre - I love how he leaves the blond henchman propped up on top of one of the filing cabinets like a rag doll! And that's everything, powers-wise.

The internal sets were reuses of several we've seen a number of times over the series, with Warre's rooms looking almost identical to those of the Doctor in 'The Invisible Man,' with its tiled floor, which is ironic considering how similar he was to that character, except with less personality and motivations that remained hidden. The most fascinating set for me was seeing Tremayne actually talking to his agents in the area on the other side of the screen in his office. Up till now we'd just been teased with that part of the room, occasionally allowed a glimpse behind that huge rotating map to see a row of chairs, or filing cabinets when Richard's file was stolen, but this time they're all sat round that side and you can see the windows stretch right across, with Tremayne looking out, and a little coffee table to sit round. The row of chairs against the wall are still there, with a bookcase next to them featuring a piece of sculpture on top. We don't see the cabinets, but then the camera doesn't look at that part of the room, but after so many episodes of being intrigued by that hidden side of the most important location of the series it was actually exciting to get such a good look over there, especially as it was so unexpected!

Maybe I missed out one of Richard's abilities from my list as when Duncan hands him the photo of the keyboard he'll be encountering in the room before the vault he looks at it intently, but once he's passed it on, Craig flips over the paper cover to reveal the photo! So Richard must have been using some x-ray vision to be able to see through the paper. It was funny when I noticed that. Another funny visual happening was when the police pull over the surly guard who's just finished off the unfortunate Mauncey - they drive in front of him and come to a stop a few metres ahead, but I suppose brakes in those days weren't as effective, as the guard's car keeps going until it's almost on top of the police car and there's a great judder from that car which made it look like the guard had driven right into the back of it. I couldn't be sure because the policeman gets out of his vehicle at just that moment so it could have just been the change in weight inside the vehicle that made it look like it lurched from a bump. At first I wasn't sure if this guard was working for Warre as he's so unpleasant to old Mauncey and clearly has character flaws as demonstrated by his surreptitious swig from a whisky bottle when his fellow guard's snoozing over his paper, but it could be that he was yet another dental patient that had been conditioned to kill, as he doesn't recognise the fake officers and they shoot him, so maybe he didn't even know that he'd just killed a man. It was certainly of interest to see the police use an early form of the breathalyser to test this guard for alcohol: a bag with a little tube. Makes me wonder how it worked.

Warre is a typical power-hungry villain as shown by his pleasure in controlling his victims, but also in a flair for the melodramatic, speaking to Richard through the CCTV camera in his cell. It occurred to me just how old this series is when Richard asks the camera if Big Brother is watching him - it was so strange to think that the book that created the concept, '1984,' was less than twenty years old at the time this episode was made! Warre wasn't much of an adversary, not like the doc from 'The Invisible Man,' and you never really had a strong sense of who he was and what he wanted. If anything, his henchmen had more power on screen with the power of authority of the law behind them in their impersonation. I'm assuming they were Walcott and Travers from the credits as they were never named in dialogue, and I have no idea which was which. The guard who murdered Mauncey didn't even get a name in the credits, and strangely, while the Manager and his Assistant at Aberdon & Jones were both awarded names in Major Duncan's briefing (Clive Perburn and David Hollis, respectively), they were only credited by their roles. For once, apart from these little aberrations, the credits were clear cut, everyone who had a role of any significance being credited. Only the other guard (who never moves, let alone speaks), and the American customer speaking at the shop, go uncredited.

For once the position of the episode in the DVD set's order is exactly the same as its production position: fourth from last. It's yet another that suffers from almost ignoring the unique tenets of the series and you can see by this time they were just pumping out stories to complete the thirty, or at least that's how it seems when you watch them. The actors don't look tired, far from it, and I didn't guess that this was genuinely one of the last to be shot while I was watching. It's not that the format was tired, either, they just hadn't expanded upon it, perhaps it was constrained by the needs of TV at the time. So they could mention Craig's friend Magda, but we weren't going to ever see her. And while Tremayne had had a few outings from his office earlier in the series, by this stage he was just there for a few words of instruction, mostly at the beginning. There were no recurring cast members outside of the main four and no returning villains - each episode was rigidly separate from the others, for the most part, which only made it that much more special when something like 'The Interrogation' came along out of the blue. 'Nutcracker' wasn't one of the worst, but beneath its shell it cupped only a withered little piece of nutty goodness, not a tasty treat to be enjoyed over and over again. Nut the best, then.

**