DVD, Smallville S2 (Ryan)
I had completely forgotten Ryan's fate. I thought he was only in two episodes, but assumed it was just one of those instances where he went off again to live happily ever after and was simply never brought back. So it was a shocking twist when Martha and Jonathan appear with saddened faces after Clark was so optimistic. It was lovely that they brought him back as he was a good character from Season 1 that helped to tell us the things we know about these characters - Clark is the hero, Lex is on the journey down the dark path. But more importantly it was telling the other characters these things, so it made sense to reiterate all that a year later and see where Lex has got to. Before, he was just an employee of his Father (Lionel doesn't show his face this time), learning to stand on his own, and now he has LexCorp and is fighting his own battles - this episode he has a lot on his plate, dealing with crooked Mayor Tate, assisting Clark in harbouring a kidnapped minor, and most devastating of all, one of his prized Warrior Angel comics gets marked! But it's okay, though, the one Ryan bled on was the reading copy, not the mint condition original he had stashed away, so it probably doesn't matter too much.
His dealings with Tate were fascinating as this Mayor thinks he can just play by the same rules as he had with Lionel, bribes and manipulation to get what both sides want, while Lex isn't crooked, at least not in that way. He shows Tate that he's made an enemy, but it's not because he won't do what he needs done, it's that he's realised how corrupt this public official is and wants Smallville to be rid of him. So he does what any man of money would do and puts his financial influence behind the Mayor's opponent. It's a good move, because at least at this stage it makes Lex look like a crusader intent on making Smallville a better town. Whether it's purely altruistic or a wise business decision in an eternal battle with his Father's ways, probably Lex doesn't even realise at this point, but as the conversation about Warrior Angel's foe, Devilicus, goes, it's a path, a journey that one doesn't even realise one's on. I'm not bothered that there's not the greatest level of subtlety in the story, it's all overt, and there are plenty of things that are questionable in terms of how Clark gets away with what he does, but the story has a strong core as we've learned to care about young Ryan and it matters what his fate is - he's worse off than ever as his adopted guardian ran away when she discovered his powers, a tragic enough development, but then he's diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour and it seems so harsh. For once there's not to be any happy ending.
Ryan seems to be slightly more circumspect in what he says, but only slightly. Lex suspects he has some kind of ESP ability due to the nature of his tumour and that could be part of the motivation that drives him to help the young lad, who didn't really get on that well with him last time. Ryan does drop some clangers along the way that would be part of the ongoing story: Pete's worried about slipping up when it comes to Clark's secret and Lana may be moving to Metropolis! Because of his knowledge Clark is able to intervene with the second issue (a way to write out yet another recurring character, Aunt Nell), though it's telling that he never did anything to reassure Pete, who once again has very little to do in the episode. Nor does Chloe, but at least with Lana choosing to become roommates with her and stay in Smallville they'll automatically have more scenes to play, though I've a feeling, annoyingly, that that was when things began to go downhill with too much moaning about Clark not treating them with enough trust, etc. I don't know how many episodes Pete had left before he'd be gone, but it's a shame that plot wasn't given equal thought as to how Clark could help him.
Clark does his best for people, but he comes up against something that no amount of super-strength, speed, x-ray vision or any other fancy power can fight: a terminal medical problem. It's a good thing for Clark to have to face, I'm not sure if he hasn't already gone through something similar before, unless I'm just remembering this episode (I also had a sense of déjà vu with Lex' story about Winston Churchill, but again, it could be this episode I'm thinking back to). It's a tough situation, one that is ultimately the blessed and cursed position he'll always be in: to outlive all the people he knows. With Ryan it was doubly difficult because it was all of a sudden and they'd had so little time together - I loved Lex' story about how he strove to research and find out all about his Mother's illness, and there was nothing he could do, but later realised he should've spent that precious time with her. Although it did give me pause, because how old was Lex when she died, wasn't he a young child, so obviously he couldn't have done anything, but perhaps it's that old story of him needing control and power? If certain parts of the story didn't quite add up, Clark being able to smuggle Ryan out of the Summerholt Institute was one of them - do they not have CCTV? Guards? Signs of forced entry and exit? It's not like they don't know Ryan was kidnapped by him! Then there's the epic dash to the airport to reach this great surgeon who may be able to save Ryan (what about the other patients he was flying to see, aren't they critical?), with some good effects work and some not so good. Clark seemed to be taking mighty big risks that no one saw him appear at various places like that!
That's the key, though, Clark will take risks if it's to save his friends, and this was a dire situation. Even Jonathan Kent had no qualms about talking of prayer and he doesn't particularly seem like a man of faith! At least Clark was able to treat his young friend to a balloon ride, though even that seemed risky as he could collapse at any time and there'd be no medical staff to ease him, but it was a nice gesture. The direction was strong in this one, two scenes stood out to me: the transition between Warrior Angel's face on the comic book, to the concerned Clark watching over Ryan in the Smallville Medical Centre, and the shot at the end when Clark picks up Ryan's comic books that had been left on his empty hospital bed. There are even little moments of intrigue such as Martha having a 'secret' that only Ryan knows, which you presume must be that she's pregnant as that's the only thing I can think of, though I don't remember what happens - if it is that then it doesn't end well since there's certainly no baby in the rest of the series! And I know Lana's situation is supposed to be something we're sympathetic to, but was it really wise to go against her guardian, Nell, and demand to be allowed to stay in Smallville? It does seem that Nell's only thinking of herself and new partner, but it also shows she wants to include Lana in their new life, not exclude her, so from an adult's perspective you can see it does make more sense for her to go with them. But it's written for teenagers so of course we get it from Lana's perspective.
It was certainly unsettling and disturbing to see Ryan strapped up and made to answer questions (though it did seem pointless as he got every one right so how many do you need to prove he's doing it without looking!), but again, maybe it was a child's point of view and that this doctor may have been able to help in some way. In reality we know he's expecting Ryan to die soon, so it's fair enough, and in that case you'd think that doctor wouldn't be anxious to involve the authorities since he was holding Ryan under duress and seemingly for his own research rather than a guardian that had his best interests at heart - it seems pretty obvious. At least it gave Lex a chance to speed up in a cloud of dust and put the legal brakes on, once again it shows he cares for his friends and is willing to put his money, and in his case more importantly, time, where his mouth is. Still, all Ryan needed to do was say what had been done to him and he'd be taken into care. Maybe not by the Kents, but someone more responsible than that doctor! Ryan fared very badly throughout, but at least he got a 'surprise' party with no expense spared (when they said there was a band I was sure it'd be Remy Zero again, but it wasn't!). There's a lot to like in this one, it may end sadly, but it's good to recall people or events from Season 1 and I'm glad we got this chance to revisit Ryan again.
***
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
Nepenthe
DVD, Star Trek: Picard S1 (Nepenthe)
You will be sentenced for the rest of the natural episode to the verdant forest paradise of Nepenthe! Finally we get an episode that reunites Jean-Luc with his former crewmates - it only took seven episodes! I know we had Data in the first episode, but that was only in dreams, and Seven of Nine, but they had no prior connection. Here we have a proper reunion for the 'TNG' cast and all I'm left wondering is why it took so long? This was the best episode so far, even though it felt a bit like a collection of deleted scenes rather than an actual story, but for once they seemed to be giving us what we wanted after stringing us along all season. The downside is that you can see what might have been if they'd simply brought the 'TNG' cast back together as the whole series instead of making it about Picard. It was an ensemble, after all, and though the films lost that, this shows how great it would have been just having those familiar actors playing their familiar characters and interacting with each other. That's all you need! For instance, the episode doesn't really do a lot, but the chance to spend time with Riker and Troi and their daughter, the next next generation, was almost worth the interminable wait. The relief is that the Rikers, or the Trois, are much closer to their characters and the positive vision of the future than Seven was. They live a natural life of growing their own food, making pizza in an outdoor oven (complete with a door in the shape of a Jefferies Tube hatch - intentional?), hunting wabbit and living in a log cabin. Idyllic!
Of course it couldn't be all smiles and roses, even for the first family of 'TNG,' in the Kurtzman/Chabon world even they have to have their share of tragedy, this time the death of a son. But so much to like! Their children are named for relatives old and new: we have Kestra, the daughter, named after Deanna's deceased sister (as played by none other than Kirsten Dunst, sort of, in 'Dark Page'!), who has grown up as a tomboy roaming the woods with bow and arrows, and warpaint. And the dead son was Thaddeus, presumably from the ancestor of Will's who was helped by a member of the Q during the American Civil War - either Will became interested in family history or he retained some kind of inkling of the incident that he learned during 'Death Wish' on 'Voyager,' though Q made sure he never remembered being whisked to the Delta Quadrant I can imagine him chuckling to himself that he planted the name in Riker's mind since the Q are probably able to see the future and would know about Riker's son to come. Then again, I think Will may have known of his ancestor already, I can't remember. But for every silver lining… It was horribly contrived that Thaddeus died from 'Mendaxic Neurosclerosis' which could have been prevented if only the Federation had allowed positronic technology, but didn't because of the ban on synths. Riiiiight. I know it's meant to make it a bitter blow, a personal loss from the decision to cancel all android research, but it just didn't sound right.
Still, I can't be too down on the writing this time (even though we once again have the foulest language thrown in casually as if it's perfectly acceptable for humans of the 24th Century to speak in that way - this time it's Jurati, the 'cute, cuddly' character, so it must have been deliberately meant to shock), it does actually have the closest thing to a theme and being about something. The scene at the end when Kestra, having made friends with the untrusting Soji, who claims to believe that everything we see could just be a simulation designed to get more information out of her, was about the only sign of mature writing I've seen in Trek since it returned to series TV. Kestra talks about how they both have a tragedy in common, she losing her brother, Soji her sister, and how she was able to get through it because she had her parents. And Soji has Picard, if she wants him. It was touching and made me wish this level of sensitivity and reality had been part of the writing from the start instead of so much sensationalism and bad tropes. That scene felt like 'Star Trek.' The episode even ended beautifully as if it was the end of a 'TNG' film: Picard and Soji make their goodbyes and we see the little family of Troi-Rikers going back into their gorgeous house as the camera pans up hopefully to the sky and the film theme comes in. Wonderful, no nasty shock cliffhangers to keep us coming back, no misery to end on, a genuine, heartfelt optimism that simply isn't seen in this Trek era.
By all rights this should be the first episode I consider a success, then, yes? Sadly, as close as it comes to being what I want from Trek, it still doesn't quite make it, thanks largely to the secondary storyline back on the Borg Cube or the third plot on La Sirena. The biggest mistake is another legacy character brought to misery and untimely death for no good reason at all other than to show how evil the villains are. Trouble is, we know how evil they are, and how simplistic. We've seen the depravity of Narissa from her interactions with her brother, Narek, and although we'll eventually hear that she's essentially insane, which explains a lot, it doesn't turn her into a complex or compelling adversary in the same way that once Gul Dukat went mad, the character (the best villain in all of Trek), lost his way and became far less interesting towards the end of 'DS9.' But we can't have Trek without some martial arts combat, right? That seems to be the way Trek is written these days, perhaps it was meant to balance out the slow, pleasant reunion on Nepenthe, to provide some contrast. It certainly succeeded in that regard as the Cube is as dingy and depressing as ever, despite always looking so clean and tidy compared to the jumbled mass of technology that used to constitute a Borg vessel. It's almost like they redesigned the environment so they could do action within it more easily…
Hugh doesn't show himself to be very intelligent - Narissa spares his life after executing various ex-Borg in front of him (including what appeared to be a Hirogen - why not bring the light levels up so we can see the quality of the makeup! Also there's a Bolian Borg, unless he's just a staff member), because of 'the treaty,' but then he gives her evidence he's broken it - I'm not sure it made much sense! Surely, even the XBs are considered people and the Federation wouldn't stand for them being killed, but I suppose they'll never know about it, while they would miss Hugh if he was to be murdered. Surely the Romulans would just concoct some plausible story about XBs gone wrong, or something along those lines? It doesn't matter anyway because Hugh is taken out in a most careless aside, Narissa tossing a tiny dagger into his neck from range as she fights Elnor. And there we go, another passing of an established character. I can't say Hugh was ever a favourite of mine, much like Icheb, in fact I didn't used to even like 'I, Borg' as I felt it defanged the Borg to give them a cutesy face, but then 'Voyager' rammed the species into the ground and I came to appreciate the former episode a bit more. Even then, Hugh was never a very well-defined character, so the loss isn't keenly felt - wonder why the Enterprise crew were never able to track down his original identity, or why hadn't himself in the decades since, so that he'd be calling himself something different now? The same reason Seven of Nine's still called Seven of Nine, probably: brand recognition. Anyway, they could have really used modern TV to delve into Hugh as a character, learn about his backstory and what he'd been doing since leading a group of isolated drones in 'Descent,' but they showed their usual disregard for such details, the bread and butter of Trek and one reason it endured so long. If characters are just a name then we don't learn anything, and that also results in their deaths being unfeeling and throwaway.
While I'm looking at what didn't work in the episode, I have to call attention to the Jurati side of it all. Not only is she quite objectionable (she either throws up or foams at the mouth three times over the course of the episode!), being this secret murderer, but she's so far gone that she actually tries to commit suicide! Humans of this period would talk to someone, they'd work out their problems (it's no 'Hard Time,' that's for sure!), and I know she killed Maddox, but even that is uncertain at the moment - was she under Commodore Oh's influence? Oh makes a good Vulcan, so it's a shame she's Romulan (I think?), and it was good to return to the scene from earlier in the season when she recruited Jurati to spy on Picard's mission. But even the details there are annoying - Jurati listening to music on earbuds; Oh's sunglasses… I thought for a moment this was going to be a case of 'The Demon Headmaster' and she took them off to hypnotise Jurati, but then she performs the mind meld so what was the point? To look more shady? Dramatic licence? The Starfleet uniform looks good and I still love that they continued the 'future' badge we expect from this era, but we're right back in 'DSC' Season 2 with the 'galaxy-ending stakes,' planets exploding and machine life taking over (I presume). This close together it wasn't a bright idea to do that, but maybe Chabon wasn't in on what 'DSC' were doing at the time? Still, Kurtzman should have flagged it up as the current Rick Berman, overseer of all Trek. That would be one of the worst story points of the season (not the worst, oh no, not the worst!).
The moral of the story is don't take sweets from strangers, as Oh gives Jurati a tasty blue triangle treat and tells her to chomp it up, they'll be able to track her from it. And then… we're supposed to assume she just asked her to kill her old boyfriend, Bruce Maddox, because otherwise the end of the galaxy is coming? It's a bit of a leap. At least if Oh had exerted some kind of mental force upon her, was controlling her, that would give her an out (they love having characters kill and then get away with it as shown by Voq/Tyler in 'DSC'). But if Oh isn't a Vulcan how can she do mind melds?Romulans have never had the same mental abilities as their Vulcan cousins because they spent the last two thousand years going their own way, not following the rigours of Surak's teachings. I wonder if the writers realise this, or are they saying Oh is a Vulcan, but one who works for Romulan interests? I can't remember, and the storytelling has often been murky and hard to follow on this series. At least Oh is a better villain, and I wish we'd had more of her instead of Narek and Narissa, perhaps because she's played by an older, more experienced actress, that may have made all the difference. But given what the others have to work with, perhaps it is all in the writing? For example, Narissa shows up the limits of Elnor's swordsmanship - he can play Batman, swooping around and taking out her Romulan henchmen, but in the end all it takes is a few blasts from a Disruptor (I assume - back to zaps instead of beams, sadly), and he has to skedaddle.
Elnor isn't in the episode enough to show himself as stupid as he usually does, except for the one moment when Narissa lures him into hand-to-hand combat by saying this isn't how Jhat Vash should fight Qowat Milat. Interestingly, she doesn't call him out or goad him about being the only male member of a female order of monks, as might have been expected, but she was reeling him in only to betray his 'honourable' approach. I assume it was meant to seem honourable that he put up his sword and went to meet her with flying fists, but it just makes him look easily manipulated, and because of that Hugh dies. Mind you, I'm not sure what the honour of his order is, anyway, since he seems to jump from quest to quest willy-nilly. He should have gone with Picard really (I can only imagine how much fun Riker would have had teasing him!), but chose to stay and help Hugh. And failed. And that was it in terms of the Cube side of the story, but the plot aboard La Sirena also didn't help matters - we're supposed to feel sorry for Jurati as Rios comes to her voicing suspicions that Raffi's being tracked, when Jurati knows it's her. And we're supposed to find it funny when 'Auntie Raffi' takes the younger woman under her wing thinking she's still shocked from Maddox' death and says she'll 'hook her up' with whatever she needs. Yeah kids, drugs are funny. In trouble? In turmoil? Turn to drugs, that'll sort you out. What a message! I know it was actually cake, but the implication was there. It certainly doesn't endear Raffi to me any more than she already hadn't been, even when we're supposed to feel sorry for her when she says she's nothing more than the wreckage of a good person. More negativity and hopelessness, what a miserable character!
While we're on that angle, we see more of Picard not receiving the respect his age and former position demand, and once again it comes mainly from the female characters he meets. Kestra, who knows who he is and what he looks like (there's a picture of him in Starfleet uniform holding baby Thad in their house), points an arrow at him, and while it was a good way of reminding the audience that he has a duritanium artificial heart (a sign of things to come, perhaps?), she shows no respect for 'the greatest Captain in Starfleet' as her Father has called him, from which you'd think she'd be excited to meet him, especially as we know how much she's heard of the old Enterprise crew and their adventures. Instead she talks almost exclusively to Soji and practically ignores Picard, who meekly follows along behind, and when referring to him, says her friend Captain Crandall (who seemed to be referenced only so as to make a quick way to narrow down where Soji's 'homeworld' is from her very basic description which could occur across the galaxy!), is even older than 'Picard.' It seemed so rude! Then later on even Riker is a bit disrespectful when he talks about 'classic Picard arrogance,' which is exactly what the Picard we knew wasn't! Okay, so they're both former Captains (even though Picard rose to Admiral), and here they're equals, which makes it seem more like the actors meeting up than the characters, in some ways, but it did smack a little of setting up some kind of trope (like Kirk was reckless and always breaking the rules), which didn't ring true.
Deanna is the one to really put the boot in, giving her friend a dressing down for how he's dealing with Soji. At least it wasn't as bad as I'd remembered and they do walk away with their arms around each other after, and I did notice Jean-Luc is pretty undiplomatic again in this episode. We've seen him be quite weak and petty across the season, perhaps the worst moment being when he pulled off the 'Romulans Only' sign and walked over it, so he's certainly demonstrated a lack of intelligence and, yes, arrogance. He's not the Picard we knew and respected and I'd like to think that's because of the degenerative illness he has in his brain except that hasn't been well shown across the season. Other than the first episode where he was having dreams, it's not really been in evidence unless you take his uncharacteristic behaviour into account and ultimately would prove to be only there to build mock tension of his death, so it was poorly handled, as has the character been. Here he accidentally drops the bombshell on Soji that she's an android as they walk to the Riker house, which sets her off in a tizzy of distrust, then when she goes to storm off after speaking with Deanna he gets in her way so she pushes him aside! So Deanna does have a point and it's distressing to see how such a once wise and great Captain can fall so far. I suppose we're meant to feel pity for his state of mind and respect that despite all these infirmities he's got the gumption to get this far, and if it had been written well that would probably have been the result.
Even his logic and motivation come into question this time as we know from earlier in the season that the reason he chose not to contact any of his former friends was because he didn't want to bring them into the danger, and instead was happy to round up people who had a grudge against him and risk them instead! But now he's shown up at the Troi-Rikers anyway and could have led the Tal Shiar to them! It was cool how Riker can activate a shield and sensors as if his rustic cabin is the Bridge of a starship, and he does say they've had trouble on the planet (from the Kzinti - a very obscure reference that dates back to 'The Animated Series,' a race by famed sci-fi author Larry Niven that he weirdly included in Trek, despite being his original creation which he wrote about outside of Trek. I'd have preferred a better reference like the Tzenkethi, perhaps). At least, in keeping with the generally better standard of writing in this particular episode, Picard does express regret at having come, saying it was a spur of the moment decision, so that's fair enough, and is one reason they don't stay long. Riker's open to helping and sets up his later appearance in the finale by dropping into conversation that he's still on active reserve - if old Dr. McCoy could be drafted back in 'The Motion Picture,' then why not an aged Will Riker? Maybe it was a bit of a clunker the way it was brought up, but the more Riker the better. He says he always thought Picard shouldn't have retired and Jean-Luc admits he was right, so is it too late to actually get them all back in uniform again for one last roundup?
I fear that will never happen, and just like the 'Star Wars' sequel trilogy in which we had original characters, but only in dribs and drabs, never all together as it should have been, I can't see them bringing all the 'TNG' cast into one episode, though I'm sure we'll eventually get each of the principle cast along the way (mind you, with Kurtzman threatening the terrible idea of a Worf comedy series, who knows?). For now, it was just lovely to have Picard among old friends and he was at his most Picard when with them as if Patrick Stewart found it easier to act the character off of his old cast members. There's a cornucopia of little details that makes this episode feel like home again, from Riker cooking and listening to jazz, to the way Kestra enthuses about Data as if she knew him, hearing all those stories firsthand from her parents as she has. Playing the violin, his love of Sherlock Holmes, how he had dreams, told jokes and learnt to ballroom dance (every one an episode!). The way he's talked about was a really beautiful way of making Data alive again, and though Kestra could have come off a little precocious and, as I said, disrespectful, I was pleased overall with the character and could see her being in Starfleet in another ten years to continue the Riker name. Sorry, Troi-Riker. The only reason I know how it's spelt is because we see the name written down in frame, but they don't make it very clear if you missed that! I always imagined Riker would become Mr. Troi (the wry aside Picard addresses him with in 'Nemesis'), since that's the Betazoid custom, the male takes the female's name, just to be different and alien. Like Seven and Hugh before him, though, they probably didn't want to lose the Riker name, and Deanna is half-human, so I suppose a double-barrelled solution was acceptable.
It was very much a Riker thing to have him leave flour all over Jean-Luc's back when he hugs him. Sure, it could be that he was so caught up in the moment, but he always did have a practical joker's sense of humour. Either way, it's wonderful to see the joy and friendship between them all, and again, it just makes me wish we could have Data there, too. And Worf, and Geordi, and Crusher… They really took the time out to enjoy these old friends' company, the episode running to the longest yet at almost an hour. Which is why I said it felt like a collection of deleted scenes - good ones, but all strung together. We get to see the beautiful house that reminded me of Kirk's log cabin in 'Generations' (perhaps alluding to Riker's Canadian heritage?), and even a candlelit meal that makes you wish you were there in the room (a bit like the scene at the start of 'Last of The Mohicans'). Interesting that we actually see rabbit was killed and eaten. For one thing I wonder how they came to be on this planet. If they aren't native (could be with talk of venom sacs!), then it might not have been a good idea since they'll breed you out of house and home, but if they're using them as a food source then it would help keep the local population down (not that they need fear too much losing their crops with the size of those tomatoes!). For another thing, it was somehow a relief that showed people eating meat as it's becoming a dirty word in today's society, people claiming it harms the environment, that sort of thing, and meat-eating was implied as being of the past in 'TNG,' I believe. While I'm against the smoking (Rios lights up again), I can get onboard with carnivorous behaviour!
I'm not sure it was as healthy to keep Thad's room as it had been. From Deanna's position as a counsellor you'd think she'd be more aware of such behaviour. But then I doubt they have many guests so it would make sense that they hadn't changed things in there and I don't think we even heard how long it had been since the death of their son. Great to hear he was born and raised on starships, it makes me wish even more we had got to see that period of their lives, and of the Alpha Quadrant, its races and its places. Perhaps one reason they keep so many details vague or don't talk about them, other than major events like the attack on Mars, is so they can potentially fill in the details with flashbacks or another series? Maybe, but if so they need to hurry up as we've already lost some of the great actors from that era (Rene Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg to name two). We're reminded how long Picard and Riker have known each other as the latter actually says it's been thirty-five years. Also good to be reminded of Deanna's abilities and that she can't read Soji because she's an android, but has the girl done that head tilt before? It came across as a bit forced as I don't get the impression she's been acting like Data at all, really, she's far too naturalistic, so that didn't make sense there.
I have to say I wasn't as keen on yet more influences from 'The Lord of The Rings' - they're basically met by a young elf (Kestra), and we hear all about the invented languages she and her brother made up. It was great that Soji was able to learn all that had been written down in seconds, just as Data could take in books at a glance, but I definitely can do without the 'Rings' connections (all about real, created languages), because as much as I love the books and films I hate the attitude of this Trek era for being so derivative and concerned with referencing other pop culture icons - it looks desperate (hey, we're cool, Trek's cool, don't go away, please!). I did want to know why the Troi-Rikers chose to live on Nepenthe when you'd have expected them to end up on either Earth or Betazed. It would have been nice to have mentioned the devastation to the latter planet during the Dominion War and that even twenty years later it may not have fully recovered its occupation. But the fact they wanted to live like 'The Good Life' and grow their own, live off the land, made sense when this particular planet has soil with regenerative powers. It would be nice to have more context and reasoning on how they ended up there, but it was such an attractive location I never felt it was out of character or didn't make sense for them. I remember being surprised that Jonathan Frakes was credited in the main titles as a Special Guest Star, yet Marina Sirtis was shoved to the end credits with only a guest star billing, as all former main characters should get Special billing in my book!
Frakes wasn't returning to the franchise after such a long a time as Sirtis, since he'd been directing from the first season of 'DSC,' so he had a bond with the new era productions already. Still, there's nothing like actually bringing a character back to impress and he was terrific. Sure, Troi was good too, but Frakes, well, I feel he could still be a Captain (and I suppose he would in that odd scene at the end of the season), and really slipped back into the role with aplomb. Sadly, it would be the last time any of the main 'TNG' cast would meet Picard, at least the real one, considering what they were going to do to him in the finale. We'll get there. Unfortunately, we'll get there. If there were anything else to add it would be about the holographic situation on La Sirena. Just what is it? Because we haven't seen any since Jurati pulled the plug on the EMH when he came to save Maddox, so it would be natural to assume she's used her cybernetics training (if it's similar), to prevent the holos from activating in case the EMH revealed her secret murder. I think it was the Hospitality version that appeared this time, but there didn't seem to be any reason for him to activate other than to save Jurati's miserable life. So did she tamper with the system, or didn't she? And why did she have to replicate the hypo of poison in a bespoke 3D printer rather than simply using the Replicator? And if everything is about stopping Maddox and what he did, how likely is it that he was the only man who could do it in all the galaxy, surely there are so many worlds it's certain that other cyberneticists would have made the same breakthroughs elsewhere?
Most of the questions don't matter as we bathe in a bath of 'TNG'-scented petals and enjoy the flow of great friendship. Surprisingly, while I was so close to considering this episode the first success of the season (a hairsbreadth away, or a 'Hughsbreadth'!), even though on balance I couldn't award it that, it would actually be the very next episode which impressed the most. I don't remember what happened or why I felt well about it, though. I wondered if second viewing of this one would push it over the edge for me, because it is such a treat to have a reunion like this, but it also shows how different the majority of the series is from what I want in Trek, and that doesn't help. 'Nepenthe' is as close to being a standalone episode in the series, primarily as it's mostly in one location and is a basic reunion story, which also explores trust and tragedy - it was more interesting to me because many of my favourite Trek episodes have always been those that dealt with the uncertainty of reality. This wasn't that, except from Soji's point of view, so we all know that she's safe and among friends, even though it could be interpreted by her as a way of relaxing her guard with good food and pleasant surroundings, so that was a positive. I doubt we'll ever see the kind of stories where a character is trying to work out what's real or not in this era as that's a standalone idea and they don't like exploring an idea an episode, they prefer dragging things out. Still, after the depression of much of this season it was a relief to have this little holiday with the Troi-Rikers and I sincerely hope it isn't the last we see of their family. Frakes and Sirtis were highly fitting to be the ones that traverse the generations since they've both appeared in every post-'TOS' series to that time (except 'DSC'), so they really need to get them in 'Lower Decks,' 'Strange New Worlds' and any other Trek series that comes along. Keep the tradition alive!
**
You will be sentenced for the rest of the natural episode to the verdant forest paradise of Nepenthe! Finally we get an episode that reunites Jean-Luc with his former crewmates - it only took seven episodes! I know we had Data in the first episode, but that was only in dreams, and Seven of Nine, but they had no prior connection. Here we have a proper reunion for the 'TNG' cast and all I'm left wondering is why it took so long? This was the best episode so far, even though it felt a bit like a collection of deleted scenes rather than an actual story, but for once they seemed to be giving us what we wanted after stringing us along all season. The downside is that you can see what might have been if they'd simply brought the 'TNG' cast back together as the whole series instead of making it about Picard. It was an ensemble, after all, and though the films lost that, this shows how great it would have been just having those familiar actors playing their familiar characters and interacting with each other. That's all you need! For instance, the episode doesn't really do a lot, but the chance to spend time with Riker and Troi and their daughter, the next next generation, was almost worth the interminable wait. The relief is that the Rikers, or the Trois, are much closer to their characters and the positive vision of the future than Seven was. They live a natural life of growing their own food, making pizza in an outdoor oven (complete with a door in the shape of a Jefferies Tube hatch - intentional?), hunting wabbit and living in a log cabin. Idyllic!
Of course it couldn't be all smiles and roses, even for the first family of 'TNG,' in the Kurtzman/Chabon world even they have to have their share of tragedy, this time the death of a son. But so much to like! Their children are named for relatives old and new: we have Kestra, the daughter, named after Deanna's deceased sister (as played by none other than Kirsten Dunst, sort of, in 'Dark Page'!), who has grown up as a tomboy roaming the woods with bow and arrows, and warpaint. And the dead son was Thaddeus, presumably from the ancestor of Will's who was helped by a member of the Q during the American Civil War - either Will became interested in family history or he retained some kind of inkling of the incident that he learned during 'Death Wish' on 'Voyager,' though Q made sure he never remembered being whisked to the Delta Quadrant I can imagine him chuckling to himself that he planted the name in Riker's mind since the Q are probably able to see the future and would know about Riker's son to come. Then again, I think Will may have known of his ancestor already, I can't remember. But for every silver lining… It was horribly contrived that Thaddeus died from 'Mendaxic Neurosclerosis' which could have been prevented if only the Federation had allowed positronic technology, but didn't because of the ban on synths. Riiiiight. I know it's meant to make it a bitter blow, a personal loss from the decision to cancel all android research, but it just didn't sound right.
Still, I can't be too down on the writing this time (even though we once again have the foulest language thrown in casually as if it's perfectly acceptable for humans of the 24th Century to speak in that way - this time it's Jurati, the 'cute, cuddly' character, so it must have been deliberately meant to shock), it does actually have the closest thing to a theme and being about something. The scene at the end when Kestra, having made friends with the untrusting Soji, who claims to believe that everything we see could just be a simulation designed to get more information out of her, was about the only sign of mature writing I've seen in Trek since it returned to series TV. Kestra talks about how they both have a tragedy in common, she losing her brother, Soji her sister, and how she was able to get through it because she had her parents. And Soji has Picard, if she wants him. It was touching and made me wish this level of sensitivity and reality had been part of the writing from the start instead of so much sensationalism and bad tropes. That scene felt like 'Star Trek.' The episode even ended beautifully as if it was the end of a 'TNG' film: Picard and Soji make their goodbyes and we see the little family of Troi-Rikers going back into their gorgeous house as the camera pans up hopefully to the sky and the film theme comes in. Wonderful, no nasty shock cliffhangers to keep us coming back, no misery to end on, a genuine, heartfelt optimism that simply isn't seen in this Trek era.
By all rights this should be the first episode I consider a success, then, yes? Sadly, as close as it comes to being what I want from Trek, it still doesn't quite make it, thanks largely to the secondary storyline back on the Borg Cube or the third plot on La Sirena. The biggest mistake is another legacy character brought to misery and untimely death for no good reason at all other than to show how evil the villains are. Trouble is, we know how evil they are, and how simplistic. We've seen the depravity of Narissa from her interactions with her brother, Narek, and although we'll eventually hear that she's essentially insane, which explains a lot, it doesn't turn her into a complex or compelling adversary in the same way that once Gul Dukat went mad, the character (the best villain in all of Trek), lost his way and became far less interesting towards the end of 'DS9.' But we can't have Trek without some martial arts combat, right? That seems to be the way Trek is written these days, perhaps it was meant to balance out the slow, pleasant reunion on Nepenthe, to provide some contrast. It certainly succeeded in that regard as the Cube is as dingy and depressing as ever, despite always looking so clean and tidy compared to the jumbled mass of technology that used to constitute a Borg vessel. It's almost like they redesigned the environment so they could do action within it more easily…
Hugh doesn't show himself to be very intelligent - Narissa spares his life after executing various ex-Borg in front of him (including what appeared to be a Hirogen - why not bring the light levels up so we can see the quality of the makeup! Also there's a Bolian Borg, unless he's just a staff member), because of 'the treaty,' but then he gives her evidence he's broken it - I'm not sure it made much sense! Surely, even the XBs are considered people and the Federation wouldn't stand for them being killed, but I suppose they'll never know about it, while they would miss Hugh if he was to be murdered. Surely the Romulans would just concoct some plausible story about XBs gone wrong, or something along those lines? It doesn't matter anyway because Hugh is taken out in a most careless aside, Narissa tossing a tiny dagger into his neck from range as she fights Elnor. And there we go, another passing of an established character. I can't say Hugh was ever a favourite of mine, much like Icheb, in fact I didn't used to even like 'I, Borg' as I felt it defanged the Borg to give them a cutesy face, but then 'Voyager' rammed the species into the ground and I came to appreciate the former episode a bit more. Even then, Hugh was never a very well-defined character, so the loss isn't keenly felt - wonder why the Enterprise crew were never able to track down his original identity, or why hadn't himself in the decades since, so that he'd be calling himself something different now? The same reason Seven of Nine's still called Seven of Nine, probably: brand recognition. Anyway, they could have really used modern TV to delve into Hugh as a character, learn about his backstory and what he'd been doing since leading a group of isolated drones in 'Descent,' but they showed their usual disregard for such details, the bread and butter of Trek and one reason it endured so long. If characters are just a name then we don't learn anything, and that also results in their deaths being unfeeling and throwaway.
While I'm looking at what didn't work in the episode, I have to call attention to the Jurati side of it all. Not only is she quite objectionable (she either throws up or foams at the mouth three times over the course of the episode!), being this secret murderer, but she's so far gone that she actually tries to commit suicide! Humans of this period would talk to someone, they'd work out their problems (it's no 'Hard Time,' that's for sure!), and I know she killed Maddox, but even that is uncertain at the moment - was she under Commodore Oh's influence? Oh makes a good Vulcan, so it's a shame she's Romulan (I think?), and it was good to return to the scene from earlier in the season when she recruited Jurati to spy on Picard's mission. But even the details there are annoying - Jurati listening to music on earbuds; Oh's sunglasses… I thought for a moment this was going to be a case of 'The Demon Headmaster' and she took them off to hypnotise Jurati, but then she performs the mind meld so what was the point? To look more shady? Dramatic licence? The Starfleet uniform looks good and I still love that they continued the 'future' badge we expect from this era, but we're right back in 'DSC' Season 2 with the 'galaxy-ending stakes,' planets exploding and machine life taking over (I presume). This close together it wasn't a bright idea to do that, but maybe Chabon wasn't in on what 'DSC' were doing at the time? Still, Kurtzman should have flagged it up as the current Rick Berman, overseer of all Trek. That would be one of the worst story points of the season (not the worst, oh no, not the worst!).
The moral of the story is don't take sweets from strangers, as Oh gives Jurati a tasty blue triangle treat and tells her to chomp it up, they'll be able to track her from it. And then… we're supposed to assume she just asked her to kill her old boyfriend, Bruce Maddox, because otherwise the end of the galaxy is coming? It's a bit of a leap. At least if Oh had exerted some kind of mental force upon her, was controlling her, that would give her an out (they love having characters kill and then get away with it as shown by Voq/Tyler in 'DSC'). But if Oh isn't a Vulcan how can she do mind melds?Romulans have never had the same mental abilities as their Vulcan cousins because they spent the last two thousand years going their own way, not following the rigours of Surak's teachings. I wonder if the writers realise this, or are they saying Oh is a Vulcan, but one who works for Romulan interests? I can't remember, and the storytelling has often been murky and hard to follow on this series. At least Oh is a better villain, and I wish we'd had more of her instead of Narek and Narissa, perhaps because she's played by an older, more experienced actress, that may have made all the difference. But given what the others have to work with, perhaps it is all in the writing? For example, Narissa shows up the limits of Elnor's swordsmanship - he can play Batman, swooping around and taking out her Romulan henchmen, but in the end all it takes is a few blasts from a Disruptor (I assume - back to zaps instead of beams, sadly), and he has to skedaddle.
Elnor isn't in the episode enough to show himself as stupid as he usually does, except for the one moment when Narissa lures him into hand-to-hand combat by saying this isn't how Jhat Vash should fight Qowat Milat. Interestingly, she doesn't call him out or goad him about being the only male member of a female order of monks, as might have been expected, but she was reeling him in only to betray his 'honourable' approach. I assume it was meant to seem honourable that he put up his sword and went to meet her with flying fists, but it just makes him look easily manipulated, and because of that Hugh dies. Mind you, I'm not sure what the honour of his order is, anyway, since he seems to jump from quest to quest willy-nilly. He should have gone with Picard really (I can only imagine how much fun Riker would have had teasing him!), but chose to stay and help Hugh. And failed. And that was it in terms of the Cube side of the story, but the plot aboard La Sirena also didn't help matters - we're supposed to feel sorry for Jurati as Rios comes to her voicing suspicions that Raffi's being tracked, when Jurati knows it's her. And we're supposed to find it funny when 'Auntie Raffi' takes the younger woman under her wing thinking she's still shocked from Maddox' death and says she'll 'hook her up' with whatever she needs. Yeah kids, drugs are funny. In trouble? In turmoil? Turn to drugs, that'll sort you out. What a message! I know it was actually cake, but the implication was there. It certainly doesn't endear Raffi to me any more than she already hadn't been, even when we're supposed to feel sorry for her when she says she's nothing more than the wreckage of a good person. More negativity and hopelessness, what a miserable character!
While we're on that angle, we see more of Picard not receiving the respect his age and former position demand, and once again it comes mainly from the female characters he meets. Kestra, who knows who he is and what he looks like (there's a picture of him in Starfleet uniform holding baby Thad in their house), points an arrow at him, and while it was a good way of reminding the audience that he has a duritanium artificial heart (a sign of things to come, perhaps?), she shows no respect for 'the greatest Captain in Starfleet' as her Father has called him, from which you'd think she'd be excited to meet him, especially as we know how much she's heard of the old Enterprise crew and their adventures. Instead she talks almost exclusively to Soji and practically ignores Picard, who meekly follows along behind, and when referring to him, says her friend Captain Crandall (who seemed to be referenced only so as to make a quick way to narrow down where Soji's 'homeworld' is from her very basic description which could occur across the galaxy!), is even older than 'Picard.' It seemed so rude! Then later on even Riker is a bit disrespectful when he talks about 'classic Picard arrogance,' which is exactly what the Picard we knew wasn't! Okay, so they're both former Captains (even though Picard rose to Admiral), and here they're equals, which makes it seem more like the actors meeting up than the characters, in some ways, but it did smack a little of setting up some kind of trope (like Kirk was reckless and always breaking the rules), which didn't ring true.
Deanna is the one to really put the boot in, giving her friend a dressing down for how he's dealing with Soji. At least it wasn't as bad as I'd remembered and they do walk away with their arms around each other after, and I did notice Jean-Luc is pretty undiplomatic again in this episode. We've seen him be quite weak and petty across the season, perhaps the worst moment being when he pulled off the 'Romulans Only' sign and walked over it, so he's certainly demonstrated a lack of intelligence and, yes, arrogance. He's not the Picard we knew and respected and I'd like to think that's because of the degenerative illness he has in his brain except that hasn't been well shown across the season. Other than the first episode where he was having dreams, it's not really been in evidence unless you take his uncharacteristic behaviour into account and ultimately would prove to be only there to build mock tension of his death, so it was poorly handled, as has the character been. Here he accidentally drops the bombshell on Soji that she's an android as they walk to the Riker house, which sets her off in a tizzy of distrust, then when she goes to storm off after speaking with Deanna he gets in her way so she pushes him aside! So Deanna does have a point and it's distressing to see how such a once wise and great Captain can fall so far. I suppose we're meant to feel pity for his state of mind and respect that despite all these infirmities he's got the gumption to get this far, and if it had been written well that would probably have been the result.
Even his logic and motivation come into question this time as we know from earlier in the season that the reason he chose not to contact any of his former friends was because he didn't want to bring them into the danger, and instead was happy to round up people who had a grudge against him and risk them instead! But now he's shown up at the Troi-Rikers anyway and could have led the Tal Shiar to them! It was cool how Riker can activate a shield and sensors as if his rustic cabin is the Bridge of a starship, and he does say they've had trouble on the planet (from the Kzinti - a very obscure reference that dates back to 'The Animated Series,' a race by famed sci-fi author Larry Niven that he weirdly included in Trek, despite being his original creation which he wrote about outside of Trek. I'd have preferred a better reference like the Tzenkethi, perhaps). At least, in keeping with the generally better standard of writing in this particular episode, Picard does express regret at having come, saying it was a spur of the moment decision, so that's fair enough, and is one reason they don't stay long. Riker's open to helping and sets up his later appearance in the finale by dropping into conversation that he's still on active reserve - if old Dr. McCoy could be drafted back in 'The Motion Picture,' then why not an aged Will Riker? Maybe it was a bit of a clunker the way it was brought up, but the more Riker the better. He says he always thought Picard shouldn't have retired and Jean-Luc admits he was right, so is it too late to actually get them all back in uniform again for one last roundup?
I fear that will never happen, and just like the 'Star Wars' sequel trilogy in which we had original characters, but only in dribs and drabs, never all together as it should have been, I can't see them bringing all the 'TNG' cast into one episode, though I'm sure we'll eventually get each of the principle cast along the way (mind you, with Kurtzman threatening the terrible idea of a Worf comedy series, who knows?). For now, it was just lovely to have Picard among old friends and he was at his most Picard when with them as if Patrick Stewart found it easier to act the character off of his old cast members. There's a cornucopia of little details that makes this episode feel like home again, from Riker cooking and listening to jazz, to the way Kestra enthuses about Data as if she knew him, hearing all those stories firsthand from her parents as she has. Playing the violin, his love of Sherlock Holmes, how he had dreams, told jokes and learnt to ballroom dance (every one an episode!). The way he's talked about was a really beautiful way of making Data alive again, and though Kestra could have come off a little precocious and, as I said, disrespectful, I was pleased overall with the character and could see her being in Starfleet in another ten years to continue the Riker name. Sorry, Troi-Riker. The only reason I know how it's spelt is because we see the name written down in frame, but they don't make it very clear if you missed that! I always imagined Riker would become Mr. Troi (the wry aside Picard addresses him with in 'Nemesis'), since that's the Betazoid custom, the male takes the female's name, just to be different and alien. Like Seven and Hugh before him, though, they probably didn't want to lose the Riker name, and Deanna is half-human, so I suppose a double-barrelled solution was acceptable.
It was very much a Riker thing to have him leave flour all over Jean-Luc's back when he hugs him. Sure, it could be that he was so caught up in the moment, but he always did have a practical joker's sense of humour. Either way, it's wonderful to see the joy and friendship between them all, and again, it just makes me wish we could have Data there, too. And Worf, and Geordi, and Crusher… They really took the time out to enjoy these old friends' company, the episode running to the longest yet at almost an hour. Which is why I said it felt like a collection of deleted scenes - good ones, but all strung together. We get to see the beautiful house that reminded me of Kirk's log cabin in 'Generations' (perhaps alluding to Riker's Canadian heritage?), and even a candlelit meal that makes you wish you were there in the room (a bit like the scene at the start of 'Last of The Mohicans'). Interesting that we actually see rabbit was killed and eaten. For one thing I wonder how they came to be on this planet. If they aren't native (could be with talk of venom sacs!), then it might not have been a good idea since they'll breed you out of house and home, but if they're using them as a food source then it would help keep the local population down (not that they need fear too much losing their crops with the size of those tomatoes!). For another thing, it was somehow a relief that showed people eating meat as it's becoming a dirty word in today's society, people claiming it harms the environment, that sort of thing, and meat-eating was implied as being of the past in 'TNG,' I believe. While I'm against the smoking (Rios lights up again), I can get onboard with carnivorous behaviour!
I'm not sure it was as healthy to keep Thad's room as it had been. From Deanna's position as a counsellor you'd think she'd be more aware of such behaviour. But then I doubt they have many guests so it would make sense that they hadn't changed things in there and I don't think we even heard how long it had been since the death of their son. Great to hear he was born and raised on starships, it makes me wish even more we had got to see that period of their lives, and of the Alpha Quadrant, its races and its places. Perhaps one reason they keep so many details vague or don't talk about them, other than major events like the attack on Mars, is so they can potentially fill in the details with flashbacks or another series? Maybe, but if so they need to hurry up as we've already lost some of the great actors from that era (Rene Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg to name two). We're reminded how long Picard and Riker have known each other as the latter actually says it's been thirty-five years. Also good to be reminded of Deanna's abilities and that she can't read Soji because she's an android, but has the girl done that head tilt before? It came across as a bit forced as I don't get the impression she's been acting like Data at all, really, she's far too naturalistic, so that didn't make sense there.
I have to say I wasn't as keen on yet more influences from 'The Lord of The Rings' - they're basically met by a young elf (Kestra), and we hear all about the invented languages she and her brother made up. It was great that Soji was able to learn all that had been written down in seconds, just as Data could take in books at a glance, but I definitely can do without the 'Rings' connections (all about real, created languages), because as much as I love the books and films I hate the attitude of this Trek era for being so derivative and concerned with referencing other pop culture icons - it looks desperate (hey, we're cool, Trek's cool, don't go away, please!). I did want to know why the Troi-Rikers chose to live on Nepenthe when you'd have expected them to end up on either Earth or Betazed. It would have been nice to have mentioned the devastation to the latter planet during the Dominion War and that even twenty years later it may not have fully recovered its occupation. But the fact they wanted to live like 'The Good Life' and grow their own, live off the land, made sense when this particular planet has soil with regenerative powers. It would be nice to have more context and reasoning on how they ended up there, but it was such an attractive location I never felt it was out of character or didn't make sense for them. I remember being surprised that Jonathan Frakes was credited in the main titles as a Special Guest Star, yet Marina Sirtis was shoved to the end credits with only a guest star billing, as all former main characters should get Special billing in my book!
Frakes wasn't returning to the franchise after such a long a time as Sirtis, since he'd been directing from the first season of 'DSC,' so he had a bond with the new era productions already. Still, there's nothing like actually bringing a character back to impress and he was terrific. Sure, Troi was good too, but Frakes, well, I feel he could still be a Captain (and I suppose he would in that odd scene at the end of the season), and really slipped back into the role with aplomb. Sadly, it would be the last time any of the main 'TNG' cast would meet Picard, at least the real one, considering what they were going to do to him in the finale. We'll get there. Unfortunately, we'll get there. If there were anything else to add it would be about the holographic situation on La Sirena. Just what is it? Because we haven't seen any since Jurati pulled the plug on the EMH when he came to save Maddox, so it would be natural to assume she's used her cybernetics training (if it's similar), to prevent the holos from activating in case the EMH revealed her secret murder. I think it was the Hospitality version that appeared this time, but there didn't seem to be any reason for him to activate other than to save Jurati's miserable life. So did she tamper with the system, or didn't she? And why did she have to replicate the hypo of poison in a bespoke 3D printer rather than simply using the Replicator? And if everything is about stopping Maddox and what he did, how likely is it that he was the only man who could do it in all the galaxy, surely there are so many worlds it's certain that other cyberneticists would have made the same breakthroughs elsewhere?
Most of the questions don't matter as we bathe in a bath of 'TNG'-scented petals and enjoy the flow of great friendship. Surprisingly, while I was so close to considering this episode the first success of the season (a hairsbreadth away, or a 'Hughsbreadth'!), even though on balance I couldn't award it that, it would actually be the very next episode which impressed the most. I don't remember what happened or why I felt well about it, though. I wondered if second viewing of this one would push it over the edge for me, because it is such a treat to have a reunion like this, but it also shows how different the majority of the series is from what I want in Trek, and that doesn't help. 'Nepenthe' is as close to being a standalone episode in the series, primarily as it's mostly in one location and is a basic reunion story, which also explores trust and tragedy - it was more interesting to me because many of my favourite Trek episodes have always been those that dealt with the uncertainty of reality. This wasn't that, except from Soji's point of view, so we all know that she's safe and among friends, even though it could be interpreted by her as a way of relaxing her guard with good food and pleasant surroundings, so that was a positive. I doubt we'll ever see the kind of stories where a character is trying to work out what's real or not in this era as that's a standalone idea and they don't like exploring an idea an episode, they prefer dragging things out. Still, after the depression of much of this season it was a relief to have this little holiday with the Troi-Rikers and I sincerely hope it isn't the last we see of their family. Frakes and Sirtis were highly fitting to be the ones that traverse the generations since they've both appeared in every post-'TOS' series to that time (except 'DSC'), so they really need to get them in 'Lower Decks,' 'Strange New Worlds' and any other Trek series that comes along. Keep the tradition alive!
**
Down Among The Dead Men
DVD, BUGS S1 (Down Among The Dead Men)
After 'All Under Control' used a full-sized passenger plane for its setting, this time they bring out a full-sized submarine, signalling their intent to put the money on the screen, and the impressive scale of their ambitions really comes through on the series. Stephen Gallagher is back for his second contribution writing for the series so it's well thought-out and is quite a technical story full of inter-bank transfers right down to fixing up an undersea pump. It's a good job all three of our team are well versed in their various disciplines, though this time there's no reversal of roles to cause added tension: Beckett is leading from the front, Ed gets to do the mechanical engineering, while I feel so much safer for them with Ros behind the tech - she's a really reassuring presence. Once again it seems her connections are what's getting them their jobs. It wasn't made clear as it was with Roland Blatty that they're old friends, but you can infer from the friendly interaction and first name terms, not to mention that Graham Hurry of Kamen & Ross, their employers in the story, risks his career to sneak her account access once they've been fired by his superiors, that they were on good terms. Always bet on Ros, that should be the motto, because she's got the experience in all this. I like how it's not immediately obvious and is a bold plan by the villains with every angle covered, and takes the puzzling of the whole team to come up with the solution.
Once again they're split up rather than all working together, Ros (in her bright yellow car and long pale yellow coat), is there acting for Kamen & Ross, liaising with Hurry, while Ed (switching to pale green), and Beckett (switching to pale blue), go on location as 'representatives' of their 'mate' McTiernan who they ostensibly served with in 1985 (as 'proved' by a cleverly mocked-up photo of the trio having fun back in the day), although you'd think Bryan Brody would be a trifle suspicious of them being out to avenge their friend's death rather than merely going along for the money. But then, whatever happened he intended to kill them and the sub's crew, so he didn't need to give it too much thought - how much easier not to have a conscience… As with the previous episode we continue with more naturalistic environments than the series would generally feature, what with McTiernan's shabby caravan on a wasteland under the Dockland's Light Railway in sight of Canary Wharf Tower, the docks, and the sea. Gallagher seems to revel in the kind of abandoned industrial areas ripe for killings and subterfuge, though they do seem a little out of place for the high-tech, futurist visual language we'd see eventually.
Things are a lot more messy and untidy, even the teaser (which once again excludes the team), is about creeping around in a naval graveyard as it seems, searching out required components by cadets. The naval setting and connections are a running theme, as with Gallagher's previous story, 'Assassin's Inc,' but oddly there isn't a reference to Beckett's past in the service this time Other than Ed saying he's supposed to be a sailor, but that could refer to their cover), even getting seasick, though covering it by saying even Lord Nelson suffered from that malady, so you know the episode is being written by someone with a knowledge of history as well as technical details. Also someone who isn't afraid of throwing the characters into uncomfortable positions - in this case that means getting wet. Getting wet a lot! Ed's the first to take a dive, but only into McTiernan's water tower where he hides out when McTiernan, holding out for more money, is paid in lead by ex-associate Juliet Brody, a lady that's so coolly murderous she makes it a habit of killing people with their own guns! A couple of thoughts on that sequence, which was good for moving the story along and establishing what kind of villains we're dealing with: was it really necessary for Bryan to lug the heavy McTiernan up that spindly ladder and dump him in the water tower, surely it would have been easier to chuck him in or under the caravan and set fire to it, or something? And Ed shows great naivety in thinking the mobile phone in his pocket would survive a dunking, but then he's often shown to be technologically lacking. Maybe it was a learning experience because later on, when he has his second ducking, Bryan trying to spray him with bullets at the fuel dump, he must have made sure his next phone was kept sealed in a watertight cover as we see him talking on it afterwards!
Beckett only gets soaked once, though he came very close to being shot through the heart in Gizmos when McTiernan overreacts, fortunately only copping a bullet in the battery of his bug - fortunate indeed that batteries were so big then! Actually, the 'battery' looked very much like the device used to connect Elverson to the plane in 'All Under Control,' so is it the same tech? Beckett's real woe is being trapped in a submarine while it floods, though I'd have thought his biggest immediate danger was electrocution as we see the computers go up in sparks as the water gushes in. I thought it was a little odd that Bryan mock-threatens him with a tiny wrench when he at first won't say his real name, but then it made a lot more sense later: that same wrench, left on the shelf in reach of his mouth wouldn't have been possible to be picked up in his teeth if it had been, say, the monster-sized one Ed used to fix up the pump! It's all academic anyway as he wasn't able to escape in the end - I thought he did, but I was remembering a similar scene from 'The Champions' - just goes to show how close to the old ITC productions the series is in reality, not just in spirit. Ed gets all wet for a third time when he dives from a Dutch ship to try and find the abandoned sub - interesting that they work with the authorities in this one as they're pretty much shown not to exist in this world most of the time, as evidenced by the fact that the British police or coastguard aren't around to help at all!
Also atypically, we see another map (another commonality with 'All Under Control'), which has real place names like Dover and Folkestone displayed on the satellite readout, so there's no ambiguity about the place though they never say where they are in dialogue. It's no surprise the British authorities aren't brought in when you consider that these are wealthy and successful companies they're dealing with (bankers Kamen & Ross; diamond merchants Jacobs Doyle), who pride themselves on their security, but show a complete lack of good sense: where are the guards down in the car park? Where's the silent alarm when Juliet is under suspicion in the vault? Just like the snobbish Admiral Lansdale in 'Assassins Inc,' Hurry's boss calls Ros' expertise 'spy games.' I wonder if that was intentional on Gallagher's part to bring in common themes or set up tropes? Probably not, I expect it just came out that way in the writing. He repeats another part of an earlier script (albeit 'Out of The Hive' wasn't his credit), with the final scene which is one of the silliest joke endings ever: before it was Ros being given a present of her crushed car, this time it's Beckett handed a goldfish to which he screams. I don't think he was serious, I think he was just playing along with their gag, but it did come across as a little over the top silly, just as when the sub first surfaces and Ed and Beckett are thrown around their launch in a most comical and cartoonish way - they obviously didn't go to the 'Star Trek' school of shaking about!
If the actual ending of the episode could best be described as 'goofy' (and in some ways they could almost be interchangeable from episode to episode), the build-up to the conclusion is terrific - Beckett trapped up to his neck in seawater, Ed trying to locate the sub, Ros on the phone trying to pass him a message… okay, it doesn't sound that exciting, but with Juliet cold-bloodedly shooting down anyone in her way in her bid to escape, saving the hotblooded murder for her about-to-be-dearly-departed husband, and the security guard Ros was thrown out by before coming to believe her story, it made a thrilling finale where you really feel the rising tension in the best 'BUGS' tradition. There's also a sense of the series' usual style from the high-end businesses and their fancy buildings, but also a greater impression of how far Ros would go for her friends - when Hurry expresses surprise at how dedicated she is to a job even after she's been fired she tells him she's doing it for Beckett, not the company. We still don't really know how the whole arrangement works: are Beckett and Ed employees of Gizmos or do they have part-ownership? Those kinds of details aren't important to the enjoyment of the stories, what is important are the friendships on display - you want to spend time with these people who risk life, limb and reputation, but can find time for lightheartedness along the way. Such as the running joke about ships and boats. You'd expect Beckett to know all about that sort of thing, but was Ed being serious when he seemed not to know a gunship was a helicopter? He's a helicopter pilot, so I reckon he was playing straight man and just being silly.
Beckett gets a good line when handing the wrench to Ed and bidding him fix the pump, telling him to think of it as a big motorbike, one that goes through very deep puddles. But seriously, I'm sure Ed is very savvy when it comes to nuts and bolts and that sort of thing. Beckett neatly takes the glory when the job's done! But despite all the joking about they were up against some stone cold killers this time. Then again, I suppose they pretty much always are, which makes you wonder how they get by without guns. But they do, using wits and expertise, they know when to make a move (Ros flinging herself rugby tackle style at the gun-toting Juliet), and when not to. There was only the one explosion this time, but it was spectacular as Bryan rather foolishly sets it off when trying to gun Ed down at the fuel dump, which could just as easily have taken out the sub itself! There weren't a lot of stunts involved, but it was much more of a mental story - geographical, too, as they're in various places that give the story a wider scope than sticking to the city, but the tech they use tends to be more conventional stuff like bugs and trackers, lock-breaking gadgets and computing, so they weren't going out of their way to pull out bizarre technology, and that helped to keep it grounded, though it also doesn't give it a sense of being in the near future. The more I think about it, the more I see that as Season 2's exclusive mandate, with the others welcoming the natural environment more. Maybe that's why Season 2 wasn't as popular, but was my favourite?
It's very important in something like this that you have villains that are capable of providing a strong enough challenge to make the heroes look good, and the Brody's, an evil married couple, were among the best. The man and woman pairing had been done in the first episode and effectively repeated in the second, but they were even more nasty in this one. Surprisingly, Juliet is one of the few villains to survive and possibly the best villainess of the series, Bryan being executed in revenge by her good self - she could have returned to plague the team again if they'd wanted to bring her back, but she never made a return (I didn't really know Miss Lemon from 'Poirot' when I saw this, but I can never see her as a pleasant, helpful lady because of this!). Both Kamen & Ross and Graham Hurry did have a small return in Season 4, though Hurry was played by a different actor, one with a bit more hair, oddly! The series continues to show an ability for deftness in building up action and boiling over with tension, not to mention concentrating on outdoor locations as much as internal, which always makes it harder to shoot on a TV series. But they were only making ten episodes a year, which is pretty much what big US dramas do now, while UK dramas tend to be even shorter. Just imagine what it would have been like if 'BUGS' had been doing the US standard of its day and banging out twenty-plus episodes at a time. Oh well…
****
Tuesday, 17 August 2021
The Impossible Box
DVD, Star Trek: Picard S1 (The Impossible Box)
It's becoming something of a chore to go over these episodes because I really don't like so much about them and feel no positive feelings towards those responsible for writing, directing and creating this world that could almost be an alternate reality. I don't watch Trek to see mess-ups and failures, people reliant on alcohol and drugs, I want to see the best and the brightest and how these people operate their lives - it's about seeing inspirational people dealing with difficult subjects or issues, that's why we watch Trek. Not for a grinding dystopian vision of the future, not to feel pity or disgust for those wallowing in guilt and self-recrimination, and if we do have characters like that we see them come to the light, and with the help of others, rise above circumstances like Phoenixes. At least Captain Rios shows compassion, but even his best intentions are not always pure, as we see with him and Jurati. The episode isn't as morally reprehensible and downright stupid as the previous one, and in general it's less lecherous and repugnant, fewer swearwords, less of the disturbing tone. But it's also an episode that largely sends me to sleep. Not for a lack of action because the action-packed 'Discovery' sent me to sleep, too, but there isn't anything to dig into, it's just another piece of the grand puzzle, and if I found putting jigsaw puzzles together a satisfying pastime then it'd probably be more fun doing that than watching someone else do it.
The closest we have to a theme is Jean-Luc's growing apprehension at revisiting a Borg Cube, somewhere he hasn't been since 'First Contact' (we can assume), and a place that holds nightmarish images for him from his time being assimilated in 'The Best of Both Worlds.' I liked the callbacks, the flashes of Borg imagery that seemed to come from the film or 'Voyager' episodes, and I liked the very real reaction he has to setting foot in such a place again, but as with all modern Trek, it merely scratches the surface. A truly compelling story could have been explored relating to what was done to him and how it makes him feel even so many years later, but all we have are vague fears and an old man stumbling around inside the Cube (to the music of a 'Zelda' dungeon!). They haven't exactly formed a welcoming committee, or even raised the lighting in readiness for such a distinguished visitor! They rely on Raffi, a character who can only just pick herself up off her bed of despair, to make contact with (and blackmail), an old friend in Starfleet (and how good it was to see an actual Starfleet officer on an actual Viewscreen!), in order to gain diplomatic credentials to visit the Cube - in old Trek Picard himself would have contacted Hugh and made a connection. He knows Hugh's Director of this Borg Reclamation Project, a separate enclave by treaty (with Romulan forces?), within the 'Artefact' as the abandoned Cube is designated, so why couldn't Hugh arrange it all? It would have made sense and given us a little more time between these two old friends. I suspect it was partly to give Raffi something to do other than sobbing into her pillow, and so that Picard can have a contrived haunted house experience when Hugh isn't immediately there to greet him, whereas if he knew his friend was waiting expectantly it would have put a different spin on it.
They're always about artificially generating tension or drama instead of letting the story reach it organically, perhaps one reason serialisation, written by so many different writers, doesn't work very well. Picard's psychological issues would only be heightened by a visit to a Cube so they really didn't need to have him beam aboard alone and not be met. However, when he and Hugh do meet that is a highlight of the episode as you get a sense of the history there - if we didn't already get that from Picard's earlier research on a screen that shows Hugh as he was and as he is now. It was lovely to get that then-and-now imagery, just as it was fitting for Picard to examine the details so we see a very brief image of the Enterprise-E from 'First Contact.' I don't know whether they still had to be very careful with film-based stuff in these productions at that time, but surely you would want to show off such a beautiful ship as the E? I wasn't particularly keen on the things they love to do with having transparent screens, I find it very distracting (and as for the occasional use of Romulan subtitles, what is going on with the Universal Translator - either they need it or they don't!). Again, it seems like it was all for the visual trickery of seeing Locutus' face superimposed over Picard for a fancy shot, something unnecessary when we get all that from Patrick Stewart himself - we don't need to bash the nail on the head and actually show. Implication and subtlety is a lost art to Trek, it seems, sadly.
We hear about Hugh, the Borg Queen and Locutus, so it's not like they're ignoring the Trek history there, but I'm not sure I ever heard the word 'assimilation' even once. Or am I wrong? It sometimes seems that, although they embrace certain things or terminology of past Trek that there's still some kind of disconnect that is like they're trying to stamp their own authority on Trek now (e.g: calling androids, 'synths'), and that can be jarring to a seasoned Trekker. It's not generally as bad as on 'DSC,' but it's still there. I don't have a problem with the reclaimed Borg being designated 'XBs,' yet at the same time it smacks of a people group claiming an identity of victimhood. In the past when Borg were set free from the Collective they didn't consider themselves, or were looked upon, as being ex-Borg (other than in a prejudicial way), they were seen, at least in the eyes of Starfleet, as being whatever race they originally came from. Seven of Nine was human and learned about her human heritage. It's very much in the vein of people today that whatever happens you can't be a victim of your circumstances you have to 'reclaim' it and be proud to be part of a group even if it's injury or accident or abuse. It's a bit of a moot point anyway because the XBs never get explored as they would have been in past Trek, they're merely another puzzle piece or a coloured square on the Rubik's Cube or a slat on that wooden box Narek's so fond of.
There's another part of the episode that is daft and apparently just there to fill up time - we edge closer to Narek and his sister uncovering the homeworld of the synthetics. Excuse me? Homeworld? That doesn't even make sense in itself, although we later learn that there is indeed a world where they've all gathered in order to… erm… let in some galaxy-destroying nasties… or something. I know the Romulans were one of the few major races to remain largely undefined beyond the definition of secretive, but that has meant that modern writers can fill in, well, not the blanks, but add a load of silliness to their culture that is pretty much all nonsense. I'm not bothered about things like Romulans all have a secret name they only share with family members, that's reasonable, but it's also a sign of the belief that the Romulans are Secretive. And nothing else. It's difficult, I'm sure, to add to a culture (as was so successfully done with the Klingons over decades), when we know so little about them, and that's always the problem you have with leaving the door open for the future: past Trek was very concerned with not filling in too many details so as to leave plenty of room for development in later productions, but that also meant it gives far too much leeway for later writers to mess things up or hijack things to their own way of thinking. Not that it would have been outside of their MO to do that even if the Romulans were extremely well delineated - just look at the mess they made of canon in 'DSC' with both a Klingon war and the Mirror Universe!
I wasn't impressed with the wooden maze room that they just happened to have on this Borg Cube! Fair enough, if they'd set up a Holodeck and it was within that, but then we couldn't have had Soji smashing through wooden flooring to escape. As usual it comes across as contrivance for the sake of plot or action instead of a natural development from what we know of the Romulans or technology. And I'm not against the Romulans being portrayed as ridiculously secretive and xenophobic or whatever, the greatness of Trek's world comes from aliens being monocultures that represent an aspect of humanity which our heroes must encounter and react to in some way, learning something about themselves. But there hasn't been any of that complex-simplicity in the Kurtzman era, it's all about a messy vision - in fact vision isn't even the right word for it other than the vision to pump out as many different variations of life in the future as they can do while simultaneously making sure they're as different from what Trek always was as possible. Take the backstory of this Cube, the Artefact and the Reclamation Project: early on Elnor is asking about it and it looks like we're finally going to get some context and detail instead of this constant… I don't want to say stringing us along, but that's essentially what it's been - the mystery of not just the plot, but the whole era we're in and what this or that means, or where it comes from.
When things are explained it's done messily and things aren't structured neatly and succinctly as we expect from Trek where character development, plot and all was carefully parcelled out to us so that we knew where we were in this world, and that's part of the enjoyment. But now it's all very much plot-driven, mystery-driven, designed specifically for you to come back for the next part instead of being compelled to return because you felt the characters were compelling or the story opened your mind to new possibilities and concepts: imagination and inspiration are almost devoid in this new era. And it's not new, this is exactly what was done in 'DSC,' both Season 1 and 2, and they both ended badly after failing to be fulfilling on either a weekly basis or in the overall arc. That fate befell this series, too, but at least this episode gave the impression of progression, which was badly needed. Again, it's not the slow pace that was the problem it's that nothing was examined and explored in any detail so that it's a constantly dangling carrot trying to get the audience to 'find out next time,' or the time after that, or the time after that, or… oh, we've run out of episodes, but we've succeeded in our mission of getting people to keep watching. That's the business model.
If it was only that I was fed up with mystery and not being let in on the loop of the story, and if it was only that I was fed up with being drip-fed unsatisfying droplets of advancement, but the actual story was brilliant, the nuggets of plot and character were top-notch, then I probably wouldn't find it such a chore to get through, but it's also the cynical, negative attitude pervading the series that brings me such unhappiness. Jurati's view of space as being cold and empty and wanting to kill you is straight out of Alternate Timeline Dr. McCoy's dialogue from 'Star Trek XI' - it's no surprise because Kurtzman was a driving force in that, too. It's a dim, depressing view of space, the place where it should be that adventure lies and heroes are made. It's like an observation on the emptiness of life that Trek was able to overcome with its excitement and joy to be out there where no man had gone before. Trek now isn't about the mystery of space, it's about the mystery of secret government agencies and that sort of thing, like a half-baked 'Mission: Impossible.' 'Star Trek XI' is where so many of the bad habits and poor choices for Trek stem from (though some can be dated back to the Berman era with 'Enterprise' and 'Nemesis,' in fairness), even what was considered the most 'Trekky' of those films, 'Beyond,' wrongheadedly had an attitude of boredom from Kirk that had no place in Trek at all, and wherever I look and keep seeing new Trek series crawling out of the woodwork, and it should be a joy and a thrill, instead it's a heavyheartedness and a feeling of sadness that pervades my view.
I'm digressing, this isn't the time to be moaning about the state of Trek in general, it's about specific complaints about this one episode out of many, or even praise, and I like to be evenhanded so I will reiterate that it was lovely to have Hugh and Picard together again after so long (even if that was to be short-lived, Hugh to be yet another legacy character sacrificed on the altar of plot for no good reason). And Picard's gentle reassurance of Soji, while he doesn't have the power he used to, was still pleasant to see her trust in him. They even throw in a 'Voyager' reference in this Borg ship's Spatial Trajector with its forty-thousand lightyear range - ah, there's a technology I haven't heard in a long time, a long time. Going back to the first season of 'Voyager,' episode 'Prime Factors' when they visited the Sikarians who had the ability to send them home, but their own version of the Prime Directive to prevent helping other races. That's all well and good until you start to think it through: of all the Delta Quadrant species we met the Sikarians were the ones to be assimilated by the Borg? They had this Trajector tech, right? And why would the Borg even use it when they had Transwarp Hubs, or are we still thinking all those were destroyed by Voyager? It's all unexplained. Perhaps the whole race weren't assimilated, maybe they just got some of them and those had the detailed technical knowledge on their race's tech from which the Borg built it - maybe it's more reliable than Transwarp in some way? Still, if the Borg had got that far back into the Delta Quadrant does that mean they'd assimilated the majority of it?
So many questions arise from dropping just a simple little line of dialogue, and while I'd rather hear something like that than not, it is very much in the spirit of this era that they don't explain themselves - they prefer focusing down on details which should be avoided in my opinion (teeth cleaning, uniform manufacture, that sort of thing - see 'DSC'). It's not something that annoys me, but it is something we could do with more information on instead of being just a fun piece of trivia to drop in. Obviously it's also very convenient for Picard's immediate needs, too, which doesn't help its case. Can we surmise that Hugh had other motives aboard the Cube than being Director of reclaiming Borg lives? I'm not saying he was trying to secretly grow or resurrect a queen or create a new Borg army or anything underhand like that, but there is a question why, if he knew about such things as this secret compartment that had belonged to the queen, he kept it to himself - it isn't a respect for the queen because he's clearly against the Borg, so is it distrust of the Romulans and what they could do with the Trajector if they knew about it? For that matter why do we not ever hear about his life post-Lore, what happened to him in the last twenty-five years or so? And why would they trust an XB to head the project? We never find out, and judging by the mercenary approach to Trek now I wouldn't be surprised if you're supposed to read some comic to get information like that if it's even out there. All we know is he's a citizen of the Federation. And that the Neutral Zone no longer exists, which makes sense since the Romulan Star Empire also ceased to be, at least in its previous form.
I still want to know more about the history of this period, the placement of the various races and their politics - the Klingons are the big one, with 'All Good Things…' being a major influence on this series in many ways, from that episode we learned that they had taken over the Romulan Empire, and while events from that timeline aren't certain to take place, it's amazing how that does tie together - the fact that the Romulans are severely weakened so you could imagine the Klingons taking much of their space, especially considering they border each other in the Beta Quadrant. But the series isn't interested in answering these burning questions we have, it's more interested in pulling us along on wild goose chases that have very little purpose to them. At least the next episode would give us something we wanted in Riker and Troi (or Mr. and Mrs. Troi, or Riker-Troi, or Troi-Riker, but that's for the next review!). The trouble with this story is that it allows the audience in some ways to be so far ahead of the characters we're waiting for them to catch up to us: so we have the Romulan spies trying to get information from Soji who only in this episode finally realises she's not a real girl (complete with wooden Pinocchio manikin dream sequence). Picard is slowly catching up to her and succeeds at last, while Jurati is still a murderer who's gotten away with it - what happened to the EMH, did she permanently close him down (no - I know he's in it again, but I don't remember exactly what happened there).
We learn Soji and all her memories are no older than thirty-seven months. We learn the Borg ship were outcasts who were stranded under Romulan control and Jurati suggests may have changed. That shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the Collective. They don't have the ability to change, as Jurati, an expert on cybernetics, should know! Only in the sense that they could be cut off from the Collective. I wished we could have gone into Hugh's own background in shepherding a group of ex-Borg back in his day, and what happened to them? How did he become de-borgified? If they are the most hated people in the galaxy, which does sound credible, that's an issue well worth delving into, not dropping in a line then avoiding for wooden mazes and suchlike! Picard encourages Hugh when he expresses sadness that the rehabilitation, at least physically, of the XBs isn't perfect, but with the medical technology of the 24th Century I don't see why it wouldn't be? We've already seen Seven go from a full Borg to practically human, physically, so why wouldn't they be able to do an even better job years later? But then this series retconned that and took away the hope of Seven's full regeneration into human, typical of the negative approach and view of these modern writers - they found it more satisfying to turn her into a miserable, wretched, hopeless person it was a relief to see the back of so it's clear their view is as far from the optimistic Trek ethos as can be.
We're supposed to feel sorry for Raffi, too, but she seems to be a victim of herself and it's hard to feel anything for her other than disgust. Disgust is the prevailing attitude I have to most of the characters - it's not that they're broken that matters, it's the lack of moving toward wholeness, learning lessons from Picard, that sort of thing. I still don't come out of the episodes feeling good about the world, quite the opposite, and that's a major problem. Even if everything else was wrong, the canon, the characters, all of it, but yet it was still made optimistically, it would be a lot more attractive. Trouble is they focus on getting some of the details right, like the Borg and their implants, Picard saying they never forget one of their own, which is exactly right (the hive mind would always recognise Locutus especially as he was important to the queen and their invasion of humanity), but miss the bigger picture. At least at Nepenthe there'd be a measure of solace (even though when I first heard it I thought they'd said they were going to Rura Penthe, the Klingon prison!). The truth is I just want to see Starfleet and good people, I'm not interested in the dregs of this time period, even assuming there would be any - they have, or are supposed to have, a practically perfect society where everyone succeeds on merit, but there's no interest in portraying that - it's not that they're unhappy with the 'Roddenberry Box' of no conflict, it's that I get the impression most of the people behind 'Picard' and this whole era may not even have heard of it! And it really is hard work. I don't hate the series, but I also don't like it, and for a Trekker that's a hard truth to accept: that I may never like new Trek again.
**
All Under Control
DVD, BUGS S1 (All Under Control)
A different prospect on offer in this, the third episode, I don't think we were in London (or Generic Modernist City), once, it was all on location in and around the airport and the surrounding countryside (Stapleford from the satnav map, I believe). That in itself marks it out significantly from most other episodes as they didn't tend to show naturalistic settings of fields, grass, trees and rustic architecture, as far from the series' general remit of steel and glass structures as you can get. The way the episode begins, too, suggests a much more British eccentric attitude to the genre, much closer to 'The Avengers' than any we'd see this season - in all probability, the writer for this one (Duncan Gould), was taking his inspiration directly from that old series, to the extent that when you're watching 'aviation enthusiast' Kirkby flying his model at the same time as Langford's plane is seemingly taken control of, you quickly assume he's the one in control, which would be exactly the kind of plot you'd get in 'The Avengers.' Fortunately, it's not quite that simplistic, the real work is being done by computer and it's mere coincidence or misdirection to see the model. But the title at least is most apt in an episode which is all about control: Elverson's personal mission to make people realise his Navcom autopilot system needs to replace humans (strained by his belief that they'll listen if he takes over their planes and proves what he can do, although ironically he's in control!); Airport Security Head Nigel Todd demands constant dominion to the extent of butting heads with his boss, Langford; Kirkby would love to be in the seat of control, to fly planes…
It's also about loss of control as we see Wyman's base motivation, greed for money, is what has controlled Elverson and he's not above murder when anyone gets in his way, as Elverson and Todd both discovered (shooting an old man in the back - doesn't get much lower than that). He was a suspicious character right from the start, but it's difficult to know what I first thought since I've seen it so many times. They laid it on a bit thick to make Todd seem suspicious with his hostile attitude to these outside security consultants being brought in, and his relish at taking on the task of meeting the blackmailer, Icarus (at least he was given a bit of background when he talks about being in the army), but there weren't many suspects in the picture so trying to create some ambiguity may have been a pointless task. Todd's really only there to provide something for the team to butt up against (when he appears with his forces and the hangar shutter rolls back it reminded me of Jabba's Palace in 'Return of The Jedi' and the curtain pulling back, though Todd wasn't the type to laugh), for Beckett to remind us he has a temper (he manages to stay professional, with only a warning, "Don't push me," to Todd), and to give Ed a chance to show his skills, leaping up onto an awning and clambering in through a window when they need to break into the airport at night after Todd's demanded they leave. I'd have liked to see how the team were recruited, what made Langford call them in, do they advertise, or share a mutual friend (someone like Roland Blatty perhaps). Such details aren't really pertinent to the story, but they are to those of us interested in how the business works and the lives they have outside of their job.
The natural environment we see so much of, with picturesque windmill houses and low-beamed cottages (Kirkby's was very comfortable!), provides a refreshing style for the series, but as I said before, it must have been because the visuals hadn't been entirely established this early on. There's also a majority of the story happening during the day, which isn't always the case (more evident in Season 2, as I recall, when darkness added to the sci-fi direction they went in - may also have had something to do with the time of year they filmed in, as there'd be more hours of dark than daylight), and you can see they pulled out all the stops to show the money on screen - not only do we get a lot of scenes in a real airport and surrounding airfields, the full complement of fire engines being activated in readiness (in both day and night scenes), but they film aboard a real plane, too. The episode may not have the excitement of the first two instalments, but it does succeed in creating a more psychological drama - when Ros is trapped aboard a plane controlled by Icarus, you really feel for her, and as the nightmarish event unfolds the tension mounts: first she merely can't get off in time, then the plane begins moving of its own accord until it's heading out onto the runway - Ed gets to play daredevil again, leaping from a moving fire engine onto the wing of the plane in an attempt to open the escape hatch from the outside, then has to jump off to avoid being sucked into the powerful jet engine as it starts up, and then Ros is going up, up and away.
The strength of the episode is in its displacement of the characters from their quickly established positions of, well, control: Ed's the pilot, but he's stuck on the ground, Ros is the computer expert, but is the one faced with all the critical dials and levers of a cockpit - instead of Ed being able to talk her down, which would have been an easier solution, and something anyone in the control tower could have done, they turn it around so Ros has to 'talk Ed down,' while she controls her own panic, she has to calm Ed into making the correct adjustments on Elverson's computers, while he is terrified he's going to do something wrong, with Ros' life in the balance. It's an excellent demonstration of what the series could achieve simply by putting one of our heroes in danger. Ed's concerns over operating a computer could also be seen as a generation's trouble accepting this new development in society - 'I wouldn't even know how to turn the thing on,' has been the frequent refrain from older people as a way of saying they wouldn't know where to even begin to understand the concepts of a computer and its interface. I don't get the sense most people feel that way any more which shows how deeply embedded into modern life computers have become, to the extent that it's somewhat worrying to think how much depends on them, but 'BUGS' was always going to be pro-technology, that's the direction it's coming from, and Ed as a technophobe was perfectly placed in this story for the maximum drama.
Beckett is the one who almost feels redundant across the course of the episode so they throw him a bone and give him the action man task of driving very fast across country, up hill and down dale, as if he's learnt a thing or two from the way Ros handled his Jeep in 'Out of The Hive.' In keeping with tradition, the villain's own self-confidence is his undoing, piling into a flatbed which eats into the top of his car. It might have been more effective not to show the bloodied corpse of Wyman and instead leave it to the imagination, because by the look of the impact it could have taken his head clean off! I wouldn't say the guest characters are among the greatest of the series, Susan Kyd's Langford especially unreal as head of the airport. Phillip Joseph's Todd is perhaps overly stuffy and Tom Chadbon's Wyman seems undeveloped - why did he do what he did? What made him such a killer? He has a certain something in his eye that is worrying, but we don't go into it. I enjoyed spotting Chadbon in a minor scene of 'Casino Royale' as some kind of banker - probably wouldn't particularly have recognised him when that film came out except that I was heavily into 'BUGS' at the time, having watched the series a lot for a couple of years before that! Edward Jewesbury wasn't bad as Elverson, though perhaps it is harder to believe this elderly gentleman with a white beard and cardigan would be this software genius, but then it does throw the stereotypes of teenage coders of the 80s on its head. His windmill lair was lovely and all he needed was a white cat to stroke as he sat before his bank of screens - instead he strokes a white mouse!
Elverson suited the environment they were in, a mixture of traditional and modern (he gives Beckett a copy of his program on floppy disk!), but I wonder if too much time was given over to trying to keep the audience guessing on the identity of the villain. It's not an episode full of stunts, there are none of the staple explosions (I'm surprised Wyman's car didn't explode on impact at the end!), and I'm not sure they were entirely certain what to do with all the characters - sure, the tasks were parcelled out, but it almost felt like three was a crowd, not something seen in the first two episodes. I like that they're assigning bright colours to each member of the team with Ros wearing blue (complimenting her yellow car, seen briefly), Ed in red and Beckett in green. It was all part of the desire (later seen in such things as 'Smallville' and previously seen in such as 'Star Trek'), to differentiate characters simply and cleanly and to provide brightness and positivity through the outfits worn). It's good to see Ed in his element as he's clearly a bit of an enthusiast when it comes to flying - although he jokes about Kirkby being more suited to Ros, I wonder if he would have got on better with the guy as they'd be able to go on endlessly about different models, while Ros had to (forgive me), wing it a bit, pretending to be a journalist - she even says later in the episode that to her a plane is just a flying pub, which sums up her attitude perfectly.
They use the plane itself to great effect, early on showing what it's like for a full set of passengers to be inside when the plane's taken over - you have to feel sorry for one little girl who clearly isn't acting when she cries in pure terror, but it was all to great effect, I just hope she didn't grow up with a fear of air travel! Beckett and Ed suggest that 'somebody doesn't like us,' and 'what's new?' so I wondered if this meant the team have been operating more than we've seen. Their jobs usually seem to take place in a short time frame of a couple of days, judging from what we can see, otherwise it would appear premature to make such a statement if they've only dealt with the enemies they had so far. It was also a little hard to buy Ros' assertion that anyone with a modem and a little patience could send a message to infiltrate an airport's network and bring it up on every screen in the place, but this can be put down to less people knowing the facts of such technology back in 1995, and also that it probably was more possible to hack into things then because internet security wasn't as strong. Otherwise it's a fairly tight story which I couldn't nitpick much about, although there is some slight mishap with continuity in the chase at the end: Wyman points a gun out of his window in one shot, then there's we see him pick up the gun from the glove compartment, then he fires it! But it's only noticeable if you're looking out for it and is common practice to insert scenes where they work best rather than necessarily in the correct order in the scene, particularly in a fast moment of action.
The episode uses the characters well over all, each of them working together or on their own at various points and it was a well shot episode, too, as evidenced by the number of images taken from this to be used in the opening titles (still love how dynamic that is, with all the great clips and the electrical gadgets looking alive as they come together to form the logo - inspired design). In keeping with the style of the series, there's not a lot to delve into and discuss, it's mostly straightforward action, there aren't going to be deep moral issues or, at least at this stage, much to discuss in terms of the series' continuity as each story largely stands alone. But it remains entertaining and this one shows they were willing to put their money where their mouth was and give us some big things, the likes of which you'd expect in a film more than TV of the time, and it's clear from the assured direction and the easygoing atmosphere between the main cast, that at this early part of the season they had it, yes, all under control.
****
Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Lineage
DVD, Smallville S2 (Lineage)
Wow, this episode made things a lot more complicated. It should have been called 'Mother,' or 'Parents,' or maybe even 'Adoption.' How many issues are there, let me work it out? There's obviously Clark and his shady adoption by the Kents, as well as a woman who believes she's his real Mother. There's Lana and her quest to find out if her Mother's boyfriend, whom we learn is Henry Small of the founding family that created Smallville, is actually her Father. There's Chloe and her story of how her Mother walked out on her and her Father when she was five years old and knows she's not wanted, and then there's Lex and his potential to be half-brothers with Clark, quashed, but then a previously unknown half-brother, Lucas Luthor, is unearthed, and his Dad, Lionel, pretends he died when he was one, yet has a picture of a young lad in a locket. What a tangled web to unweave! The best episode of the season so far, I'd say, though 'Redux' isn't far behind, this threw up many questions, but in a good way, not in a shallow, plot twist of the week style only there to shock or surprise. It's all done with real heart and emotion and is another episode that doesn't feature a freak-of-the-week to confuse the issue. I suppose Rachel is the closest thing, showing up at the Kent Farm once Clark's gone to school and his parents have gone off in the truck, and creepily wandering round the house. It was such a nice morning, too, with some great direction, fun little gags such as Clark saying he smashed his alarm clock pressing the snooze, and making toast the super-fast way with heat vision.
It's a fun, fast scene that shows how assured the series can be in its characters, its sets and its dialogue, and pleasingly that confidence continues through the rest of the episode. As does Rachel Dunlevy's increasingly inappropriate behaviour. I mean, is it really possible for someone to petition a judge (Pete's Mum, too!), to force Clark to undergo a DNA test? Surely that isn't legal, it would be against his rights, even if he isn't an adult. Okay, so the Kents' adoption is shown up to be far below board, but even so, that seemed really far off the base of what's acceptable. Mind you, requesting a DNA test is far from the most unreal moment of the series and this continues to show, for the most part, how grounded the series was at this time, before it completely lost it to fantasy and too much bad writing in subsequent seasons. I love, for example, how the Kents deal with Rachel, everyone so true to their characters: Jonathan just holding back his anger at her poking around in his family (good job he never knew she entered their house - do they not lock the doors when they go out?), while Martha is on the verge of showing compassion to this sad woman, you can tell she really wants to talk to her even though she knows no good can come of it. Lionel, too, is very much true to what we know of him, not giving in to Rachel's blackmail and leaving Lex at her mercy. That sequence was the only truly unreal note in the episode, as you'd think all Lionel's resources would be put into tracking down this mad woman, especially as the house she just bought is presumably where she's taken Lex, and would be the first place the police would look!
Except Sheriff Ethan is too busy enforcing the taking of DNA samples to do any serious police work! It was great fun seeing him when he had hair back in the 80s, and here we come to another great directorial side of the episode: when they start showing the flashback to the day of the meteor shower, you think 'here we go again, they love to reuse the footage from the pilot,' but then we get to see what happened next, what a revolutionary idea! We have Lionel back in his older hairstyle, young Lex and young Clark meeting for the first time and the real story of his adoption opened up. There may be a slightly odd note in that Lionel is so beside himself he doesn't know what to do other than get Jonathan to take the now hairless Lex to hospital - Pa Kent is supposed to be this hero, but all he does is pick the kid up and drive him somewhere! Lionel looks most ineffectual, but it sets up the trade in favours that soured Jonathan on the Luthors for good: not content with paying back Jonathan by setting up Metropolis United Charities and its one case of adoption, which is a clever retcon if it works, Lionel then puts pressure on his new 'buddy' to persuade the Ross' to give up their plant, a course of action that gave the Luthors a foothold on the Smallville community, and it was all Jonathan's fault. It puts in perspective why he can't stand the man or his problems with Lex and the whole family in the past, as well as his constant reminders to Clark that 'we always have a choice, son.' It seems he chose to collaborate in order to protect his new family, not an easy decision either way.
Not only is the drama strong, but the way they shot it was equally up with the quality of Ken Biller's script (formerly of 'Voyager'). We see some terrific transitions between the past and present that are as good as anything in 'Highlander' - Martha's telling Clark about how it was when he first came to them and looks over, the camera panning to show young Clark playing on the floor, then we return to the present as li'l Clark hugs his Mummy and the camera moves up to her now, remembering. It's so effective at conveying the past coming back to haunt, or precious memories never forgotten, but it also shows the helplessness of Jonathan in the barn as he looks over at Lionel leave after giving him the ultimatum. I'm not sure the story hangs together in the wider series continuity as Lionel doesn't seem to really know Martha this season, yet he sat in a truck (which wasn't even theirs, but some friend of Jonathan's that died, though that's a good addition to the story logic when you know that the Kent truck was overturned, so how would they have gotten Clark and his spaceship back to the farm? - problem solved), right next to her for the journey to the Smallville Medical Centre. It's understandable really as he wasn't in a good state of mind and was intent only on young Lex at the time.
Rachel's psychotic tendencies come to the fore when she visits Lionel and he says she needs to go back into mental care, so although it's a very 'Smallville' excess thing for her to do in kidnapping Lex and holding him ransom, then trying to murder him with an axe, it also feels believable based on what we learn of her. Clark stopping her by blasting through the door, the axe splintering down on him, wasn't one of the best effects in the series, but exciting visuals weren't really what the episode was about, it's much more a satisfying people drama where the strengths and weaknesses of the various characters come into play very well. Lex hoping that Clark would turn out to be his brother, Chloe's tearful confrontation with Clark and revelation about her own Mother, Lana's attempt to get to know Mr. Small, both naive and true to how a teenager would approach something like that, but thanks to Clark's encouragement, finding the courage to try again in a more mature and sensible manner - it all showed some fine writing, and sadly only Pete misses out on anything good, his role merely there for backup when Clark tampers with his DNA sample. Yet the Ross family are constantly in the background, whether it's his Mother authorising the test, or the history with Jonathan getting his family to sell to the Luthors.
The strength of the episode is that it rings true in so many ways, the worst qualities of Lionel coming to the fore, the best qualities of the Kents, even of Lex, who refuses to play Rachel's game by talking to Clark for her. It even manages to end on a largely positive note, which I appreciate in a season where things began to go downhill - it's no wonder Lana and Chloe became more and more upset with Clark as for all the talk of secrets and stuff, he still won't really confide, even on these things, and is quick to reassure when they need it. Not that that makes future episodes more bearable, but at least here things make sense - talking of future episodes, I'm pretty sure we see this Lucas Luthor in an episode this season, and I'm not even sure he was the only brother Lex had as future seasons drop all kinds of bizarre plots out of the woodwork. For now, though, this was a strong story that used almost all the characters effectively and depended on personal challenges rather than action, making it well rounded and an instalment of depth. With this and 'Redux' we seem to be into a good patch, which I hope continues.
***
Wow, this episode made things a lot more complicated. It should have been called 'Mother,' or 'Parents,' or maybe even 'Adoption.' How many issues are there, let me work it out? There's obviously Clark and his shady adoption by the Kents, as well as a woman who believes she's his real Mother. There's Lana and her quest to find out if her Mother's boyfriend, whom we learn is Henry Small of the founding family that created Smallville, is actually her Father. There's Chloe and her story of how her Mother walked out on her and her Father when she was five years old and knows she's not wanted, and then there's Lex and his potential to be half-brothers with Clark, quashed, but then a previously unknown half-brother, Lucas Luthor, is unearthed, and his Dad, Lionel, pretends he died when he was one, yet has a picture of a young lad in a locket. What a tangled web to unweave! The best episode of the season so far, I'd say, though 'Redux' isn't far behind, this threw up many questions, but in a good way, not in a shallow, plot twist of the week style only there to shock or surprise. It's all done with real heart and emotion and is another episode that doesn't feature a freak-of-the-week to confuse the issue. I suppose Rachel is the closest thing, showing up at the Kent Farm once Clark's gone to school and his parents have gone off in the truck, and creepily wandering round the house. It was such a nice morning, too, with some great direction, fun little gags such as Clark saying he smashed his alarm clock pressing the snooze, and making toast the super-fast way with heat vision.
It's a fun, fast scene that shows how assured the series can be in its characters, its sets and its dialogue, and pleasingly that confidence continues through the rest of the episode. As does Rachel Dunlevy's increasingly inappropriate behaviour. I mean, is it really possible for someone to petition a judge (Pete's Mum, too!), to force Clark to undergo a DNA test? Surely that isn't legal, it would be against his rights, even if he isn't an adult. Okay, so the Kents' adoption is shown up to be far below board, but even so, that seemed really far off the base of what's acceptable. Mind you, requesting a DNA test is far from the most unreal moment of the series and this continues to show, for the most part, how grounded the series was at this time, before it completely lost it to fantasy and too much bad writing in subsequent seasons. I love, for example, how the Kents deal with Rachel, everyone so true to their characters: Jonathan just holding back his anger at her poking around in his family (good job he never knew she entered their house - do they not lock the doors when they go out?), while Martha is on the verge of showing compassion to this sad woman, you can tell she really wants to talk to her even though she knows no good can come of it. Lionel, too, is very much true to what we know of him, not giving in to Rachel's blackmail and leaving Lex at her mercy. That sequence was the only truly unreal note in the episode, as you'd think all Lionel's resources would be put into tracking down this mad woman, especially as the house she just bought is presumably where she's taken Lex, and would be the first place the police would look!
Except Sheriff Ethan is too busy enforcing the taking of DNA samples to do any serious police work! It was great fun seeing him when he had hair back in the 80s, and here we come to another great directorial side of the episode: when they start showing the flashback to the day of the meteor shower, you think 'here we go again, they love to reuse the footage from the pilot,' but then we get to see what happened next, what a revolutionary idea! We have Lionel back in his older hairstyle, young Lex and young Clark meeting for the first time and the real story of his adoption opened up. There may be a slightly odd note in that Lionel is so beside himself he doesn't know what to do other than get Jonathan to take the now hairless Lex to hospital - Pa Kent is supposed to be this hero, but all he does is pick the kid up and drive him somewhere! Lionel looks most ineffectual, but it sets up the trade in favours that soured Jonathan on the Luthors for good: not content with paying back Jonathan by setting up Metropolis United Charities and its one case of adoption, which is a clever retcon if it works, Lionel then puts pressure on his new 'buddy' to persuade the Ross' to give up their plant, a course of action that gave the Luthors a foothold on the Smallville community, and it was all Jonathan's fault. It puts in perspective why he can't stand the man or his problems with Lex and the whole family in the past, as well as his constant reminders to Clark that 'we always have a choice, son.' It seems he chose to collaborate in order to protect his new family, not an easy decision either way.
Not only is the drama strong, but the way they shot it was equally up with the quality of Ken Biller's script (formerly of 'Voyager'). We see some terrific transitions between the past and present that are as good as anything in 'Highlander' - Martha's telling Clark about how it was when he first came to them and looks over, the camera panning to show young Clark playing on the floor, then we return to the present as li'l Clark hugs his Mummy and the camera moves up to her now, remembering. It's so effective at conveying the past coming back to haunt, or precious memories never forgotten, but it also shows the helplessness of Jonathan in the barn as he looks over at Lionel leave after giving him the ultimatum. I'm not sure the story hangs together in the wider series continuity as Lionel doesn't seem to really know Martha this season, yet he sat in a truck (which wasn't even theirs, but some friend of Jonathan's that died, though that's a good addition to the story logic when you know that the Kent truck was overturned, so how would they have gotten Clark and his spaceship back to the farm? - problem solved), right next to her for the journey to the Smallville Medical Centre. It's understandable really as he wasn't in a good state of mind and was intent only on young Lex at the time.
Rachel's psychotic tendencies come to the fore when she visits Lionel and he says she needs to go back into mental care, so although it's a very 'Smallville' excess thing for her to do in kidnapping Lex and holding him ransom, then trying to murder him with an axe, it also feels believable based on what we learn of her. Clark stopping her by blasting through the door, the axe splintering down on him, wasn't one of the best effects in the series, but exciting visuals weren't really what the episode was about, it's much more a satisfying people drama where the strengths and weaknesses of the various characters come into play very well. Lex hoping that Clark would turn out to be his brother, Chloe's tearful confrontation with Clark and revelation about her own Mother, Lana's attempt to get to know Mr. Small, both naive and true to how a teenager would approach something like that, but thanks to Clark's encouragement, finding the courage to try again in a more mature and sensible manner - it all showed some fine writing, and sadly only Pete misses out on anything good, his role merely there for backup when Clark tampers with his DNA sample. Yet the Ross family are constantly in the background, whether it's his Mother authorising the test, or the history with Jonathan getting his family to sell to the Luthors.
The strength of the episode is that it rings true in so many ways, the worst qualities of Lionel coming to the fore, the best qualities of the Kents, even of Lex, who refuses to play Rachel's game by talking to Clark for her. It even manages to end on a largely positive note, which I appreciate in a season where things began to go downhill - it's no wonder Lana and Chloe became more and more upset with Clark as for all the talk of secrets and stuff, he still won't really confide, even on these things, and is quick to reassure when they need it. Not that that makes future episodes more bearable, but at least here things make sense - talking of future episodes, I'm pretty sure we see this Lucas Luthor in an episode this season, and I'm not even sure he was the only brother Lex had as future seasons drop all kinds of bizarre plots out of the woodwork. For now, though, this was a strong story that used almost all the characters effectively and depended on personal challenges rather than action, making it well rounded and an instalment of depth. With this and 'Redux' we seem to be into a good patch, which I hope continues.
***
Assassins Inc
DVD, BUGS S1 (Assassins Inc)
Their first mission, and it turns out to be something of an ethical issue. At least, I'm assuming this is the Gizmos team's first mission, for all we know they may have been operating for weeks by now as there's no timescale indicated. The fact that Ros is happy to go off on some social event with an old friend while Ed and Beckett carry out a clandestine search and destroy on intellectual property bound up with a company that's just gone bust suggests one of two things: either they're confident in what they've developed and don't need all three team members involved, or, and this seems more likely to me, Beckett took the job on himself without Ros' knowledge, trying to impress her and demonstrate his leadership abilities. Oh, Beckett, what have you done? The ethics of the situation are whether it's okay to break a few laws (breaking and entering; industrial sabotage; trespass, to name a few), when the cause is just: The Client, a certain Irene Campbell, has hired Beckett to delete a 'game' concept that has been 'bought' by a 'company' and then that very same day it went bust and the cheque bounced (for those that don't know what this means… look it up), and to get back this data will be a costly and time-consuming process, so it's up to our boys to delete what's on the company system, get out of there, get paid. Ironically it's Ed, the happy-go-lucky free spirit, who calls into question the veracity of Irene, while Beckett, full of himself and fallen under the smarmy charm of this middle-aged woman, takes it all on face value. Bad idea.
Trust must surely be an issue in this line of work - do you just take on a task from anyone and accept what the client says? It's early days, they didn't know quite what they were doing yet, as evidenced by the fact they left Ros out of the picture and showed just what happens when the brain box isn't included! Bad idea. Was Ros attending the event on HMS Belfast, docked in the Thames, purely for social reasons, or was she trying to build up contacts for the expansion of the Gizmos business? Actually, Gizmos never gets mentioned, though you can see they still operate out of the place. I'm not sure how often their company name ever does get spoken on screen again, to the extent that when it shows up in Season 4, headed by the other guy (Terry), you wonder what happened in between. An alternative title for the series could have been 'Gizmos,' though I prefer the one they used. The logo was great, and I especially love the wiring behind it, and the shot of what appears to be Beckett running with a briefcase in the outline of the letters - that could almost have come from this episode as we see him speeding from the offices of Cyberscope carrying a case, only he's wearing dark clothing and it's at night, and there's something about the shot in the logo that makes me think he's at an airfield. If it even is Beckett? You see, there's very little behind the scenes material on the series - a few magazine articles from the 90s - and I'd know, because I spent many hours in the 2000s researching as much as I could through magazines and the internet.
For example, I do know this was actually the first episode they shot, though it's the second one shown. It was written by Stephen Gallagher who was also a co-consultant on the series with Brian Clemens (creator of such 'BUGS' inspiration as 'The Avengers'), best known at the time for writing a couple of 'Dr. Who' stories in the 80s, and being an author. He's gone on to be something of a face for the series, even though it wasn't his baby, since everybody knows that he wrote the vast majority of the best episodes, and his absence in Season 4 (along with Craig McLachlan), really hurt its quality. I suppose because he was a Name, he was the one interviewed for the complete series box-set that came out in 2004 or 2005, and was reason enough to buy the collection even after collecting the individual sets as they came out. In fact, he's responsible for this very blog since in my researches I stumbled upon his own and kept up with it on a regular basis, so that when I became unemployed and wanted a new project to help keep me busy the idea of doing my own blog jumped out - once in a while (a long while), he even mentions 'BUGS' and has made some of his scripts available to download, which is very nice. But 'Assassins Inc' was the one he began with, and you can immediately see the Gallagher style that suited the series so well, to the extent that I often thought that it was his series on merit, and if it were ever to make a comeback he'd likely be the one given the task. That was quite a few years ago, back when he was running his own shows such as 'Eleventh Hour' (Patrick Stewart), or 'Crusoe,' and I'm not sure he's quite as active in the TV arena now, nor would it be likely the series would be revived (though I do have a good story about an almost-comeback in 2007 which I'll keep for another review).
It was deliberately intended to use cutting edge science and certainly in Gallagher's writing you get more of a sense of reality than some - cavity resonator bugs that turn your whole body into a microphone and transmitter… tiny flying drones tipped with fast-acting poison that can hunt you down based on specific genetic markers… voice-activated company hardware that seems to have some kind of AI interface like a 'Star Trek' computer… You can see the origins of Season 2's creepy antagonist, Cyberax, in the bank of screens with a silvery-blue three-dimensional model floating on screen, and the calm, quiet voice of the computer, but it may well be mere coincidence. The important factor is depicting a reality you can believe in, and long before we had drones, let alone tiny, fly-sized versions that home in on your scent, those flying darts were incredibly cool. They're well shot, and though you can wonder how such a streamlined model would move through the air at different speeds, rather than darting like an arrow, the imagery shown from the tiny onboard camera and its fisheye lens added immeasurably to the sense of panic and threat - witness the terrific shot as Ed, the intended target, shrinks away from it while the device itself is pulled slowly into a ventilation fan to its destruction! If only Ed had had the sense to get out of the way as soon as the thing had been sucked in he might not have had time to breathe in the poison, but then they needed his life to be in danger to add another layer of motivation.
It's questionable how Irene and her lawyer associate, Mr. Morasco, knew that the piece of trouser ripped from Ed's behind came from him, but somehow they do, as they've already tried to take out both Ros and Beckett with targeted sound-activated bombs. Again, these computer-mouse-sized devices were horribly creepy, though the 'Knight Rider'-esque 'breathing' LEDs on top were clearly there for viewer reaction only since you don't want anything to draw attention to such an unobtrusive killing machine. It makes a good case for having a second phone and a fax machine in your home, and an equally good case for not having an answer-phone, since that would have set off the explosion. Explosions are usually the series' stock in trade, but after we were treated to such a glorious bloom in the first episode, the much more contained blasts here came across as rather tame in comparison. Their use was also sometimes questionable, as in the case with the stuck-up Admiral Lansdale. The only reason he gets blown up is because he replies to Beckett as he opens his locker or enters a keycard, whatever he was doing on the bridge. But Beckett got him killed! If he hadn't been talking to Nick then he'd have been fine, which was a problem because how would the villains know he was going to speak at that point?
It's nice to see inside Ros' flat again back at The Circle, and we also get Beckett's place, though it's filmed in a way I couldn't tell if it was the same layout as in 'Out of The Hive.' Mystery man Ed, of course, does not get to show off his place of abode, but it's supposed to be a few floors up from Ros, so in this case it was unnecessary, though it's telling that once again he's the one we aren't given a chance to find out more about, just as in the first episode we learn the others' names, but Ed remains plain, simple Ed. Going back to the ethics of what the team do, there's starting to be a pattern showing through: we've had two episodes in which a man and a woman cause trouble with some technological device of some kind and then end up dead by the end of the episode! I remember reading in some article how they were keen to bring back what would become the series' classic villain, Jean-Daniel, for Season 2, and one of the rationales was that pretty much all the other villains had been killed! The Gizmos team may not carry guns (except in specific circumstances as shown at the end of the episode when Beckett pulls some kind of big monster flare gun - I thought he should have aped the classic 'Crocodile Dundee' line and said, 'that's not a gun, this is a gun!' but I suppose that would have been too derivative…), but they do seem to leave a wake of destruction behind them.
In fairness, just as with Cottrell and Elena in the first episode, it was the villains themselves who made the mistake and received poetic justice. But it remains to be said that if Irene truly thought Ros was bluffing, as she obviously did by holding up her own bomb in front of her and Morasco's face before speaking and activating it, why didn't she say something earlier? I get it, it was all done for effect and was becoming the hallmark of the series that the villains had to get blown up at the end, but Morasco certainly thought it was real. And for what it was worth, he was right! If they learn anything from the episode, it is that the team need Ros' wise head. Beckett may be the unofficial leader and Ros is usually happy to sit back and give him the authority, but she's the one with the knowledge. We see evidence of Beckett's quick temper again when he accosts Lansdale (nice touch that we get a hint at Beckett's past in the services when he says they met in Gibraltar, though he could have been making it up), grabbing his arm when the older man won't slow down and talk. "It doesn't sound much like respect to me," was a good line from the Admiral, who showed great disdain for surveillance work and the 'spy toys' that don't work half the time. It's evidence of an older generation's attitude to our current heroes' use of bugs and gadgets, not realising how technology was developing in leaps and bounds, an interesting little insight into the state of the art at that time, and the attitudes.
Technology isn't always as much in evidence as you might expect, however. For one thing, with all that CCTV at the offices of Cyberscope you'd think they'd have picked up Ed or Beckett on the inside, or the Cherokee Jeep speeding away when they make their getaway - the first part of that is easily answered as we know they made it so that all the security cameras would read the same (fortunately the guards played ball and weren't looking at the feed the moment it was changed!), and I suppose they could have done the same for the external views if there were some. The guards weren't up to much, especially when you consider they were from The Bureau of Weapons Technology, the organisation that Roland Blatty was heading up, Ros' friend from university days (where he couldn't even hold a chess club together, we hear). Mind you, Blatty's incompetence would become a bit of a theme, though it's unfair in this case as it's all the fault of our team making his life a headache. The Bureau's appearance is especially fascinating considering it would go on to play a crucial role in the following seasons and I love the building groundwork that had begun right with these first two episodes, though I doubt they knew they'd be returning to anything like that: both The Hive and The Bureau would come back in big ways, as would Roland, the first eventually-recurring character to be set up (excluding Dent). The world building is one of the attractive parts of the series as you didn't get a lot of that in the kind of series' 'BUGS' was inspired by, so they were adding a little 90s sophistication, or would be as it went on.
One thing I did wonder is the identity of Roland's boss, as he says he has to go and report in. Could it be that there was a 'Jan' even then? It's been so long since I watched the series that I can't even remember if the Season 3 character of Jan was new to The Bureau or had a history with it, but I have the feeling she was new as Alex was supposed to be the only surviving remnant of the organisation after the Cyberax incident at the end of Season 2, so it would seem unlikely. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of Jan there, but we'd never see him or her (obviously Jan Harvey's later portrayal was inspired by Judi Dench's 'M' in the Brosnan Bond era). I must admit I'd completely forgotten Blatty was in this episode - it's rather like Garak in Season 1 of 'DS9,' in one early episode then they forget him for over a year, and the same happened with the unfortunate Roland (who would surprisingly go on to be arguably the series' best villain in Season 3's 'Renegades,' coincidentally Gallagher's last script for the series, so he created and ended the character, which must have given him some satisfaction!). Here, we find out The Bureau is responsible for policing all exports of technology, among other roles, presumably, since Bureau 2, which the Gizmos team become, are a very different proposition and I don't remember them doing much about imports/exports!
It wasn't a very auspicious start for our fledgling team, but it is a good start for us, the viewers - we get classic crawling through air ducts (I thought for a moment Ed was going to precede Ethan Hunt's dangling down into an off-limits room, a year before the first 'Mission: Impossible' film was released, but he sensibly used a pole and a clip, though he didn't have to mess around with disk drives and the like as Hunt did), and Ed even adopts Ballantyne's catchphrase, 'May-be' in one of the opening scenes. There's more intentional hitting the zeitgeist with Cyberscope's cover (or at least the one Irene spins to Beckett - never trust a woman who wants to meet in a diner), as a computer games and hardware developer, with all this idea of a hedonistic approach to ideas generation - the staff have a room dedicated to pinball machines, jukeboxes, comics and fun and as Ed says, it's all about serious time-wasting here. Ralph, the unfortunate victim of Irene's policy of working them into the ground, made me think of the young dot-commers with the boom and bust of the young internet - making their millions in a short time then burning out. Except it wasn't games they were making but 'Tom and Jerry' ways to kill as Ralph puts it, as if it were game, seemingly his conscience giving him a breakdown. He doesn't seem that mentally broken, but then he keeps taking his medication and we do see signs of instability as he reacts with fright and makes ready to bolt when Ros and Beckett come running in.
It was notably discomfiting to see Ed hooked up to a ventilator and all that talk of a pheromone-specific virus and he feels fine until… he doesn't, in a time when we've seen a global pandemic in the covid virus - who could have imagined that a worldwide event of such magnitude would be coming back when this was being made! It's not quite the same thing, but as the shady 'Embassy Man' explains, it doesn't matter where the virus is released it will eventually reach its intended target as the whole world become carriers ("We can use the time to build cemeteries!" - another line that always stuck in my head, along with Irene's, "Good try, but nowhere near good enough"). In this case it's tailored to the royal line of the Regent in exile (name of country not given), the first victim of this diabolical plan, but as Ros notes, the possibilities of such a heinous technology are that it could be used as an ethnic cleanser, a topic of immediacy in the mid-90s, and even the shady guy admits that their ambitions go far beyond the controlling of a few dissidents, so who know where it would stop? 'BUGS' shows both the positive side of technology and its advances, but also the wicked side, the evil uses it can be put to, so there's a sense of justice inherent in the series that the team use tech to defeat those that would misuse tech.
There isn't a lot of time given over to the characters' lives, they seem to eat, sleep and breathe the job they have to do, and that was a deliberate choice not to get into that aspect, and yet you do get snatches of reality and the sense of life beyond. Little things like Ros showing up with a new car (a yellow one that would be around for a while), or the banter between the characters, which shows their easy friendship with each other. It's also good to see a sense of progression in terms of time - we get Ed and Beckett performing their task in the dead of night, while Ros is out at the HMS Belfast (which I've since visited myself and I believe I found the very room in which they filmed the Regent's assassination - the closest I've come to a 'BUGS' location!), then she wakes a bleary-eyed Beckett who's obviously had little sleep, for a bright and early start working for Roland. So it makes sense that later on what must be the same day, Beckett is almost taken out by the mouse bomb when he's at home having a nap. It all makes sense! There's also the impression that Beckett himself has had problems with things being tied up in a company that went bust as he speaks authoritatively on the subject to Ed, though he could have been putting it on to sound well-informed. Not everything made complete sense, though, with Irene and her staff all back in the Cyberscope building at one point - was that because The Bureau couldn't find any evidence? It was also amateurish of Bureau guards to set off the alarm and alert the intruders they'd been spotted as otherwise they could have snuck up on Ed and Beckett and collared them in the act, but then that would have become a different story!
It's also going into the realms of science fiction that Ros believes she can reconstruct the overridden, but incriminating data, from bits of old hard drives and a visual representation of a veritable 'city of tiny lights' - shall we see what happens when we merge them? It was probably a bluff, but you never know with Ros' expertise and it was all academic in the end anyway as Irene took herself and Morasco out of the picture. The highest priority was saving Ed's life, but surely they also wanted to tie Irene and her company together so she could stand trial. For that matter, although she and her nasty associate were taken care of, what about all the others who worked for her? There seemed to be a sizeable group gathered around earlier in the episode and presumably they were all involved in the creation of this unethical tech? But then, as Roland says, it's not illegal for them to make what they make, just the selling and exporting of it. You'd think they'd want to bring down the whole network of contacts she had in that case, but with only about fifty minutes to tell a story there's only so much you can deal with and I can imagine The Bureau following up on all that while the Gizmos team jump into the next adventure, no paperwork required. No wonder Blatty never seems too thrilled to be working with them…
****
Their first mission, and it turns out to be something of an ethical issue. At least, I'm assuming this is the Gizmos team's first mission, for all we know they may have been operating for weeks by now as there's no timescale indicated. The fact that Ros is happy to go off on some social event with an old friend while Ed and Beckett carry out a clandestine search and destroy on intellectual property bound up with a company that's just gone bust suggests one of two things: either they're confident in what they've developed and don't need all three team members involved, or, and this seems more likely to me, Beckett took the job on himself without Ros' knowledge, trying to impress her and demonstrate his leadership abilities. Oh, Beckett, what have you done? The ethics of the situation are whether it's okay to break a few laws (breaking and entering; industrial sabotage; trespass, to name a few), when the cause is just: The Client, a certain Irene Campbell, has hired Beckett to delete a 'game' concept that has been 'bought' by a 'company' and then that very same day it went bust and the cheque bounced (for those that don't know what this means… look it up), and to get back this data will be a costly and time-consuming process, so it's up to our boys to delete what's on the company system, get out of there, get paid. Ironically it's Ed, the happy-go-lucky free spirit, who calls into question the veracity of Irene, while Beckett, full of himself and fallen under the smarmy charm of this middle-aged woman, takes it all on face value. Bad idea.
Trust must surely be an issue in this line of work - do you just take on a task from anyone and accept what the client says? It's early days, they didn't know quite what they were doing yet, as evidenced by the fact they left Ros out of the picture and showed just what happens when the brain box isn't included! Bad idea. Was Ros attending the event on HMS Belfast, docked in the Thames, purely for social reasons, or was she trying to build up contacts for the expansion of the Gizmos business? Actually, Gizmos never gets mentioned, though you can see they still operate out of the place. I'm not sure how often their company name ever does get spoken on screen again, to the extent that when it shows up in Season 4, headed by the other guy (Terry), you wonder what happened in between. An alternative title for the series could have been 'Gizmos,' though I prefer the one they used. The logo was great, and I especially love the wiring behind it, and the shot of what appears to be Beckett running with a briefcase in the outline of the letters - that could almost have come from this episode as we see him speeding from the offices of Cyberscope carrying a case, only he's wearing dark clothing and it's at night, and there's something about the shot in the logo that makes me think he's at an airfield. If it even is Beckett? You see, there's very little behind the scenes material on the series - a few magazine articles from the 90s - and I'd know, because I spent many hours in the 2000s researching as much as I could through magazines and the internet.
For example, I do know this was actually the first episode they shot, though it's the second one shown. It was written by Stephen Gallagher who was also a co-consultant on the series with Brian Clemens (creator of such 'BUGS' inspiration as 'The Avengers'), best known at the time for writing a couple of 'Dr. Who' stories in the 80s, and being an author. He's gone on to be something of a face for the series, even though it wasn't his baby, since everybody knows that he wrote the vast majority of the best episodes, and his absence in Season 4 (along with Craig McLachlan), really hurt its quality. I suppose because he was a Name, he was the one interviewed for the complete series box-set that came out in 2004 or 2005, and was reason enough to buy the collection even after collecting the individual sets as they came out. In fact, he's responsible for this very blog since in my researches I stumbled upon his own and kept up with it on a regular basis, so that when I became unemployed and wanted a new project to help keep me busy the idea of doing my own blog jumped out - once in a while (a long while), he even mentions 'BUGS' and has made some of his scripts available to download, which is very nice. But 'Assassins Inc' was the one he began with, and you can immediately see the Gallagher style that suited the series so well, to the extent that I often thought that it was his series on merit, and if it were ever to make a comeback he'd likely be the one given the task. That was quite a few years ago, back when he was running his own shows such as 'Eleventh Hour' (Patrick Stewart), or 'Crusoe,' and I'm not sure he's quite as active in the TV arena now, nor would it be likely the series would be revived (though I do have a good story about an almost-comeback in 2007 which I'll keep for another review).
It was deliberately intended to use cutting edge science and certainly in Gallagher's writing you get more of a sense of reality than some - cavity resonator bugs that turn your whole body into a microphone and transmitter… tiny flying drones tipped with fast-acting poison that can hunt you down based on specific genetic markers… voice-activated company hardware that seems to have some kind of AI interface like a 'Star Trek' computer… You can see the origins of Season 2's creepy antagonist, Cyberax, in the bank of screens with a silvery-blue three-dimensional model floating on screen, and the calm, quiet voice of the computer, but it may well be mere coincidence. The important factor is depicting a reality you can believe in, and long before we had drones, let alone tiny, fly-sized versions that home in on your scent, those flying darts were incredibly cool. They're well shot, and though you can wonder how such a streamlined model would move through the air at different speeds, rather than darting like an arrow, the imagery shown from the tiny onboard camera and its fisheye lens added immeasurably to the sense of panic and threat - witness the terrific shot as Ed, the intended target, shrinks away from it while the device itself is pulled slowly into a ventilation fan to its destruction! If only Ed had had the sense to get out of the way as soon as the thing had been sucked in he might not have had time to breathe in the poison, but then they needed his life to be in danger to add another layer of motivation.
It's questionable how Irene and her lawyer associate, Mr. Morasco, knew that the piece of trouser ripped from Ed's behind came from him, but somehow they do, as they've already tried to take out both Ros and Beckett with targeted sound-activated bombs. Again, these computer-mouse-sized devices were horribly creepy, though the 'Knight Rider'-esque 'breathing' LEDs on top were clearly there for viewer reaction only since you don't want anything to draw attention to such an unobtrusive killing machine. It makes a good case for having a second phone and a fax machine in your home, and an equally good case for not having an answer-phone, since that would have set off the explosion. Explosions are usually the series' stock in trade, but after we were treated to such a glorious bloom in the first episode, the much more contained blasts here came across as rather tame in comparison. Their use was also sometimes questionable, as in the case with the stuck-up Admiral Lansdale. The only reason he gets blown up is because he replies to Beckett as he opens his locker or enters a keycard, whatever he was doing on the bridge. But Beckett got him killed! If he hadn't been talking to Nick then he'd have been fine, which was a problem because how would the villains know he was going to speak at that point?
It's nice to see inside Ros' flat again back at The Circle, and we also get Beckett's place, though it's filmed in a way I couldn't tell if it was the same layout as in 'Out of The Hive.' Mystery man Ed, of course, does not get to show off his place of abode, but it's supposed to be a few floors up from Ros, so in this case it was unnecessary, though it's telling that once again he's the one we aren't given a chance to find out more about, just as in the first episode we learn the others' names, but Ed remains plain, simple Ed. Going back to the ethics of what the team do, there's starting to be a pattern showing through: we've had two episodes in which a man and a woman cause trouble with some technological device of some kind and then end up dead by the end of the episode! I remember reading in some article how they were keen to bring back what would become the series' classic villain, Jean-Daniel, for Season 2, and one of the rationales was that pretty much all the other villains had been killed! The Gizmos team may not carry guns (except in specific circumstances as shown at the end of the episode when Beckett pulls some kind of big monster flare gun - I thought he should have aped the classic 'Crocodile Dundee' line and said, 'that's not a gun, this is a gun!' but I suppose that would have been too derivative…), but they do seem to leave a wake of destruction behind them.
In fairness, just as with Cottrell and Elena in the first episode, it was the villains themselves who made the mistake and received poetic justice. But it remains to be said that if Irene truly thought Ros was bluffing, as she obviously did by holding up her own bomb in front of her and Morasco's face before speaking and activating it, why didn't she say something earlier? I get it, it was all done for effect and was becoming the hallmark of the series that the villains had to get blown up at the end, but Morasco certainly thought it was real. And for what it was worth, he was right! If they learn anything from the episode, it is that the team need Ros' wise head. Beckett may be the unofficial leader and Ros is usually happy to sit back and give him the authority, but she's the one with the knowledge. We see evidence of Beckett's quick temper again when he accosts Lansdale (nice touch that we get a hint at Beckett's past in the services when he says they met in Gibraltar, though he could have been making it up), grabbing his arm when the older man won't slow down and talk. "It doesn't sound much like respect to me," was a good line from the Admiral, who showed great disdain for surveillance work and the 'spy toys' that don't work half the time. It's evidence of an older generation's attitude to our current heroes' use of bugs and gadgets, not realising how technology was developing in leaps and bounds, an interesting little insight into the state of the art at that time, and the attitudes.
Technology isn't always as much in evidence as you might expect, however. For one thing, with all that CCTV at the offices of Cyberscope you'd think they'd have picked up Ed or Beckett on the inside, or the Cherokee Jeep speeding away when they make their getaway - the first part of that is easily answered as we know they made it so that all the security cameras would read the same (fortunately the guards played ball and weren't looking at the feed the moment it was changed!), and I suppose they could have done the same for the external views if there were some. The guards weren't up to much, especially when you consider they were from The Bureau of Weapons Technology, the organisation that Roland Blatty was heading up, Ros' friend from university days (where he couldn't even hold a chess club together, we hear). Mind you, Blatty's incompetence would become a bit of a theme, though it's unfair in this case as it's all the fault of our team making his life a headache. The Bureau's appearance is especially fascinating considering it would go on to play a crucial role in the following seasons and I love the building groundwork that had begun right with these first two episodes, though I doubt they knew they'd be returning to anything like that: both The Hive and The Bureau would come back in big ways, as would Roland, the first eventually-recurring character to be set up (excluding Dent). The world building is one of the attractive parts of the series as you didn't get a lot of that in the kind of series' 'BUGS' was inspired by, so they were adding a little 90s sophistication, or would be as it went on.
One thing I did wonder is the identity of Roland's boss, as he says he has to go and report in. Could it be that there was a 'Jan' even then? It's been so long since I watched the series that I can't even remember if the Season 3 character of Jan was new to The Bureau or had a history with it, but I have the feeling she was new as Alex was supposed to be the only surviving remnant of the organisation after the Cyberax incident at the end of Season 2, so it would seem unlikely. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of Jan there, but we'd never see him or her (obviously Jan Harvey's later portrayal was inspired by Judi Dench's 'M' in the Brosnan Bond era). I must admit I'd completely forgotten Blatty was in this episode - it's rather like Garak in Season 1 of 'DS9,' in one early episode then they forget him for over a year, and the same happened with the unfortunate Roland (who would surprisingly go on to be arguably the series' best villain in Season 3's 'Renegades,' coincidentally Gallagher's last script for the series, so he created and ended the character, which must have given him some satisfaction!). Here, we find out The Bureau is responsible for policing all exports of technology, among other roles, presumably, since Bureau 2, which the Gizmos team become, are a very different proposition and I don't remember them doing much about imports/exports!
It wasn't a very auspicious start for our fledgling team, but it is a good start for us, the viewers - we get classic crawling through air ducts (I thought for a moment Ed was going to precede Ethan Hunt's dangling down into an off-limits room, a year before the first 'Mission: Impossible' film was released, but he sensibly used a pole and a clip, though he didn't have to mess around with disk drives and the like as Hunt did), and Ed even adopts Ballantyne's catchphrase, 'May-be' in one of the opening scenes. There's more intentional hitting the zeitgeist with Cyberscope's cover (or at least the one Irene spins to Beckett - never trust a woman who wants to meet in a diner), as a computer games and hardware developer, with all this idea of a hedonistic approach to ideas generation - the staff have a room dedicated to pinball machines, jukeboxes, comics and fun and as Ed says, it's all about serious time-wasting here. Ralph, the unfortunate victim of Irene's policy of working them into the ground, made me think of the young dot-commers with the boom and bust of the young internet - making their millions in a short time then burning out. Except it wasn't games they were making but 'Tom and Jerry' ways to kill as Ralph puts it, as if it were game, seemingly his conscience giving him a breakdown. He doesn't seem that mentally broken, but then he keeps taking his medication and we do see signs of instability as he reacts with fright and makes ready to bolt when Ros and Beckett come running in.
It was notably discomfiting to see Ed hooked up to a ventilator and all that talk of a pheromone-specific virus and he feels fine until… he doesn't, in a time when we've seen a global pandemic in the covid virus - who could have imagined that a worldwide event of such magnitude would be coming back when this was being made! It's not quite the same thing, but as the shady 'Embassy Man' explains, it doesn't matter where the virus is released it will eventually reach its intended target as the whole world become carriers ("We can use the time to build cemeteries!" - another line that always stuck in my head, along with Irene's, "Good try, but nowhere near good enough"). In this case it's tailored to the royal line of the Regent in exile (name of country not given), the first victim of this diabolical plan, but as Ros notes, the possibilities of such a heinous technology are that it could be used as an ethnic cleanser, a topic of immediacy in the mid-90s, and even the shady guy admits that their ambitions go far beyond the controlling of a few dissidents, so who know where it would stop? 'BUGS' shows both the positive side of technology and its advances, but also the wicked side, the evil uses it can be put to, so there's a sense of justice inherent in the series that the team use tech to defeat those that would misuse tech.
There isn't a lot of time given over to the characters' lives, they seem to eat, sleep and breathe the job they have to do, and that was a deliberate choice not to get into that aspect, and yet you do get snatches of reality and the sense of life beyond. Little things like Ros showing up with a new car (a yellow one that would be around for a while), or the banter between the characters, which shows their easy friendship with each other. It's also good to see a sense of progression in terms of time - we get Ed and Beckett performing their task in the dead of night, while Ros is out at the HMS Belfast (which I've since visited myself and I believe I found the very room in which they filmed the Regent's assassination - the closest I've come to a 'BUGS' location!), then she wakes a bleary-eyed Beckett who's obviously had little sleep, for a bright and early start working for Roland. So it makes sense that later on what must be the same day, Beckett is almost taken out by the mouse bomb when he's at home having a nap. It all makes sense! There's also the impression that Beckett himself has had problems with things being tied up in a company that went bust as he speaks authoritatively on the subject to Ed, though he could have been putting it on to sound well-informed. Not everything made complete sense, though, with Irene and her staff all back in the Cyberscope building at one point - was that because The Bureau couldn't find any evidence? It was also amateurish of Bureau guards to set off the alarm and alert the intruders they'd been spotted as otherwise they could have snuck up on Ed and Beckett and collared them in the act, but then that would have become a different story!
It's also going into the realms of science fiction that Ros believes she can reconstruct the overridden, but incriminating data, from bits of old hard drives and a visual representation of a veritable 'city of tiny lights' - shall we see what happens when we merge them? It was probably a bluff, but you never know with Ros' expertise and it was all academic in the end anyway as Irene took herself and Morasco out of the picture. The highest priority was saving Ed's life, but surely they also wanted to tie Irene and her company together so she could stand trial. For that matter, although she and her nasty associate were taken care of, what about all the others who worked for her? There seemed to be a sizeable group gathered around earlier in the episode and presumably they were all involved in the creation of this unethical tech? But then, as Roland says, it's not illegal for them to make what they make, just the selling and exporting of it. You'd think they'd want to bring down the whole network of contacts she had in that case, but with only about fifty minutes to tell a story there's only so much you can deal with and I can imagine The Bureau following up on all that while the Gizmos team jump into the next adventure, no paperwork required. No wonder Blatty never seems too thrilled to be working with them…
****
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