Bugged Wheat

DVD, BUGS S2 (Bugged Wheat)

This is the one. The one that started it all for me: Saturday night thriller! I got myself into the mindset of what it must have been like to be introduced to this modern, action-packed spy-ride, with that opening in an indoor field of wheat, an attack by diving suit-wearing terrorists that ends with an explosion in the face of two security guards, then straight into those opening titles full of dramatic and unknown clips under the amazing theme music… I was totally excited by it all back then, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before and though it would be easy to say I never looked back and followed the series avidly every week, reality suggests otherwise - since it hadn't become part of my routine, I actually missed the following episode playing outside with friends, so perhaps it didn't have quite as much impact as I tend to think? And I have to say, as good as the episode is, it's not one of the best ones. Which is strange because it has many of the elements of the series that I like, the main one being Ed, Ros and Beckett are working together in close proximity as they break into various locations and use all kinds of devices to spy or hack, plus there's a major catastrophe they're trying to avert, so the stakes are high.

Perhaps this is the perfect episode to showcase the direction the series had gone in which didn't appeal to the mainstream audience as much - a lot of it is set at night, there's a fair amount of repetition, going into places and getting out of places. You have this science fiction edge to proceedings such as the security guards carrying these electrical discharge rifles, a sort of Taser, except it fires a bolt of energy which is far more sci-fi than reality. Then, if you weren't following along, you'd wonder what the significance of the final scene was, with a bald guy in half-moon specs being congratulated by a prison governor on making money for the prison of which he appears to be an inmate. It might be a little too baffling for the average viewer just wanting some light entertainment. On the other hand it has plenty of humour, the stars are stylish and always throwing themselves into things. The majority of the scenes being set at night may have added a certain surrealism to the presentation as they go from classy glassy building to building, full of the kind of ominous light shows that were used in 'Stealth' around the big grey ugly truck. There's definitely more of a sense of military thanks to all these rifle-toting guards, the darkness, the flashing lights and high security tech all over the place.

Maybe the darkness makes it too claustrophobic, because even though the team are mostly in close proximity to each other, they still seem separated quite a lot, communicating more by their headsets than in person. It also seems like there's less personality there, if I can say that - Ros is almost like a Barbie doll, all dressed up to the nines, but it doesn't quite fit with her previous image of this slightly scattily dressed genius. It's like she's suddenly got this gloss over her, which is good, but almost makes her less accessible as a character - or perhaps it was the way she was written, she doesn't seem to ever get in any way desperate, she's a little too cool and also doesn't get to be involved in the action as much, Ed and Beckett being the ones to infiltrate buildings, hide in decontamination bins or run around. Oddly, Ed is portrayed as the most human of the three this time in the sense that he tells both Ros and Beckett at different times to get out of there, when usually he's much more slapdash and relaxed about risks: when Ros is downloading the villains' database of information Ed urges her to get out, then later he says the same to Beckett when they're at PestiCorp. Beckett himself is very forward in the story, clearly being the leader, he seems to know all about viroids, these specialised micro-viruses that target plants and I really wanted a reference to The Hive there, that he'd encountered them on a mission somehow.

Beckett and Ed both have to confront their fears in the story - it had been well established that the former wasn't good with heights and so there's some good continuity there that addresses such fear when he has to leap onto a moving lorry to escape PestiCorp. Ed has the more worrying encounter as we learn he's afraid of creepy-crawlies, perhaps coming from his Australian heritage of so many bugs that can kill - it would have been nice to refer to his home country there as rationale. Not that I'm saying it's badly written, just that there are things you can't help see missing that would have made it better. Interestingly, this was the first script for the series written by the duo of Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, later to create 'Smallville,' a series I wouldn't say was one of the best, but which contained some terrific seasons (among a majority that were far from terrific!). At the time I first saw the series I didn't pay any attention to details like that, but on seeing it all again on DVD such things stuck out and added a whole new dimension! I'm sure Colin Brake, the Script Supervisor, would have gone over the whole story and adjusted it to make it more 'BUGS,' but it's fun to know that these creators (who also wrote the acclaimed 'Spider-Man 2'), contributed.

As is usually the case, Ed got to do the lion's share of the action, hanging from a lift, crawling through ventilation ducts, fighting Croll on the rooftop of PestiCorp… He also gets to use his brain when he thinks of the UV decontamination system as an ideal way to neutralise the viroid Croll and Pym plan to use to create a mass famine across Europe, then sell the miracle cure. Ed also ends up sliding into a 'Crystal Maze' dome that instead of featuring gold or silver tickets, is filled with angry insects buzzing about, causing him to panic until he can force his way out. In fact, the moment where he finds all the bottles that need to be destroyed, was like entering one of the puzzle rooms from that series: "Okay guys, I've got an empty room except for all these bottles. I've got to get them into the UV section…" Definitely one of the physical tasks. Actually, they should have done a 'Crystal Maze' special with the actors playing their characters - that would have been a sight to see. Sadly, the series had ended the previous year, 1995, and apparently the recording for that was early that year, probably when 'BUGS' was filming, too, so it could never have happened, but it's fun to speculate!

There are some familiar ideas being used again, such as climbing in a lift shaft ('A Sporting Chance'), a tiny camera in a lapel pin (like the poppy-cam in 'Out of The Hive'), and even the idea that Croll could use the one bottle that rolled away, to infect the bugs, and he explains it'll simply take longer for the viroid to multiply and spread (similar to the genetic virus in 'Assassins Inc' - "We can use the time to build cemeteries!"); be-masked thugs breaking into a facility to do with food crops ('Manna From Heaven'). The villains may not be the strongest, which could be why this doesn't feel like such a classic episode as some. Hugh Bonneville plays Pym in an early role - he's obviously gone on to worldwide acclaim in various things. Richard Cordery as Dr. Croll isn't quite as recognisable, I suspect, but he did have a fun role in an episode of 'Doc Martin' in recent years, which was very enjoyable to see. But they don't quite strike fear into the heart of the viewer, even though Pym and his sinister stutter worked well to make him memorable. It was a bit of a leap that he'd gone from this career-minded weather man at the Institute of Climatology to someone intent on making as much money from the world as possible, murdering his associate, Hawk, in cold blood, and he'd never had any criminal record! If you look at his biography that Ros pulled up, he had a successful and ever-improving career in his chosen profession so you wonder what caused him to become so nasty.

Croll, on the other hand just comes across as evil from the start. Ed basically kills him, because while you'd expect him to perform a smooth takedown in a few Tae Kwondo moves, while he does a nice kick to knock Croll's gun out of his hand, he then proceeds to manhandle the villain over the railing! Surely he could have knocked him out, and though it isn't technically Ed that kills him, as he does attempt to grab him before he falls, he also did put him in that position! Croll is quite an imposing figure, but the whole point of such fighting disciplines is that you use the opponent's own weight against them. Still, it's not as perplexing as the way Pym is killed. A security guard shoots the decon bin containing whatever it was (the serum?), and the electrical bolt reacts with the electronic lock in the lid, Pym stupidly tries to open it and then… the bin explodes. It didn't appear to have any reason to do that. At least Ros driving under the flatbed lorry full of oil drums could be said to have set off the explosion from the sparks as the roof tore off, but it's all in the tradition of the exploding car that blew up as it flew through the air in 'Out of The Hive,' so it's not out of character for things to arbitrarily explode. They may criticise Ros' driving, but she knows how to handle a car, as we saw, the bugs don't make her lose control and she comes up with that ingenious way to vent them at the expense of her poor car.

The look of the series is of course one of its strengths and with Ros in that red suit jacket, Beckett in his smart blue shirt and suit, only Ed is the odd one out with a blue-grey woollen jumper under his leather jacket. Ed and Beckett also get to wear the yellow coats of PestiCorp, so despite its blackness it was quite colourful at the same time - you also have the purple glow of the UV device, even if it was unnecessary to show a white smoke coming out of it, but that's typical TV convention so the audience understands the bottles were being affected. I liked the use of the flash grenade Ed throws so he and Beckett can escape, but why not simply take the guard's gun and hold him and Croll hostage? For that matter, why not call in the authorities if the danger is so great to the whole of Europe's crops - a famine that hasn't been seen in centuries? These are questions best left unasked. The team do come across almost more as vigilantes that work in the shadows of night, aliases, gadgets and no backup to the proper authorities, but it's usually a question of timing, action has to be taken now. It didn't seem entirely clear who had even hired them. Obviously it was the guy at the wheat field place, Greenville was the name I believe, though I got that from the end credits, so either they simply didn't explain who he was and why the team were working for him, or it was dropped in in one line, so if you miss it, it's gone.

It's always easy to poke holes, but that's part of the fun of it, and this episode has its share of inconsistencies. The lift, for instance - I liked that we saw a hatch in the floor through which Ed must have escaped, but there was no corresponding hatch on the underside! And it was also very strange for Ed to be in the air duct which leads right down into a crystal dome of flying bugs, yet he didn't seem to pass through an access hatch so the bugs could have flown out any time! And as for the guard who searches for Beckett (or Dr. Zygo as he's calling himself), in the decontamination room, it seemed obvious if there was anyone behind the shower curtains in each booth since there was only light beyond, while the end one, featuring the most ridiculous showing of shoes right on the edge that didn't look as if they were connected to anything, at least had a dark shape in the background from a hanging suit. It was clever how Beckett surprises the guard into shooting his futuristic gun at a mirror image, which then bounces off and hits the water overrunning onto the floor from all the taps and showers, but again, you'd think they'd train their guards that it's not safe to use electrical weapons in a wet environment! It's also a little too convenient that Croll doesn't get anyone to escort Beckett out as would be the usual form, especially in a secure establishment, but then Beckett couldn't have done what he needed to do. Oddly, security cameras are still being recorded onto little cassette tapes, Greenville gives them, though Ros does download onto a CD when visiting the Institute.

Was that a reuse of the STA observation room from the opening two-parter, as the glass pod the scientists observe the wheat from looked similar and was probably the same set? I did like the contrast of the golden wheat against the bright blue walls of the place (reminded me of 'Banjo-Kazooie'), as well as all that grating and people clomping about on it. Again, it's hard to believe Hawk would go in without his goggles on if he'd come in full diving gear, dangling at his front, but then they needed a lead to work on. Was Ros still tapping into The Hive's systems for the profile database? It seems likely since she asks Ed to plug in the modem, so obviously she needed to get a signal out, and we know that's how she's acquired sensitive data in the past… I couldn't help noticing Croll wears a bow-tie, just like Charlesworth, since in a later episode Beckett is suspicious of men in bow-ties. And it was fun to see a low-tech solution is sometimes best, as Ed demonstrates by shoving his fist into the bug jar when it opens with the diseased insects inside. Gizmo's, or whatever they call their home base, barely features and they don't even end there, with the standard joke at the end being on the rooftop of PestiCorp.

That was so they could cut to the next instalment of 'Prison Life with Jean-Daniel.' We meet the Prison Governor for the first time (as well as the Prison Guard), and learn that he had JD sewing mailbags at first, before he realised his genius at making money - the criminal invested in wheat futures, once again betting on his enemies in order to make lots of dough. When he says if he'd been the one to invest money he'd be calling his broker now, does that mean he was suggesting the Governor take the money himself, is that what he has to go off and do so urgently (I half expected him to say, 'There's something I have to do…' in preparation for the two-part finale!). If so, he's set up as a crooked official which JD is playing off and treats him like a child. Or was he really planning to have a gymnasium installed for the use of prison staff? This must be the most self-referential episode of the series with so many mentions of bugs, even though they're mainly talking about the natural kind rather than mechanical, it adds another side to the association, which is quite fun, and the music throughout with its electronic tones only adds to that insect-like atmosphere - good work.

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