The Bureau of Weapons

DVD, BUGS S2 (The Bureau of Weapons)

I can't go back to that first Saturday evening when I saw the original broadcast in 1996, can't remember just what it was like exactly, a bit like the virus wiping itself from a host's memory, yet leaving a little piece of itself behind, but I remember it as being a game-changer, a revelation in what was possible for a TV show to do–

And you must excuse me now, there's something I have to do…

Phew, what was all that about? Anyway, it's not like I hadn't seen some of the ideas in this before: I'll always remember the horror of seeing a homemade construction that somehow came to life with its own malevolent intelligence in children's series 'Why Don't You?,' or the way an evil man took over a school using computers to hypnotise the staff and pupils in 'Dark Season,' or a sense of disquieting horrors beneath the veneer of civilisation in 'Archer's Goon' and 'Uncle Jack,' so I'd been primed for this episode for years before I saw it. But this was where it all came together: technology, AI, concepts of Another Form of Intelligence that could come into our homes, our computers, our very minds themselves! I doubt I could have expressed these vague chills into coherent sentences at the time, I probably would have simply said it was tense and exciting, but that was where my mind was coming from.

What is it that makes this episode one of the best the series ever produced, and possibly my number one favourite? I say possibly because it's hard to gauge seeing the episodes with the perspective of so much time, not just from the original run, but also when I really got back into 'BUGS' in the mid-to-late 2000s with the DVDs. One reason it's so good is Stephen Gallagher: my top five episodes were mostly written by him and he showed a great ability to take someone else's series and introduce a new level of ideas and concepts - it could probably be argued the series was largely a blank slate upon which anyone with the will to grab hold of it and twist and turn it into something, could garner satisfaction in the creation, and Gallagher, the man who created 'The Bureau of Weapons' in his first story, 'Assassins Inc,' and Jean-Daniel, in 'Pulse,' had been building to this climax though he probably didn't know it, or that he'd take it even further with his final contribution, Season 3's fantastic finale, 'Renegades.' He was given enough of the reins as he seemed to want, to guide and direct the series and its characters to what was an incredible, dramatic and horrifying conclusion to the second year, and that apparent creative freedom allowed him not to disappoint.

Another reason why this had the impact it did was, likely for me at least, the fact it was the first two-parter I'd seen in the series, having missed the opening space story. All the episodes I'd seen to that point were cleared up, sorted out and moved on from, even if most contained the unspecified threat of JD's future plans to throw a sinister pall over the otherwise cheery back-slapping of our successful team after foiling yet another group of villains. But now we had arrived at the final stage of their greatest foe's plotting. It's not even that JD's plans go so well, he gets his revenge unknowingly on Ros when she steps in, in possibly the most heroic moment of the series, to save millions of lives from another potential explosion, preventing annihilation from matter/antimatter, similar to when she and the team were dealing with the overloading power station in 'Blackout.' We were left with the brilliantly terrible and impossible situation that Ed and Beckett must protect Ros from herself. It's all very well foiling villains week to week, but what would happen if Ros herself became the villain. Yet it's not even that literal, it's that she becomes the villain to her own brain: how can you keep the most intelligent member of the team from discovering what happened - how she saved all those lives, why her files have been messed with, why her two closest friends are talking agitatedly together, but not sharing whatever problem they have? It was literally mind-blowing and cemented what had already become one of my favourite series' of all, into being unmissable, unstoppable, unbelievably thrilling.

If the situation had been reversed and it had been Beckett or Ed in Ros' shoes and she was the one preventing them from finding out, from activating one of the two triggers ("Realisation of its presence is one trigger, the true nature of Cyberax is the other," informs JD in one of a number of terrific lines he gets throughout the story), I think they'd be pretty safe - Ros is incredibly resourceful, thoughtful, able to plan ahead multiple moves, while her colleagues, though impulsive and physically heroic (except when Beckett was showing disinclination from following the fake paramedic with a gun at the Bureau's facility!), aren't the best people to think of every eventuality, and indeed, even their actions at the end of this episode were questionable: instead of the usual moment of levity for the team, Ros is displaying confusion and annoyance that her files have been messed with, while Ed and Beckett talk concernedly nearby, then when she comes to ask them what they're talking about they can't think of anything better than to walk away like a couple of naughty schoolboys who see a teacher coming. This would be the pattern of the next episode, but it was begun here, and you can't blame them for this is a conundrum like no other they've faced before - they can't solve it by sacrificing themselves or even putting themselves at risk, it's entirely Ros who is in their hands, in a fragile state the very nature of which would destroy her if she knew.

That moment when she takes on that responsibility as the particle accelerator is going into overload, the only way to stop it to put her own mind on the line as a sacrifice, trusting in her friends to save her, has to be the most dramatic and wonderful moment of the episode. They've risked life and limb so many times, but to knowingly cast your sanity to the wind, that complete trust she has that they'll get her out of it, was inspiring and beautiful. Perhaps you can complain that a blast like that would wipe out a chunk of the UK so how could JD or anyone have escaped in time, but regardless, that's the moment when the story has gone further than you would ever think it could, and it had already dealt with an artificial life form, AI being just as much an issue now as it was then, except now there's more of an edge of reality when back then it was still a question of science fiction since the power of computing was so much smaller, despite the technology seeming so advanced. Even the idea of using brain waves to control devices has become a reality by this point, so the bio feedback links introduced by JD aren't the stuff of nightmares any more, they have real world application.

That's not to say there are no problems in the episode, however deftly they're skirted: some things are as simple as having no explanation, such as why Beckett has to hide his heartbeat - I thought this meant the team thought Roland was dead, but they clearly don't, so why disguise the heartbeat? Or how Cassandra Neumann, whom we last left at the side of a road, blinded, has recovered her sight. Also watching 'Smallville' Season 2 at the moment, where one of the characters is blind and then isn't, it seems this is not as uncommon a dramatic device as all that, and maybe it will be mentioned as something Cyberax had a part in somehow in the second part. Not that I complain about seeing Cassandra again, she makes a good accomplice for JD, perhaps her realisation that he saved her from her Father's attempt to kill her in cold blood created a bond. But there's something typically 'BUGS-ian' in this woman going around in a bright yellow paramedic outfit, then lifting off the helicopter helmet to reveal her huge fluff of hair puffing out. She's visually dramatic in the same way that our team generally stand out for their colour and style - this time Ed wears his red jumper while Beckett has the green shirt, both under jackets, and only Ros is muted in a light grey skirt and suit jacket over black (with but chunky blue and green earrings to fit her into the colourful mould of the team), as if to point her out as different, after all it is her friend Roland that begins the episode so tragically, and she who ends it the same way.

Gallagher had also created Roland Blatty and brings him back for a third time after the return of his Bureau of Weapons Technology in 'Schrodinger's Bomb.' There's a big question over the sense and security of both Blatty and the Bureau in the way he just pops up on a screen to tell Ros and the others about this new tech they've found, which doesn't seem very sensible to me! I know Ros is an old friend (Beckett reminds Ed and the audience they've known each other for a long time while they speed to the secret location to try and help), but should he really be transmitting video about special tech to a mate? The only explanation I can think of is that he was so overwhelmed and excited by the prospects and knew Ros was an expert in such things that he couldn't contain his enthusiasm. And it is good to have him back, if only so that Ed and Beckett can rib him mercilessly! Testing out this bio feedback on a large mounted gun doesn't seem like the wisest course, either, but we can assume that because it was military invented that was how it was set up. I was glad that they mentioned it fired a blank shell otherwise you'd wonder why there was anything left of Roland at all! But Gallagher, while he doesn't escape all issues with the plotting, at least acknowledges them here and there, the best being the lack of security at the Bureau's Field Testing Facility, which Rona, one of the field team, gets around by saying there's not usually anything to guard. Okay, so it's not the greatest explanation, but it fills the gap and we move on.

I was wondering what had happened to this field team since I thought we never saw any Bureau people again other than Alex Jordan at the start of Season 3, but Cyberax takes care of all of them since they all tried out the feedback device and so were susceptible to the mental virus left in their brains. That still doesn't explain how everyone who worked for the Bureau was taken out as you'd assume a department like this would have more than one single field testing team (and we'd already seen a couple of gun-toting agents in 'Schrodinger's Bomb'), but we'll have to see what the explanation for Alex being the only member is when we get to it because I can't remember off the top of my head. Computer virus? In the mind?

You must excuse me now, there's something I have to do…

Our team face a smaller version of the problem they'll have with Ros at the end of the episode, because they can't inform the Bureau team to be careful or to keep away from investigation of what happened to Roland or that will trigger them, too, a well-structured story to show the full impact of what this thing can do, allowing our characters to learn, but also setting the audience up for what was to come. When you dissect the episode like that it really is well put together on top of being well written and you appreciate Gallagher's skill and expertise even in what is 'only' a Saturday night entertainment series. It feels more than that with episodes like this.

The direction compliments the writing and performances, I always think of that shot of JD's reflection as he gazes into a computer screen (where he's always been at his most comfortable), and we see the infant Cyberax, this creepy, egg-shaped, baby face, JD's reflection seen side by side with it as if they have more than mere malevolence in common. To be fair to Cyberax it simply wants to survive and grow, it's just that the worst influence on it is the one who lured it to himself. I think the idea is that Cyberax has spread itself from network to network rather than actually becoming part of the internet as I think that was a big deal in 'Renegades' the idea that it would have a digital ocean to grow as big and as powerful as it could, whereas here there isn't quite the same emphasis, it's more about the damage it does to a human mind than the 'Terminator' warning of machines building machines that opens up the concept even more in the later sequel episode. Still, JD's purpose is to capture the beast ("When you're building a cage for Satan you don't ask him to wait around while you put the doors on," he tells Cassandra), cleverly tying into the arc that began right at the beginning with the opening two-parter of his building up assets in various forms and companies from his prison cell, the Bactrian gold (vital for the production of niobium processors to attract Cyberax), and we even get to revisit the cell in which he spent much of the season as Ros tries to recover some of his deleted files!

We learn the poor old Governor Holstock has become a patient at a mental institution, but we don't hear about the guard, sadly. And that the 'Penitentiary Authority' invalidated JD's purchase of the prison, according to the new Governor! It was great to go back into that world we thought we'd left behind and to underline exactly what happened for those not paying full attention or who may have missed an episode. So they're being kind to viewers. But even though the story is a very serious and deadly one on both personal and large scales ("You'll kill countless people," accuses Beckett, "It's the job," replies JD in the most offhand way!), there's still room for humour - right from the start when we see the young computer hacker, who facilitated JD's plans to draw Cyberax away from its military creators, rewarded with a high performance sports car. You're half expecting it to blow up when he climbs in, but no, he suddenly remembers he can't actually drive! Or the moment Ros tells Ed impatiently pushing the button to call a lift is designed to actually make it take longer if you do that. Crucially, any laughs there are don't undercut the drama, they serve to remind us that the series is fun and lighthearted, these aren't doom and gloom merchants whose difficult lives give them misery, they're aces at the top of their game, whose combined skills will win the day. Except that expectation is cruelly subverted which makes the ending so shocking.

There's also a sense that the dangers are more real than in some of the episodes we've had this season. Like the bomb welded shut to prevent tampering so Ed has to wait in a lift as the counter ticks down until he can reach the underground swimming pool where the water can absorb the blast. And you can tell, for example, Gallagher prefers real guns and bullets to the sci-fi-ish versions of Taser weapons we'd seen throughout Season 2, as in both 'Schrodinger's Bomb' and this the team encounter real gunfire, and I agree, it has a lot more weight compared with zapping electricity around. They weren't above using electricity to kill, either, as demonstrated when Dr. Briggs, bravely having tried to prevent Cyberax from using the particle accelerator, succumbs to the virus, exits the room and proceeds to electrocute himself at an electrical junction cabinet in the corridor. It's nasty, and surprising they would go that far in a family drama - even worse when another innocent trying to prevent him from doing it is caught up in his suicide and both bodies are seen to slump to the floor. It's quite terrible really, but what it does do more than anything is ram home the point that this is exactly the kind of thing Ros is going to attempt if the virus in her head is ever triggered. It's reinforced by this particular victim being a very intelligent man (the white coat and glasses gave it away even if we hadn't been given a few scenes in which we get to know him a little), the kind of mind Ros has, thus making a direct parallel with her before we knew it was coming.

Ros is even given a brief moment to absorb the horror of what's just happened until Ed brings her back to the problem at hand, as if the episode is making the point that although we've seen plenty of people die on the series, this is something worse and deserves a moment. We learn that somehow our team ended up in possession of JD's bazooka which shook up the original Gizmos and now this little 'souvenir' is going to work for them when they use it to blast into the control room at the accelerator. This didn't strike me as the best way to get in - I'm sure usually they'd rewire an access panel in time-honoured fashion, but it was a fun callback to JD's first appearance, the kind of thing only someone who was in tune with the series would do (the cavity resonator was a link back to 'Assassins Inc') - it helped that Gallagher was the one who invented that characteristic of the villain in the first place… If JD had positioned the captive Beckett by the door then he might have died from the blast, but as it was it knocked both he and Cassandra off their feet as she was about to kill him. But what about the controls and equipment in that room, surely it's sensitive, and blasting you're way in could have done even more damage? Still, Ed was in a mood not to mess around. There is a bit of a question about the tunnel, or tunnels, under the complex, because JD exits first, leaving Cassandra to finish off Beckett (earlier, I believe his mentioning of not killing him before was a reference to 'Pulse,' so more good continuity!), but then Ed's in hot pursuit, somehow having gone past her, then JD's injured, she catches up and he tells her to keep the plan going, then Ed catches up to gloat!

Did JD want the plan to continue because he was confident of escaping captivity again? I don't remember how he starts 'A Cage For Satan,' only how he ends, but I can't imagine he'd care if the plot was foiled, unless he still feels he'll get revenge on his nemeses through it. Cassandra is merely a tool for him ("Women are sheep," he explains coldly, and her mane of curly hair does have a sheepish quality to it I've always thought!). If the final scenes are a bit disjointed you don't really think about it or care at the time because it's all about Ros and her sacrifice, but it does make you want to see what happens next. The issue of the military being responsible for the creation of this artificial intelligence program in a computer's memory, crossed with mental control that gives the user feedback as well as mastery, a true symbiosis of man and machine, a machine designed to redesign itself, isn't really explored, we simply see the military want to bury the whole project and hope no one notices. It's the old idea of a thing being possible, so it shall be done. In that regard, JD shows remarkable, but unsurprising restraint, admitting he never personally gets connected - he knows the real consequences.

And so the story concludes, or more correctly, hangs, ready for Adventures in Technopolis, quite a different part of the story, but no less chilling. Technopolis, the city of the future, an artificially built, arbitrarily chosen location in Central Europe, the white elephant of the planners, designed for making money, like the vast buildings and towns built in China that are largely empty (as seen in 'Paul Merton in China'), the bureaucratic mentality, cold and impersonal, somewhere designed for all the high-tech companies but to which no one wanted to go. A latter-day Tower of Babel, man's folly: all these things would describe the place the story ends up in, but that's for next episode. Here, I can merely say how enjoyable it is to see and analyse this, one of the best stories, if not the very best story of the series and realise it's lost none of its relevance today. And at the same time it's still rooted heavily in the series and its lore, whether that be Blatty and the Bureau (soon to play a far more important and permanent role in the direction of the series), JD and Cassandra, and their history with the team, and even those specific references to past encounters (Ed suggests matching fingerprints from a Bactrian dagger with those on the bazooka to confirm JD's involved). Even Beckett's occasionally mentioned trouble with heights isn't forgotten when they're ascending in a glass lift - was it the same one Ros was chased up in 'A Sporting Chance'? Not sure, but the outside of the Bureau test facility looked like the exterior of The Hive area with those black chains around water, or the stadium used in certain episodes, so they were keeping up their use of locations. You'll have to excuse me now…

*****