N64, The World Is Not Enough (2000) game
'TWINE,' or 'Twinges' as it was sometimes known in our house, was a little bit of an anomaly. 'Goldeneye' had taken the console world by storm three years earlier and crafted its own innovations in the first person shooter genre. Rare lost the James Bond licence, meaning 'Tomorrow Never Dies' skipped the N64, and in that time Rare had brought out a sequel of their own devising, 'Perfect Dark,' which revolutionised things even more. 'TWINE' came out later that same year and went back to the Bond world, following the plot of the third Pierce Brosnan film, but was created by Eurocom for EA. In many ways it was a backwards step or two even from 'Goldeneye' since they clearly didn't have the same grasp of the console's abilities and structure as the masters at Rare had done. At the same time I wasn't old enough to get 'PD' with its '18' certificate, but this filled a hole for a while and also had some impressive new features that were more advanced than 'Goldeneye' - namely, in-game and cut-scene speech, where before it had all been text, and computer controlled Bots in the multiplayer, which had as much thought and effort put into it as the classic 'Goldeneye' version had, with a mix of dedicated arenas and others based on the missions.
The trouble with 'TWINE' was its reliance on saving to Memory Pak, albeit only taking up a very small amount of space, rather than the cartridge itself, a small technicality, but one that meant, while I still have the original files of 'Goldeneye' and 'PD,' I've had to complete 'TWINE' several times over the years, mainly to unlock the best cheats which allow you to play the full complement of multiplayer arenas, and some of the scenarios that weren't given freely. It's a technical issue, and an unfortunate one, especially as I didn't have an official Nintendo Memory Pak until late in the day, so would lose my files a couple of times, but leaving that aside and judging the game on its merits, how does it do? Very well indeed, I must say. It is generally quite linear, other than a few of the levels, which is taken to its ultimate with an unwanted on-rails skiing mission where you're forced down a preset path with only a modicum of lateral movement to prevent you feeling like you're on a roller-coaster. But when you think about it, that's pretty much what the 'Train' level on 'Goldeneye' was - moving in a straight line. I suppose they should have been awarded recognition for trying something different, even though it's the least enjoyable level. It must also be said that the high quality realism of the textures seen in the earlier game, and the realtime lighting of 'PD' were lost in favour of a far less realistic, almost cartoonish tone and palette, especially seen in the cut-scenes.
And while I'm criticising, it really does make a difference not to have the famous theme music blaring out, and much of the soundtrack is repeated across levels. What I will say is that it is suitably cinematic and exciting, and other than the repetition, it works well, especially the main theme. Sound effects are also well judged with meaty blasts from the weapons and plenty of vocalisations from characters and enemies. You can tell the movement is animation from how jerky it is, far from the smooth motion capture that so impressed in the other games mentioned, but it's not enough to truly detract from the experience, which is very close to 'Goldeneye.' You can tell they were very much inspired by everything about that game, from the use of gadgetry to the three levels of difficulty, the targeting reticule and the multiple persons involved in mission briefings, which return to text-based information. So you feel right at home if you know 'Goldeneye,' which both makes the game more accessible, but also jars a little when you feel the lack in some areas. Yet the game still has the ability to impress, particularly with the scope of some of its levels - the vast forest of 'Midnight Departure' where you're supposed to sneak around tailing an enemy until you can off him, then catch a plane without being hampered by the various enemy forces there. It really was great fun sneaking through the trees (even if they are flat shapes folded together like origami to represent trees, rather than anything really impressive like the undergrowth in the next generation's 'Turok Evolution,' for example), engaging night vision goggles and taking out enemies silently.
Then there's the inclusion of a full-sized Russian submarine in its underground dock in the penultimate mission, 'A Sinking Feeling,' where you again have the option to creep around silently dispatching the guards to prevent them alerting villain Renard to kill his hostage. The size of the thing, it reminded me of the time I first came upon Clanker in 'Banjo-Kazooie'! What's great about levels such as these was the latitude for how you approach it. At the same time there's a lot less freedom in this game than the other two - if you fail to take out a guard before he reaches the alarm on that submarine level, for example the mission ends, but even in that you get a 'bonus' cut-scene showing what happens to Christmas Jones, and this was the case in several levels. Other times it can just make the game tougher, with a squad or two of tough soldiers showing up in the forest level if you set off that alarm. The game, for all its linearity and strict adherence to its rules, can also be surprisingly subtle and generous on occasion. Not more so than in the time trial option. The other games had this feature, too, but because 'TWINE' is so restrictive in comparison, it lends itself much more to time-trialling and this was an aspect of the game that pushed it over what my original rating was going to be. I would have given it four stars for being a great game with some flaws, but I found myself totally absorbed into an intent to beat all my previous times.
Although I'd sadly lost the original files I had wisely written them down at the time so I knew what my best times were twenty-odd years ago and I was dedicated to beating every one. Back then the motive had been to enter the 'N64 Magazine' section where they had leader boards for various games, including 'TWINE,' and I'd succeeded in getting in on the Agent levels they started with. Frustratingly, in those days it took a long time to not just play the game and get a great time, but to send off the photographs for processing, receive them back, send them to the magazine, and then of course some of the photos wouldn't have come out well enough and the mag itself was a couple of months or more ahead of the latest issue, which is how things work in the publishing industry, so the upshot of it all was that I would probably have been top of all the leagues if I'd been able to get my best times there in time, but then the mag changed from 'N64' to 'NGC' and promptly redesigned the challenge section, removing the 'TWINE' league entirely so I was never able to bask in the glory of success. This only spurred me on to beat all my best times now and this is really what gave the game its longevity on this occasion - oh, I enjoyed going through the levels as I had, and even found time for a revival of the multiplayer, all great fun, but the greatest satisfaction to be had was in knocking sometimes only one second off of a time from the past, and on this occasion doing it without the use of Auto Aim, which I suspect I'd have used back then as it would have made sense!
The pleasure was not simply from playing and replaying the levels over and over until everything fell into place for that near-perfect run, but in learning or relearning those little tricks that enabled the best times, finding those shortcuts and experimenting. It might be considered harder to complete missions going as fast as possible, but in fact it was often easier since you would bypass conflict as much as possible, doing only what was required to achieve the objectives. That was another holdover from 'Goldeneye' - intelligent tasks rather than merely shooting everything in sight. In fact you couldn't shoot everything or everyone because you might destroy something necessary for completion and civilians were held sacrosanct. No more teasing the scientists in 'Goldeneye' with a little wounding here or there, this was much more realistic in that respect, and killing any civilians meant disqualification. It was taken so seriously that even in multiplayer you weren't allowed to pit so-called 'Good' characters against other 'Good' ones! A bit excessive, it must be said, but true to the restrictive nature behind the game's rules.
As well as the satisfaction of beating mission times, there was another motivation, and that was earning cheats, as I mentioned before. It was the same thing in the other games, but I was pleased to see it continue here, even if they're far easier than the possible completion times, and you get a sense of reward. That's important in a game, progression and reward, and 'TWINE' did it as well as any other. Yes, there are only fourteen missions to complete, a paltry number compared to the other two games, but most of them are good, challenging fun. There's some variety, too, though perhaps somewhat ill-advised on the face of it, like the on-rails shooting of 'Cold Reception' or the foot chases through London and Istanbul in 'Thames Chase' and 'Turncoat' respectively. It could also be said that some levels are a bit plain in comparison to others, with the two 'City of Walkways' locations about as attractive as the Streets or Depot in 'Goldeneye,' but once again the time trialling forces all such aesthetic thoughts out of your mind as you battle to do everything you can to get through quickly. As is always the case, even with 'Goldeneye' and 'PD,' the final level is a bit lacklustre and especially frustrating, in this case, having to swim through an upturned sub with occasional encounters with soldiers and a reliance on your grappling hook, not the most inspiring end, but certainly tricky.
Which brings me onto the greater addition of gadgetry than before. You have different visual aids (night vision goggles, x-ray ability to look through solid walls), various mission-specific devices, and your most useful addition: the watch. In 'Goldeneye' the watch was mainly used as the pause menu, complete with agonisingly slow zoom animation where you'd bring your wrist up and eventually get into the menu, all the while vulnerable to enemy fire! That's something that changed for the better. I imagine they put that in to stop people pausing too much, an artificial escape from the action, but it's much fairer to have an instant pause from where you can check your objectives, switch weapons or gadgets and just generally adjust the options. The watch gadget on this occasion has four modes: stunner, the most useful, which fires out a continual stream of electricity (don't ask me how!), until the battery runs down and needs recharging. This has the benefit of stunning enemies for a few seconds, depending on how long you zap them, and was invaluable in the time trial when you didn't always have time to shoot the opponents and had to get past them quickly. Then there's the laser, which has a similar effect, but is mainly used for damaging electrical equipment or burning off padlocks. And the dart gun which is for a more severe stun than can knock enemies out for much longer, but also requires careful aim - plus in many missions you don't carry any. And finally the grapple.
The ability to swim, jump and pull yourself up on specific yellow and black hazard warning sections meant the game had another difference to the others. It was far less 'pure' a shooting game, but it became almost closer to 3D platforming in the sense that you needed to be aware of the physical space more (though not to the extent of actual platforming sections like the ones in the original 'Turok,' thankfully!). For example, you could leap over the bannisters at the bank, but if you jumped from too high you'd be killed. Again, experimentation with these things was necessary to get the best times and in the multiplayer it was absolutely hilarious seeing a human player suddenly leap in the air (especially if you're playing a scuba diver with flippers on your feet)! It is more fiddly having these extra modes of movement, but it just makes 'TWINE' a slightly more different game, which is no bad thing. And the thing is that there was often a little more to your options than was immediately apparent sometimes. Take the gas room in 'Fallen Angel' where you chase Elektra - you could run in and find the only exit is using the grapple, or you could shoot out the cameras in the room which would prevent the shields coming down and then run up the stairway. Or in the same level you could shoot Bullion from the upper walkway and if you stood over him on that section you could still read his fingerprint even from that distance. These little subtleties made the game more enjoyable as it showed there was more to it than simply following the obvious path all the time.
The game is undeniably more superficial than the others, with its heavily scripted moments, and sometimes could be glitchy, such as the ability to shoot or be shot through the corners of walls on occasion, there was an inconsistency to it. But it's the qualities that stand out to me, the things that still seemed quite revolutionary at the time, such as those Bots. It is limited to the extent that you can only have four players maximum, human or artificial, but just the option to include computer-controlled players was exciting and gave our games a new lease of life, and there's even good variation in the quality of the opposition, and many, many happy hours were spent, 'TWINE' being up there with 'Goldeneye,' 'PD,' 'Snowboard Kids,' 'Mario Kart' and the wrestling games as the most played multiplayer games on the console. It was also one of those few releases I paid full price for when it came out, and it's telling that I feel glad to have done so with no regrets. I love a bargain, and a number of games I got were heavily discounted, despite being brand new rather than second hand (I got plenty of those, too!), but 'TWINE' was absolutely worth the money (and bought in Woolworths, too!). It's been a great pleasure revisiting it, even so soon after 'Goldeneye,' and now I only have 'Perfect Dark' to reconquer in that line, so here's to the trilogy of great shooters of the N64, all of them terrific!
*****
Friday, 24 June 2022
The Two Becketts
DVD, BUGS S4 (The Two Becketts)
Who knows, but it could have been two Becketts in a very different way if Ros hadn't been so silly in blaming Nick for Terry's death - they might have got married! Instead, the other Beckett of the title (and a good title it is), would be revealed to be his Father, Matt. So little was known about the characters' pasts, not much more in Beckett Jr.'s case than what is once again trotted out by his Dad when he says he followed his career: the Navy, the Hive, freelancing with Ros and Ed. I'm not criticising, I find it terrific whenever they make any effort at solidifying the backstories or adding new information on their lives, so what could be better than a family tragedy and reunion in the same episode. We'd already had Ros' Mother earlier in the season, so why not bring in Beckett's Father? About the only character that didn't get the fleshing out, as it's been noted many times before, is Ed. But maybe even he would have had the treatment if McLachlan had stayed or the series had lasted another year or two? As it is it's best to get Ed's contribution out of the way at the start: Houghton really doesn't add anything to the story, and truth be told, it's more the opposite. I just don't know what he was trying to do, was he given notes, any direction, or did he have anything in mind when he approached the role? Because it often seems as if there's very little in Ed's mind! He just comes across quite blank and bland, the Jeremy Renner of the 90s, only Renner was usually at least a little likeable.
It doesn't help that they thrust the character into a position of power when they inexplicably boosted him to Bureau Chief. Instead of giving him the chance to make mistakes or learn from the experience in any way he simply comes to the conclusion that Beckett's more right for the part, something it's hard to disagree with. This version of Ed really needed to stay in the background as the resident muscle used for backup while the 'adults' got on with things, or that's the feeling I get from watching him. It doesn't help that the women especially treat him as a novelty, both Alex and Ros having a jovial tone when replying to his orders. It doesn't make for a very strong sense of hierarchy and slick operations if the Chief is looked on as 'aah, isn't he cute giving out his little orders there,' and when you factor in Beckett, who though demoted in name, carries on as normal and just exudes authority, Ed in that position doesn't sit right. It's not like the team were ever that strict about who's the boss, it's that Beckett has an innate assurance and ability to size up a situation and decide what to do and the others respond to that. No one would be grinning at him telling them what to do, they might have light moments, and did, many times, but they all recognise Beckett as the field boss under Jan's overall directorship. I'm not even saying Ed did badly, just that he wasn't even given the chance to really take control and prove himself and Houghton's quiet, self-detrimental or self-effacing portrayal did not fit at all with the bombastic, cheery Aussie we knew!
Ed is pretty much relegated to the background, even if he does go on the hunt for Zealander, one of two witnesses that can put criminal Vladimir Rokov away for good. And he also coordinates the assault on Rokov's base, but again, with two seasoned members of the services in the Becketts, it just looks odd that they'd pay much attention, especially the senior as he's become a bit of a lone wolf agent, as his son points out. They all charge in and give it a good fight, but I'm not sure how much in the way of tactics were being used, and when you think about it, why wouldn't they go in with soldiers or operatives from other organisations? And who uses the rest of the Bureau 2 building, it can't just be them on the top floor and that's it, especially as we've seen a busy reception area! I felt they missed a trick a little bit in the way Rokov was taken down - in so many episodes the villains are killed off, either intentionally as the only way to stop them, or passively by them not saving them from destruction, but this time, one of the few times when the villain's evil is personal they get him without bloodshed. Not that I wanted to see the Becketts get their revenge on this nasty criminal, however much he might deserve it, but I would have liked to see one of them stop the other from pulling a trigger when they were in the position of putting him down for good. Either Beckett could have stopped his Dad from executing him, or his Father could have saved his son's career, preventing him from ruining his life as Beckett Sr.'s had been.
What was it all for? We learn fascinating new information on Beckett's life before 'BUGS,' that his Mother died in a car crash in 1988 and that his Father went off after that and hasn't spoken to him in ten years as he fought to take down Rokov. But the revelations don't end there as we also learn it was actually due to Rokov himself that Elizabeth Beckett died, in an attempt on Matt's life, so there's some really affecting motivation playing out. It tells us a lot about Beckett, too: that he inherited his Dad's hot temper and bullheaded approach to solving problems, and that he was suddenly deprived of both parents. Overhanging everything, as it does for most of the season, is also the theme that two people working in the intelligence services can't make a go of it together, something Beckett's already felt the sharp end of thanks to falling out with Ros. She's having second thoughts and tries to reach out to him when she sees parallels with how his Mother died, and his finding Ros' car when she went missing so she's really empathising with him and sounds a bit regretful earlier when she's talking to Alex about her own prospects with Adam (who blessedly doesn't appear, another positive for the episode!). I like how she just closes down when Alex starts prying in the way a younger, less experienced person would! Beckett isn't in the best of moods and has seemingly accepted his situation in the miserable ex-safehouse flat and doesn't respond particularly well.
I will say that at least it's not a negative episode, the troubles don't overshadow the story, and in fact play nicely into it. You can see the writing (from Terry Borst and Frank De Palma this time), using not only the potential of the series' history and blank spots, but also immediate and recent story threads that shows they know the setup and characters very well, and that makes all the difference: Ros mentions the interminable trade shows Channing used to drag her to when she comments on the sonic weapon the villains are using, showing she still views him in a less than positive light even after her subsequent falling out with Beckett. The Hive gets mentioned several times which shows they don't want it forgotten, partly for Adam's continued presence in following episodes, and the full return of the organisation later. And I already mentioned Matt's reeling off of Beckett's career, which is always good to hear. The episode itself is something of a historical document as we get some great views of the famous Millennium Dome under construction - I wonder how many TV shows and films recorded that? I know it's shown up in various places in finished form (Bond famously dropping onto it in 'The World Is Not Enough,' only a year after this episode was broadcast), and it really looked fascinating as a backdrop!
The direction must be given especial praise and attention because Brian Grant really excelled throughout, picking out numerous well-executed shots and visual tricks that meant the lack of typical escalating tension and split-second escapes was papered over quite neatly. One of the things about Season 4 is that it could often seem cheap or lacking in some way, and that may be because they spent the budget too much on these early episodes, or that they had less, or a bit of both, because again, the style is there but sometimes you don't get the full impact as we used to. I'm thinking specifically of the grenades that go off with a whimper - there's one which Rokov or his henchman chucks at the special holding unit during the escape, and then again when Ros is chasing them after they've kidnapped Khalif from her not very safe safehouse hideaway in a caravan under a railway viaduct. Ros' black BMW is stopped dead by an EMP grenade, so in that case it didn't matter there was no big explosion because there wasn't meant to be. I must say she was very brave driving after them when they had automatic rifles and as far as I could tell neither Ros or Alex even had a handgun so I'm not sure what they'd have done even if they'd managed to stop the fleeing van… Other action scenes include Matt and Nick getting into a fight with some petty crook and his heavies, which again was excellently directed with fluid camera work and choice positioning that emphasised the violent nature of the scene.
Then there's the escape from the holding unit itself, some great location work to find somewhere like that (reminded me of the tower where all the art pieces had been stored in 'Buried Treasure'), a lone building surrounded by a metal fence. The basketball is shown in slow motion as it curls through the air, and dead on the money as Rokov scores a three-pointer, the focused, directed ultrasound blasts high frequency audio waves through both fence and wall to free the prisoner. The question is how he knew when it was going to happen since the whole point of the unit was to keep him isolated from outside, but there's always a way, whether they bribed a prison worker or had some other means of smuggling the message through to him, he knew and was ready. I only wished Ed had had a bike ready and waiting and could have gone off in hot pursuit, but he seems to have gone off them… We don't even see him drive the Land Cruiser, although Alex goes out in a dinky little car that looked like just the sort of thing she would drive, while Ros is using her BMW which we hadn't seen before, and the Becketts are taking it in turns to drive the Grand Cherokee - I noticed it sometimes looked blue, but that it must be a reflection of the light since it was definitely the green model, which makes me wonder if there's always been only the one green version and the blue one I thought I'd seen occasionally before was actually green, too?
We even get a suitably 'BUGS-ian' building in Taska Tech where the C3i uplink module was developed. I was getting another link back to 'Out of The Hive' with all that, this 'Command Control Communications and Intelligence' device sounded a bit like SACROS, and then we first meet Matt when there's an intruder alarm from the records room, which was where the tape was taken from in that episode. I'm sure it was coincidental, and anyway, that intro to Matt was well done. It really seemed like an older man trying to escape - loved the footwork as he runs across computer desks between keyboard and monitors, then crashes through the window to exit the building. Shame he didn't notice the electrical hazard sign on the fence he leapt onto! But it was all very effective in introducing this loose cannon and the animosity Beckett feels towards his Dad. It's approached quite seriously and what with the look of Khalif and Zealander who might have strayed off some 70s action series like 'The New Avengers,' and the connection to the past through Matt, it was a much more grounded episode that was different for the series while also harking back to many older episodes, particularly Season 1 with the caravan (like in 'Down Among The Dead Men'), the Docklands Light Railway, and country locations as well as tech.
The clothing seemed to reflect the nature of the story with very little colour - Beckett looked especially sharp in black suit, with only the red collar and tie showing above it, while Ros was dressed all in black, too, hair tied back severely, with round silver earrings, emphasising remoteness through much of the episode, other than when she's flying around at Taska Tech, overloading the module, spinning round in a wheelie chair, all good fun. Ed is, as usual, not noticeable, though in the attack on Rokov's HQ as he was running towards camera I thought he was wearing the trademark leather jacket until I got a better look and realised it was just his usual (for this Ed), outdoor hiking jacket. When he goes looking for Zealander at the flat that could well be the only toilet ever seen on the series, as if to emphasise the grotty safehouse location - you can't get more grounded than that! There was one thing Ed said that made me wonder if they were hinting at something more: he says 'parents, always an embarrassment.' He could of course have been speaking generally, but the scorn in his voice could suggest that he's had experience with his own. Sadly, it's clutching at straws, there isn't the backup to ever delve into Ed's life (other than the very occasional episode like 'Buried Treasure').
Perhaps the biggest suggestion for this episode being more like real-life drama (other than the sci-fi elements of sound weapons that can punch a perfectly circular hole through a thick wall!), is the very serious and emotional end at the graveside of Elizabeth Beckett, and Matt taking his leave of his son. There's no corny joke to end the episode with everyone having a laugh (unless you count Jan smiling proudly at Ed's request for Beckett to be reinstated as Chief), and it ends thoughtfully and soberly, which is certainly different, though 'Absent Friends' also ended with a heavy dramatic moment. I wonder if it was a deliberate move to try and grow up the series as they had tried to do by bringing in more backstory and a greater sense of reality. For one thing the series by this time felt quite firmly in present day when earlier episodes, particularly Season 2 appeared to be deliberately set a little into the future. Then again, the November 2004 date that Khalif gives as her 'memorable date' as part of the code to access the bank account which will have Rokov stealing from multiple charities' funds could mean the series was still future-based. Was it just a date she chose at random, was it something that was set to happen soon? (Maybe she didn't want to miss Bonfire Night!). It's just an anomaly really as you can't date the series more specifically than show Elizabeth's headstone (18/5/45-12/7/88), then say it's ten years since Matt has been in touch, so that very effectively dates the series if it hadn't already been.
The sad view of agents in the service not being suited to each other which is so pertinent to both Ros and Beckett's position and Alex and Adam's, is reiterated by Beckett when he tells Ros his Father said it was a recipe for disaster, and again when Zealander hints that he and Khalif had been close and it didn't work out. Indeed, I thought Rokov would know this and use it against them. I liked that it was Alex who was threatened if they didn't cooperate, but I also liked the way Khalif responds by saying she knew what she signed up for. So often in drama a person will heroically refuse the villain's ultimatum with a gun to their head, but then capitulate when someone else is threatened. Zealander is more practical, seeing how young Alex is and the fact that, as terrible a crime as it is, it's not worth letting her be killed for it. At the same time, Rokov would probably have eliminated them after they'd served their purpose, unless he needed them every time he wanted to access a different charity. There's also the issue that Rokov could just as well stayed in prison until his men had finished off the pair as then there'd be no evidence and he'd go free, but he seemed like a man that liked to get his hands dirty and not leave it to his goons.
One question might be why the Becketts just stayed standing at the bomb site when it was about to go off, since Matt admits it wasn't a pressure pad as Rokov surmised, but on a timer, but thinking about it I thought they probably had to wait until the villains had gone before they ran for it so as to think it really was pressure-activated, otherwise they might have come back and shot them. Actually, why didn't they simply shoot them, they had the guns, but I suppose Matt had one too, and it could bring down the rarely seen authorities. There's usually some kind of logic you can apply to any situation! What impressed me about this one is that it was very close to getting back to the old 'BUGS' way - it still had the soapy stuff, but it was put in carefully and sensitively and largely complimented the story they were telling. It's touching that Matt still keeps an old picture of his wife and son in his wallet, throughout all those years of working for an off the books US intelligence agency. I feel sure he'd have been a character they'd have brought back had the series gone on for further years. I believe the actor who played him, Stephen Yardley was married to Jan Harvey and they worked together in multiple TV shows over the years, so that's a nice touch. And I could be wrong, but Nick Brimble (Rokov), may be the brother of Vincent Brimble who played Tyson Strate of Strate Air in 'Whirling Dervish.' I can't remember where I picked up those facts, possibly in articles over the years, but I do like some fun facts!
***
Who knows, but it could have been two Becketts in a very different way if Ros hadn't been so silly in blaming Nick for Terry's death - they might have got married! Instead, the other Beckett of the title (and a good title it is), would be revealed to be his Father, Matt. So little was known about the characters' pasts, not much more in Beckett Jr.'s case than what is once again trotted out by his Dad when he says he followed his career: the Navy, the Hive, freelancing with Ros and Ed. I'm not criticising, I find it terrific whenever they make any effort at solidifying the backstories or adding new information on their lives, so what could be better than a family tragedy and reunion in the same episode. We'd already had Ros' Mother earlier in the season, so why not bring in Beckett's Father? About the only character that didn't get the fleshing out, as it's been noted many times before, is Ed. But maybe even he would have had the treatment if McLachlan had stayed or the series had lasted another year or two? As it is it's best to get Ed's contribution out of the way at the start: Houghton really doesn't add anything to the story, and truth be told, it's more the opposite. I just don't know what he was trying to do, was he given notes, any direction, or did he have anything in mind when he approached the role? Because it often seems as if there's very little in Ed's mind! He just comes across quite blank and bland, the Jeremy Renner of the 90s, only Renner was usually at least a little likeable.
It doesn't help that they thrust the character into a position of power when they inexplicably boosted him to Bureau Chief. Instead of giving him the chance to make mistakes or learn from the experience in any way he simply comes to the conclusion that Beckett's more right for the part, something it's hard to disagree with. This version of Ed really needed to stay in the background as the resident muscle used for backup while the 'adults' got on with things, or that's the feeling I get from watching him. It doesn't help that the women especially treat him as a novelty, both Alex and Ros having a jovial tone when replying to his orders. It doesn't make for a very strong sense of hierarchy and slick operations if the Chief is looked on as 'aah, isn't he cute giving out his little orders there,' and when you factor in Beckett, who though demoted in name, carries on as normal and just exudes authority, Ed in that position doesn't sit right. It's not like the team were ever that strict about who's the boss, it's that Beckett has an innate assurance and ability to size up a situation and decide what to do and the others respond to that. No one would be grinning at him telling them what to do, they might have light moments, and did, many times, but they all recognise Beckett as the field boss under Jan's overall directorship. I'm not even saying Ed did badly, just that he wasn't even given the chance to really take control and prove himself and Houghton's quiet, self-detrimental or self-effacing portrayal did not fit at all with the bombastic, cheery Aussie we knew!
Ed is pretty much relegated to the background, even if he does go on the hunt for Zealander, one of two witnesses that can put criminal Vladimir Rokov away for good. And he also coordinates the assault on Rokov's base, but again, with two seasoned members of the services in the Becketts, it just looks odd that they'd pay much attention, especially the senior as he's become a bit of a lone wolf agent, as his son points out. They all charge in and give it a good fight, but I'm not sure how much in the way of tactics were being used, and when you think about it, why wouldn't they go in with soldiers or operatives from other organisations? And who uses the rest of the Bureau 2 building, it can't just be them on the top floor and that's it, especially as we've seen a busy reception area! I felt they missed a trick a little bit in the way Rokov was taken down - in so many episodes the villains are killed off, either intentionally as the only way to stop them, or passively by them not saving them from destruction, but this time, one of the few times when the villain's evil is personal they get him without bloodshed. Not that I wanted to see the Becketts get their revenge on this nasty criminal, however much he might deserve it, but I would have liked to see one of them stop the other from pulling a trigger when they were in the position of putting him down for good. Either Beckett could have stopped his Dad from executing him, or his Father could have saved his son's career, preventing him from ruining his life as Beckett Sr.'s had been.
What was it all for? We learn fascinating new information on Beckett's life before 'BUGS,' that his Mother died in a car crash in 1988 and that his Father went off after that and hasn't spoken to him in ten years as he fought to take down Rokov. But the revelations don't end there as we also learn it was actually due to Rokov himself that Elizabeth Beckett died, in an attempt on Matt's life, so there's some really affecting motivation playing out. It tells us a lot about Beckett, too: that he inherited his Dad's hot temper and bullheaded approach to solving problems, and that he was suddenly deprived of both parents. Overhanging everything, as it does for most of the season, is also the theme that two people working in the intelligence services can't make a go of it together, something Beckett's already felt the sharp end of thanks to falling out with Ros. She's having second thoughts and tries to reach out to him when she sees parallels with how his Mother died, and his finding Ros' car when she went missing so she's really empathising with him and sounds a bit regretful earlier when she's talking to Alex about her own prospects with Adam (who blessedly doesn't appear, another positive for the episode!). I like how she just closes down when Alex starts prying in the way a younger, less experienced person would! Beckett isn't in the best of moods and has seemingly accepted his situation in the miserable ex-safehouse flat and doesn't respond particularly well.
I will say that at least it's not a negative episode, the troubles don't overshadow the story, and in fact play nicely into it. You can see the writing (from Terry Borst and Frank De Palma this time), using not only the potential of the series' history and blank spots, but also immediate and recent story threads that shows they know the setup and characters very well, and that makes all the difference: Ros mentions the interminable trade shows Channing used to drag her to when she comments on the sonic weapon the villains are using, showing she still views him in a less than positive light even after her subsequent falling out with Beckett. The Hive gets mentioned several times which shows they don't want it forgotten, partly for Adam's continued presence in following episodes, and the full return of the organisation later. And I already mentioned Matt's reeling off of Beckett's career, which is always good to hear. The episode itself is something of a historical document as we get some great views of the famous Millennium Dome under construction - I wonder how many TV shows and films recorded that? I know it's shown up in various places in finished form (Bond famously dropping onto it in 'The World Is Not Enough,' only a year after this episode was broadcast), and it really looked fascinating as a backdrop!
The direction must be given especial praise and attention because Brian Grant really excelled throughout, picking out numerous well-executed shots and visual tricks that meant the lack of typical escalating tension and split-second escapes was papered over quite neatly. One of the things about Season 4 is that it could often seem cheap or lacking in some way, and that may be because they spent the budget too much on these early episodes, or that they had less, or a bit of both, because again, the style is there but sometimes you don't get the full impact as we used to. I'm thinking specifically of the grenades that go off with a whimper - there's one which Rokov or his henchman chucks at the special holding unit during the escape, and then again when Ros is chasing them after they've kidnapped Khalif from her not very safe safehouse hideaway in a caravan under a railway viaduct. Ros' black BMW is stopped dead by an EMP grenade, so in that case it didn't matter there was no big explosion because there wasn't meant to be. I must say she was very brave driving after them when they had automatic rifles and as far as I could tell neither Ros or Alex even had a handgun so I'm not sure what they'd have done even if they'd managed to stop the fleeing van… Other action scenes include Matt and Nick getting into a fight with some petty crook and his heavies, which again was excellently directed with fluid camera work and choice positioning that emphasised the violent nature of the scene.
Then there's the escape from the holding unit itself, some great location work to find somewhere like that (reminded me of the tower where all the art pieces had been stored in 'Buried Treasure'), a lone building surrounded by a metal fence. The basketball is shown in slow motion as it curls through the air, and dead on the money as Rokov scores a three-pointer, the focused, directed ultrasound blasts high frequency audio waves through both fence and wall to free the prisoner. The question is how he knew when it was going to happen since the whole point of the unit was to keep him isolated from outside, but there's always a way, whether they bribed a prison worker or had some other means of smuggling the message through to him, he knew and was ready. I only wished Ed had had a bike ready and waiting and could have gone off in hot pursuit, but he seems to have gone off them… We don't even see him drive the Land Cruiser, although Alex goes out in a dinky little car that looked like just the sort of thing she would drive, while Ros is using her BMW which we hadn't seen before, and the Becketts are taking it in turns to drive the Grand Cherokee - I noticed it sometimes looked blue, but that it must be a reflection of the light since it was definitely the green model, which makes me wonder if there's always been only the one green version and the blue one I thought I'd seen occasionally before was actually green, too?
We even get a suitably 'BUGS-ian' building in Taska Tech where the C3i uplink module was developed. I was getting another link back to 'Out of The Hive' with all that, this 'Command Control Communications and Intelligence' device sounded a bit like SACROS, and then we first meet Matt when there's an intruder alarm from the records room, which was where the tape was taken from in that episode. I'm sure it was coincidental, and anyway, that intro to Matt was well done. It really seemed like an older man trying to escape - loved the footwork as he runs across computer desks between keyboard and monitors, then crashes through the window to exit the building. Shame he didn't notice the electrical hazard sign on the fence he leapt onto! But it was all very effective in introducing this loose cannon and the animosity Beckett feels towards his Dad. It's approached quite seriously and what with the look of Khalif and Zealander who might have strayed off some 70s action series like 'The New Avengers,' and the connection to the past through Matt, it was a much more grounded episode that was different for the series while also harking back to many older episodes, particularly Season 1 with the caravan (like in 'Down Among The Dead Men'), the Docklands Light Railway, and country locations as well as tech.
The clothing seemed to reflect the nature of the story with very little colour - Beckett looked especially sharp in black suit, with only the red collar and tie showing above it, while Ros was dressed all in black, too, hair tied back severely, with round silver earrings, emphasising remoteness through much of the episode, other than when she's flying around at Taska Tech, overloading the module, spinning round in a wheelie chair, all good fun. Ed is, as usual, not noticeable, though in the attack on Rokov's HQ as he was running towards camera I thought he was wearing the trademark leather jacket until I got a better look and realised it was just his usual (for this Ed), outdoor hiking jacket. When he goes looking for Zealander at the flat that could well be the only toilet ever seen on the series, as if to emphasise the grotty safehouse location - you can't get more grounded than that! There was one thing Ed said that made me wonder if they were hinting at something more: he says 'parents, always an embarrassment.' He could of course have been speaking generally, but the scorn in his voice could suggest that he's had experience with his own. Sadly, it's clutching at straws, there isn't the backup to ever delve into Ed's life (other than the very occasional episode like 'Buried Treasure').
Perhaps the biggest suggestion for this episode being more like real-life drama (other than the sci-fi elements of sound weapons that can punch a perfectly circular hole through a thick wall!), is the very serious and emotional end at the graveside of Elizabeth Beckett, and Matt taking his leave of his son. There's no corny joke to end the episode with everyone having a laugh (unless you count Jan smiling proudly at Ed's request for Beckett to be reinstated as Chief), and it ends thoughtfully and soberly, which is certainly different, though 'Absent Friends' also ended with a heavy dramatic moment. I wonder if it was a deliberate move to try and grow up the series as they had tried to do by bringing in more backstory and a greater sense of reality. For one thing the series by this time felt quite firmly in present day when earlier episodes, particularly Season 2 appeared to be deliberately set a little into the future. Then again, the November 2004 date that Khalif gives as her 'memorable date' as part of the code to access the bank account which will have Rokov stealing from multiple charities' funds could mean the series was still future-based. Was it just a date she chose at random, was it something that was set to happen soon? (Maybe she didn't want to miss Bonfire Night!). It's just an anomaly really as you can't date the series more specifically than show Elizabeth's headstone (18/5/45-12/7/88), then say it's ten years since Matt has been in touch, so that very effectively dates the series if it hadn't already been.
The sad view of agents in the service not being suited to each other which is so pertinent to both Ros and Beckett's position and Alex and Adam's, is reiterated by Beckett when he tells Ros his Father said it was a recipe for disaster, and again when Zealander hints that he and Khalif had been close and it didn't work out. Indeed, I thought Rokov would know this and use it against them. I liked that it was Alex who was threatened if they didn't cooperate, but I also liked the way Khalif responds by saying she knew what she signed up for. So often in drama a person will heroically refuse the villain's ultimatum with a gun to their head, but then capitulate when someone else is threatened. Zealander is more practical, seeing how young Alex is and the fact that, as terrible a crime as it is, it's not worth letting her be killed for it. At the same time, Rokov would probably have eliminated them after they'd served their purpose, unless he needed them every time he wanted to access a different charity. There's also the issue that Rokov could just as well stayed in prison until his men had finished off the pair as then there'd be no evidence and he'd go free, but he seemed like a man that liked to get his hands dirty and not leave it to his goons.
One question might be why the Becketts just stayed standing at the bomb site when it was about to go off, since Matt admits it wasn't a pressure pad as Rokov surmised, but on a timer, but thinking about it I thought they probably had to wait until the villains had gone before they ran for it so as to think it really was pressure-activated, otherwise they might have come back and shot them. Actually, why didn't they simply shoot them, they had the guns, but I suppose Matt had one too, and it could bring down the rarely seen authorities. There's usually some kind of logic you can apply to any situation! What impressed me about this one is that it was very close to getting back to the old 'BUGS' way - it still had the soapy stuff, but it was put in carefully and sensitively and largely complimented the story they were telling. It's touching that Matt still keeps an old picture of his wife and son in his wallet, throughout all those years of working for an off the books US intelligence agency. I feel sure he'd have been a character they'd have brought back had the series gone on for further years. I believe the actor who played him, Stephen Yardley was married to Jan Harvey and they worked together in multiple TV shows over the years, so that's a nice touch. And I could be wrong, but Nick Brimble (Rokov), may be the brother of Vincent Brimble who played Tyson Strate of Strate Air in 'Whirling Dervish.' I can't remember where I picked up those facts, possibly in articles over the years, but I do like some fun facts!
***
Trio
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Trio)
Coming to the end of a season and needing to save money, that's how this one came across. It's not that it's bad, I don't need fancy special effects and pumping action to make an episode good, and in fact, putting three characters together, trapped with a time limit is an ideal way to get to some good drama, and this had that feel of old 'SG-1,' where similar things would happen: someone, or more than one, would be in some alien location with air running out or water rising, and they'd have a heart to heart chat with someone else they were trapped with, or on the last little power of their radio. And then they'd get rescued. It's a formula, and it largely works, but it didn't quite work in this case. I'm not sure what it is, maybe Carter just doesn't work so well with this group as she did with Teal'c, O'Neill and Jackson of SG-1, maybe, as I've said before she needs to be the boffin rather than the leader? I've been crying out for her and Rodney to have a problem to solve together, and this is it, this is the one, but again… it didn't quite work. You'd think stripping them down to basics (what kind of medical kit doesn't have a good painkiller in case of emergencies!), no tech, only ingenuity and a room filled with odd bits and bobs, would make it more interesting. Certainly I was impressed by the ideas they came up with, especially Keller's trick of balancing three planks of wood across each other in a triangle to make a bridge when they're too short to reach between girders, that was true ingenuity. And the tower of crates, and the grappling hook, and the cannon…
It wasn't the ideas that were at fault, so maybe it was a chemical thing, perhaps these three just didn't work quite as well as might have been hoped or expected? It made sense, you don't have any of the muscle men, though I don't know quite what Ronon or Sheppard could have done differently in that situation, and I do like that it was two women and a slightly unfit McKay having to deal with a problem of a very physical nature, but it was almost like watching one of those adventure game shows where you stick people in a cell and they have to build something or work out a puzzle to gain release - 'The Crystal Maze' came to mind (the original, not the boring, cheap-looking remake), but it was probably more in the 'Fort Boyard' wheelhouse, much more physically demanding. Unlike 'Quarantine,' an episode they reference, I didn't feel we got to know anything new about anyone or set up any bonds for the future. I know Keller invites Rodney for a drink once they're safe, but it seemed more like she felt sorry for him because of his lack of understanding of the female psyche when it came to his intended. Either that or she just wants to flirt with all the men (it was Ronon in 'Quarantine' but nothing seems to have come of that), which isn't how I saw her at all and could make her position as doctor a bit inappropriate. And while on the subject of inappropriateness there was surprisingly ribald discussions to pass the time, the kind of thing I wouldn't expect from 'Stargate,' nor did it ring true to the characters or feel right!
I would certainly give them points for subverting expectations - after all they went through they failed to exit the way they came in, through the roof, and instead have to descend deeper into the mining complex. It would have been simpler to have the children get help, and it's clear why they knew their parents would be angry if they found out they'd been in that area, because it's unstable and full of holes! It's a miracle it wasn't the children that fell down there. But we're denied any comeuppance for them refusing to put themselves in trouble with the adults as they should have done, taking the consequences, but at least doing the right thing, and we don't know what happened, whether Carter, McKay and Keller told their parents or held their tongues on the subject with the locals. We're also denied getting to see our team come out into the daylight at last, and after a whole episode stuck in a dark hole in the ground there needed to be a release of that kind. We do get the pleasant scene between Keller and McKay back at base, and I suppose it's the age-old issue of not enough time, but I was missing that. I also felt Carter and McKay working together should have been more impressive, and wasn't really, and it was disappointing we learn she doesn't really like Zelenka as he's one of my favourites on the series. I found it very odd that she wears toenail polish under her military boots, that doesn't seem very realistic as you'd be pulling them off and giving them a soak after being out on a mission, and that would ruin all the fine work!
It's also true that they did come across as a bit typically weak modern people some of the time, especially the start where they're talking about tetanus jabs and being all ultra-cautious and stuff. But I will say that did turn around once they set aside such concerns and took risks, Carter leading all the way and in consequence damaging herself in the process, and most especially when she pulls herself to the open door even with a broken leg to see if Keller's okay after she goes flying out of it in the tremors. So it was a mix of heroism and survival and less enjoyable moments, and as much as I quite enjoyed it, it's a story that's been done better before on 'SG-1,' on 'Atlantis,' and even this season. It did its job, filled the slot, used some of the characters and gave us a marginally entertaining conundrum to solve, but they really seem to have fallen into a pattern of only featuring two or three characters an episode recently and it's only a small cast anyway - with Trek it was different: bigger casts and they took the time to explore the characters better in such episodes ('Disaster' on 'TNG' springs to mind), and the writing hasn't generally been the strength of 'Stargate,' though I'd take this episode over almost any recent Trek. But that's not a high bar.
**
Coming to the end of a season and needing to save money, that's how this one came across. It's not that it's bad, I don't need fancy special effects and pumping action to make an episode good, and in fact, putting three characters together, trapped with a time limit is an ideal way to get to some good drama, and this had that feel of old 'SG-1,' where similar things would happen: someone, or more than one, would be in some alien location with air running out or water rising, and they'd have a heart to heart chat with someone else they were trapped with, or on the last little power of their radio. And then they'd get rescued. It's a formula, and it largely works, but it didn't quite work in this case. I'm not sure what it is, maybe Carter just doesn't work so well with this group as she did with Teal'c, O'Neill and Jackson of SG-1, maybe, as I've said before she needs to be the boffin rather than the leader? I've been crying out for her and Rodney to have a problem to solve together, and this is it, this is the one, but again… it didn't quite work. You'd think stripping them down to basics (what kind of medical kit doesn't have a good painkiller in case of emergencies!), no tech, only ingenuity and a room filled with odd bits and bobs, would make it more interesting. Certainly I was impressed by the ideas they came up with, especially Keller's trick of balancing three planks of wood across each other in a triangle to make a bridge when they're too short to reach between girders, that was true ingenuity. And the tower of crates, and the grappling hook, and the cannon…
It wasn't the ideas that were at fault, so maybe it was a chemical thing, perhaps these three just didn't work quite as well as might have been hoped or expected? It made sense, you don't have any of the muscle men, though I don't know quite what Ronon or Sheppard could have done differently in that situation, and I do like that it was two women and a slightly unfit McKay having to deal with a problem of a very physical nature, but it was almost like watching one of those adventure game shows where you stick people in a cell and they have to build something or work out a puzzle to gain release - 'The Crystal Maze' came to mind (the original, not the boring, cheap-looking remake), but it was probably more in the 'Fort Boyard' wheelhouse, much more physically demanding. Unlike 'Quarantine,' an episode they reference, I didn't feel we got to know anything new about anyone or set up any bonds for the future. I know Keller invites Rodney for a drink once they're safe, but it seemed more like she felt sorry for him because of his lack of understanding of the female psyche when it came to his intended. Either that or she just wants to flirt with all the men (it was Ronon in 'Quarantine' but nothing seems to have come of that), which isn't how I saw her at all and could make her position as doctor a bit inappropriate. And while on the subject of inappropriateness there was surprisingly ribald discussions to pass the time, the kind of thing I wouldn't expect from 'Stargate,' nor did it ring true to the characters or feel right!
I would certainly give them points for subverting expectations - after all they went through they failed to exit the way they came in, through the roof, and instead have to descend deeper into the mining complex. It would have been simpler to have the children get help, and it's clear why they knew their parents would be angry if they found out they'd been in that area, because it's unstable and full of holes! It's a miracle it wasn't the children that fell down there. But we're denied any comeuppance for them refusing to put themselves in trouble with the adults as they should have done, taking the consequences, but at least doing the right thing, and we don't know what happened, whether Carter, McKay and Keller told their parents or held their tongues on the subject with the locals. We're also denied getting to see our team come out into the daylight at last, and after a whole episode stuck in a dark hole in the ground there needed to be a release of that kind. We do get the pleasant scene between Keller and McKay back at base, and I suppose it's the age-old issue of not enough time, but I was missing that. I also felt Carter and McKay working together should have been more impressive, and wasn't really, and it was disappointing we learn she doesn't really like Zelenka as he's one of my favourites on the series. I found it very odd that she wears toenail polish under her military boots, that doesn't seem very realistic as you'd be pulling them off and giving them a soak after being out on a mission, and that would ruin all the fine work!
It's also true that they did come across as a bit typically weak modern people some of the time, especially the start where they're talking about tetanus jabs and being all ultra-cautious and stuff. But I will say that did turn around once they set aside such concerns and took risks, Carter leading all the way and in consequence damaging herself in the process, and most especially when she pulls herself to the open door even with a broken leg to see if Keller's okay after she goes flying out of it in the tremors. So it was a mix of heroism and survival and less enjoyable moments, and as much as I quite enjoyed it, it's a story that's been done better before on 'SG-1,' on 'Atlantis,' and even this season. It did its job, filled the slot, used some of the characters and gave us a marginally entertaining conundrum to solve, but they really seem to have fallen into a pattern of only featuring two or three characters an episode recently and it's only a small cast anyway - with Trek it was different: bigger casts and they took the time to explore the characters better in such episodes ('Disaster' on 'TNG' springs to mind), and the writing hasn't generally been the strength of 'Stargate,' though I'd take this episode over almost any recent Trek. But that's not a high bar.
**
Girl Power
DVD, BUGS S4 (Girl Power)
A dubious accolade goes to this episode, that of worst episode of the series. It's all relative, of course, and as with all of 'BUGS' this is still watchable for the characters, and some more enjoyable connections to its own history, as has been the theme of the first couple of episodes in its final year. This is almost a sequel to those, or a continuation, in theme at least, as Ros' youthful past with her activist associates and reminders of her slightly misspent youth, were explored, and now she comes up against a girl gifted in gadgetry and electronics as she was, and must take her in hand. From that perspective it has the bones of a great story as Ros is just the kind of well-adjusted role model a girl of fourteen would need (other than her meltdown at Beckett for Terry's death at the end of 'Sacrifice To Science'). Child actors sometimes work, sometimes don't, but in this case Carly is too good - she really does come across as a frustrated and obnoxious young teen, which doesn't make the experience of being around her much fun. At heart she's a good girl, as evidenced in the way she really wants to impress Ros, despite claiming her new temporary guardian 'hates' her, expressing herself in typical extremes, and she comes good in the end, rescuing Ros in the nick of time. But just as Ros wants to kill her at first, that's the 'charm' of the episode that bleeds into the audience.
It's just not a very good setup, having this child tech genius break into The Hive because you're set up to expect something terrible - terrorists, hardened criminals, who knows? And I understand that sometimes subverting expectations can be a good thing (it was clever how Ros wasn't actually kidnapped at the end of 'Renegades,' for example), but it has to turn into a more compelling direction than what you were expecting, not less. This smacks of trying to appeal to the young audience which I was part of back when it was first shown, but I don't imagine I particularly cared for the story at the time. Not that I felt it was the worst episode, but as with much of Season 4 it wasn't a standout and in subsequent viewings I've come to understand what was wrong. As well as making room for a teenage girl to be involved in many scenes, the stakes are incredibly low until much later when Ros is in danger of being crushed by a falling lift, a scene that was very well done, and one of the highlights as we see Carly use her device to overload the system keeping the door shut, Ed pulls Ros out just as the heavy weight comes crashing to the floor in a pile of metal parts and dust - it really sold the split second escape, but it needed to because there wasn't anything of the usual tension and hairsbreadth avoidance of hazards in the episode, with not a single explosion, countdown or death to its name.
To what do we owe the drama? A burial mask made of gold and precious stones, which is quite an impersonal thing, even going by some of the occasional impersonal stakes we've seen before. And somehow, the threat of other countries refusing to lend Britain its treasures for exhibitions isn't a very galvanising issue to get behind! Minister Quayle, almost apoplectic with fury at Jan and her team hints that the whole lot of them will be booted out unless they recover this prize, claiming the country will become a cultural leper colony, forgetting perhaps about his own cultural heritage, but then that's always the way, isn't it: we 'never' have enough artefacts of our own to show off, all of which demonstrates that the only real thing at stake is the saving of Bureau 2's face, something that isn't even played up as much as it might have been when you consider that not only do they bring back Beckett's old organisation, The Hive, but his old boss, too, Mr. Dent! The extent of Dent's sardonic comments on this is asking if Beckett's made a go of this Bureau 2, when you'd think he'd be the type to be very competitive between organisations. It's great to see the old boy again, naturally, one of the brilliant things about this season (and it wouldn't be the last we'd see of him, either), and I'd love to know what prompted them to go right back to the very first episode, 'Out of The Hive' for their inspiration - it's Colin Brake and Stuart Doughty again, writing the third episode in a row, which I don't think had ever been done before.
To recap we have an annoying teenaged girl, the stakes are low, The Hive's not used in quite the spirit we might have expected, but there's another big mark against the episode: its insistence on adding domestic ordinary locations, so far removed from the traditional high-tech companies and buildings we'd see before, or even the lavish historic structures. We see a bit of both with The Hive being the very epitome of a 'BUGS' building, and Mr. Dent's residence and the museum are certainly high class, but do we really need to see the dreary reality of housing estates and shopping centres - granted, it's great fun to see Tandys used as the place where Carly secretes the mask (I thought it was Dixons at first, Carly calling it the Discount Electrical Store, but no, it was even older than that!), but this level of mundanity is far from what I expect in the series and was a trend that would continue in other episodes to come. It's a touch uncomfortable with the characters, too, as obviously Ros and Beckett are a little awkward, though I was surprised how quickly they got back to some form of normality. It's not like Beckett has the chance for a quiet chat, and Ros isn't sobbing and blubbing any more or acting the goat, and they talk quite civilly on the radio when he's trying to reach Ed, which was a good way of breaking the ice, and Ros has her hands full with Carly which was a distraction for her, but it's nice to see her attend his little housewarming at the old Bureau of Weapons safe house Alex found for Beckett to live in, so we even get a traditional comedy ending where they're laughing together over an old report on the young Ros, but we also can't say things are hunky-dory, and it would be strange if they were considering the melodramatics that had occurred.
No, the real weirdness is in Alex' shameless flirting with new Hive recruit Adam Mosby, the man we love to hate (though he wouldn't be the only recurring character this year to come under that category - there's still Christa to come!), which seems to come out of nowhere. It's as if they really wanted something for Alex to do, and since they'd broken up Ros and Beckett, why not cause a little trouble between Ed and Alex. Soapy, or what! Adam comes across as a bit bland, but then in Alex' defence, so does the new Ed, despite leading the Bureau now. Actually, when it comes down to it, Beckett just has more presence and so he never feels like he's really working under Ed, they're just working together in the episode's other good sequence - the triple bluff of the mask coming into the country. Ed gets to do his best Tom Cruise impression as he recreates the 'Mission: Impossible' trick of descending from the ceiling in a harness to test Ros' security precautions, and he's also the one that gets to have the fight with one of the villains, but otherwise he's quite muted. He seems to forget his martial arts ability, something he's done before, when fighting this Dan, who is clearly the muscle of the trio of villainy, as you can't see Filsinger or Nightingale getting involved in anything physical - even the moment Jan 'steps' in and trips the woman in the car park looked a bit weak. Action is difficult in heels!
The villains were another weak part, we really never learn anything about them. Filsinger, another Hive employee must simply be greedy - you start to wonder how many bad apples this organisation hires: there were two in their first episode and now the organisation returns and once again it's an inside job! They also sacked Beckett and Ballantyne was murdered, SACROS was lost, and yet Dent's still in charge! He must have had a very good record prior or friends in very high places! Let's hope he long ago fired his Human Resources Manager… As for Filsinger's woman, Lisa, the same must be true and she was motivated purely by greed, though neither seems to have any violence in them. It's not that villains in the series tend to have complex or sympathetic backstories, but the last couple have (Roland Blatty and General Russell), so in comparison these three come across as most simplistic and dull, there's never really any sense of a great threat, and they're even stupid enough to discuss their plans right above the lift shaft where they've just incarcerated Ros and Carly. They're reminiscent of the kind of male/female duos the team have encountered many a time, but we don't really know who they are or why Dan is working with them and they never do anything spectacular.
We do apparently get a little extra detail on certain things, such as extrapolating that The Hive must have begun fifteen years before the episode since they say it's only been broken into once in fifteen years, unless they meant they'd been using the building as HQ for only that time. That was fun, since we know exactly who broke in: Ed, back in the very first episode, though they sadly never allude to it directly and Ed never goes near the place this time. It's odd, because Ros claims she couldn't break into the place when she's trying to compliment Carly for her ingenuity, but she did, she was there helping Ed do it, in any case, but I suppose she was just trying to get on her good side. I got the impression Dent may have been a family man with children as he asks Ros if she had children and when she replies in the negative tells her she's got all this to come, then, in a way that sounds a bit regretful or world-weary, although he never came across like that before, but it's hard to know how much to read into a character we know so little about. I'm just glad they brought back the very same actor almost four years later, and filmed at the very same Hive building (though they'd used its interiors and other parts of it for other episodes since then), with those highly recognisable twin towers at the front. Adam's office could even have been Beckett's, who knows!
There is time for something meaningful, when Ros tells Carly that life isn't a game and you can't just put another coin in the slot, something so relevant to today where we're bombarded with fantasy so much we can almost forget the harsh reality of the world and life. She tells a story of how when she was a teenager she caused a fake road accident that all the emergency services got called out to and because of this a fire near her house didn't get attended to as quickly as it would have. The impact of the story is lost a little by being watered down, as she says it put three people in hospital for a week due to her actions, but no one died. It's almost as if they toned it down thinking of the young audience watching, but if someone had died that would have had a bigger impact, and it's not like we don't see people being killed all the time on the series! But that's only 'fantasy violence,' whereas this is close to home domestic tragedy, and coupled with the identifying of ordinary life through showing town houses and shopping centres, maybe it was too close to home, they thought? Again, it's a good story and close to making an impact, as it clearly did on the young Ros, realising that actions have consequences and life is precious, but too often the episode is a touch tame. Beckett says standards at The Hive aren't what they were, but he could have been talking about the series itself.
As if in continuation of where the previous episode left our characters, Beckett wears the same dark blue shirt, this time with a purple and red tie, while Ros is in her blue suit jacket which may be the same one she wore in 'Blackout,' with black trousers. It's a very light grey sort of blue, so I wouldn't have thought they chose it to say something about the pair of them as they may have done with the green last time, but who knows, they aren't avoiding each other, so that's good. Ed continues to be especially nondescript, matching Houghton's portrayal, with mostly black, but also a tan jacket which is a bit like the one McLachlan wore as part of his 'change of image' to impress Alex. To be honest I prefer the basic wardrobe he's worn so far more than the semi-colourful jogging outfits of Season 3! But there wasn't a lot of colour unless you count the yellow or green lighting at The Hive, and the red when the alarms go off. I wasn't enamoured with the hopping rabbit animation Carly uses to foul up the systems, nor her amazing catch-all gadget that can do anything, though in its defence it wasn't used much. It's fun to hear the excitement about recordable DVD and the amount of Gigabytes, though of course that (and the monitors), really dates it like nothing else. Most fun is seeing Dan playing on an original Game Boy (though I think Game Boy Color had been released by then), even if it makes sounds no Game Boy would! Then again, in this world a laser can be spinning wildly and come to a stop exactly on a wire to burn through it and send the lift crashing down - a lift that was jerking down dramatically all the while, too!
**
A dubious accolade goes to this episode, that of worst episode of the series. It's all relative, of course, and as with all of 'BUGS' this is still watchable for the characters, and some more enjoyable connections to its own history, as has been the theme of the first couple of episodes in its final year. This is almost a sequel to those, or a continuation, in theme at least, as Ros' youthful past with her activist associates and reminders of her slightly misspent youth, were explored, and now she comes up against a girl gifted in gadgetry and electronics as she was, and must take her in hand. From that perspective it has the bones of a great story as Ros is just the kind of well-adjusted role model a girl of fourteen would need (other than her meltdown at Beckett for Terry's death at the end of 'Sacrifice To Science'). Child actors sometimes work, sometimes don't, but in this case Carly is too good - she really does come across as a frustrated and obnoxious young teen, which doesn't make the experience of being around her much fun. At heart she's a good girl, as evidenced in the way she really wants to impress Ros, despite claiming her new temporary guardian 'hates' her, expressing herself in typical extremes, and she comes good in the end, rescuing Ros in the nick of time. But just as Ros wants to kill her at first, that's the 'charm' of the episode that bleeds into the audience.
It's just not a very good setup, having this child tech genius break into The Hive because you're set up to expect something terrible - terrorists, hardened criminals, who knows? And I understand that sometimes subverting expectations can be a good thing (it was clever how Ros wasn't actually kidnapped at the end of 'Renegades,' for example), but it has to turn into a more compelling direction than what you were expecting, not less. This smacks of trying to appeal to the young audience which I was part of back when it was first shown, but I don't imagine I particularly cared for the story at the time. Not that I felt it was the worst episode, but as with much of Season 4 it wasn't a standout and in subsequent viewings I've come to understand what was wrong. As well as making room for a teenage girl to be involved in many scenes, the stakes are incredibly low until much later when Ros is in danger of being crushed by a falling lift, a scene that was very well done, and one of the highlights as we see Carly use her device to overload the system keeping the door shut, Ed pulls Ros out just as the heavy weight comes crashing to the floor in a pile of metal parts and dust - it really sold the split second escape, but it needed to because there wasn't anything of the usual tension and hairsbreadth avoidance of hazards in the episode, with not a single explosion, countdown or death to its name.
To what do we owe the drama? A burial mask made of gold and precious stones, which is quite an impersonal thing, even going by some of the occasional impersonal stakes we've seen before. And somehow, the threat of other countries refusing to lend Britain its treasures for exhibitions isn't a very galvanising issue to get behind! Minister Quayle, almost apoplectic with fury at Jan and her team hints that the whole lot of them will be booted out unless they recover this prize, claiming the country will become a cultural leper colony, forgetting perhaps about his own cultural heritage, but then that's always the way, isn't it: we 'never' have enough artefacts of our own to show off, all of which demonstrates that the only real thing at stake is the saving of Bureau 2's face, something that isn't even played up as much as it might have been when you consider that not only do they bring back Beckett's old organisation, The Hive, but his old boss, too, Mr. Dent! The extent of Dent's sardonic comments on this is asking if Beckett's made a go of this Bureau 2, when you'd think he'd be the type to be very competitive between organisations. It's great to see the old boy again, naturally, one of the brilliant things about this season (and it wouldn't be the last we'd see of him, either), and I'd love to know what prompted them to go right back to the very first episode, 'Out of The Hive' for their inspiration - it's Colin Brake and Stuart Doughty again, writing the third episode in a row, which I don't think had ever been done before.
To recap we have an annoying teenaged girl, the stakes are low, The Hive's not used in quite the spirit we might have expected, but there's another big mark against the episode: its insistence on adding domestic ordinary locations, so far removed from the traditional high-tech companies and buildings we'd see before, or even the lavish historic structures. We see a bit of both with The Hive being the very epitome of a 'BUGS' building, and Mr. Dent's residence and the museum are certainly high class, but do we really need to see the dreary reality of housing estates and shopping centres - granted, it's great fun to see Tandys used as the place where Carly secretes the mask (I thought it was Dixons at first, Carly calling it the Discount Electrical Store, but no, it was even older than that!), but this level of mundanity is far from what I expect in the series and was a trend that would continue in other episodes to come. It's a touch uncomfortable with the characters, too, as obviously Ros and Beckett are a little awkward, though I was surprised how quickly they got back to some form of normality. It's not like Beckett has the chance for a quiet chat, and Ros isn't sobbing and blubbing any more or acting the goat, and they talk quite civilly on the radio when he's trying to reach Ed, which was a good way of breaking the ice, and Ros has her hands full with Carly which was a distraction for her, but it's nice to see her attend his little housewarming at the old Bureau of Weapons safe house Alex found for Beckett to live in, so we even get a traditional comedy ending where they're laughing together over an old report on the young Ros, but we also can't say things are hunky-dory, and it would be strange if they were considering the melodramatics that had occurred.
No, the real weirdness is in Alex' shameless flirting with new Hive recruit Adam Mosby, the man we love to hate (though he wouldn't be the only recurring character this year to come under that category - there's still Christa to come!), which seems to come out of nowhere. It's as if they really wanted something for Alex to do, and since they'd broken up Ros and Beckett, why not cause a little trouble between Ed and Alex. Soapy, or what! Adam comes across as a bit bland, but then in Alex' defence, so does the new Ed, despite leading the Bureau now. Actually, when it comes down to it, Beckett just has more presence and so he never feels like he's really working under Ed, they're just working together in the episode's other good sequence - the triple bluff of the mask coming into the country. Ed gets to do his best Tom Cruise impression as he recreates the 'Mission: Impossible' trick of descending from the ceiling in a harness to test Ros' security precautions, and he's also the one that gets to have the fight with one of the villains, but otherwise he's quite muted. He seems to forget his martial arts ability, something he's done before, when fighting this Dan, who is clearly the muscle of the trio of villainy, as you can't see Filsinger or Nightingale getting involved in anything physical - even the moment Jan 'steps' in and trips the woman in the car park looked a bit weak. Action is difficult in heels!
The villains were another weak part, we really never learn anything about them. Filsinger, another Hive employee must simply be greedy - you start to wonder how many bad apples this organisation hires: there were two in their first episode and now the organisation returns and once again it's an inside job! They also sacked Beckett and Ballantyne was murdered, SACROS was lost, and yet Dent's still in charge! He must have had a very good record prior or friends in very high places! Let's hope he long ago fired his Human Resources Manager… As for Filsinger's woman, Lisa, the same must be true and she was motivated purely by greed, though neither seems to have any violence in them. It's not that villains in the series tend to have complex or sympathetic backstories, but the last couple have (Roland Blatty and General Russell), so in comparison these three come across as most simplistic and dull, there's never really any sense of a great threat, and they're even stupid enough to discuss their plans right above the lift shaft where they've just incarcerated Ros and Carly. They're reminiscent of the kind of male/female duos the team have encountered many a time, but we don't really know who they are or why Dan is working with them and they never do anything spectacular.
We do apparently get a little extra detail on certain things, such as extrapolating that The Hive must have begun fifteen years before the episode since they say it's only been broken into once in fifteen years, unless they meant they'd been using the building as HQ for only that time. That was fun, since we know exactly who broke in: Ed, back in the very first episode, though they sadly never allude to it directly and Ed never goes near the place this time. It's odd, because Ros claims she couldn't break into the place when she's trying to compliment Carly for her ingenuity, but she did, she was there helping Ed do it, in any case, but I suppose she was just trying to get on her good side. I got the impression Dent may have been a family man with children as he asks Ros if she had children and when she replies in the negative tells her she's got all this to come, then, in a way that sounds a bit regretful or world-weary, although he never came across like that before, but it's hard to know how much to read into a character we know so little about. I'm just glad they brought back the very same actor almost four years later, and filmed at the very same Hive building (though they'd used its interiors and other parts of it for other episodes since then), with those highly recognisable twin towers at the front. Adam's office could even have been Beckett's, who knows!
There is time for something meaningful, when Ros tells Carly that life isn't a game and you can't just put another coin in the slot, something so relevant to today where we're bombarded with fantasy so much we can almost forget the harsh reality of the world and life. She tells a story of how when she was a teenager she caused a fake road accident that all the emergency services got called out to and because of this a fire near her house didn't get attended to as quickly as it would have. The impact of the story is lost a little by being watered down, as she says it put three people in hospital for a week due to her actions, but no one died. It's almost as if they toned it down thinking of the young audience watching, but if someone had died that would have had a bigger impact, and it's not like we don't see people being killed all the time on the series! But that's only 'fantasy violence,' whereas this is close to home domestic tragedy, and coupled with the identifying of ordinary life through showing town houses and shopping centres, maybe it was too close to home, they thought? Again, it's a good story and close to making an impact, as it clearly did on the young Ros, realising that actions have consequences and life is precious, but too often the episode is a touch tame. Beckett says standards at The Hive aren't what they were, but he could have been talking about the series itself.
As if in continuation of where the previous episode left our characters, Beckett wears the same dark blue shirt, this time with a purple and red tie, while Ros is in her blue suit jacket which may be the same one she wore in 'Blackout,' with black trousers. It's a very light grey sort of blue, so I wouldn't have thought they chose it to say something about the pair of them as they may have done with the green last time, but who knows, they aren't avoiding each other, so that's good. Ed continues to be especially nondescript, matching Houghton's portrayal, with mostly black, but also a tan jacket which is a bit like the one McLachlan wore as part of his 'change of image' to impress Alex. To be honest I prefer the basic wardrobe he's worn so far more than the semi-colourful jogging outfits of Season 3! But there wasn't a lot of colour unless you count the yellow or green lighting at The Hive, and the red when the alarms go off. I wasn't enamoured with the hopping rabbit animation Carly uses to foul up the systems, nor her amazing catch-all gadget that can do anything, though in its defence it wasn't used much. It's fun to hear the excitement about recordable DVD and the amount of Gigabytes, though of course that (and the monitors), really dates it like nothing else. Most fun is seeing Dan playing on an original Game Boy (though I think Game Boy Color had been released by then), even if it makes sounds no Game Boy would! Then again, in this world a laser can be spinning wildly and come to a stop exactly on a wire to burn through it and send the lift crashing down - a lift that was jerking down dramatically all the while, too!
**
Outcast
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Outcast)
Earth-based story alert! This time the conceit is that Sheppard's Father has just died of a heart attack so he takes a trip back home with Ronon coming along for moral support, but the real story is that some of Patrick Wallace's research on nanites (he was the guy with the daughter who wanted to save her from a terminal illness using the little blighters), has been continued and a girl involved wants Sheppard's help. I was hoping this didn't degenerate into an excuse to do something wacky like bring John's Dad back from the dead, but fortunately that never happened and the two plots had basically no connection with each other except for John's ex-wife doing him a favour by looking into Project Archetype, classified research on the subject (why he can't get the clearance himself, I'm not sure). We also meet his brother Dave, clearly their parents weren't very imaginary when it came to names, and the guy (who I assume was the elder), has a beef about money, believing the prodigal son is going to come back and challenge the will where he's expecting to be rewarded for all the time he spent taking care of the family business and staying under their Father's thumb. It's nice that there was some kind of reconciliation at the end, but the whole thing didn't have a lot of bearing on anything.
It was one of those episodes where there isn't a very cohesive idea so they keep bouncing from one thing to the next: first it's about Sheppard Sr.'s wake, then it's 'Frankenstein,' with the object of this experiment being a Replicator who's gone on the run to avoid being shut down in the wake of Wallace's company being sorted out by the authorities, and it shifts more decidedly into 'Terminator' territory, with the guy moving like one, acting like one, chunks of metal being blasted out of him like one, and culminating in a Rep-on-Rep fight that made me think I was watching 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles' (even though this was a year or two before that series came out). It also features a kind of B-team of 'Stargate' people - not to denigrate Sheppard or Ronon, of course, they're most definitely A-team members, but out of their element in a way, on Earth, and handed Bates, a guy who used to work at Atlantis early in the series (I knew I recognised his face), and Dr. Lee, who's one holiday in three years had been interrupted, not to mention the ex-wife, and it very much felt like the subs were in action, especially as we barely even see McKay or Carter, and Teyla doesn't even appear! Will everyone get an episode exclusively with Sheppard - they've done it with McKay and now Ronon… And I wonder what it would be like if Lee, McKay, Carter and Zelenka all put their heads together, that's something I'd like to see. I feel like there's no technological problem they couldn't crack!
And talking of cracking, there's a lot of cracking heads in this one with the rogue Replicator killing various personnel, including his maker, but of course when it comes to Sheppard and Ronon he only throws them hard into things so they can keep coming back. It's a trope, I know, but maybe they should have been almost killed, at least! Ronon was good, and the action scenes were spectacular as they chase down this hand-pumping running machine and end up fighting him, so top marks for the directing of the stunt scenes. But even the ending with the girl who turns out to be a Replicator reminded me of something else: just like the holographic Moriarty in 'TNG' she's allowed to think she's been given freedom by putting her in a simulation, so the number of derivative parts of the story was high. I'll give them the idea of burning up the other Replicator by beaming him into the atmosphere, but even there they basically reference the way to defeat Terminators is to bury them in molten material. Ronon has that out of place humour as he attends the wake and is of course a great friend for Sheppard to have around, but once again I wonder who the partner would have been if he'd not been added to the cast: Teyla perhaps? It makes more sense to have buddy-buddy stories, but once again it makes you realise how Teyla has too often been lost as a character.
I could also cite instances where it's so obvious what's going to happen, such as when Dr. Poole whacks Bates round the head to go in alone and try and talk down his creation, and equally that said creation was going to then kill him for his trouble. But the main issue is lack of focus, hopping from one thing to another without really giving an idea time to breathe and for exploration, an issue I'd level at 'Stargate' generally. It's nice to see one of the cast contributing to a story ('Based Upon an Episode Concept by Joe Flanigan'), just as other cast members have done in 'SG-1,' it shows an engagement and an insider perspective on their character which can work, and I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with the story on that count, just the script execution being too choppy. The main thing I get from this, other than useful building on Sheppard's family and personal life, is that Dr. Lee really should have been made a main character in one or other of the 'Stargate' shows.
**
Earth-based story alert! This time the conceit is that Sheppard's Father has just died of a heart attack so he takes a trip back home with Ronon coming along for moral support, but the real story is that some of Patrick Wallace's research on nanites (he was the guy with the daughter who wanted to save her from a terminal illness using the little blighters), has been continued and a girl involved wants Sheppard's help. I was hoping this didn't degenerate into an excuse to do something wacky like bring John's Dad back from the dead, but fortunately that never happened and the two plots had basically no connection with each other except for John's ex-wife doing him a favour by looking into Project Archetype, classified research on the subject (why he can't get the clearance himself, I'm not sure). We also meet his brother Dave, clearly their parents weren't very imaginary when it came to names, and the guy (who I assume was the elder), has a beef about money, believing the prodigal son is going to come back and challenge the will where he's expecting to be rewarded for all the time he spent taking care of the family business and staying under their Father's thumb. It's nice that there was some kind of reconciliation at the end, but the whole thing didn't have a lot of bearing on anything.
It was one of those episodes where there isn't a very cohesive idea so they keep bouncing from one thing to the next: first it's about Sheppard Sr.'s wake, then it's 'Frankenstein,' with the object of this experiment being a Replicator who's gone on the run to avoid being shut down in the wake of Wallace's company being sorted out by the authorities, and it shifts more decidedly into 'Terminator' territory, with the guy moving like one, acting like one, chunks of metal being blasted out of him like one, and culminating in a Rep-on-Rep fight that made me think I was watching 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles' (even though this was a year or two before that series came out). It also features a kind of B-team of 'Stargate' people - not to denigrate Sheppard or Ronon, of course, they're most definitely A-team members, but out of their element in a way, on Earth, and handed Bates, a guy who used to work at Atlantis early in the series (I knew I recognised his face), and Dr. Lee, who's one holiday in three years had been interrupted, not to mention the ex-wife, and it very much felt like the subs were in action, especially as we barely even see McKay or Carter, and Teyla doesn't even appear! Will everyone get an episode exclusively with Sheppard - they've done it with McKay and now Ronon… And I wonder what it would be like if Lee, McKay, Carter and Zelenka all put their heads together, that's something I'd like to see. I feel like there's no technological problem they couldn't crack!
And talking of cracking, there's a lot of cracking heads in this one with the rogue Replicator killing various personnel, including his maker, but of course when it comes to Sheppard and Ronon he only throws them hard into things so they can keep coming back. It's a trope, I know, but maybe they should have been almost killed, at least! Ronon was good, and the action scenes were spectacular as they chase down this hand-pumping running machine and end up fighting him, so top marks for the directing of the stunt scenes. But even the ending with the girl who turns out to be a Replicator reminded me of something else: just like the holographic Moriarty in 'TNG' she's allowed to think she's been given freedom by putting her in a simulation, so the number of derivative parts of the story was high. I'll give them the idea of burning up the other Replicator by beaming him into the atmosphere, but even there they basically reference the way to defeat Terminators is to bury them in molten material. Ronon has that out of place humour as he attends the wake and is of course a great friend for Sheppard to have around, but once again I wonder who the partner would have been if he'd not been added to the cast: Teyla perhaps? It makes more sense to have buddy-buddy stories, but once again it makes you realise how Teyla has too often been lost as a character.
I could also cite instances where it's so obvious what's going to happen, such as when Dr. Poole whacks Bates round the head to go in alone and try and talk down his creation, and equally that said creation was going to then kill him for his trouble. But the main issue is lack of focus, hopping from one thing to another without really giving an idea time to breathe and for exploration, an issue I'd level at 'Stargate' generally. It's nice to see one of the cast contributing to a story ('Based Upon an Episode Concept by Joe Flanigan'), just as other cast members have done in 'SG-1,' it shows an engagement and an insider perspective on their character which can work, and I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with the story on that count, just the script execution being too choppy. The main thing I get from this, other than useful building on Sheppard's family and personal life, is that Dr. Lee really should have been made a main character in one or other of the 'Stargate' shows.
**
Friday, 10 June 2022
Sacrifice To Science
DVD, BUGS S4 (Sacrifice To Science)
There are things you forget about an episode when you haven't seen it in years, and that's the situation I found myself in while watching this one - some of them are small, such as what General Russell's plan was and how he was actually aligned with Sunstorm's goals, or that Ros' flat being left in disarray was not her doing, as originally appeared, but Hawkes and his associate, Dawson, Russell's loyal followers. But some of those things are gigantic: I refer specifically to the reason for the rift between Ros and Beckett. I'd completely forgotten the origin of that, assuming it was the fact Ros hadn't trusted Beckett and the team enough to let them into her little Sunstorm gang - we hear her side of the story this time, that she didn't want to put their lives in danger, rather than she didn't trust them to keep their mouths shut and get such secret sources as Dr. Corcoran's assistant, Karen, killed. It's a shaky excuse when you consider the Bureau have always been about putting their lives on the line, as have Ed, Beckett and Ros in their old freelance days, and it also suggests she didn't mind putting Terry's on the line, logically! That clearly wouldn't be the case, as we'd find out at the end, but you get a strong impression that Terry was the real driving force behind their resolution not to involve 'outside' forces, even ones Ros has spent her life relying on. He has obvious intentions towards her, ideas above his station ("You and me against the world," as it used to be), as we see, even though she rebuffs such advances, and you can see there is a conflict of interests there for him, and an inner conflict of loyalties for Ros.
She'd known Terry since she was sixteen so it's been a long association, and it almost sounds like their exploits as teens were the preparation for the role she'd play with her friends as… Gizmos? That's a difficult thing to work out and may be something to do with the end of their association as we learn she and Terry had a 'blazing row' the last time they met, which is the excuse he used for synthesising Beckett's voice in order to gain admittance to her flat quickly, so perhaps that was about the goals and direction of Gizmos as a business, since we know Beckett dealt with Terry before and expected him to be there when he rings up in 'Out of The Hive.' So the whole business of who owns Gizmos and when could be a big factor in the interactions of Ros and Terry. Here's a thought: if they were ever to do a prequel of 'BUGS' they could make it about these two in the early years working together. Forget 'Terry and June,' this would be 'Terry and Ros'! Going back to my earlier point about things I'd forgotten, the rather huge thing that's dropped by the end is the way Ros reacts to Terry's death, perhaps motivated by her own confused emotions and guilt at an inability to keep him safe, and possibly favouring Beckett over him by the fact she wanted to keep him out of the dangerous mission while being happy to be working with Terry on the same. In other words, I had it in mind it was the pigheadedness of Beckett and his unwillingness to forgive and forget that caused the rift, when in fact it was actually Ros senselessly blaming him for Terry's death.
This makes it harder to accept, since Beckett being an idiot and standing on his high horse out of jealousy or haughtiness that he wasn't trusted is totally in character, and I'm sure Ros would have been able to talk him round eventually, but for her to become completely cold to him, chuck him out on his ear, and be entirely removed, is much harder to accept, especially from the way Terry was presented. It's not like we really got to know him, certainly not in the way Ros does. I accept she feels very strong loyalty to him because Jaye Griffiths sells it so believably, but for the sake of sympathy we needed to know and believe in Terry ourselves, though then the danger is that Beckett will look unsympathetic and perhaps there isn't enough subtlety and nuance in the series' writing to be able to pull that kind of delicate balance off. Maybe Stephen Gallagher could have worked it out, but perhaps even he would have struggled when it was playing against the series' strengths of friendship, cooperation and upbeat confidence, and the combined powers of two stalwarts, Colin Brake and Stuart Doughty weren't quite enough. There is subtlety, but it may be something I'm reading into rather than deliberate, and it comes back to the colour schemes they wear: Beckett's in his familiar green shirt, probably his defining colour, while Ros starts out in her all black attire, transitioning to a white suit, or maybe cream or light grey. In between she wears a hospital gown, the only colour visible the same shade of green in a top underneath, and the only sliver we see is where her heart would be, as if showing where her heart is regarding Beckett - aah… But then at the end she's in the same green top and we see it all, like she's taken Beckett's colour and as he sadly leaves their flat he's now in a dark blue shirt as if he can't wear green now Ros has rejected him.
As I say, I could be reading into it what I want to see, or what's relevant to the story, but it really stuck out to me, and even if I am always conscious of the colours they use for characters, it seemed especially carefully thought through. On the opposite end of the scale we have Ed and Alex who both have quite nondescript clothing, Ed in particular mainly going with a blank white t-shirt that matches Steven Houghton's blank portrayal of Ed. If he wasn't too bad in the first part, in this part he has absolutely none of the weight of Ed, none of the charm or the connection to the other characters - it's all for Griffiths to sell her delight and joy at seeing her old friend again at the hospital, and she does it admirably. But Ed really comes across as a bit slow and completely without charisma. And the fact that he's going to remain the Bureau Chief is another strike against him and good sense! Beckett's back, and I understand you don't reinstate him right away, and there's certainly potential to be mined in Ed as the leader of the group, especially now that Ros and Beckett are going to be strained with each other, as well as giving Ed his own storyline as he deals with being the boss, but I don't recall things working well in that line and in a way it would make sense for Jan to simply give them their assignments as things settle and work themselves out, though in practice the first real downer of an ending would set the tone for the rest of the year, tragically. Interestingly, Ed actually wears a light green polo shirt at the end, as if green is the colour of command, but he doesn't have the strength of position to have a strong shade of it!
Ed's only real change as Chief is to start wearing a suit, but then that wouldn't have worked out too well for him if he'd been wearing it earlier when he had the fight in the underground control section. He does get to pull off a callback to a fight Ed had in the past (a couple of times!), where he pushed a villain into electrical machinery and they were electrocuted, most memorably with Hex in 'A Sporting Chance,' but also in Season 2, I seem to remember. After the first part with it's emphasis on the series' past, this part doesn't have anywhere near as much, though there are a few references, such as Beckett correcting Terry when he says he knows about his army background ("Navy!"), or Beckett reminding Ed of his history of insubordination when he hears Ed's the new Chief, and obviously we hear a touch more about Terry and Ros' past. The triumph of the episode is that they're still able to give us the kind of impressive action scenes and building story that we expect, before the budget disappeared, and they must have put a lot into these first two episodes to ensure viewers came back for more. The flashback sequence, stylishly shot in black and white with echoey dialogue, is the standout in the episode - not only are we getting a fascinating style of delivery, but we're also getting to see exactly what happened immediately before our team arrived at the flat, and subsequently as Ros and Terry are pursued.
They're still able to carry off great stunts as we see her Cortina fly dramatically into the river from which it would later be fished out, and there's also a terrific explosion as Hawkes and his mate, both working for Russell, blast Sunstorm's cabin to bits, Beckett forced to get himself, Terry and Ros out through very practical means (chopping a hole in the floor!). Low-tech can be just as useful sometimes. The finale must also be mentioned with its huge screen depicting the tone of characters and the final reckoning as Russell tries to make a statement on TV with the murder by virus means of Yerevenkian, the man responsible for the death of his family, while he tries to make amends at the International Commission for Ethics in Science. The accusatory face of Russell looms over the small, conciliatory shape of Yerevenkian, and this whole sequence was expertly contrived as the overblown emotions and bitterness erupts, magnified in this large arena and its vast screen. Very well directed, it must be said. The virus itself was something that had already been explored before, way back in 'Assassins Inc' as a particular ethnic group was targeted. Just as in that, specific people or types could be programmed into the virus, and it's a horrific idea that isn't as well implemented here as it was then. Its effect is also lessened by the fact that Russell is willing to alter his plan when he's informed the virus he's set up will kill everyone in the building, himself included, but it also shows him to be more unstable.
Mrs. Gardner, Jan's boss, makes another appearance (apparently there is something higher than a Code Red file: a Code Red Plus, which Jan gives Gardner!), but I wonder if her close ties to the General, and failure to act sooner on Jan's recommendation were responsible for the fact she never comes back. Another of Jan's associates would return later in the year: Simon, an old friend outside of the services, much like Sir Anthony Fairchild, except this man isn't even connected to the government. It seems astonishing that he'd break professional confidence and discuss a former patient, even if he had doubts about his viability at the time (back in 1995 when our team was just starting out!), that were overruled and have now come back to bite those in charge, and it was even in a public place, not like he and Jan were completely confidential! At least Jan was included well, it's nice to see her out of the office (even if she is officially out of office!), going around in distress to various people, fighting to stop the Bureau being permanently shut down. And for all that Ed is being quite a poor version of himself, he at least isn't watered down in the action stakes now - in Season 3, too many times Alex was there to take over his action man heroics, fighting the bad guy, making chase, etc, but Ed is the one who fights Dawson at the end, or pursues the villains when they steal Yerevenkian's luggage for a DNA sample. He uses the same dark Toyota Land Cruiser as in the previous episode, so it's good to see some continuity.
I wasn't so sure on the continuity of Beckett's car - he seemed to be driving the blue Grand Cherokee Jeep early on, but later it's definitely become green, unless it's just the lighting of the episode causing that effect. Maybe there never was a blue version and it's all just been how it came across on camera? How the series comes across on camera is also continuing to be preserved this season, with an emphasis on village pubs, churchyards and the old architecture and grassy court at the hospital all going against the sterile, glossy, glassy image of the 'BUGS' buildings of yore. Perhaps this was all part of the idea to make it more grounded and less sci-fi as the previous year had succeeded in doing and gained some of the viewers that Season 2's more cold, technological outlook had lost? Or maybe they just wanted new locations to shoot in, or ones where the budget could be better spread? If so, I wonder if they had any scenes that were cut from the final running, because Angela is credited, yet I don't remember her appearing - in 'Absent Friends' she was on the switchboard when Beckett tried to call in, refusing him clearance, but there weren't any scenes like that this time. It could have been an oversight in the credits, just copying the majority of them over to the second episode, but then there were new additions, too…
You do sometimes wonder about the logic of certain choices made by the characters. I'm thinking specifically about Sunstorm and its members' lack of sense in piling up explosive crates right next to their headquarters, not to mention Chris and Morag running outside with only handguns to protect them, seriously underestimating the kind of firepower they were going to come up against, though credit goes to Hawkes and Dawson for their tactical attack on the location, first gunning down the defenders with sniper rifles, then pinning down the remainder and blasting them out, the camera work fluidly plotting their twin assault, though they're not very good at making sure the job was done! Just as in the flashback sequence where they go away satisfied with a job well done when in reality Terry and Ros were able to swim away, they later fail to check their enemies were actually destroyed. I assume they're military men, part of Russell's old unit, maybe they even served him when the virus killed those people on the base in 1995? They clearly have a dedicated and zealous motivation behind their actions, but we never really learn anything about them. The same could be said for Chris and Morag who die quite quickly as if it was convenient to remove them with so many other characters around, though Morag at least gets to fall memorably into the river.
It's a sad end to what was a story that largely worked, cleverly working with the painted-into-a-corner end that 'Renegades' left them in, creating a good story and characters and managing to involve all of the main cast. The money was still on screen, the history and style of the series was still there, and in a way this episode marks the last 'proper' episode of the series, the last that was connected to McLachlan's Ed (even if Houghton took over), and the last where the team were in harmony, all good mates together, with only the villains there to provide them with conflict. From now on it would be a generally negative atmosphere which didn't do the series any good and I'm sure contributed to the BBC not seeing any need for more. So sad they chose to leave the characters in such a state, and unnecessary as Ros and Beckett being good mates again, back to working with the team and being even more concerned about each other in the face of their closeness, would have provided plenty of drama. But the worst was yet to come, and his name begins with 'A.'
***
There are things you forget about an episode when you haven't seen it in years, and that's the situation I found myself in while watching this one - some of them are small, such as what General Russell's plan was and how he was actually aligned with Sunstorm's goals, or that Ros' flat being left in disarray was not her doing, as originally appeared, but Hawkes and his associate, Dawson, Russell's loyal followers. But some of those things are gigantic: I refer specifically to the reason for the rift between Ros and Beckett. I'd completely forgotten the origin of that, assuming it was the fact Ros hadn't trusted Beckett and the team enough to let them into her little Sunstorm gang - we hear her side of the story this time, that she didn't want to put their lives in danger, rather than she didn't trust them to keep their mouths shut and get such secret sources as Dr. Corcoran's assistant, Karen, killed. It's a shaky excuse when you consider the Bureau have always been about putting their lives on the line, as have Ed, Beckett and Ros in their old freelance days, and it also suggests she didn't mind putting Terry's on the line, logically! That clearly wouldn't be the case, as we'd find out at the end, but you get a strong impression that Terry was the real driving force behind their resolution not to involve 'outside' forces, even ones Ros has spent her life relying on. He has obvious intentions towards her, ideas above his station ("You and me against the world," as it used to be), as we see, even though she rebuffs such advances, and you can see there is a conflict of interests there for him, and an inner conflict of loyalties for Ros.
She'd known Terry since she was sixteen so it's been a long association, and it almost sounds like their exploits as teens were the preparation for the role she'd play with her friends as… Gizmos? That's a difficult thing to work out and may be something to do with the end of their association as we learn she and Terry had a 'blazing row' the last time they met, which is the excuse he used for synthesising Beckett's voice in order to gain admittance to her flat quickly, so perhaps that was about the goals and direction of Gizmos as a business, since we know Beckett dealt with Terry before and expected him to be there when he rings up in 'Out of The Hive.' So the whole business of who owns Gizmos and when could be a big factor in the interactions of Ros and Terry. Here's a thought: if they were ever to do a prequel of 'BUGS' they could make it about these two in the early years working together. Forget 'Terry and June,' this would be 'Terry and Ros'! Going back to my earlier point about things I'd forgotten, the rather huge thing that's dropped by the end is the way Ros reacts to Terry's death, perhaps motivated by her own confused emotions and guilt at an inability to keep him safe, and possibly favouring Beckett over him by the fact she wanted to keep him out of the dangerous mission while being happy to be working with Terry on the same. In other words, I had it in mind it was the pigheadedness of Beckett and his unwillingness to forgive and forget that caused the rift, when in fact it was actually Ros senselessly blaming him for Terry's death.
This makes it harder to accept, since Beckett being an idiot and standing on his high horse out of jealousy or haughtiness that he wasn't trusted is totally in character, and I'm sure Ros would have been able to talk him round eventually, but for her to become completely cold to him, chuck him out on his ear, and be entirely removed, is much harder to accept, especially from the way Terry was presented. It's not like we really got to know him, certainly not in the way Ros does. I accept she feels very strong loyalty to him because Jaye Griffiths sells it so believably, but for the sake of sympathy we needed to know and believe in Terry ourselves, though then the danger is that Beckett will look unsympathetic and perhaps there isn't enough subtlety and nuance in the series' writing to be able to pull that kind of delicate balance off. Maybe Stephen Gallagher could have worked it out, but perhaps even he would have struggled when it was playing against the series' strengths of friendship, cooperation and upbeat confidence, and the combined powers of two stalwarts, Colin Brake and Stuart Doughty weren't quite enough. There is subtlety, but it may be something I'm reading into rather than deliberate, and it comes back to the colour schemes they wear: Beckett's in his familiar green shirt, probably his defining colour, while Ros starts out in her all black attire, transitioning to a white suit, or maybe cream or light grey. In between she wears a hospital gown, the only colour visible the same shade of green in a top underneath, and the only sliver we see is where her heart would be, as if showing where her heart is regarding Beckett - aah… But then at the end she's in the same green top and we see it all, like she's taken Beckett's colour and as he sadly leaves their flat he's now in a dark blue shirt as if he can't wear green now Ros has rejected him.
As I say, I could be reading into it what I want to see, or what's relevant to the story, but it really stuck out to me, and even if I am always conscious of the colours they use for characters, it seemed especially carefully thought through. On the opposite end of the scale we have Ed and Alex who both have quite nondescript clothing, Ed in particular mainly going with a blank white t-shirt that matches Steven Houghton's blank portrayal of Ed. If he wasn't too bad in the first part, in this part he has absolutely none of the weight of Ed, none of the charm or the connection to the other characters - it's all for Griffiths to sell her delight and joy at seeing her old friend again at the hospital, and she does it admirably. But Ed really comes across as a bit slow and completely without charisma. And the fact that he's going to remain the Bureau Chief is another strike against him and good sense! Beckett's back, and I understand you don't reinstate him right away, and there's certainly potential to be mined in Ed as the leader of the group, especially now that Ros and Beckett are going to be strained with each other, as well as giving Ed his own storyline as he deals with being the boss, but I don't recall things working well in that line and in a way it would make sense for Jan to simply give them their assignments as things settle and work themselves out, though in practice the first real downer of an ending would set the tone for the rest of the year, tragically. Interestingly, Ed actually wears a light green polo shirt at the end, as if green is the colour of command, but he doesn't have the strength of position to have a strong shade of it!
Ed's only real change as Chief is to start wearing a suit, but then that wouldn't have worked out too well for him if he'd been wearing it earlier when he had the fight in the underground control section. He does get to pull off a callback to a fight Ed had in the past (a couple of times!), where he pushed a villain into electrical machinery and they were electrocuted, most memorably with Hex in 'A Sporting Chance,' but also in Season 2, I seem to remember. After the first part with it's emphasis on the series' past, this part doesn't have anywhere near as much, though there are a few references, such as Beckett correcting Terry when he says he knows about his army background ("Navy!"), or Beckett reminding Ed of his history of insubordination when he hears Ed's the new Chief, and obviously we hear a touch more about Terry and Ros' past. The triumph of the episode is that they're still able to give us the kind of impressive action scenes and building story that we expect, before the budget disappeared, and they must have put a lot into these first two episodes to ensure viewers came back for more. The flashback sequence, stylishly shot in black and white with echoey dialogue, is the standout in the episode - not only are we getting a fascinating style of delivery, but we're also getting to see exactly what happened immediately before our team arrived at the flat, and subsequently as Ros and Terry are pursued.
They're still able to carry off great stunts as we see her Cortina fly dramatically into the river from which it would later be fished out, and there's also a terrific explosion as Hawkes and his mate, both working for Russell, blast Sunstorm's cabin to bits, Beckett forced to get himself, Terry and Ros out through very practical means (chopping a hole in the floor!). Low-tech can be just as useful sometimes. The finale must also be mentioned with its huge screen depicting the tone of characters and the final reckoning as Russell tries to make a statement on TV with the murder by virus means of Yerevenkian, the man responsible for the death of his family, while he tries to make amends at the International Commission for Ethics in Science. The accusatory face of Russell looms over the small, conciliatory shape of Yerevenkian, and this whole sequence was expertly contrived as the overblown emotions and bitterness erupts, magnified in this large arena and its vast screen. Very well directed, it must be said. The virus itself was something that had already been explored before, way back in 'Assassins Inc' as a particular ethnic group was targeted. Just as in that, specific people or types could be programmed into the virus, and it's a horrific idea that isn't as well implemented here as it was then. Its effect is also lessened by the fact that Russell is willing to alter his plan when he's informed the virus he's set up will kill everyone in the building, himself included, but it also shows him to be more unstable.
Mrs. Gardner, Jan's boss, makes another appearance (apparently there is something higher than a Code Red file: a Code Red Plus, which Jan gives Gardner!), but I wonder if her close ties to the General, and failure to act sooner on Jan's recommendation were responsible for the fact she never comes back. Another of Jan's associates would return later in the year: Simon, an old friend outside of the services, much like Sir Anthony Fairchild, except this man isn't even connected to the government. It seems astonishing that he'd break professional confidence and discuss a former patient, even if he had doubts about his viability at the time (back in 1995 when our team was just starting out!), that were overruled and have now come back to bite those in charge, and it was even in a public place, not like he and Jan were completely confidential! At least Jan was included well, it's nice to see her out of the office (even if she is officially out of office!), going around in distress to various people, fighting to stop the Bureau being permanently shut down. And for all that Ed is being quite a poor version of himself, he at least isn't watered down in the action stakes now - in Season 3, too many times Alex was there to take over his action man heroics, fighting the bad guy, making chase, etc, but Ed is the one who fights Dawson at the end, or pursues the villains when they steal Yerevenkian's luggage for a DNA sample. He uses the same dark Toyota Land Cruiser as in the previous episode, so it's good to see some continuity.
I wasn't so sure on the continuity of Beckett's car - he seemed to be driving the blue Grand Cherokee Jeep early on, but later it's definitely become green, unless it's just the lighting of the episode causing that effect. Maybe there never was a blue version and it's all just been how it came across on camera? How the series comes across on camera is also continuing to be preserved this season, with an emphasis on village pubs, churchyards and the old architecture and grassy court at the hospital all going against the sterile, glossy, glassy image of the 'BUGS' buildings of yore. Perhaps this was all part of the idea to make it more grounded and less sci-fi as the previous year had succeeded in doing and gained some of the viewers that Season 2's more cold, technological outlook had lost? Or maybe they just wanted new locations to shoot in, or ones where the budget could be better spread? If so, I wonder if they had any scenes that were cut from the final running, because Angela is credited, yet I don't remember her appearing - in 'Absent Friends' she was on the switchboard when Beckett tried to call in, refusing him clearance, but there weren't any scenes like that this time. It could have been an oversight in the credits, just copying the majority of them over to the second episode, but then there were new additions, too…
You do sometimes wonder about the logic of certain choices made by the characters. I'm thinking specifically about Sunstorm and its members' lack of sense in piling up explosive crates right next to their headquarters, not to mention Chris and Morag running outside with only handguns to protect them, seriously underestimating the kind of firepower they were going to come up against, though credit goes to Hawkes and Dawson for their tactical attack on the location, first gunning down the defenders with sniper rifles, then pinning down the remainder and blasting them out, the camera work fluidly plotting their twin assault, though they're not very good at making sure the job was done! Just as in the flashback sequence where they go away satisfied with a job well done when in reality Terry and Ros were able to swim away, they later fail to check their enemies were actually destroyed. I assume they're military men, part of Russell's old unit, maybe they even served him when the virus killed those people on the base in 1995? They clearly have a dedicated and zealous motivation behind their actions, but we never really learn anything about them. The same could be said for Chris and Morag who die quite quickly as if it was convenient to remove them with so many other characters around, though Morag at least gets to fall memorably into the river.
It's a sad end to what was a story that largely worked, cleverly working with the painted-into-a-corner end that 'Renegades' left them in, creating a good story and characters and managing to involve all of the main cast. The money was still on screen, the history and style of the series was still there, and in a way this episode marks the last 'proper' episode of the series, the last that was connected to McLachlan's Ed (even if Houghton took over), and the last where the team were in harmony, all good mates together, with only the villains there to provide them with conflict. From now on it would be a generally negative atmosphere which didn't do the series any good and I'm sure contributed to the BBC not seeing any need for more. So sad they chose to leave the characters in such a state, and unnecessary as Ros and Beckett being good mates again, back to working with the team and being even more concerned about each other in the face of their closeness, would have provided plenty of drama. But the worst was yet to come, and his name begins with 'A.'
***
Harmony
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Harmony)
I thought I recognised the little brat, and I did. Jodelle Ferland played a similar little brat in a couple of episodes of 'Smallville,' a few years before she played another little brat here. Before, she was terrorising Lana Lang, this time she helps recreate a version of 'Three Men and A Baby' with Sheppard and McKay as the two stooges tasked with babysitting her on a 'vital' trek into the forest so she can prove her right to be Queen. Yeah, it's not the best setup, but in some ways that was the best part of the episode, the actual legwork isn't so much fun as the setup implies. It's very odd to have an episode entirely on an alien planet with only two cast members - there isn't a single scene on Atlantis or with any of the other main cast members, so I wonder if this was part of a cost-cutting directive as sometimes happens later in a series' run. They can film this one at the same time as another episode featuring the other characters and they therefore save time, and with this being almost exclusively set out in the familiar forest location, there wasn't the need to budget for guests or elaborate sets, though they come close with the throne room at the end, a crowd of subjects, and the amusing court painting of the final attack where John is cowering behind the brave Rodney and his 'beast' drones.
The attack on the Genii wasn't bad and was probably the highlight of the episode, but really nothing happens other than bickering with this annoying and precocious child. It doesn't make any sense to make the youngest Queen, and it's all very contrived. Usually the bickering between Sheppard and McKay is quite fun, but when it's all the time for the space of an episode instead of being interspersed with other characters doing things, it does get a little less fun, as does the over-used trope of an imperious Queen who someone has to protect and convey somewhere (I always think most of 'Precious Cargo' on 'Enterprise' or 'Elaan of Troyius' on 'TOS,' but most sci-fi series do the story at least once), and she turns out to be badly behaved and highly irritating, finally creating some kind of bond when the hero's goodness forces him to save her life even after she's been so horrible. There's nothing new here, and the Genii have never been good foes, so the only lesson I can see is to be careful when dealing with women that want you to do a little task for them, don't be wooed into letting your guard down!
Sheppard seems to strike against the divine right of monarchs to rule, so I suppose he doesn't know the Bible verse about God placing people in positions of power, but I wouldn't expect anything less from this sort of sci-fi. You'd think the series being set in Canada where they recognise the Queen of England as their own, with Canadian actors, there'd be a little more respect, and it didn't help watching it just after our Queen's Platinum Jubilee! I don't not like the episode, I just don't like it, or not not like certain parts of it… What I'm trying to say is that it's most definitely the weakest of what has been another consistently strong season, has no bearing on anything, but worse, doesn't do anything interesting with the characters - the last episode was also quite contained, but also one of the best because we had all kinds of good things. With this, the best that can be said is that it's nicely filmed in those many outdoor scenes. I wonder if Ferland grew up to be a 'proper' actress instead of these pouty, petulant irritants?
**
I thought I recognised the little brat, and I did. Jodelle Ferland played a similar little brat in a couple of episodes of 'Smallville,' a few years before she played another little brat here. Before, she was terrorising Lana Lang, this time she helps recreate a version of 'Three Men and A Baby' with Sheppard and McKay as the two stooges tasked with babysitting her on a 'vital' trek into the forest so she can prove her right to be Queen. Yeah, it's not the best setup, but in some ways that was the best part of the episode, the actual legwork isn't so much fun as the setup implies. It's very odd to have an episode entirely on an alien planet with only two cast members - there isn't a single scene on Atlantis or with any of the other main cast members, so I wonder if this was part of a cost-cutting directive as sometimes happens later in a series' run. They can film this one at the same time as another episode featuring the other characters and they therefore save time, and with this being almost exclusively set out in the familiar forest location, there wasn't the need to budget for guests or elaborate sets, though they come close with the throne room at the end, a crowd of subjects, and the amusing court painting of the final attack where John is cowering behind the brave Rodney and his 'beast' drones.
The attack on the Genii wasn't bad and was probably the highlight of the episode, but really nothing happens other than bickering with this annoying and precocious child. It doesn't make any sense to make the youngest Queen, and it's all very contrived. Usually the bickering between Sheppard and McKay is quite fun, but when it's all the time for the space of an episode instead of being interspersed with other characters doing things, it does get a little less fun, as does the over-used trope of an imperious Queen who someone has to protect and convey somewhere (I always think most of 'Precious Cargo' on 'Enterprise' or 'Elaan of Troyius' on 'TOS,' but most sci-fi series do the story at least once), and she turns out to be badly behaved and highly irritating, finally creating some kind of bond when the hero's goodness forces him to save her life even after she's been so horrible. There's nothing new here, and the Genii have never been good foes, so the only lesson I can see is to be careful when dealing with women that want you to do a little task for them, don't be wooed into letting your guard down!
Sheppard seems to strike against the divine right of monarchs to rule, so I suppose he doesn't know the Bible verse about God placing people in positions of power, but I wouldn't expect anything less from this sort of sci-fi. You'd think the series being set in Canada where they recognise the Queen of England as their own, with Canadian actors, there'd be a little more respect, and it didn't help watching it just after our Queen's Platinum Jubilee! I don't not like the episode, I just don't like it, or not not like certain parts of it… What I'm trying to say is that it's most definitely the weakest of what has been another consistently strong season, has no bearing on anything, but worse, doesn't do anything interesting with the characters - the last episode was also quite contained, but also one of the best because we had all kinds of good things. With this, the best that can be said is that it's nicely filmed in those many outdoor scenes. I wonder if Ferland grew up to be a 'proper' actress instead of these pouty, petulant irritants?
**
Absent Friends
DVD, BUGS S4 (Absent Friends)
Season 4. The infamous Season 4. The derided Season 4. But other than a change in Eds you wouldn't know it from this first episode which plunges straight into a hunt for the missing Ros and charts the emotional twists and turns as first one lead, then another all come to nothing, until Beckett is the only believer left that Ros is still alive, and even he begins to doubt himself. This is absolutely his episode, everything revolves around him or his absence and Jesse Birdsall is given free rein to emote to the max, something I'm pretty fed up with in modern TV ('Star Trek: Discovery' being the worst example), but in this case it is different. Beckett had just found joy and now he's had it ripped out from under him barely two seconds later, it's understandable that he'd react in the extreme, and it's certainly in character - in fact he's always been the most sensitive of the original trio (and indeed, the extended Bureau cast who joined in Season 3, too), even from the very first episode he was almost crying over his mate Ballantyne's disappearance, and ever since he's been hotheaded and quick to jump to extremes. That's probably one of the main reasons we like him so much because he counterpoints the others, especially Ros, who has always been so calm, the brain, to Beckett's heart and Ed's brawn.
I can't go long without mentioning Ed. This was the most contentious issue with 'BUGS' continuing for a surprise fourth year, when it had only been planned to run to three: Craig McLachlan, the Australian who'd been the first character we met at the beginning of the series, 'Out of The Hive,' introduced as a skilled helicopter pilot and a crack shot, had left the series leaving a gaping void in the trio. Why, I've never learned, and even on meeting the actor in 2007 it wasn't really a situation where you could have a proper conversation and ask such a question, but I do know it had been coming for a while as he was originally supposed to exit at the start of Season 3, but fortunately changed his mind before that was set in stone. Perhaps he wanted to go back to Oz, maybe he wanted to branch out into other things and felt constrained in a continuing series, I don't know? The fact is he left, taking with him a large portion of the series' humour and joie de vivre. The writers were therefore put into a serious dilemma: should they write Ed out, get rid of him in some way, either temporarily or permanently, or recast and keep the momentum of the story going regardless. They chose the latter option, likely due to being written into a corner by the cliffhanger ending that may well have saved the series, but also meant it would have been very tricky to leave out Ed - he was hardly going to abandon the quest for a missing Ros, was he!
Yet that is pretty much what happens in this opening episode, and unfortunately it doesn't do Steven Houghton any favours in the likability stakes. He was already replacing a much-loved character who'd been such an integral part of a series that had been around for three years, but he isn't written terribly well when it would have been in the series' interests to put him in as positive a light as possible so audiences would more easily accept him. It makes sense that the first we see of him he's in the familiar position of flying a helicopter as he and Beckett try to track Ros' car, there's no confusion over this being Ed, other than the fact he has a Northern English accent rather than an Australian one. No offence, but they and the image they conjure up couldn't be more different if they'd had him speaking in a Saudi Arabian accent! It wouldn't have killed Houghton to at least attempt to portray Ed with the same background as he had before, surely all actors like a challenge (Ed always did!). It's difficult to grasp the logic behind the choices here, whether they hired him simply as a suitable type to do action scenes, or whether the actor himself wanted to differentiate himself from his predecessor's portrayal, we'll probably never know. And of course it's hard coming into a well established series and taking on the mantle of an existing character, but at least make some effort not to be so different!
Whether this was the writers putting a positive spin on it, or not, in one interview, someone (possibly Colin Brake, the writer of this episode), suggested that in genre TV the replacement of actors wasn't out of the ordinary and is all just part of the make-believe and would be accepted by the audience and they'd move on, but it is hard to agree with that idea, especially as it makes sci-fi/fantasy seem like it doesn't have very discerning followers, they'll just go with whatever, it doesn't really matter. Of course at the time we did, there was no alternative, but it hasn't helped the season's reputation at all, though it would be far from the only questionable choice they made with it, as the negative outlook would be a major factor in losing the fun and pleasure of the series. But at this stage we hadn't got to that yet and this follows on directly from the closing scene of 'Renegades,' even to the extent that we see a very brief shot of McLachlan from behind, though it is a blink and you'll miss it as he's the last to come up the stairs at Ros' swanky apartment, but he is there! The introduction of Houghton actually comes before we meet him in the flesh aboard the helicopter as they cleverly recreated the photo of the team with their medals where Ros is ripped off, and Houghton's grinning face has been inserted, so I thought that was some good attention to detail.
Detail is one of this episode's strong points as so many references to the series' past are thrown in (Ros' love of cricket; Beckett reading her file before he met her; maybe even Chris' riot foam gun was a reminder of the glue gun that halted Jean-Daniel in his tracks?), and logically, too, not gratuitously, that it's truly a joy to see. Colin Brake wrote many of the series' episodes and was also Script Coordinator or something, so he was an old hand on the series, and I suppose with the other major departure of the year, in Stephen Gallagher (they lost one Stephen and gained another Steven!), the best writer of the series, and co-consultant, Brake was the most experienced and knowledgable hand on the tiller. Gallagher's loss would be felt as keenly as McLachlan's (at least we know why he left - to work on his own project, 'Oktober'), but not in this opening episode which moves very well and doesn't give us time to take in the changes because it continues the pace of the series we knew and constantly reminds us of what went before, as well as a few things to add to the mix. It shows they still had the old magic at play, even if it does rely on the goodwill generated from the past, and especially the situation they're left in by the previous episode. But they fully jump into that and this is why this is still 'BUGS' doing what it did best, throwing the characters into action. There are some red herrings chucked in, with them wondering if Ros could have been kidnapped by someone they'd come up against since their Bureau began, and Jan suggesting it could be someone from their freelance days.
Immediately it makes regular viewers salivate on the possibilities of past villains returning, and while it doesn't fulfil those expectations, it cleverly subverts them, while at the same time not stinting on the past: Channing Hardy returns for a couple of scenes which are both top drawer for entertainment value, whether it's Beckett venting his frustrations on his former rival and manhandling him around the lobby of a hotel, or later when Channing gets him out of prison and he has to eat humble pie, and especially once Beckett's sheepishly apologised Channing shows there're no hard feelings and wishes him all the best in the hunt for Ros. I'd have liked if he'd offered to put all his business resources into finding her, but maybe it wouldn't have been appropriate and in any case Channing would have been led to the same conclusion as everyone else: that she was dead. The other major callback for aficionados is the previously unseen Terry Williams, who existed only as a name that Beckett had dealt with at Gizmos back in his Hive days (does Gizmos belong to him, why was he gone when Ros took over, did she sell it back to him? So many questions). Again, I'd have liked them to have spoken about how Terry helped him in the past, it's obvious it was only a passing thing, maybe they only met one time years ago, but connecting back to the very first episode was absolute joy, although when I first saw this episode it didn't mean anything to me because I hadn't seen the first year, it's only with repeated viewings on DVD I came to realise how much series continuity there was, and made me care about it even more.
We hear all kinds of facts, some of which we knew, such as Ros' penchant for 'phone freaking' and other misdemeanours in her younger days, and we get a better sense of what those wild times consisted of, meeting a couple of those friends, but also hearing that her activism wasn't against technology, but the uses it was put to. I can't help thinking Ros would have a lot to say about tech in today's world so it's a shame we don't have her perspective now. We find out she was engaged to Terry once, and has four cars, though no mention is made of the Grand Cherokee Jeep which Beckett drives in this episode, so maybe she gave it to him seeing as she has so much cash after her successful business dealings. It doesn't look good for Ros when blood matching her DNA is found in a bullet-riddled car in what must be the Thames (Canary Wharf Tower is in the background after taking a break for a year! - also returning is the glass tunnel seen in 'Out of The Hive' I believe, and maybe 'A Sporting Chance'), but no one watching really thought Ros wasn't going to come back. For one thing she's in the new opening titles, complete with a final image of all five characters, including Houghton's Ed, laughing together, so that rather blew the surprise, and even if it doesn't ruin the fact she's alive, it does show everything alright again at some point. Then again, with this season maybe we needed a sense of hope for that considering how unhappy it would be for the most part! Nice to see Jan Harvey and Paula Hunt bumped up to the titles instead of just a post-titles credit, and they picked some good scenes for the compilation, but it was never going to replace that familiar opening that had served for three years.
I've always been a bit confused, because I was so sure I'd seen the final year in widescreen when it was on TV, but then the DVD set was in the same fullscreen ratio as the first three were, so now I don't know if I misremembered or if it was only the final three episodes, which were delayed until the following year, 1999, but surely they'd all have been shot in the same format at the time, wouldn't they? It doesn't really matter, but it would have been nice to have seen some of the series in the new viewing format that was just coming in at that time, a time of transition that 'BUGS' didn't quite straddle - had it continued I'm sure it would have been dealing with ideas such as the Millennium Bug (in fact I may have read that in an interview as one of the potential stories had the series kept going), and technology being ever more involved in our lives they'd always have had concepts to play with. Here, the issue is biological weaponry, and its control by the military - I liked the rationale for Ros' disappearance that Sunstorm, the group she'd co-founded years before, couldn't trust anyone since the enemy they were up against was so powerful they were above suspicion. It is hard to accept that Ros wouldn't just involve her friends and colleagues in this desperate quest as it's exactly the kind of thing they'd been fighting against forever, and even an enemy within the government, but we have to assume Terry was very persuasive, even if he does come across as quite an unassuming personality.
It makes sense to some extent, because if Ros had let in Beckett, she'd have to have included Ed and Alex, then Jan would have found out and probably she'd have got to a point where she'd have to account to her superiors, and that was a risk that couldn't be run. We do get to see what appears to be Jan's boss, or one of them, in Mrs. Gardner, and this being a two-parter to kick off the year, just as Season 2 and 3 did, many of the characters, including her, would return in part two. One character would return a couple more times, however, and that was the surprise addition of Coral Henderson, Ros' dear old Mother! Going by the early years when there was very little attempt made to explore the characters other than the essence of friendship between them, featuring family members would have been very strange, but by this point they'd certainly gone into them a lot more and this wasn't such a strange departure, nor would it be the only parent of a main character we'd see. It does seem very harsh of Ros not to at least let her own Mother know she was okay instead of faking her death and a classified memorial service being held - it must have been very hard for Mrs. Henderson. It was a lovely moment in the episode when we see the service and Jan gives a touching speech about her former agent - a great touch was the camera panning down a wall of plaques, showing one for Roland Blatty as well as Ros. I didn't recognise any other names, maybe they should have used Roland's Bureau associates who were also Cyberaxed, but then again it opens up the world so you wonder about other agents you've never heard of before and shows that there's plenty that goes on we're not privy to.
While many of the hallmarks of the series are present, such as Beckett driving a Jeep, the Canary Wharf Tower, Ed flying a helicopter, explosions, countdowns, etc, not everything is the same. For example, the clothing, which I've been following throughout since it was often an attempt to make the series bright and attractive through colour, isn't in this episode. Beckett still wears his bright green shirt and tie, but other than that everyone is in quite nondescript outfits, with Ed in a sort of outdoor hiking coat and Ros dressed in black, perhaps to represent the black ops situation she's in. Beckett goes through several outfits, at one point in a white shirt with black waistcoat when he's desperately seeking any shred of evidence to confirm Ros is still alive, intransigent to the idea she could be dead - seeing things in black and white, in other words. But there is still colour injected into the episode through the blue neons of the Bureau 2 offices and especially in the red and yellow neons used to illuminate Felton Down, the suspicious research facility that is developing the weapons Sunstorm is out to prevent falling into the hands of General Russell (played by Robert Addie who died from cancer in 2003). I don't know if they had a mandate to try and make the series look a little more grown up, I don't remember how the look played into the season so it'll be interesting to see on that score.
One thing that was uneven was Ed. As I said, he's introduced sensibly in his native habitat, but then he's the one who notices the voice chip in Ros' phone that gained the intruder access - it's not the sort of thing Ed, far from a techy mind, would have noticed, it's like they just needed more for him to do. And in the scene where Beckett had to escape the memorial and he follows him out, he's entirely unsympathetic in a way you can't imagine Ed being. Sure, he might have faced 'facts' more easily than Beckett, but he'd have been a bit more subtle in how he voiced it. In a way, the fact that Houghton doesn't feel that close to Beckett only emphasises his loneliness, so inadvertently it works, but to Ed's detriment. The hardest thing to accept is when Jan promotes him to Bureau Chief with Beckett's stormed off and resignation. It does make a kind of sense Jan would want someone she knows, and also the freelance sensibilities of these people is why she wanted them in the first place, plus this is a chance for Ed to accept more responsibility and grow - he did say he'd changed his image for Alex in 'Renegades,' so this is a step further, and I'd have loved to see how McLachlan would have played it, but it's hard to put Houghton into such an un-Ed-like position when he's already struggling to convince. But there really isn't anyone else because they hadn't developed other recurring characters, so the choices are Ed or Alex, who was just a filing clerk turned junior agent, so that would have been even more of a leap! Maybe they could have brought someone in from the Hive or SSD?
Where I do buy Ed (other than he gets to drive the Land Cruiser, though a darker colour than McLachlan's vehicle, as well as asking if he gets a pay-rise!), is logging a route plan, as being a pilot he was very much used to the rules of the air, so though he'd not usually be the one to play things by the book, in this case it does make sense, though of course in this instance it proves to be his downfall - Beckett's following the Sunstorm van, but the Sunstorm van is following Ed and Alex as they transport the Felton Down material, so it wasn't going to end well. It's good that we have Chris and Morag, who are hard faced enough to seem like they would kill at a moment's notice, and also the wildcard of the guy that turns up to threaten Dr. Corcoran, adding new layers of trouble. But the core of the story was always Beckett's dogged search for Ros and his refusal to give up on her, while she squirms at having to make him believe she's gone, desperate to tell him, but torn between loyalties old and new. It's expertly drawn to the point where they finally meet in the midst of a hijacking, Ros speeding off while Beckett sinks to his knees crying her name. He’s cried that name many times, but never with a question mark at the end. All he knows is she's pretended to be dead, hasn’t tried to contact him, and now drives off with a man she was once engaged to. Of course Beckett can’t see the tears in her eyes as she speeds away... It is melodramatic, but it works to show how hurt he is and it's probably the most dramatic moment of the season and really makes you want to see part two for how they'll resolve such fraught troubles.
One moment that worked most logically was when Beckett tries to call in to the Bureau to patch him through to Ed and his code is refused. On the surface that seems very harsh that Jan would have struck him off so quickly and completely, but it could be tight protocols on such things were brought in after the events of the previous episode where Roland Blatty was able to use his old Bureau codes when they should have been suspended, so in my view this was a knee-jerk reaction to that breach of security, it's just unfortunate it hinders Beckett, and the Bureau's mission, but also serves him right to some degree for not keeping control of his fiery temper. It's also well worked the way Ros is kept out of the picture for so long - she doesn't appear (other than in the recap at the start), until thirty-three minutes in as the camera pulls back to see her sitting at a terminal next to the 'bad guys,' as they seem. She wouldn't be in the final episode much later on, either, but that wouldn't be quite as effective! But with a powerful cliffhanger that culminated in a strong buildup, this bucked the trend of what is universally acknowledged as the weakest year of the series, and showed what was possible, even if the cracks were already baked in to the pot. The last little bit of the end credits also marked a change with the series' website (www.bugs.co.uk), being advertised for the first time, signalling the continuing march of technology.
***
Season 4. The infamous Season 4. The derided Season 4. But other than a change in Eds you wouldn't know it from this first episode which plunges straight into a hunt for the missing Ros and charts the emotional twists and turns as first one lead, then another all come to nothing, until Beckett is the only believer left that Ros is still alive, and even he begins to doubt himself. This is absolutely his episode, everything revolves around him or his absence and Jesse Birdsall is given free rein to emote to the max, something I'm pretty fed up with in modern TV ('Star Trek: Discovery' being the worst example), but in this case it is different. Beckett had just found joy and now he's had it ripped out from under him barely two seconds later, it's understandable that he'd react in the extreme, and it's certainly in character - in fact he's always been the most sensitive of the original trio (and indeed, the extended Bureau cast who joined in Season 3, too), even from the very first episode he was almost crying over his mate Ballantyne's disappearance, and ever since he's been hotheaded and quick to jump to extremes. That's probably one of the main reasons we like him so much because he counterpoints the others, especially Ros, who has always been so calm, the brain, to Beckett's heart and Ed's brawn.
I can't go long without mentioning Ed. This was the most contentious issue with 'BUGS' continuing for a surprise fourth year, when it had only been planned to run to three: Craig McLachlan, the Australian who'd been the first character we met at the beginning of the series, 'Out of The Hive,' introduced as a skilled helicopter pilot and a crack shot, had left the series leaving a gaping void in the trio. Why, I've never learned, and even on meeting the actor in 2007 it wasn't really a situation where you could have a proper conversation and ask such a question, but I do know it had been coming for a while as he was originally supposed to exit at the start of Season 3, but fortunately changed his mind before that was set in stone. Perhaps he wanted to go back to Oz, maybe he wanted to branch out into other things and felt constrained in a continuing series, I don't know? The fact is he left, taking with him a large portion of the series' humour and joie de vivre. The writers were therefore put into a serious dilemma: should they write Ed out, get rid of him in some way, either temporarily or permanently, or recast and keep the momentum of the story going regardless. They chose the latter option, likely due to being written into a corner by the cliffhanger ending that may well have saved the series, but also meant it would have been very tricky to leave out Ed - he was hardly going to abandon the quest for a missing Ros, was he!
Yet that is pretty much what happens in this opening episode, and unfortunately it doesn't do Steven Houghton any favours in the likability stakes. He was already replacing a much-loved character who'd been such an integral part of a series that had been around for three years, but he isn't written terribly well when it would have been in the series' interests to put him in as positive a light as possible so audiences would more easily accept him. It makes sense that the first we see of him he's in the familiar position of flying a helicopter as he and Beckett try to track Ros' car, there's no confusion over this being Ed, other than the fact he has a Northern English accent rather than an Australian one. No offence, but they and the image they conjure up couldn't be more different if they'd had him speaking in a Saudi Arabian accent! It wouldn't have killed Houghton to at least attempt to portray Ed with the same background as he had before, surely all actors like a challenge (Ed always did!). It's difficult to grasp the logic behind the choices here, whether they hired him simply as a suitable type to do action scenes, or whether the actor himself wanted to differentiate himself from his predecessor's portrayal, we'll probably never know. And of course it's hard coming into a well established series and taking on the mantle of an existing character, but at least make some effort not to be so different!
Whether this was the writers putting a positive spin on it, or not, in one interview, someone (possibly Colin Brake, the writer of this episode), suggested that in genre TV the replacement of actors wasn't out of the ordinary and is all just part of the make-believe and would be accepted by the audience and they'd move on, but it is hard to agree with that idea, especially as it makes sci-fi/fantasy seem like it doesn't have very discerning followers, they'll just go with whatever, it doesn't really matter. Of course at the time we did, there was no alternative, but it hasn't helped the season's reputation at all, though it would be far from the only questionable choice they made with it, as the negative outlook would be a major factor in losing the fun and pleasure of the series. But at this stage we hadn't got to that yet and this follows on directly from the closing scene of 'Renegades,' even to the extent that we see a very brief shot of McLachlan from behind, though it is a blink and you'll miss it as he's the last to come up the stairs at Ros' swanky apartment, but he is there! The introduction of Houghton actually comes before we meet him in the flesh aboard the helicopter as they cleverly recreated the photo of the team with their medals where Ros is ripped off, and Houghton's grinning face has been inserted, so I thought that was some good attention to detail.
Detail is one of this episode's strong points as so many references to the series' past are thrown in (Ros' love of cricket; Beckett reading her file before he met her; maybe even Chris' riot foam gun was a reminder of the glue gun that halted Jean-Daniel in his tracks?), and logically, too, not gratuitously, that it's truly a joy to see. Colin Brake wrote many of the series' episodes and was also Script Coordinator or something, so he was an old hand on the series, and I suppose with the other major departure of the year, in Stephen Gallagher (they lost one Stephen and gained another Steven!), the best writer of the series, and co-consultant, Brake was the most experienced and knowledgable hand on the tiller. Gallagher's loss would be felt as keenly as McLachlan's (at least we know why he left - to work on his own project, 'Oktober'), but not in this opening episode which moves very well and doesn't give us time to take in the changes because it continues the pace of the series we knew and constantly reminds us of what went before, as well as a few things to add to the mix. It shows they still had the old magic at play, even if it does rely on the goodwill generated from the past, and especially the situation they're left in by the previous episode. But they fully jump into that and this is why this is still 'BUGS' doing what it did best, throwing the characters into action. There are some red herrings chucked in, with them wondering if Ros could have been kidnapped by someone they'd come up against since their Bureau began, and Jan suggesting it could be someone from their freelance days.
Immediately it makes regular viewers salivate on the possibilities of past villains returning, and while it doesn't fulfil those expectations, it cleverly subverts them, while at the same time not stinting on the past: Channing Hardy returns for a couple of scenes which are both top drawer for entertainment value, whether it's Beckett venting his frustrations on his former rival and manhandling him around the lobby of a hotel, or later when Channing gets him out of prison and he has to eat humble pie, and especially once Beckett's sheepishly apologised Channing shows there're no hard feelings and wishes him all the best in the hunt for Ros. I'd have liked if he'd offered to put all his business resources into finding her, but maybe it wouldn't have been appropriate and in any case Channing would have been led to the same conclusion as everyone else: that she was dead. The other major callback for aficionados is the previously unseen Terry Williams, who existed only as a name that Beckett had dealt with at Gizmos back in his Hive days (does Gizmos belong to him, why was he gone when Ros took over, did she sell it back to him? So many questions). Again, I'd have liked them to have spoken about how Terry helped him in the past, it's obvious it was only a passing thing, maybe they only met one time years ago, but connecting back to the very first episode was absolute joy, although when I first saw this episode it didn't mean anything to me because I hadn't seen the first year, it's only with repeated viewings on DVD I came to realise how much series continuity there was, and made me care about it even more.
We hear all kinds of facts, some of which we knew, such as Ros' penchant for 'phone freaking' and other misdemeanours in her younger days, and we get a better sense of what those wild times consisted of, meeting a couple of those friends, but also hearing that her activism wasn't against technology, but the uses it was put to. I can't help thinking Ros would have a lot to say about tech in today's world so it's a shame we don't have her perspective now. We find out she was engaged to Terry once, and has four cars, though no mention is made of the Grand Cherokee Jeep which Beckett drives in this episode, so maybe she gave it to him seeing as she has so much cash after her successful business dealings. It doesn't look good for Ros when blood matching her DNA is found in a bullet-riddled car in what must be the Thames (Canary Wharf Tower is in the background after taking a break for a year! - also returning is the glass tunnel seen in 'Out of The Hive' I believe, and maybe 'A Sporting Chance'), but no one watching really thought Ros wasn't going to come back. For one thing she's in the new opening titles, complete with a final image of all five characters, including Houghton's Ed, laughing together, so that rather blew the surprise, and even if it doesn't ruin the fact she's alive, it does show everything alright again at some point. Then again, with this season maybe we needed a sense of hope for that considering how unhappy it would be for the most part! Nice to see Jan Harvey and Paula Hunt bumped up to the titles instead of just a post-titles credit, and they picked some good scenes for the compilation, but it was never going to replace that familiar opening that had served for three years.
I've always been a bit confused, because I was so sure I'd seen the final year in widescreen when it was on TV, but then the DVD set was in the same fullscreen ratio as the first three were, so now I don't know if I misremembered or if it was only the final three episodes, which were delayed until the following year, 1999, but surely they'd all have been shot in the same format at the time, wouldn't they? It doesn't really matter, but it would have been nice to have seen some of the series in the new viewing format that was just coming in at that time, a time of transition that 'BUGS' didn't quite straddle - had it continued I'm sure it would have been dealing with ideas such as the Millennium Bug (in fact I may have read that in an interview as one of the potential stories had the series kept going), and technology being ever more involved in our lives they'd always have had concepts to play with. Here, the issue is biological weaponry, and its control by the military - I liked the rationale for Ros' disappearance that Sunstorm, the group she'd co-founded years before, couldn't trust anyone since the enemy they were up against was so powerful they were above suspicion. It is hard to accept that Ros wouldn't just involve her friends and colleagues in this desperate quest as it's exactly the kind of thing they'd been fighting against forever, and even an enemy within the government, but we have to assume Terry was very persuasive, even if he does come across as quite an unassuming personality.
It makes sense to some extent, because if Ros had let in Beckett, she'd have to have included Ed and Alex, then Jan would have found out and probably she'd have got to a point where she'd have to account to her superiors, and that was a risk that couldn't be run. We do get to see what appears to be Jan's boss, or one of them, in Mrs. Gardner, and this being a two-parter to kick off the year, just as Season 2 and 3 did, many of the characters, including her, would return in part two. One character would return a couple more times, however, and that was the surprise addition of Coral Henderson, Ros' dear old Mother! Going by the early years when there was very little attempt made to explore the characters other than the essence of friendship between them, featuring family members would have been very strange, but by this point they'd certainly gone into them a lot more and this wasn't such a strange departure, nor would it be the only parent of a main character we'd see. It does seem very harsh of Ros not to at least let her own Mother know she was okay instead of faking her death and a classified memorial service being held - it must have been very hard for Mrs. Henderson. It was a lovely moment in the episode when we see the service and Jan gives a touching speech about her former agent - a great touch was the camera panning down a wall of plaques, showing one for Roland Blatty as well as Ros. I didn't recognise any other names, maybe they should have used Roland's Bureau associates who were also Cyberaxed, but then again it opens up the world so you wonder about other agents you've never heard of before and shows that there's plenty that goes on we're not privy to.
While many of the hallmarks of the series are present, such as Beckett driving a Jeep, the Canary Wharf Tower, Ed flying a helicopter, explosions, countdowns, etc, not everything is the same. For example, the clothing, which I've been following throughout since it was often an attempt to make the series bright and attractive through colour, isn't in this episode. Beckett still wears his bright green shirt and tie, but other than that everyone is in quite nondescript outfits, with Ed in a sort of outdoor hiking coat and Ros dressed in black, perhaps to represent the black ops situation she's in. Beckett goes through several outfits, at one point in a white shirt with black waistcoat when he's desperately seeking any shred of evidence to confirm Ros is still alive, intransigent to the idea she could be dead - seeing things in black and white, in other words. But there is still colour injected into the episode through the blue neons of the Bureau 2 offices and especially in the red and yellow neons used to illuminate Felton Down, the suspicious research facility that is developing the weapons Sunstorm is out to prevent falling into the hands of General Russell (played by Robert Addie who died from cancer in 2003). I don't know if they had a mandate to try and make the series look a little more grown up, I don't remember how the look played into the season so it'll be interesting to see on that score.
One thing that was uneven was Ed. As I said, he's introduced sensibly in his native habitat, but then he's the one who notices the voice chip in Ros' phone that gained the intruder access - it's not the sort of thing Ed, far from a techy mind, would have noticed, it's like they just needed more for him to do. And in the scene where Beckett had to escape the memorial and he follows him out, he's entirely unsympathetic in a way you can't imagine Ed being. Sure, he might have faced 'facts' more easily than Beckett, but he'd have been a bit more subtle in how he voiced it. In a way, the fact that Houghton doesn't feel that close to Beckett only emphasises his loneliness, so inadvertently it works, but to Ed's detriment. The hardest thing to accept is when Jan promotes him to Bureau Chief with Beckett's stormed off and resignation. It does make a kind of sense Jan would want someone she knows, and also the freelance sensibilities of these people is why she wanted them in the first place, plus this is a chance for Ed to accept more responsibility and grow - he did say he'd changed his image for Alex in 'Renegades,' so this is a step further, and I'd have loved to see how McLachlan would have played it, but it's hard to put Houghton into such an un-Ed-like position when he's already struggling to convince. But there really isn't anyone else because they hadn't developed other recurring characters, so the choices are Ed or Alex, who was just a filing clerk turned junior agent, so that would have been even more of a leap! Maybe they could have brought someone in from the Hive or SSD?
Where I do buy Ed (other than he gets to drive the Land Cruiser, though a darker colour than McLachlan's vehicle, as well as asking if he gets a pay-rise!), is logging a route plan, as being a pilot he was very much used to the rules of the air, so though he'd not usually be the one to play things by the book, in this case it does make sense, though of course in this instance it proves to be his downfall - Beckett's following the Sunstorm van, but the Sunstorm van is following Ed and Alex as they transport the Felton Down material, so it wasn't going to end well. It's good that we have Chris and Morag, who are hard faced enough to seem like they would kill at a moment's notice, and also the wildcard of the guy that turns up to threaten Dr. Corcoran, adding new layers of trouble. But the core of the story was always Beckett's dogged search for Ros and his refusal to give up on her, while she squirms at having to make him believe she's gone, desperate to tell him, but torn between loyalties old and new. It's expertly drawn to the point where they finally meet in the midst of a hijacking, Ros speeding off while Beckett sinks to his knees crying her name. He’s cried that name many times, but never with a question mark at the end. All he knows is she's pretended to be dead, hasn’t tried to contact him, and now drives off with a man she was once engaged to. Of course Beckett can’t see the tears in her eyes as she speeds away... It is melodramatic, but it works to show how hurt he is and it's probably the most dramatic moment of the season and really makes you want to see part two for how they'll resolve such fraught troubles.
One moment that worked most logically was when Beckett tries to call in to the Bureau to patch him through to Ed and his code is refused. On the surface that seems very harsh that Jan would have struck him off so quickly and completely, but it could be tight protocols on such things were brought in after the events of the previous episode where Roland Blatty was able to use his old Bureau codes when they should have been suspended, so in my view this was a knee-jerk reaction to that breach of security, it's just unfortunate it hinders Beckett, and the Bureau's mission, but also serves him right to some degree for not keeping control of his fiery temper. It's also well worked the way Ros is kept out of the picture for so long - she doesn't appear (other than in the recap at the start), until thirty-three minutes in as the camera pulls back to see her sitting at a terminal next to the 'bad guys,' as they seem. She wouldn't be in the final episode much later on, either, but that wouldn't be quite as effective! But with a powerful cliffhanger that culminated in a strong buildup, this bucked the trend of what is universally acknowledged as the weakest year of the series, and showed what was possible, even if the cracks were already baked in to the pot. The last little bit of the end credits also marked a change with the series' website (www.bugs.co.uk), being advertised for the first time, signalling the continuing march of technology.
***
Quarantine
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Quarantine)
Reliable series, made me feel warm all the way through. It's not that it's some radical story (no, but ends with a Radic finale!), having people trapped in little groups or pairs is just one of those standard sci-fi (and probably just about every other genre, too!), scenarios used to get to know our characters. It's a disaster film, basically, except with characters you already care about instead of ones you're expected to. I'm always saying it's the character interactions that work best and should be built around on this series, not the mythology, the hardware or the science fiction, and so what could be better than trapping people in rooms and seeing what they do! We have McKay in the botany area with his girlfriend, Katie, whom he'd gone down to propose to; there's Ronon secured in the infirmary with Dr. Keller; Carter's trapped in a lift with Zelenka; and Sheppard's in some lab with Teyla. At first, as you'd expect, they're wondering what's going on, it's a lockdown, a virus outbreak, it won't be long before someone else does something about it - they all assume Rodney will solve the problem, which shows how much faith they have in his well-tested abilities, but he doesn't have a computer. That's the rule with this kind of story, you have mismatched people and everyone has to do something uncomfortable, and in the meantime the situation escalates…
It's classic, it's not about action, it's pure character interaction. So Rodney, sadly comes to believe he needs to improve himself before he commits to marriage instead of plunging in as he'd planned, Ronon and Keller have a meeting of minds, he helping her realise she's found a place to fit in here, Sheppard, being the man of action, decides to do something, and in the end it's Zelenka that has to solve the problem. I'd have thought Carter would have been a better fit in the tight air ducts that have to be crawled through to get to the power room in time to shut down the self-destruct - surely it should only be able to be shut down via security codes or it wouldn't be terribly effective? And what's with Major Lorne carrying around a chunk of C4 in his pocket - does he chew it like tobacco or is it that he never goes on duty without it! (Probably sleeps with one under his pillow, too!). Also, how come Sheppard and Lorne can pull the doors of Carter and Zelenka's stuck lift open from the outside, but they couldn't do it from the inside? Other than these few questions this was an enjoyable experience from beginning to, well, just about the end - it's a bit sad that Rodney backpedals as it would have been interesting to see him become a husband and how that would affect his current role, but for whatever reason, perhaps having time to think it over again, gave him enough pause to pause on the plan, perhaps permanently.
What did I love, though? Having disparate couples together and seeing what they have to say - when do Carter and Zelenka ever have scenes together? Or Ronon and Keller? McKay is probably too often the magic solution that can solve all, as long as he has time to bicker and look worried, finally exploding in self-aggrandisement, but this time he doesn't have his computer, or any computer, indeed, and of course he immediately starts to become hypochondriacal. Carter is a whizz herself so of course she could come up with a plan to get them out of the tiny lift except Radic manages to mess it up. The only surprise there was that she didn't cite some previous example of when she'd been trapped in similar situations as part of SG-1, but I was actually glad she didn't because you can't have her do that every single time, or it gets old. Sometimes, sure, but use the reminiscences sparingly, so well done for resisting the temptation here because I'm sure there have been plenty of times in the ten seasons she was in previous 'Stargate' that could have been mentioned!
I also loved seeing people take responsibility and choose a difficult or dangerous course of action because they had no way of knowing what anyone else was doing - Sheppard leads the way in that fabulous Jason Bourne-like climb up the outside of the main tower of Atlantis, complete with sweeping shots that make it look very real. But that's not to diminish the brave tasks taken on by Keller when she goes along with Ronon's idea to score an oxygen tank so they can knock another one into it and blast the door open (which only succeeds in wrecking the infirmary!), or Zelenka's crawl through the air ducts: dark, claustrophobic, and with the pressure all on him that the self-destruct could go off at any moment. It was a terrific scenario, very well played, and even the idea of what are the rest of the inhabitants of the city doing during this crisis, is shown by the control room doing whatever they can to help, even if it isn't much. It gives the world more reality instead of having us believe everything revolves around five or six people. It is a bottle episode, it isn't full of effects work or intricately choreographed fight scenes, but it is one of the best this season, with everyone having a meaningful moment (Teyla voices her doubts that she should go back to work and risk herself once she becomes a Mother, for example). It's the kind of episode you wouldn't see in TV any more because it doesn't 'go' anywhere, but in reality these kinds of personal stories are far more engaging. There's a reason people still go to the theatre where there are minimal special effects. The personal is just as important, if not more.
***
Reliable series, made me feel warm all the way through. It's not that it's some radical story (no, but ends with a Radic finale!), having people trapped in little groups or pairs is just one of those standard sci-fi (and probably just about every other genre, too!), scenarios used to get to know our characters. It's a disaster film, basically, except with characters you already care about instead of ones you're expected to. I'm always saying it's the character interactions that work best and should be built around on this series, not the mythology, the hardware or the science fiction, and so what could be better than trapping people in rooms and seeing what they do! We have McKay in the botany area with his girlfriend, Katie, whom he'd gone down to propose to; there's Ronon secured in the infirmary with Dr. Keller; Carter's trapped in a lift with Zelenka; and Sheppard's in some lab with Teyla. At first, as you'd expect, they're wondering what's going on, it's a lockdown, a virus outbreak, it won't be long before someone else does something about it - they all assume Rodney will solve the problem, which shows how much faith they have in his well-tested abilities, but he doesn't have a computer. That's the rule with this kind of story, you have mismatched people and everyone has to do something uncomfortable, and in the meantime the situation escalates…
It's classic, it's not about action, it's pure character interaction. So Rodney, sadly comes to believe he needs to improve himself before he commits to marriage instead of plunging in as he'd planned, Ronon and Keller have a meeting of minds, he helping her realise she's found a place to fit in here, Sheppard, being the man of action, decides to do something, and in the end it's Zelenka that has to solve the problem. I'd have thought Carter would have been a better fit in the tight air ducts that have to be crawled through to get to the power room in time to shut down the self-destruct - surely it should only be able to be shut down via security codes or it wouldn't be terribly effective? And what's with Major Lorne carrying around a chunk of C4 in his pocket - does he chew it like tobacco or is it that he never goes on duty without it! (Probably sleeps with one under his pillow, too!). Also, how come Sheppard and Lorne can pull the doors of Carter and Zelenka's stuck lift open from the outside, but they couldn't do it from the inside? Other than these few questions this was an enjoyable experience from beginning to, well, just about the end - it's a bit sad that Rodney backpedals as it would have been interesting to see him become a husband and how that would affect his current role, but for whatever reason, perhaps having time to think it over again, gave him enough pause to pause on the plan, perhaps permanently.
What did I love, though? Having disparate couples together and seeing what they have to say - when do Carter and Zelenka ever have scenes together? Or Ronon and Keller? McKay is probably too often the magic solution that can solve all, as long as he has time to bicker and look worried, finally exploding in self-aggrandisement, but this time he doesn't have his computer, or any computer, indeed, and of course he immediately starts to become hypochondriacal. Carter is a whizz herself so of course she could come up with a plan to get them out of the tiny lift except Radic manages to mess it up. The only surprise there was that she didn't cite some previous example of when she'd been trapped in similar situations as part of SG-1, but I was actually glad she didn't because you can't have her do that every single time, or it gets old. Sometimes, sure, but use the reminiscences sparingly, so well done for resisting the temptation here because I'm sure there have been plenty of times in the ten seasons she was in previous 'Stargate' that could have been mentioned!
I also loved seeing people take responsibility and choose a difficult or dangerous course of action because they had no way of knowing what anyone else was doing - Sheppard leads the way in that fabulous Jason Bourne-like climb up the outside of the main tower of Atlantis, complete with sweeping shots that make it look very real. But that's not to diminish the brave tasks taken on by Keller when she goes along with Ronon's idea to score an oxygen tank so they can knock another one into it and blast the door open (which only succeeds in wrecking the infirmary!), or Zelenka's crawl through the air ducts: dark, claustrophobic, and with the pressure all on him that the self-destruct could go off at any moment. It was a terrific scenario, very well played, and even the idea of what are the rest of the inhabitants of the city doing during this crisis, is shown by the control room doing whatever they can to help, even if it isn't much. It gives the world more reality instead of having us believe everything revolves around five or six people. It is a bottle episode, it isn't full of effects work or intricately choreographed fight scenes, but it is one of the best this season, with everyone having a meaningful moment (Teyla voices her doubts that she should go back to work and risk herself once she becomes a Mother, for example). It's the kind of episode you wouldn't see in TV any more because it doesn't 'go' anywhere, but in reality these kinds of personal stories are far more engaging. There's a reason people still go to the theatre where there are minimal special effects. The personal is just as important, if not more.
***
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