Hell and High Water

DVD, BUGS S4 (Hell and High Water)

Come hell or high water our Bureau 2 team will always get their man, or men, or men and a young lady, even if that means being helicoptered off to a remote oil rig out at sea. I couldn't remember if they actually filmed on location, and that's a tribute to the excellent scene-setting use of stock footage, because I realised we never do see them out on the exposed deck, only inside a helicopter or going down into the bowels of this Searanger IV satellite tracking station. It became very clear when I recognised the door to the Crew Quarters when Beckett investigates, and it reminded me of the ones at The Hive, and lo and behold, the room he walks into was just another redress of that familiar Hive office with the concave wall and its lines of small windows! That wasn't the only reuse of a location (we also see the actual Hive, but only from outside), the 'decommissioned area' that the baddies are searching looked very much like the water pumping station Mad Sally fell to her death inside (and which was very nearly Ros' fate here), which was also used in Season 2 with 'Blackout' as the site of the nuclear triggers. So they were once again including some 'BUGS' history, and these filming spots weren't the only connection: the biggest is a mention of Starshield, the deadly defence satellite system that caused so much trouble when Ed went into space at the start of Season 2 and almost blasted the space shuttle to destruction. This time it's another of the satellites, Warbird Alpha, whose orbit has decayed and unless it can be ordered to self-destruct it'll rain down on a city, obliterating it.

Good stakes, then. And there are plenty of threats, too, with one of those multiple villain scenarios that doesn't often occur, perhaps even in record-breaking numbers - you have McKormac, the steel-haired, worn-faced, leather jacket-wearing criminal responsible for the biggest spy scandal of the 1970s, his accomplice's children, Liam and Sarah, her two cronies aboard the rig, and a rogue element, Grey, an actual member of Searanger's crew who has no association with them, but wants to take advantage of the situation and blackmail his former commanding officer for a cool five million. In reality the only really dangerous offender is Grey, partly because they don't know he's a murdering psychopath and partly because he is one! He's able to catch both Ros and Beckett with their guards down, and if it hadn't been for a truly terrible aim, he might well have cleaved our Bureau Chief's head in two, or at the very least taken an arm off, with that axe his weapon of choice! Beckett's subdued earlier with better aim and a metal bar, and it doesn't take much for him to trick Ros into captivity as we see her concern for Nick override all others (not getting conned into an airtight room again, Ros - see 'Manna From Heaven'). That's one of the highlights of this episode because it shows that things are practically back to normal, they're happy and joking in each others' company, doing their usual teamwork to get themselves out of a tight spot and saving civilisation too. In short, things are positive again, though it wouldn't last…

The seventh villain is Adam, you know surname Mosby, new recruit at The Hive, Alex' no accounting for taste boyfriend. Okay, he's not really a villain (yet. Yet?), he's just mildly irritating and they don't play with the 'Ed jealousy' angle that seems to come into play to match the Ros and Beckett personal troubles here and there. In fact Alex is almost entirely off on her own little mini missions for the greater cause, which shows how far she's come from a simple filing clerk guarding the Bureau of Weapons' Code Reds, and also nice to see Paula Hunt given her own story to match her placement as one of the main cast in the opening titles (more on those later). She'd already been well established as a personality which loves going in undercover, doing it on a few occasions, and this time she doesn't even have Ed to hold her hand as she poses as a member of the Gas Board checking on a leak at McKormac and gang's apartment, sweeping the place with a camera and planting a bug. Certainly she was more successful than when she went to the villains' flat in 'Hollow Man' as a researcher asking questions, starting with, 'what's your name, Mr. North?' But only marginally as her bug is quickly discovered, putting the villains on the alert.

While Alex goes solo, we get to see a nice little mission for our original trio as the three of them head off to the rig to find out why it's incommunicado. Strangely they all wear red at different points of the episode: Ros starts off the trend with her red suit jacket, while Beckett's in his usual smart suit with blue shirt, reminding us of the primary colour days (and Ed's as bland and basic as ever in a white t-shirt - he obviously missed the memo), then for more serious work they wear more serious gear, Ros in a black tracksuit while Beckett's wearing a red shirt under a blue coat (and Ed's in a nondescript brown t-shirt), and then Ed also catches up by wearing a red jacket, almost as if he saw the pattern and didn't want to be left out! At least it did look a bit like the red jacket McLachlan's Ed had worn previously. Any resemblance to the days of yore for our team aren't the strongest thanks again to the very serious, slow way Houghton plays his scenes - he always seems to scrunch up his forehead with the effort of deep thought instead of throwing in quick wisecracks and enjoying himself, but if Ed doesn't enter into the spirit of it all, at least we're pleased to see Ros and Beckett getting along. Ed also seemed quite surprisingly brutal and ungentlemanly, chucking Sarah into the cage with so much force! The little lady never looks like much of a threat, either, and in the spot where we used to have an exciting fight scene when Ed and Alex confront Liam and Sarah at the industrial site back on land, all that happens is the villainous pair are tackled or knocked down very easily, making them look most inconsequential.

What I will give the episode credit for is in its use of all five main characters in good proportion. I could have wished Ed was more Ed-like and there was some classic banter between the three on the rig, but he breaks up the team when he stows away aboard the hijacked helicopter and ends up working with Jan and Alex while Ros and Beckett have their own problems, so the original team-up was short-lived, sadly. While Alex is used pretty well, Jan was also given her money's worth (or government bonds' worth), and this time she isn't placed in such an awkward-looking position as tripping an enemy up in her high heels, as in 'Girl Power,' instead using her brain and knocking McKormac off his feet in triumphant style, using his own dynamite against him in the boot of his car (and sending those bonds into air, much like the money going everywhere in 'Blackout'). The episode isn't exactly full of spectacle, the closest we come is the pickup smashing its way out of the Museum of Computer Technology, though even there you can see it's actually a plate of glass shot in front of the building so as not to destroy an actual glass door (similar to when they built a false front extension onto a building in 'Pulse' so the HGV could smash into it), and while the stock footage of the rig, sea and helicopter was atmospheric and effective, it still wasn't 'live,' so Jan's explosive finale redressed the balance a bit. I also liked that she works out the old circuit boards are actually an aerial map, and it was fun to have her drive the famous Jeep, too!

The time scale this episode is set in is once again laid down very firmly as 1998 since we know it was 1974 when McKormac and Vincenzi, his partner in crime, sold their secrets to the Balkans, and it's been twenty-five years since then, and… oh, okay, so maybe it's actually set in 1999. If so, that was very prescient of the writing because they didn't know then that part of Series 4 would be shown a year late! I suppose Pa Beckett could have been fudging a bit when they talked of it being ten years since seeing his son when his wife died in 1988. Or maybe a year has passed since 'The Two Becketts'? Unlikely, considering the ongoing plots of Ros and Beckett, and Alex and Adam! I wonder if that was a real computer exhibition at the Museum? We don't get a good enough look at all those boxy old computers to judge if they're genuine or not. I can't help thinking they should have played up the old technology a bit, maybe have someone like Ros rhapsodise over it all, make some sort of commentary on where it's all gone. But it was a clever idea to have such a low-tech solution as the physical structure of the board being the key rather than the data on it. The Museum reminded me of Ethan Rockridge's collection in 'Hollow Man,' another episode in which we weren't given the chance to revel in computers past, not getting a good look at them. One thing that does see improvement across the series is its quality of computer generated art, this time seen in the 3D wireframe model of the rig that rotates on a screen. Even across four years CGI had changed hugely.

One thing about the MCT confused me, and that was that it seemed to be only part of guard Tom's rounds, except he was driving in a van marked MCT as if that was the main building to be guarded! Maybe production didn't keep as careful tabs on the dialogue in the script as they should have, or didn't think it was noticeable that a guard complaining about MCT not being worth his rounds was also travelling in a van with their livery! I was also a little iffy on the whole logic of this Searanger IV and its protocols - sending an inspection team to investigate the loss of contact, okay, I can buy that, even though you'd think they'd be alerting the coastguard or a naval ship in the area for faster response, but wouldn't the Bureau have been briefed on who was actually on the rig, with photos so they'd immediately be aware of intruders instead of bumbling around piecing clues together until they were in trouble! And why not bring armed guards with them, especially as later in the episode Jan has a throwaway line about sending a squad of SSD to pick up the other villains! That was an exciting line since it shows the organisations are now working much more closely, which you'd expect after The Hive coming into it earlier this season and the trouble with SSD at the top in 'Fugitive,' a firm hand and a more cooperative attitude would seem to be in order. But as I say, if they have access to SSD backup why not use it all the time whenever there's a dangerous situation?

That would have the effect of making our team look a little less heroic, of course, so reality has to take a backseat, especially in this series, which is fair enough, but then maybe they shouldn't have an option like an SSD squad open to them at all? Either way it was a pleasing reference especially as this is the only season SSD didn't get a story based around them. I would like to know one thing, and that's what the original escape route for McKormac's partners was going to be if they weren't planning on hijacking a helicopter? Did they have a boat waiting somewhere, or what? It's only because Sarah says they've got the chopper now as an alternative escape route. And while we're at it, wouldn't it have made more sense to have McKormac on the rig since he'd know where the circuit board was hidden, wouldn't he? Like 'The Two Becketts' and Season 4 as a whole, this continues to be much more down to Earth (and I'm not talking Warbird Alpha's trajectory!), focusing more on old tech, scummy old locations like the battered rig and the dirty industrial centre rather than high-tech gloss and snazziness. It's worked pretty well these last two episodes, but I wouldn't want it every week because that wasn't really the series' mandate or style, though it's fun to visit odd little places like the Pascall Marine office where a middle-aged secretary assumes Alex knows shorthand or remembers the Seventies, much like William Taska in the previous episode - gently poking fun at an older generation, though perhaps it's a bit disrespectful…

The biggest issue I had with the episode, other than Ed having no charm and very little camaraderie with his comrades, is how strangely it all ends. I'm glad there wasn't a grumpy, depressing finale as in 'Sacrifice To Science,' and the thoughtful one of 'The Two Becketts' was better than a corny joke, which 'Girl Power' went back to, but instead we have Alex and Adam joking gently together. It's not really that scene that's the problem, it's just there's a lack of follow-up to what's gone on. It's over rather too quickly with the villains being rounded up (no one dies!), and I was looking forward to that scene shown at the end of the titles with all five of the gang laughing together - I assumed it was from this episode since Ros was wearing the red jacket, but it didn't happen, so either it was an outtake they liked enough to include in the title sequence, or it's yet to happen, or it was a scene that was filmed, but cut for time. But the episode really needed to show that everything was alright again with Ros and Beckett - not that the episode doesn't show that, it does, but it could really have done with a capper to round things off and set things firmly back to normal. Except it wouldn't be, and I seem to remember the second half would be much less happy and more soapy with less great ideas and team involvement. I liked this episode, not as much as I expected to perhaps, but in the context of the season it's pretty likeable since there's nothing really amiss, other than Ed, but there was nothing that could be done in that quarter.

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