Twin Geeks

DVD, BUGS S4 (Twin Geeks)

'Twin Geeks': 'Twin Peaks' - yes it was another pun for a title after 'Jewel Control' (just the previous episode!), started the ball rolling (though I'm not sure 'Twin Peaks' would have been quite as in the zeitgeist by the late Nineties as it was in the early). Fortunately this would be the second and only time they pulled that. More importantly, it's the start of Season 5, whoopee! At least, I thought it was back in 1999 when this was shown. Sadly, I didn't know then that this was actually the first of three episodes rescheduled from 1998 when Season 4 was cut cruelly short, but in those days I didn't understand narratives, serialisation and the ins and outs of TV production, otherwise I'd have realised what a poor choice this would have been 1) for starting a new series of stories, and 2) for encouraging new viewers into the fold. But then it wasn't meant to be, hence why this particular episode seems especially 'mythology' heavy with vast amounts of references to series lore, continuity and history. That's also why it's a fascinating watch if you are well versed in the 'BUGS' world (and if you've been following along you will be by now!), because few episodes before it have packed in quite so much self-referential material, characters or storylines. But before I delve into any of that, on this specific occasion one thought was in mind as I watched: is that... Valentine Pelka? It is Valentine Pelka! When I first saw the episode I would have had no interest in the name (he'd never been in 'Star Trek' you see!), and even in the subsequent viewings, but this time I came to it having watched all of 'Highlander: The Series' and knew the actor as one of the key recurring villains. When I was watching that I felt I recognised his face, but I'd never put it together (despite other actors who'd been in 'BUGS' showing up in that series, too), so that was a fun new perspective.

He plays Leigh Vaizey, Chief Executive of CET (Communications and Electronic Technologies), the latest company to be put at threat of extortion as in the old episodes of the series. So right there it's got a feel of the old freelance days about it, and the fact the villains are both bald with glasses can't help but suggest Jean-Daniel, at least in aesthetics, as well as them being geniuses capable of all kinds of technological inventiveness. Ros, herself something of a genius in the tech world, as we know, finds herself in some sympathy with them as the parallel story of Channing selling his company and all assets, including Ros' product licences to a Mr. Tachibana of Haichiku Corporation, has some similarity, the difference being that Ros chooses the self-sacrificial way of damage limitation for the sake of her friend, Graham Hurry, who's staked all to raise the cash for her to exercise a time-limited buyout clause and keep her designs her own. Seeing the episode now I wish there had been more depth in this part of the story to connect it to the twins, perhaps they hear and understand her position and there's some kind of sympathy between the parties, even though they've chosen the way of crime and revenge rather than reluctantly (and tearfully), submitting to the realities of the business world as Ros eventually has to. But I will say that there was more to it than some episodes this season and I was impressed how the writing duo of Colin Brake and Alex Stewart were able to throw in everything but the kitchen sink (or should that be refrigerator - no they threw that in as well), and managed to keep it all coherent.

Maybe the story doesn't have those spikes of exhilaration as much as past seasons, but they certainly achieved the vital building of tension at the end, calling on all the plot threads to advance and reach boiling point in impressive fashion. The episode didn't start that way, the buffing machine bomb looking most weedy when it goes off, another indication of the Season 4 softening or weakening of the series' vitality. The van which served as the twins' rolling headquarters for a while, and which Ed and Beckett have to leap out of and run for their lives, blew up real good, part of it wheeling toward camera, and nicely caught from multiple viewpoints, a classic explosion in the series' best mould, and Ros' car, a coasting, flaming wreck after being blasted by Beckett's reverse proximity explosive, was another great visual (and callback, as yet another of Ros' cars to be destroyed, a sort of running joke for the series). And if the majority of the episode isn't as exciting, there's so much to keep track of that it doesn't disappoint in the way that perhaps the last couple of episodes did. Let's see then, what lore was touched upon, a rundown is in order: the big one, though it doesn't really feel that way, is bringing back a character from way back in Season 1, not that that was unprecedented this year as they'd already brought Dent and his Hive back into the story (we visit it in this episode, and while Dent doesn't appear, he is mentioned again), but Graham Hurry wasn't one of the more memorable folks our people had dealt with, though 'Down Among The Dead Men' is a fine example of the series.

You notice they don't trouble the audience with backstory, Ros just mentions obliquely that she helped him and he owes her a favour. It's a real deep cut for the series that unless you had been following very closely would have gone over your head. It is a touch strange that they would bring back Hurry and the investment bank he works for, Kamen & Ross, but I expect it was more something they thought of after the story was planned and remembered him and the company, deciding to tie it to internal continuity rather than settle for something new. It would go over the heads of most people, though I suppose the series had come out on video in the late Nineties (not sure when exactly), so there may have been more opportunity for devotees to rewatch earlier episodes than I'm giving credit for. But still, it was a surprising character to bring back, just a shame they couldn't get the original actor, with a guy sporting a full head of hair replacing the original balding Hurry (if it had been the other way round you could believe it, but then again in the 'BUGS' world they do have all kinds of advanced technology...). I have the feeling Hurry had been slightly sweet on Ros then, but I can't remember for sure - here he's really head over heels, risking his bank's money, his career, even prison for his faith in her and the desire to help her out, although it must have been partly he felt he owed her since we learn he's advanced to a seat on the board. Mind you, having someone like Ros indebted to you would be a very good thing, because she has a first class mind and a lot of integrity to go with it (unlike the Brazer twins, Michael and Marcus, like evil versions of her - maybe there should have been more of a pitting wits against each other to have Ros more involved in defeating them?), which is the reason why Tachibana was interested in acquiring Channing's company in the first place.

It makes sense that the business world would seek to capture Ros because she is a force and resource to be tapped and they were laying down possibilities for where the story might have gone in future years if the series had continued. Actually, I'd forgotten Ros had such issues and it may be they get resolved before or during the final episode, but it was certainly a great new spin to put the character into. But Hurry and the bank weren't the only connections in an episode rife with references: Ros' Mo... monetary advisor (and Mother!), Coral Henderson, returns after being introduced at the beginning of the season as a place Beckett went in his search for Ros. Usually I rail against the domestic settings of this particular season, but there was something reassuring and pleasant about seeing Ros' Mum in her house helping her daughter (seems uncharacteristic of Ros not to know all the legal stuff in her contract), and this wouldn't be her last appearance. Bureau 2 is mentioned by the Brazer's when they look up the opposition CET have brought in against them, commenting that it was a reincarnation of the old Bureau of Weapons Technology –I need to break off there because maybe it's just me being too close to the series, but there are a sprinkle of clues that suggest they wanted to evoke thoughts of Jean-Daniel and Cyberax, that whole sequence of events that closed out Season 2 and 3, in these finale episodes: it's maybe going too far to say the Brazer's were designed to look reminiscent of JD, they're just generic stereotypical boffins, the baldness and glasses goes with the territory, but also mentioning the old Bureau, and then other things in the last couple of episodes would be reminiscent of Cyberax and JD...

I was wrong. That is, I was mistaken in my belief that the Armed Response Squad Jan calls up in 'Pandora's Box' was what I associated with SSD, because it was in this episode that the memory of black-clad soldiers being at Jan's beck and call as they drive down between some nondescript buildings came from. It was a far cry from the old SSD agents in their suits and overcoats, and they weren't SSD, they were a bomb disposal unit, presumably army, but this was the moment I'd thought SSD had some input, and it turns out it wasn't them at all. They were quite realistic actually - I'm thinking of when the disposal expert barks at Jan, Vaizey and another soldier to stand still when they're clumping about and talking loudly mere metres from his examination of the bomb! Other connections to the past include Beckett's history with Naval Intelligence - he visits an old colleague, Iain Keating, at the Naval Engineering Stores, to get some background on a piece of equipment the twins were using in one of their bombs (previous viewings led me to believe that was a big oversight because it seemed it was the timer for the bomb in the van, but you clearly see it in Beckett's hand when he exits), and it's good to see him use his contacts for once. There's also the reminder of how Ros and Beckett met when Ros tells Christa it was he that got her into all this (as we saw in 'Out of The Hive'), and her statement that her independence is very important to her is a throwback to the beginning of Season 3 when Jan was trying to bring her into the Bureau. The Channing connection is another big part of that season (shame he didn't come back, but you can imagine the scene, Ros getting angry, Channing apologetic but defensive). Her affection for Beckett is also key as she says his safety is more important than her money issues, which leads to the big dramatic destruction of the case in her car that has the Hurry money that will get her out of the Tachibana deal... (a bit like the ending of 'Hell and High Water' when Jan blows the car with the money in the back).

There's all this detail, but they also bring in the other plots of Christa and Adam, and I felt none too badly considering the pair of them were usually intrusive, irritating characters. Christa progresses from the car park of Bureau 2 right up to the offices themselves when she 'makes a scene' demanding to know what's happened to Beckett, who's been kidnapped by the twins. And Adam is starting to show some suspicious activity when a designer watch he bought for Alex isn't the fake she thinks it is, plus Ed sees some of his bank statements when rescuing the pair from a freezing room at the Electric Freezer Company and notices large payments coming in... (how did he find time to photocopy them - was there an old model he could hot-wire hanging about the place?). I'm pretty sure we never got to find out what happened with Adam, whether he was being blackmailed or whatever, because of the cliffhanger ending in two episodes' time, which is annoying, but at least what happened here all made sense, even if the final scene where Alex comes in and announces her and Adam's engagement couldn't have come at a worse time with the team all shellshocked from what's just happened: Ros is tied to Tachibana, Beckett's had to be honest with Christa and admitted it was all over between him and Ros a long time ago, and Ed's reported Adam's suspect riches to Jan. Still, they all put on a brave face and wish the happy couple well. I don't know if this was deliberate, but both Ros and Beckett wear blue at the end of the episode as if in sympathy for each other. Otherwise, Beckett's in red shirt and red silk tie under his suit, Ros in a black suit with skirt and spiky silver earrings, and Ed's inconspicuous as ever in black t-shirt and sometimes the blue jacket.

The episode probably is an improvement partly because Ed isn't as integral to the story, and in the bits he does get it's less talk and more physical. As you'd expect, he makes sure to save both Alex and Adam, despite any personal issues. Oddly, he's become much more technological, carrying around a tiny laptop or organiser which has a crossword puzzle cheater program on it, not the sort of thing you'd have associated with him previously, as if they'd forgotten what sort of guy he is. The old Ed would have been making fun of the 'geeks' right before stepping in one of their traps, but there's no lightness of touch or wit to this version of Ed. Alex, too, doesn't have much involvement other than her subplot with Adam and The Hive software, but still, everything is integrated and nicely put together. And I like that they did get the parallels of it all being about technology and the all-important licensing and control. Perhaps they weren't the most serious villains the team have ever come up against, very much emphasising their quirks over ruthlessness, but ex-employees with a grievance was a different approach, and there is threat because they don't mind killing if it'll get their point across, though they don't seem to have much of an end goal in place other than revenge, taking down the company that exploited them and left them with nothing. We see their character in that game of draughts where Michael cheats as soon as Marcus looks away - they'll even do each other a mischief if it serves them, so no wonder they ended up as villains attacking the system. I also liked the musical tone of using a small piece of the Asian theme associated with Tachibana when Ros says she knows how they feel.

I know it's dramatic convention, but it was a bit odd how Jan, Alex and Ros discuss the twins' history, how they were ahead of their time and all that, all while searching for the bomb at CET. You'd think they'd be showing a little more focus and concern since it's due to go off any time soon, but it's information needed to get across to the audience. The same can be said about Ed and Beckett talking about Adam while also hunting for the bomb, and it does show that the soapy side of things didn't suit the action-driven nature of the stories. But still, it's enjoyable, even if I can see why it would have put general viewers off when it's so heavily bound up with the series' details and so much going on, and to then plonk it down a year later and expect people to be able to keep up, well, it was like you'd stumbled into the middle of a season instead of the start, which you had really! At least it was nicely directed, and though there were lots of broken down old locations, as is their wont these days, they also got in the occasional shiny 'BUGS' building, too - I loved the watery abandoned warehouse area that Beckett's left in, the reflective floor really making it appeal visually. This is essentially the last single story of the series, since the following two are a two-parter, and it's a good one to go out on.

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