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The Urquhart Bodycount
As we’re now into the second chapter of the trilogy, it’s time to take a look behind Francis Urquhart’s back and see the mounting pile of corpses, both literal and figurative, he’s leaving behind him. Like Alan B’Stard in “The New Statesman”, we can’t hold him personally responsible for every single death that may result indirectly from his policies or his decisions. When B’Stard buries nuclear waste under a school those kids may later die of various related ailments, but you can’t really place the blame for that specifically at the tory’s door. B’Stard would not even bother to see these people as collateral damage: to him, they barely exist and if some of them die he would regard it, if at all, as an unfortunate consequence of his getting a little richer, and think nothing more of it.

Similarly, the hardline policies of Urquhart’s government may mean that Mary, a 42-year old nurse who has worked at the one hospital all her life, loses her job when Urquhart has it shut down as unprofitable, the land rezoned for office blocks, or Jack may take his own life when he realises how impossible it is for him to get a job. Bill may go wild with a shotgun at a bank, shooting two staff members and six customers before turning the gun on himself, all because he can’t pay his mortgage. All of these are a result of the policies of the Conservative Party, but not directly attributable to the PM. He has not, so to speak, pulled the trigger himself.

So here we will concentrate only on those people who either die or are ruined, financially, emotionally or politically --- or all three --- by Urquhart’s direct intervention. Those he kills or has killed, those whose careers he destroys, those who stand in his way and are swept aside. Only if there is a clear intent will these people be considered for the bodycount. As with B’Stard, there will be two types of body: lethal and non-lethal. Lethal speaks for itself: anyone who loses his or her life at Urquhart’s behest. Non-lethal will constitute anyone who is ruined but not killed. They could be maimed, or deported, or fired, or scandalised, blackmailed or number of other methods. Anyone driven to direct suicide by Urquhart will be considered a Lethal addition, anyone who dies of natural causes (heart attack, cancer etc) that is brought about or exacerbated by the Prime Minister’s interference or influence will also be so considered.

So, since the original “House of Cards” began, how many bodies has Urquhart buried?

LETHAL

Roger O’Neill: Used by Urquhart as his errand boy, his sometime thug and his mouthpiece, O’Neill proves too much of a liability and Urquhart fears he knows too much about him, and so he must go. He cuts his cocaine with rat poison and Roger takes his last ever hit on this earth.

Mattie Storin: The focus of the story other than Urquhart, Mattie is another who knows too much, and Urquhart shows us that even if he is in love (hah! Does he know the meaning of the word?) with someone he is still prepared to sacrifice them if they get in his way or threaten his rise to, or grip on, power. Mattie is hurled off the roof garden to her death. These are two deaths in which Urquhart has a direct hand, literally. It is his hand that cuts O’Neill’s coke and his hands that throw Mattie to her doom.

Non-Lethal
Henry Collingridge: Annoyed at the mild-mannered man’s rise to the top, and more, his refusal to give Urquhart the position he had been virtually promised, Francis sets about a complex plan of manipulation, disinformation and obfuscation that eventually leads to the Prime Minister having to resign.

Health Minister Mackenzie: Although not ruined, Urquhart does destroy the man’s chances of being elected Prime Minister by arranging a damaging demonstration at a factory which results in the running over of someone in a wheelchair. Mackenzie has no choice but to back out of the race and surely stands to lose his very post? His reputation has certainly been ruined.

Patrick Woolton: Another, very strong candidate for the top job, Woolton is outmanoeuvered by Urquhart and his plans for Number Ten are stamped upon. His marriage may also find itself under some strain.

Dick Caule: The first to go in the second chapter, the hapless Secretary of State for the Environment must wonder what he did wrong, to be forced into taking a backwater post in Strasbourg or face being sacked? Of course, it’s all part of Urquhart’s plan to thwart the king, and Caule is just another neck on the chopping block, a faceless piece of cannon fodder.


Non-Lethal Bodycount: 4
Lethal Bodycount: 2
Total Bodycount: 6


The real Urquhart
As I said at the end of “House of cards” (no I will not call it season one!) Urquhart likes to be known, or seen at least, as a man of the people. A diplomat, a statesman, a benign father guiding his children. Of course, like all fathers he has occasionally to discipline, but that’s all part of parenthood, and anyway, it never did any harm, did it? But early on we see his true face begin to manifest more in this second chapter.

He talks in abstract terms about the homeless, the unemployed, the people his government have willfully and callously let down, but it’s clear he couldn’t give a tinker’s curse about them. He laughs inwardly at the notions of the new king, the idea of helping his people. Helping them! That’s not what a king is supposed to do, in his book!

But during his exchanges with the king, as it becomes increasingly and quickly obvious that the new monarch is not going to be malleable, not going to be persuaded how to think and how to act, as have other kings and queens in Urquhart’s experience, his true self looks out of his eyes and he declares unspoken war against the Palace. He will not have a king challenging his constitutional authority, and if it provokes a civil war, then so be it! Urquhart reveals a little more of his real attitude to Sarah, who shares his views and believes the king is trying to bring the whole country into a state of permanent social welfare, but even she does not know his true mind.

When he snarls at the end of the episode “I’ll bring the whole bloody lot of them down if I have to!” we see the mask torn away, the true face revealed, and the real Francis Urquhart leers out from the placid visage of the Prime Minister, the blood of former victims on his teeth, naked raw ambition and powerlust in his eyes, and a chilling warning to freeze the heart on his lips. You start to worry for the King of England.

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As we all know, this is a reference to the David Bowie hit, and indeed it's in the pilot episode, but other than that once, that's where the similarities end. One of the most successful and intriguing crossover shows that blended elements of police drama and science-fiction, "Life on Mars" began transmission in 2006 and quickly became a cult favourite. Because of the crossover element it appealed to fans of both types of show, and many who were fans of neither but liked a good drama with a bit of mystery. It was produced by Kudos, responsible for, among others, top UK spy drama "Spooks", already in progress here.

Detective Sam Tyler is hit by a car in 2006 and awakes to find himself in a rather odd place. It quickly becomes apparent to him that he seems to have travelled backwards in time, back to 1973. Police work is far different here; things considered unprofessional these days are de rigeur in the seventies, leading to some hilarious scenes and quotes, like when Tyler describes a suspect as an "IC3 male" and all the other coppers look at him blankly. He rephrases, shrugging: "A black guy", he says, and they all nod, understanding. Throughout the series Tyler is plagued by the belief that he may be in a coma and just imagining all of this, but he gets pulled into the fantasy --- if such it is --- so deeply that there are times when he really believes he is in 1973. And maybe he is: it's not made clear till much later what the actual situation is.

Tyler's new boss is straight-talking, straight-shooting (literally) borderline alcoholic and criminal-smasher Gene Hunt, who would become a favourite with the viewers of the show, leading to his starring in a sequel series and his own rise to stardom. Full cast listing to come. Tyler is faced with unlearning everything he has been taught and everything he has based his police work on in the twenty-first century --- DNA, for example, was hardly even heard of much less used as a police tool in the seventies --- and trying to fit in to the harsh, often brutal, un-PC world of his colleagues, where smashing a suspect's head into the table was an accepted method of gaining information, and nobody gave a toss about criminals' rights. Racism and sexism were rampant, and nobody wanted to get in touch with their inner child, unless it was to find out where his bigger brother, who was wanted on charges, might be found.

Against this backdrop Tyler works his cases, gets involved with a woman who may or may be a figment of his imagination and tries to figure out what has happened to him. Has he gone crazy? Is he dead? Asleep? Dreaming? Or has he really somehow travelled back in time? The ambiguity helps to heighten the sense of tension in the series, and as I say it won't be resolved for several years after the whole thing ends.

CAST
The cast list for "Life on Mars" was really quite tight, with most if not all of the stories revolving around the five main characters, and no real recurring roles outside of that. There are other actors of course, but they rarely if ever crop up in more than one episode. So you have the likes of robbers, hostage-takers, gunrunners and the odd officer, but nobody who really matters other than these five.

SAM TYLER, played by John Simm.
After this role which pretty much defined him for the later half of the 2000's, (I refuse to call them the Noughties!) Simm was cast in the plum role of The Master in the new Dr. Who, but by then just about everyone knew him as Sam Tyler. As related above, Tyler is a detective working for the Greater Manchester Police who is on a case when he is hit by a car and seems to awake in 1973. He spends the series, in addition to carrying out what to him must be very unorthodox police work, trying to figure out how, or if, he can get back to his own time.


GENE HUNT, played by Philip Glennister
Again, a career-defining role, Glennister, mostly unknown prior to this, would become forever tied with the role of Gene Hunt, and in fact would go on to reprise the role in the spin-off series. Hunt is a tough, uncompromising, take-no-prisoners cop who does things by the book --- his book. He's actually more likely to beat you over the head with it than read from it. He doesn't like rules, he doesn't like nonces and he definitely doesn't like crooks! What a guy! An icon for a generation.

ANNIE CARTWRIGHT, played by Liz White
The love interest for Sam, and to be fair not that much else. A woman in a man's world in 1973, she is the recipient of countless sexual slurs and innuendos, behaviour that by today's standards would have you up before an enquiry on sexual harassment charges. She tries to convince Sam that he is real, that they all are real, although she can't explain why he thinks he comes from the twenty-first century. She thinks he's a bit loopy, but she does fancy him. She's probably also, deep inside, worried to admit she may be nothing more than a part of a fevered dream by a man in a hospital bed.


RAY CARLING, played by Dean Andrews
Womanising, chauvinistic, drunk and arrogant, Carlton is the epitome of the seventies "bad cop". He is Gene Hunt's right-hand man, and looks up to the chief. He sneers at Sam's attempts to apply 21st century policing methods to the seventies, and his favourite method of enquiry is the judicial application of the boot in the groin.

CHRIS SKELTON, played by Marshall Lancaster
The "baby" of the group, Chris is either being taken under the wing of Tyler, who wants to make him a good cop and prevent him being corrupted by Carling and Hunt, or siding with Ray against Tyler. He's quite naive in many ways, almost more a boy than a man, and he gets quite a ribbing from his colleagues, especially when he starts seeing a girl.

All of these characters, bar Tyler, will transfer over to the sequel series, "Ashes to ashes", at the end of "Life on Mars"'s two-season run. The series was so successful, and ended on a cliffhanger that a followup was commissioned, which ran for three seasons and finally wrapped up all the plotlines and explained what had been going on for, at that time, four years.

Oh yeah, another thing about "Life on Mars" was it featured one of the most bitchin' soundtracks since "Supernatural", with all the best seventies rock and pop music.

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Hailed as one of the most authentic and realistic portrayals of the Robin Hood legend, "Robin of Sherwood" -- which was retitled, with stunning originality in America as "Robin Hood"! --- was perhaps the first of the many interpretations down the years to treat the myth without satire or lampoonery, without making the title character a larger than life figure, and with as much attention paid to historical accuracy as possible when you're dealing with a person who may not have existed, or may be an amalgam of other people living at the time. It was also the only show I ever saw about Robin Hood that brought in pagan and mythic elements to the story; Robin himself paid obeisance to the pagan god Herne the Hunter, who treated him as his own son.

In this alone the show was unique. In every other film or series about the famous freedom fighter Robin was always the top authority, the man in charge. He deferred to no man, and perhaps only one woman. But here he willingly acknowledges the leadership and guardianship of the enigmatic man who professes to be the human representation of the spirit of the forest, Herne.

Running for three years from 1984 to 1986 over three seasons, the show was a big hit on UK television and is still seen as the benchmark for programmes about the legend, its popularity helped by the haunting theme and incidental music provided by Irish traditional group Clannad. It was one of the few British programmes to feature two different actors in the title role, with Michael Praed's Robin of Loxley being taken over by Jason Connery's Robin of Huntingdon in season three. In a timeslot clearly aimed at children and adolescents, "Robin of Sherwood" was obviously far more mature than the other Robin Hood shows that had been around, and appealed to adults just as effectively.

All the main cast were English actors, so there was none of the uncomfortable American accents of the likes of "Prince of thieves", and this of course helped the authenticity of the show. It was also shot on location in England, bringing in elements of both Saxon and Celtic myths. The show dealt with some uncomfortable subjects, among them devil worship, human sacrifice and witchcraft trials. The programme also retained many classic elements of the legend, such as the competition for the silver arrow, the rescue of Marion and of course, Robin's implacable enemy the Sheriff of Nottingham. Though the classic lineup of Merry Men were mostly present, there were some changes, with Allan-a-Dale not part of the band, only guesting in one episode, his place possibly taken by Robin's almost-idiot younger stepbrother, Much, the miller's son.

CAST

Robin of Loxely, played by Micheal Praed
What do you need to know that you didn't already? The son of a nobleman who was then killed in a rebellion against the Normans and had his lands confiscated, Robin is raised by a miller and meets the enigmatic pagan god Herne the Hunter, who recruits him to fight on the side of the poor and the disenfranchised. Robin gathers together a rag-tag mob who make Sherwood their base of operations and strike from there against the rich, being a particular thorn in the side of the Sheriff of Nottingham, who is trying to maintain law and order in the area.

Will Scarlet, played by Ray Winstone
A firebrand, hothead reactionary, Will wants nothing more than to crack some Norman heads, but he has no idea about planning or strategy. He constantly vies with Robin for leadership of the gang, but Robin is better liked and trusted by the men. He is against Robin's idea of helping the poor, believing that the gang should concentrate on striking against the sheriff and his men.

Friar Tuck, played by Phil Rose
The archetypal fat friar, Tuck is Marion's protector and escapes with her into Sherwood Forest, where they link up with and then become part of Robin's gang.

Little John (real name John Little), played by Clive Mantle
His name, as you no doubt know, belying his huge size, Little John is under an evil spell when he first meets Robin and fights him, but the younger man defeats him and destroys the influence of the spell. Thereafter he becomes Robin's friend and right hand.

Lady Marion of Leaford, played by Judi Trott
Ward of the Abbot Hugo, brother to the Sheriff of Nottingham, Marion is the daughter of a nobleman who is believed to have died in battle. She has a large inheritance coming to her, which the abbot is eager to get his greedy hands on. He promises her to the Baron de Belleme as his wife, but with Friar Tuck's help she escapes into Sherwood and meets Robin, with whom she falls in love.

Much, played by Peter Llewellyn Williams
One step removed from a simpleton, Much is the son of Robin's foster-father, and so sees Robin as his big brother, though they are not actually related by blood. He is ... well, I don't really know what he's supposed to do in the show. Most of the time he gets in the way. Could have really done without him to be honest. But Robin feels a sense of kinship and loyalty towards him, and will not have a word said about him.

Nasir, played by Mark Ryan
A Saracen warrior and assassin, Nasir originally works for the Baron de Belleme, but when his master is defeated he joins Robin's band, the two having fought and gained mutual respect for each other. Nasir is a man of few words, allowing his swordplay to speak for him, but he is fiercely loyal to Robin.

The Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Nickolas Grace
One of the most entertaining figures to grace any Robin Hood show, Nickolas Grace steals the show every scene he is in as Robert de Reinault, the long-suffering Sheriff. Whether he is browbeating his second, the unfortunate Sir Guy, or recoiling in disgust and perhaps fear from a rebuke from King John, Grace displays a dark humour that demands that you like him. Even as the "bad guy" he's totally engaging and corrupt to the core. His attempts to kill or capture Robin and his men are nothing short of comical, and he has some of the best lines in the series.

Sir Guy of Gisburne, played by Robert Addie
The downtrodden and ridiculed commander of Nottingham's garrison, Gisburne does everything he can to catch Robin, but like the schemes of Dick Dastardly or Wiley Coyote, every one fails and he is left to endure the wrath and contempt of the Sheriff. A man of action and war, he has little time for diplomacy, traits that land him in trouble as often as not. He has of course an abiding hatred for Robin, who sees him more as a bumbling oaf than a serious enemy.

Abbot Hugo de Reinault, played by Philip Jackson
Younger brother of the Sheriff, he is the senior clergyman in Nottingham, but is more interested in amassing personal wealth through the acquisition of land than in devotion to God. He is the ward of Lady Marion, since the supposed death of her father.

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Episode Four

Fiona awakes to find her daughter is not in her bedroom, but finds her outside in the garden shed, terrified. She tells her mother that she knows Alan is not her dad, to which Fiona reacts with surprise. She wants to take her to the doctor but Alan is again against it, saying it will bring down the wrath of Social Services upon them. A radio report announces that there is CCTV footage of a girl believed to be Hattie at a train station but it has not yet been confirmed. Linus tries to convince Caitlin that he is not “NDN” but she is not sure. He goes home to find his father missing, and as Caitlin has said that the girl in the footage is supposed to be meeting “NDN”, things are beginning to add up…

Gail decides it’s time to move. She, after all, no longer owns the house: the bank does. Nothing to stop her leaving and trying to start a new life far from here. She goes through Malcolm’s things and in a locked briefcase which she forces she finds an envelope of money addressed to Linus. She doesn’t however know the young man; thinks it must be important though. Their neighbour calls round to tell them that Hattie has been found alive --- she hasn’t of course; it’s all just guesswork and supposition and hope, but it brings a small ray of sunshine into Gail’s day. Alan is upset with his wife as she has intimated their daughter is afraid of him, and wonders why. He, for his part, takes the opportunity to set things straight with the little girl by taking her to school and trying to explain to her.

While he’s gone Fiona explores the attic but finds it’s all been cleaned up. Later she comes across Everett again, and it transpires that he saw her taking the picture of him. It also transpires that they know each other as more than just neighbours: there seems to have been an affair, which ended badly. Everett however claims not to remember the bad part and Fiona storms off. Seth tells Steve he has found Hattie’s body, but his brother is either too scared or does not believe him and refuses to let him take him to her. In the course of chasing the local bully/drug dealer into the woods, Alan comes across the corpse though, stuffed up into the branches of a tree. There can be no doubt now: Hattie Sutton is quite dead, and has been for some time.

Thanks to the insensitivity of the bully, who takes a photo of the body, everyone in school gets an MMS and Caitlin learns in the cruellest way possible that her sister is dead. Fiona goes to the crime scene and is devastated : the discovery has hit her hard. Linus confronts his father and ends up being thrown out of his house. Fiona takes him in. Steve tells Seth he has to leave but his brother is unwilling to go. He seems to want to pay for his crimes. Steve goes to the Sutton house, where he meets his ex-wife and, finally, his son whom he has not seen for years: he and his mother have been living in Spain. Except they haven’t, as Angie tells him; they have in fact only been a five-minute drive away, but she wanted Steve to think they were out of the country.

Steve begins bonding with his son, then swiftly makes plans to abduct the boy, but before he can put his plan into operation the police arrest him. Seth has confessed, and as his brother Steve is now under suspicion. Seth talks about “Bad Seth”, who “takes things to make people unhappy.” He has reasoned that taking Hattie would make people unhappy. He tells DS Mills that Hattie had powers; she was a white witch, knew the old magic. James is delighted when he realises that, due to his bad back, his father could not have hauled Hattie’s body up into the tree, and so he must be innocent. But Gail knows that their problems run deeper than that. DS Mills visits Alan to confirm Seth’s story about burgling their house. Alan is aghast.

Furious with Malcolm, Gail goes to arrange his funeral, a cremation with absolutely every expense spared. She knows he has to be buried --- well, cremated --- but doesn’t want any ceremony, flowers, mourners … nothing. Just get rid of him. At home, Malcolm’s effects are released by the police and sent back to her, and taking his phone she rings Linus’s number, which is in the phone. She hasn’t even considered that the ID on the phone is going to read “Malcolm” and scare the shit out of the kid. He’s in Caitlin’s bedroom --- yeah, he just walked in as if he lives there! --- but she almost seems not to realise he’s there. It’s like she’s lost in her own private world of pain. He believes that his father killed his mother, and is ready to go to the police, as he also thinks Everett killed Hattie. He pours out all he knows to Fiona, who tells him to sleep on it and if he feels the same way in the morning she will take him to the station.

At home, realising he will now never see his son again thanks to his brother’s confession, Steve begins breaking down the little microcosm he has kept in the boy’s honour, the preserved bedroom the boy used to sleep in. It’s time to face facts and move on with his life. Caitlin wakes up to see stones all over her bed, and comes to a fateful decision.

QUOTES
James: “Don’t want those bastards to think they’ve won.”
Gail: “They have.”

Fiona: “You’re not allowed to talk to me like that. Not after what you did to me.”
Everett: “What did I do to you?”
Fiona: “You don’t remember? May bank holiday weekend, 1992?”

Gail: “You honestly think a bunch of lilies and a few hymns is going to buy him a place in Heaven?”
James: “Well what do we do then? Chuck him in the sea? Fling him in a skip? Leave him out for the animals to finish him off?”

Gail: “My chiropractor once told me that your body learns to ignore pain. You’re not getting better but your brain stops telling you how much it hurts, and it just gets worse and worse over the years until it all just falls apart. Well that was my marriage: thirty-two years of pain.”


SUSPECTS

Seth

Well, he’s confessed now, so that’s that, isn’t it? Or is it? He still seems confused, talking about “Bad Seth”, and it seems more like he’s afraid he did it more than he knows he did. His confession though, whether real or imagined, scuppers his brother’s plans to be reunited with his son, and to take him away from his mother.

Malcolm

Pretty much out of the picture now. His bad back would not have allowed him to have carried Hattie up into the tree in whose branches she was found. Unless of course he had an accomplice? Seth? Is it possible both men killed Hattie, or that the one helped the other?

Alan

Seems a little too relieved when he hears Fiona say that Linus is ready to shop Everett. Dodging a bullet? And what is all this about his not being Charlotte’s father?

Steve

Jury’s still out. Any man who would consider snatching his own child from his mother and absconding with him would surely be capable of anything?

Everett

Emerging as a possible suspect now, a strong one if Seth’s confession turns out to be false, or in error. Despite what he said to the cops, he not only knew Hattie, he seems to have had some relationship with her, and is surely the “NDN” chalked on the inside of her locker door. What did happen to his wife? Did he kill her? Is Linus right?

PAGAN IMAGES

The whole forest seems shrouded in pagan imagery. The likes of this “Magic Circle” they talk about, the odd bits of dolls strung up on wire, even the falling apple-blossoms seem to exude a sense of mystery and awe and impart to the woods a feeling of enchantment, and also a certain dark and sinister ambience. The small stones that keep falling on Caitlin are hard to explain, but may have been used in some sort of pagan rituals, and the little gemstone Everett puts by the makeshift monument to Hattie surely contains some sort of mystical power, even though Linus’s father scoffs and says he doesn’t believe in magic.

But Seth does, and he tells the police that Hattie had powers, that she was a witch or wiccan of some sort. Is it possible she upset someone with her beliefs? Did she use her “power” to ensure Carroll’s Fields was never built? Is that why she was killed? Or did someone fear her power would be used against them, someone who believed she had that power, or was afraid not to?

Notes: Steve’s plan to abduct his son is half-baked at best, useless at worst. Where is he going to go? Spain he says, and he’ll have to get out of the country if he wants to avoid the law. But how is the child supposed to travel without a passport? And how exactly are they going to get to Spain? Steve is not rich; he seems to be just barely scraping by. I doubt he owns his house, probably a council rental, so no way he can sell it and even if he could, how would be expect to do that quickly enough to enable him to disappear before the police start looking for him? Once Harry vanishes he’ll be the prime suspect and they’ll have checkpoints at all airport, ports and motorways. He hasn’t a hope. Not a great thinker, our Steve!

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2.1 “Legitimate targets”

As season two opens we pick up exactly where season one ended, with Masie and Ellie trapped in Tom''s house and a bomb in his briefcase about to go off. A bomb does go off, but it's in another part of London --- the one in Tom's house fails to explode. Thames House is evacuated as a coded warning comes through, and it turns out that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has been killed by a bomb in his house, for which the separatist group Patrick McCann works with has claimed responsibility. He calls Tom, asking to come over to his side: his life is in danger and he needs to get out. However he's too slow and is killed before MI5 can pick him up.

Before he died though, McCann warned Tom that the killing of the NI Secretary of State was just the beginning: this day is about to get a whole lot worse. Called in to work against his will, Tom insists Ellie and Masie come with him. There's been a mortar attack on an army base which is supposed to be classified, but McCann's group have not claimed responsibility for it, unlike the killing of the Secretary of State. Looking into other possible culprits, they come across a Serb general, Miroslav Gradic, and think he might be involved. In the middle of all this Ellie leaves Thames House with Masie, and goes to her mother's; she will not speak to Tom when he calls later that night. He goes to Danny's apartment and speaks to he and Zoe when they return. He confides to Zoe that he wishes he had never told Ellie his secret; he knows he is going to lose her now. The attack on the army base appears to have been a diversion to cover the theft of munitions from Longcross, and they suspect a mole in the MoD. They track a Serbian intelligence agent who is working out of the Serb embassy, and Zoe latches on to him, intent on finding out what his link with Gradic is. A munitions transport is attacked by Gradic, giving him more weapons.

Danny is attacked by some thugs and left in a heap, and it emerges that the Serb agent, Rado, is Gradic's nephew. He has killed in his service, and Zoe is now in his apartment and in potentially grave danger. Luckily though she manages to pass him the cufflinks which have a keylogger built in, as she has been ordered to do. A man presented with a gift from a pretty woman? Who wouldn't make a point of wearing the things? So now MI5 can pick up everything he types on his keyboard. It seems he's sending classified ads to be posted in newspapers. The guys know this must be code and luckily Danny unearths their mole, a low-level operative who has been fooled into thinking he was helping a Freedom of Information movement. He tells them that the ads corresponded to a coded location which would be the “dead drops” where he would leave the secret papers for his contact --- whom he only knew as “Radovan” --- and collect his money.

MI5 get to work trying to find the relevant ad and Malcolm finds it. The terrible truth is that the ad shows a grid location for the COBRA meeting being chaired by the Prime Minister tonight and with all top heads of government and the armed forces attending, a chance for Gradic to strike off the head of the snake, take out the heads of the intelligence, military and government at one blow. Even now, as Tom races towards the location, the attackers have broken in and are ascending the stairways. But when Gradic enters the meeting room he finds only Tom there --- and the army of course. The meeting has been rescheduled and relocated at the last minute.

Gradic is taken into custody, but Tom sneers that sending him to the Court of Criminal Justice at the Hague is more like a holiday, and Harry agrees. So they concoct a story that he is a paedophile, and send him to Egypt, where he will be treated appropriately. It's rough justice, but it's justice. But if that's a happy ending for Tom it's the only one, as Ellie, tired of competing with his job and national security, leaves him for good, and he can't really blame her. Radovan is also arrested for having aided his uncle.

The “Need to Know”
Highlighting how tight security is and how everyone must abide by it, a lower-ranking agent tells Harry “Urgent incident report Sir, but I don't have clearance to read it out. It's on screen now.” This seems over-the-top: the guy could easily read it and nobody would know, but his clearance level does not authorise him to access the message and so he has to wait until a superior officer comes in. Silly really: the message could be time-dependent, lives could be hanging in the balance, but protocol must be observed at all times.

Baggage
Tom, Ellie and Masie

Tom agonises over the slip of the tongue, the moment when he told Ellie what he really is, where he really works, when the lying and the cover stories and the deceit became too much for him. But now, like Spiderman revealing his secret identity to someone close, he has put the woman he loves, and her daughter, in danger. He has painted a big target on her back and she will carry this forever. She will be a way to get to him, a way to put pressure on him, someone to threaten when an enemy wants him to do or say something. He was nearly responsible for both their deaths, and it's only pure luck that the bomb did not go off. He would have had to watch them both die --- would have died with them, rather than continue on without them --- and he now bitterly regrets having let the mask slip. He can see, as he has known all along, why the work of a spy and his personal life must never mix, and why most of the agents cannot afford to even have a personal life, must keep everyone close to them at a distance, and invent stories and excuses to cover up the incredibly important, but incredibly dangerous work they do in the defence of the realm.

Zoe
Although she knows it's part of the setup to capture the keystrokes from Radovan's computer by giving him the cufflinks, surely some part of Zoe must be flattered at the attention the good-lloking Serb gives her. I mean, she's not ugly or anything --- quite the reverse --- but Radovan is dark-skinned, cultured and kind (at least outwardly) and a perfect gentleman. He does not know this is a ruse and seems to fall fairly hard for the girl, doing his best to help her better her circumstances. Of course, at the end of it all is the hope he will get into Zoe's knickers, but even so, he does help her. And she must wonder, lonely and isolated by her job as she is, what it would be like to fall for a man like this, what it would be like to come home to a man like this? She knows of course that he is involved with one of the worst butchers in Serbia's troubled history, but hey, nobody's perfect!

For his part, Radovan seems genuinely crushed when it slowly starts to dawn upon him that he has been used. He just sits there as the special branch break down his door, unable to believe that the woman he had perhaps been falling for has betrayed him, and in a way, you kind of have to feel sorry for him.

Hard to believe?
It's like those plot holes I featured recently. Sometimes it's hard to understand how certain parts of a story are supposed to be taken seriously. We're meant to believe that a transport moving munitions on behalf of the Ministry of Defence is taken without a single shot fired by the British? Gradic and his men shoot the driver --- who stupidly leaves his vehicle, unarmed --- and then take out the rest of the detail. A jeep AND a truck with soldiers and NOBODY GETS OFF A SHOT?? God save us. Sometimes it's just a little too far off the reservation...

And Danny gets taken out by four little snotnoses? Even if he isn't armed, surely he should be more than able to take care of four little punks with some unarmed combat or something? But he offers no resistance and they kick the shit out of him! Britain's finest?

The mind of a terrorist
Asked about how he feels about the women and children he had bulldozed alive into mass graves in Serbia, Gradic sneers “They were collaborators, and would have killed me when I turned my back. The woman and the child, they are all the same to me. They are my enemy. They are all guilty. They deserve to die.”

Harry's World
Harry: “There's no justice any more, Tom, not the way the world plays it. Nuremberg, truth and reconciliation? There hasn't been a single unified successful prosecution of international law. Do you know how much that single Libyan Lockerbie suspect cost the country?”
Tom: “An enormous amount of money.”
Harry: “An enormous of money. They're sending Gradic to the Hague. The way the tribunal's going, he could die of old age before his case comes up.”

The Shock Factor
Well, sort of the reverse really. As season two opens we find ourselves in exactly the same spot, as if time has frozen until we can again rejoin Tom, and there he is, standing helplessly outside the door of his house with his girlfriend and her daughter trapped inside, a bomb about to go off. When the bomb does explode, it's pretty masterful writing as we're led to believe it's his house that's going up, but in fact unbeknownst to us the scene has changed and we are now looking at the home, or former home, of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who has just been killed by the Irish group.

This sort of cliffhanger ending would disappear in later seasons. Although there would be a cliffhanger, it would be resolved literally in the last seconds of the episode. Maybe it was too much for audiences to wait to find out what had happened, maybe ratings were dipping, I don't know. But you'll see it in future seasons, where at the point you expect they'll freeze the action at the end of a season they just push it on that little bit more so that things are resolved. Disappointing really.

Also worthy of note: this was the first season of Spooks to run for ten episodes, unlike the first which only had six. From this on in, there would be ten episodes per season.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Back when I started up this journal, over a year ago now, and I presented a list of series I intended to cover (a large percentage of which have been or are being featured, with more waiting in the wings for imminent release) Unknown Soldier brought up the subject of Doctor Who. Would I be looking at that long-running (longest-ever running) BBC science-fiction drama? I thought about it and I said it was unlikely, given what I had already in the pipeline, but that if I did attempt it it would only be from the “rebirth” of 2005 onwards. In other words, I would only be looking at the “New Who”, when the show was reimagined by Russell T. Davies with Christopher Eccleston in the role of the ninth Doctor. Why? I’ll tell you what I told him at the time.

Although I watched the series when it was on BBC when I was a lad, I did this for reasons that the younger ones among you will find hard to relate to. The first reason was that back then, in the seventies, we had about four TV channels. There was no digital telly and we didn’t even own a video recorder --- in fact, for much of my earlier youth videos were not even invented or at least commercially available. So you had to choose carefully what you wanted to watch, and it could run like this on a Saturday evening: RTE (Irish national TV station) showing the news and the Late Late Show (boring chat show), UTV (Ulster TV, the “Northern Irish” part of our viewing, even though it was an English channel --- think Channel 4 before there was a Channel 4) maybe Coronation Street (soap opera that has been running for 14,509 years now), BBC 1 might have sports results or some gameshow and BBC 2 would be showing Doctor Who. Now, for a 10-15 year old, bored with no internet or XBox, no mobile phone, no computer even, such a choice was obvious and a no-brainer.

The second reason was that I was already becoming a fan of science-fiction, so whether it was a movie about giant ants, a cartoon with rockets in it or even a dry documentary about going to the moon, I was in. Star Trek, Blake's 7, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (yeah I know!), Battlestar Galactica ... I watched them all, devoured them with the almost insatiable hunger of the young and bored and restless. And Doctor Who, terrible though it actually was, fit right in to these preferences. Thirdly, I watched it because if you didn't then they might be discussing it at school and you'd be left out of the conversation if you hadn't seen it. As I said, there were no video recorders so you watched it there and then or you didn't get to see it at all. Finally, like every young boy at the time, then and since, I watched it because it had girls in it. Well, one girl. But many of the other sci-fi shows did not, though some did. It sort of tilted the balance and made up your mind if you were wavering. Then there was the music. Iconic, spooky, scary, always something to look forward to on a Saturday, even if the episode itself left rather a lot to be desired.

So basically we watched Doctor Who because it was the best out of what was showing. I’m quite certain now that if I had the choice, with the hundreds of channels, SKY Plus box, internet, videogames and a hundred other distractions we have now, I would not choose to watch classic Who. In fact, it showed a while back and I wasn’t interested. The thing is, Classic Who, to me, was terrible. I know Urban and Unknown Soldier will want to crucify me or feed me to the Daleks for that comment, but it was. The sets were shaky, the acting often awful, the scripts laughable and the effects largely non-existent. I’m not saying that to get at Doctor Who specifically; back then, the budgets weren’t available and the technology did not exist to allow any sci-fi show to realise its true potential. As the seventies turned to the eighties and into the nineties, and more updated techniques came to the fore, and with the rise of CGI and digital television, on into HD and 3D, television science-fiction strode forward in leaps and bounds. But back then, in the sixties and seventies, the possibilities were very limited.

The result being that shows like Doctor Who, Lost in space and others looked crap. But to be fair, it wasn’t just the sets or the effects. Blake's Seven was a show that came up around the same time as I was watching Doctor Who and though its effects were equally terrible, and some of the acting as bad, the stories were much better overall. US asked me to include that show too, and well the jury’s still out: at the moment I’m finding it hard to even find a source for the show before I can even think of reviewing it, so please stand by but don’t hold your breath. The point I’m making here is that, were there anything better on at the time I doubt I would have watched the original Doctor Who, and now that there is, I would not even think of going back to watch it. Urban is doing a great job on it in his “Doctor Who thing”, but mostly --- and I realise this is because he intentionally started with the worst episodes first --- he’s laughing at it, saying how bad it was and just basically taking the piss out of it. I feel that way when I occasionally catch an episode, and I find it hard to believe that the “New Who” is based on that original show at all. It’s light years ahead of its parent, but of course with the passage of time you would expect, even demand that. Look at “new” Battlestar Galactica compared to the original, or even Star Trek: the Next Generation beside classic Trek. The series has to grow, expand, mature, both in terms of effects, settings, acting and storylines, and in its appeal to the ever-changing audience demographic. Original Trek was for young boys who wanted adventures in space, whereas “new” Trek concerned itself more with political and environmental issues, and gave much more powerful and dominant roles to women, who had been mostly relegated to the equivalent of answering the phones in original Trek: receptionists in space, indeed.

So the new Doctor Who targeted a double demographic: those who had grown up on the original and those who had never seen it, but would nevertheless appreciate a well-written, well-constructed and above all enjoyable show. Which just happened to be a sci-fi one. Original Who was very much up its own arse and there was little, as I remember it, real humour or self-deprecation about it. New Who changes all that, and with its, so far, three incarnations of the Doctor and a new one on the way, has won new fans and probably in all likelihood alienated many purists who grump and fold their arms and complain that it’s become a “kids’ show”, forgetting that originally that was the audience at which Doctor Who was aimed in the sixties.

You surely know the basics of the show one way or another. If you’ve been following Urban’s Doctor Who Thing (and if not, I expect a very good explanation on my desk Monday morning at nine o’clock!) he’ll have filled you in on the basic premise of the series, but very briefly The Doctor (no other name, and no he’s not called Doctor Who) is a Timelord, an alien from a race of time-travellers who live on a planet called Gallifrey and basically police the universe. After many run-ins with humans the Doctor has come to grow fond, and indeed protective of the Earth, and fights many enemies who wish to destroy, enslave, sell or otherwise mess with our home planet. Oddly, he has no special powers per se --- he’s not a superhero --- but he does have the benefit of over nine hundred years’ experience to draw on, and as he goes from adventure to adventure his fame --- and respect for him --- has spread, to the point where often the mere mention of his name has been enough to scatter whole invading battlefleets, who suddenly think well maybe Orisis IX in the Crab Nebula was a much nicer planet: let’s invade there instead! He also has the undoubted advantage of not really dying: he can "regenerate", that is, take on a new form, each time he comes close to death. But the number of regenerations is limited, otherwise he'd be immortal. At the time of the rebirth of the series he is on his ninth incarnation.

The Doctor travels through time and space in his spaceship, a blue old-style fifties police box called the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), and almost always has a human companion with him, nearly always female. The Companion keeps him grounded, reminds him who he is and stops him occasionally going off the deep end. One or two have been instrumental in saving his life too. He has many enemies, of whom the best known are of course the Daleks (or, if you live in Ireland, Dar-licks!) and the Cybermen, who all for some unknown reason seem to think Earth is the place to be. You’d think there’d be enough planets across time and space for them to hassle but no, they always have to come knocking on our door.

I used to read my sci-fi/cult TV mags and note with amusement the campaigns for, rumours of and denials about the return of Doctor Who. After all, it was cancelled by the BBC in 1989, and looked a dead duck. But fan campaigns persisted, people speculated on how, when and who, and finally, after more controversy than a reunion of Pink Floyd or the Beatles, the word was officially out: Doctor Who was returning, and it would be better than ever. I suppose someone in an office in BBC Towers must have finally realised this could be a huge moneyspinner, and cash speaks loudest. Therefore on March 26 2005, almost nine years to the day as I write this (well, a few weeks off) Christopher Eccleston, who had made his name in series like Cracker, Our friends in the north and Clocking off, as well as movies like Existenz, 28 days later and The Others, stepped onto our TV screens as the hard-man northerner ninth incarnation of the Doctor, and after sixteen years the BBC’s enfant terrible was back. And it was indeed better.

Unlike Urban, I’ll be doing my usual on the series. I may take an occasional pot-shot at some gaffe or unfortunate error of judgement in storywriting but I will generally be taking this seriously. There were, undoubtedly, bad episodes across the so-far eight season run of “New Who” (which, for the sake of my sanity and the preservation of inverted commas everywhere I will only refer to from here on in as Doctor Who, with the explicit understanding that I am only talking about the new series) but the good mostly outweighed the bad, and when they were good sometimes they were very very good indeed. I’ll be starting my coverage soon, and some of my material may indeed dovetail with what Urban is writing. So if you want a straightforward, serious look at how New Who (last time I’ll use the phrase I promise) beats the crap out of Old Who, check out this journal. If you want comments on how bad Old Who could be, read Urban. Or better yet, read us both. We’re sort of doing the same thing, though in two extremely different ways.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Urban Hat€monger ?

I don't think Blake's 7 had better writing than Doctor Who. I think Blake's 7 strength was it had more defined characters and a bigger regular cast that it could write for.
It was the interplay between the characters that made it compelling to watch.

I don't think it's a coincidence that my favourite Blake's 7 episodes were written by Robert Holmes who consistently wrote some of Doctor Who's best stories over a 17 year period and who was script editor during the peak of it's popularity during Tom Baker's first 3 series.

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Unknown Soldier

As you know I couldn't disagree with you more on original Doctor Who. The concept is actually amazing and still the best I've seen in a sci-fi series. I would say as far as science fiction world's go it's the richest and most diverse sci-fi world out there and more interesting than the Star trek universe overall. Trek probably has a larger worldwide fanbase for the simple reason it gave better attention to its aesthetics and its brilliant use of colour back in the 1960s and then moved into big budget movies in the 1980s. Also the concept of Trek is far more realistic of course than Doctor Who could ever be, but who necessarily wants realism in a sci-fi series? Sure the acting and sets on Doctor Who were generally bad but the stories and races pretty amazing and of course every series has its dire episodes (which Urban is covering) Doctor Who as a series is really an acquired taste.

Doctor Who was always amazing for me for the simple reason that I grew up with the novels of the series and like with every novel you visualize everything. Despite growing up with the BBC and in the UK old Doctor Who back then was very seldom repeated and you'd get the odd showing and I mean odd showing of the older series. Most Who followers just had to watch the current series as it was and as you said there was no video releases of the older stories for many a year, which made the novels of all the earlier Doctors an amazing thing to have.

Blake's 7 another amazing series and right out of the 70s Who catalogue for style. It was far bleaker than Who and had a greater character development and kind of goes hand in hand with 70s Who.

I've now got more into new Who, but the series is far less interesting than the classic series and like most shows today it's largely aimed at getting ratings.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Trollheart

As fas as B7 goes, I would agree that to some extent the interaction between the characters was one of the things that made the show (remember Avon trying to convince Vila that he needed him to help dump the neutron star fragment, when only moments before he had been quite willing to kick him off the ship in order to lighten the load?) but I think the stories were really good too. The whole idea of Blake being railroaded and becoming a reluctant revolutionary, and Avon's eventual rise to power was pretty unique in sci-fi, even drama of the time.

But it was either a clever twist or a really bad idea to call the authority in the show the Federation, and more, to make them evil. People --- myself definitely included --- had grown up with the idea of Star Trek's Federation, and they were definitely seen as the good guys (until DS9 skewed things), so to get used to the idea of the Federation being the evil oppressors was I think hard. And they could have called them anything; why the Federation I never understood. But yes, between Blake's 7 and Space:1999 (another one under consideration: can I have three extra sets of arms grafted on please? Oh, and make the day 30 hours long while you're at it!) they were two of the darkest sci-fi shows on telly, long before the likes of Galactica or Babylon 5 showed up.

I do admit my memory of classic Who is very hazy but other than I think "The Green Death" I don't recall being excited about any of the stories. I would seriously argue that "New Who" is MORE interesting than "Classic Who", though I guess I can't really as I don't remember that much of the latter. However I think it's definitely come on in leaps and bounds, though in some ways it has become something of a parody of itself to a degree. I'm not sure it's a show you can be into both sides of: seems like you're either a Classic nut or a Current nut (not bun); guess which side I fall on?

Still, I'll be interested in both your comments when my coverage does begin. If either of you know how to get at Blake's 7 without having to shell out for the DVDs please let me know. Netflix ain't got it and I don't see anything on YouTube, and these days it's almost impossible for me to(r)rent anything, if yiz get my drift... I think I'd like to take it on, but I need a source.

Oh yeah: throw Space:1999 in there too. God, when will I ever sleep?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Urban Hat€monger ?

blakes7rocks: his videos on Dailymotion

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