TV Gold

Good morning all, lets start something new today... <!--emo&:D-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> <!--emo&:P-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->

In the mid 90?s the BBC presented us with a high tech adventure series in the spirit of former Brian Clements creations ?The Professionals? and ?The New Avengers?. These weekly stories which brought our heroes against all manner of megalomaniac characters determined on some diabolical scheme was a ratings hit and, I believe, rather broke the cosy Saturday evening programming schedule mould in the way the current Doctor Who series is doing.

Personally I find that each of the four seasons that the series ran for have their own ?feel? to them. Beginning in 1995 the run of ten episodes was rather a vibrant establishing period as the regulars settle in. This begins with opening story ?Out of the Hive? with ?Nick Beckett? being sacked from his job and contacting the new owner/manager of technical gadgets company ?Gizmos?, Ros Henderson gains employment alongside this forthright individual alongside her unemployed neighbour Ed. Their base in Season One is rather primitive looking like some kind of large metal cage in a barely refurbished warehouse. I felt their precarious initial financial situation is further illustrated by the tiny cars (ancient Peugeot 205 and Fiat Punto Cabrio) that Ros uses. For me the most memorable opening season episode is ?Assassin?s Inc? featuring the target specific flying killing devices.

Now with their shakedown year behind them, season two shows a greater sense of confidence (further strengthen in the occasional relaxed incidental music pieces interspersed between the action sequences) and their much classier looking base reflected this. Once again this is further illustrated by Ros getting a car upgrade, this year now driving a Ford Escort cabriolet. The second year is indeed dominated Gareth Marks whose softly spoken ?infant terrible? character Jean-Daniel stalks the characters endeavours throughout the 1996 episodes. This years run of stories launches with the impressive two part tale ?What goes up?? & ??Must come down? about a continually sabotaged space shuttle mission to launch a satellite. Flicking through this years other stories and I have a fondness for the computer controlled dog featuring in the eighth tale entitled ?Newton?s Run?. Still retaining a degree of excitement to this day the season concludes with another two parter. In ?The Bureau of Weapons? and ?A Cage For Satan? the team finally tackle Jean-Daniel directly as their adversary utilises Cyberax to create worldwide havoc.

On its original transmission I rather felt that after two years the series had rather run its cause. I?d followed it avidly and taped virtually every episode transmitted however this was a period when I was going through a ?oh my god I?m recording too much, must cut down? and started to drift away from BUGS, although vaguely aware that it was continuing. This was indeed, I have recently learnt, a great mistake as season three, in my opinion the best of the entire series. With the disillusionment of Gizmos the three lead characters join ?the establishment? working for the secretive government department ?Bureau 2? headed up by Jan Harvey?s D.O.I.C. character codenamed ?Jan?. A second regular female character also joined the series with Paula Hunt?s Alex Jordan whom formed a close working (and romantic) relationship with Ed. In fact the sense of family and character development was probably at its height during this year with Nick Beckett?s financial problems leading to him living on a canal boat being a good example of this. There was a ?will they won?t they? aspect to Beckett and Ros romantic relationship permeating through the third season which was unsettled by Ros being courted by wealthy recurring character Channing Hardy. Although not featuring as many dramatic and explosive set pieces that appeared the previous two years this particular run features my all time favourite episode, the season three finale ?Renegades? which still sends a chill down my spine every time I watch it. In this story three people comatosed from the effects of their encounter with Cyberax last year come back to life and attempt, at any costs, to reactivate the super computer organism.

The fourth and final season of BUGS sees another change in the series dynamics as the series attempts to continue in much the same vain as last year however there was one destabilising element. After three year Craig McLaughlan decided to move on. Rather than bring in a new character which would, I feel, have been the better course of action, the makers decided to recast the character and, with the greatest respect Steven Houghton?s interpretation of Ed was rather distracting to the established portrayal viewers had gained from Craig?s three years on the show. Although the episodes dramatic tone and character interaction echoed season three (we even meet Nick Beckett?s father (Stephen Yardley) in ?The Two Beckett?s? story) it was certainly feeling like a subtly different show, not helped by the rather erratic scheduling that the BBC allocated these ten episodes. Don?t get me wrong I?m not denigrating this fourth run of ten episodes as there are indeed some great stories. The most memorable of which is the evil brothers featured in the eighth story ?Twin Geeks?. However the thing that really goes against the final run is the season (and as it turned out series) finale ?The Enemy Within?, the final scene clearly setting up for a resolution in a fifth season which maddenly never materialised.

Now in a point to fully appreciate the entire forty episode run of the series through my copy of the four DVD box sets (backed up with reasonable text and photo gallery extras) I certainly feel that these stories still feel as contemporary today (featuring modern day items like email, internet, computer technology and digital cameras). If you?re aware, forgotten about or curious of BUGS I can certainly recommend the series. My only criticism about the release is after patiently collecting each DVD box set during mid 2004 is that its recently released ?entitle series? box set features a bonus disc only available through this collection with interviews with the creator and I am certainly not prepared to shell out further money just to get this essential extra.

Lets see what you remember/think of this purely escapist series, just a bit of harmless fun surely??

p.s. the official Carnival films website has finally disappeared however a new impressive looking site has recently been launched. Whilst fairly embronic at present it certainly has the potential to be an interesting and highly detailed piece of work.

Find it at: <a href='http://www.jonathan-davies.net/bugs/briefing.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.jonathan-davies.net/bugs/briefing.htm</a>

caio

Sarah
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Noticing guest stars unexpected cropping up whilst watching something. Don?t you just love it? <!--emo&:D-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->

Well the other night I was watching three episodes from season three of this fast paced exciting series, each of which featured actors I know from other productions.

In episode four, entitled ?Hollow Man? the principal ruthless villain of the piece Lewis Drake was portrayed by Thomas Wheatley. Quite a change of character from his James Bond film role. In ?The Living Daylights? he assists Timothy Dalton?s secret agent in Vienna as rather meek character Saunders. In the next fifth episode (appropriate called ?Nuclear Family?) we find elderly actor Trevor Peacock as Russian President Rostov. Not immediately apparent where I?d seen him before but if you imagine him wearing thick smoked glass glasses the image of Doctor Stephen Daker?s superior Reynard Krapowski in the spin off ?A Very Polish Practice? feature. Not so easy to identify was actor Rudolph Walker?s contribution to the sixth ?Fugitive? story. Here playing the ?gone bad? Special Services Division Chief Gage his Jamaican vocal tones lead me to guess that he is the same man to have appeared in the ?Love Thy Neighbour? sitcom back in the 70s. <!--emo&:huh:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huh.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->

Now aside from these episodes there are other notable appearances from earlier in the series run. A classic example would be the two actors appearing in lead roles in the opening two part season two story ?What Goes Up??/??Must Go Down?. We know him primarily as ?Bergerac?s? boss Crozier however it?s good to see Sean Arnold featuring as mission control character Colonel Stone. Also featuring, here playing power crazed Katuma Deputy President Chuku we find the familiar features of David Yip. Yip, as you will know most known for his ?Chinese Detective? series (worthy of another airing?) and (maybe) to a lesser extent as CIA agent Chuck Lee in the James Bond film ?A View To A Kill?. Lastly for the time being, trotting back to season one and episode three (?All Under Control?) of that particular run features an appearance by Tom Chadbon as Airport Technical Director Richard Wyman. In Cult TV terms he is probably best remembered for his roles of Duggan (in November 2005 Doctor Who DVD release ?City of Death?) and Grant (in season two?s Blake?s Seven story ?Countdown?)

I can?t really recall from the last time I watched it whether there were any other notable guest stars in season four, something I hope to redress when I plan to return to my DVD set of this particular run of episodes in the near future. Whatever I hope I?ve given you some idea that as a popular series BUGS certainly attracted notable guest stars to the assembled story cast over the four years that the series was made.
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Currently strolling through season four on Thursday evenings I last night noticed Stephen Yardley playing 'Nick Beckett's' 'rogue agent' dad in 'The Two Beckett's'

The episode is also notable as there is a scene shot opposite the Millennium Dome, certainly something I'm sure we all have views on. Personally I thought it was great when it was first built (effectively used as it was to usher the 21st century in on December 31 1999) despite the political fall out but now it's difficult to see the point of it. I hear it's now going to be a music venue.

Anyway in the tense 'bad guys holding the good guys at gun point' you can see the London landmark behind them very early on in it's initial construction. The white cover is missing although you can see the yellow support struts reaching skywards on a rather overcast day.

caio
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Just watching the last three episodes of Season Four last evening and wanted to ask a question...

In 'Money Spiders' (episode nine) there is a scene set in a garden like area above a railway station. Behind the characters you can clearly see Tower Bridge'. Now my knowledge of London is practically non-existant so could anyone tell me what train station this is and is this roof-top area accessable to the public???
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Just as a point of interest, about three or so weeks ago I wrote a highly detailed review of the Season Three, episode ten story 'Renegades'. Of all the forty episodes that this series produced it is, IMHO, by far and away the finest story made and always 'chills me to the bone' whenever I watch it. It was really as a means of 'exorcising' these feelings that I ended up putting together 2,400 words to adequately do justice to the major strengths of this episode.

I am not keen on posting it here at TV Gold however I don't know where else this would best be served. I'm looking around for a better place for it to feature and will report back when I hear something.

with best wishes

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Well it's about bloody time! <!--emo&:angry:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->

I have finally found somewhere to offer up my review of the season three finale story entitled <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'>'Renegades'</span></span>. Please feel free to check it out, offer up your thoughts on what I have said. It is a story that I feel very, very passionate about

<a href='http://www.tv.com/bugs/show/6755/reviews.html' target='_blank'>http://www.tv.com/bugs/show/6755/reviews.html</a>

I'm sorry to get so worked up about this but I wrote this concise piece I believe, some time during May 2005 and I have really begun to seriously wonder if there would be anywhere entirely suitable for it to sit.

I could have put it here, but I rather wanted it somewhere purpose built for lengthy reviews.

Anyway I'm happy now that it's up there.
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For those of you the remember the bbc show of the 90's called BUGS

If you loved that show and wish it could be on our screens once more

please show your support at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5 ... 534&ref=mf

and support the BRING BACK BUGS campaign by signing th petition at
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/24306...

thanks