518 – Bugs – Out of the Hive

Simon and Eugene begin their journey through a new series, the 1995 BBC techno drama, Bugs.  Is it Scifi?  We’re going to find out. Bugs is the story of three young high-tech adventures trying to make a quid or two trading off their technological wizardry and security expertise in a world filled with high-tech crooks and cyber-security threats.  Plus explosions! Synopsis: Secret Agent Balentine meets with helicopter pilot, Ed Russell.  They need to deliver an important piece of kit to a secret organization known as The Hive.  It’s top secret and the fate of the world must hinge upon its safe delivery to the Hive. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] It’s not as top secret as they hoped, though, because they are soon pursued by another helicopter, intent on forcing them to land and surrender the device.  Some keen flying and gun shooting from Ed saves the day and the device, SACROS, is delivered to the Hive.  Balentine is worried.  How did someone know about the delivery of SACROS. SACROS is a device that can intercept and shutdown any satellite transmission.  In the wrong hands, it would be very, very bad. Balentine is on the case.  He’s found the car of the woman who was attempting to get SACROS and placed a bug on it.  He calls fellow Hive agent Nick Beckett.  He doesn’t know who to trust, since someone in the Hive must be the leak.  While he talks to Nick at a phone, the woman approaches him and kills him.  Nick isn’t sure what happened, but he takes the recording of the call to his boss, Cotrell.  Cotrell will bring it to the attention of Alan, their security guy. Nick tries calling his special high-tech nerd but gets someone else, Ros, who has apparently taken over the business and the phone number.  He wants her to analyze the tape and pull out any audio clues to help figure out what happened.  He arranges to meet her later with the tape.  Rather than go through channels, he removes the tape from the archive without authorization.  Then he gets a call Dent, the big man at the Hive, and he goes for a meeting.  Dent asks him to get the file on his desk.  It was all a setup.  Nick is caught by Alan rifling through Dent’s files, and they find the missing tape on him.  They search his house and find more planted tapes.  Knowing he’s been setup, he dives from the window to escape, just as Ros shows up.  They escape together. At Ros’ apartment, we see a man making a ridiculous climb up the outside of her apartment building.  Nick, a trained agent, notices and captures the man.  It is Ed, the helicopter pilot who has super powers owing to a mishap on a school trip where he bitten by a radioactive lemur. Wait, maybe not.  I think that comes later. Anyway, it is Ed the helicopter pilot.  He lives in the building and he just doesn’t like using the lift to get to his upstairs apartment.  She’s friends with Ros.  When Ed hears about Balentine, he wants to help, too. With some high-gizmos, Ed, with Roz and Nick’s help, break into the Hive and steal the tape.  She analyzes it and determines that Balentine was shot.  A little more high-tech magic and they clear up the audio enough to know it was at a particular train station.  When they go there, they are able to pick up the short-range signal from the bug and trace it back to Elaina Johnson’s house.  She was the killer.  When Elaina leaves her house, Ed follows her while Ros and Nick search her home. Ed discovers her meeting with Alan from the Hive.  He gives her an access key to gain access to SACROS.  She gives him a bomb, which kills him. Back at Ros’ workshop, she uses more digital magic to age an old picture of Elaina that she snapped in her home.  The other person, when aged up is Cortrell.  When they head out, it turns out Cotrell was onto them, and takes the prisoner.  Yes, it turns out that Cotrell and Elaina are actually partners.  They’re invading aliens from the planet Confusiyall IV and they’ve come to Earth to…  Wait, maybe not.  I think that comes later. Luckily, Ros was carrying a tracer and Ed follows it just a moment too late to see Ros’ car crushed in a junkyard’s crusher.  Luckily, Ros got out on her own at the second to last moment.  Nick was taken elsewhere. They surveil Cotrell and plant a camera on him, watching him commit the crime and kill a fellow Hive employee.  He escapes with SACROS.  Nick is tied up at Elaina’s house.  Ed rescues him as the villains flee.  Using some high-tech magic, Ros and Nick trick the two villains into changing their plans and, after a car chase, they drive off an unfinished bridge and dis in a horrible explosion mid-air, along with SACROS.  And let that be a lesson to you kids, do not let all four wheels of a car leave the ground or the vehicle will explode! With all the evidence gone, Nick is still out of a job, but Ros has idea… [/expand]