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What happens when an evil geek starts flying planes by remote control? Bad jokes mostly. Also squeaking, intense staring, and lots and lots of bright green mood lighting. And a bad guy who helpfully kills himself in the final reel, as usual.
A private plane flies towards an airstrip, and all is fine and dandy - when suddenly the pilot loses control. Somebody else is flying the plane, and clearly has some kind of point to make. Oh noes! Control is eventually returned to the pilot, and shortly afterwards the airport receives a threat from somebody who calls himself Icarus, who has no respect for punctuation. Immediately the airport manager calls in the Bugs team - because they just started up a week ago, and already everybody in the entire world is calling them. They've got some seriously good advertising. And the police are so passé. The team arrive with their flashy little headsets, and their detectors for all known forms of radio transmitting equipment, and set about trying to find out how somebody got ahold of the plane. The sheer obviousness of the identity of this week's bad guys should surely be clear to three alleged geniuses, so we'll assume that they're over-looking it in order to avoid making the local security team look bad. Which is nice of them. It's not easy to stay clueless, though. Ed nearly gets several tonnes of equipment dropped on his head whilst chasing a suspect, only for the airport head techie expert to 'suddenly' arrive on the scene, extremely breathless as though he'd just been in a chase. Nobody seems to find this suspicious. Apparently they're only any good with things that have little flashing lights on them. And things that go 'beep'.
The airport manager gets a nasty surprise when somebody else decides to fly her plane.
You have to love a bad guy who has plot-relevant desk ornamentation.
And fabulously over-dramatic décor.
Although he really needs to acquaint himself with a passing knowledge of fullstops. Or commas; I'd settle for a comma.
Another aeroplane comes in for the Icarus treatment; this time a jet filled with holidaymakers. At the last possible moment the pilot is given back control, and Icarus immediately makes a demand for five million pounds; although the complete lack of punctuation makes it look as though he's demanding the money from himself, which is an odd form of extortion. The hunt is on to find out who's responsible. Given that the list of suspects basically includes a man who keeps trying to perfect a sinister stare, and the local technological genius who designed the really clever computerised navigation system/auto-pilot used by all of the planes at the airstrip, I can't help thinking that it shouldn't take too much to guess. But apparently it does. The gang decide to have another examination of the first plane, but whilst Ros is still inside it, Icarus takes the opportunity to fly off with it for no apparent reason. Ros doesn't seem to think that jumping out might be a good idea, and instead feels that a free flight on Evil Loony Airlines would be a much better way to spend her evening. Ed and Beckett now have to race to save her, as well as everything else.
Ed's binoculars aren't nearly as big as Beckett's.
Hello [gasp] I'm [gasp] in charge of techy things here [gasp], and it's in no way [gasp] suspicious [pant] that I'm all out of [gasp gulp pant] breath just after you've been [gasp] chasing somebody.
It really honestly wasn't me. [collapse]
Yes, I invented the amazing computer-controlled auto-pilot, and yes, I'm an amazing genius. Yes, yes, absolutely I can do anything with computers, and yes, my equipment is on all of these planes, but nobody can possibly tamper with any of it. Except me, obviously. But gosh no, I'm not at all evil.
Would you like a cup of tea?
Icarus is really Davros! In a beige cardigan, which is unexpected.
Oh dear. Intense green lighting moment.
Well he's not acting at all suspicious, is he.
A not especially significant moment, but it was forever immortalised in the opening credits, so somebody must have liked it.
They should develop one of these things for people. Stick your finger in a socket, and have something with lots of little flashing lights on it tell you if your viruses are fatal or not. But with a little smiley face, obviously, to make you feel better.
Pretty airport lights.
Green alert! Also, the airport manager appears to have developed laser eyes. Which is pretty cool.
Ros is less than impressed, though. Her free flight aboard Nutball Airlines is not going as well as she'd hoped. To add insult to injury, the bloke in the communications tower is spectacularly unhelpful. Yes, she knows that she's not cleared for take-off, thanks.
The cameraman seems to have a real fondness for zooming in on poor little Icarus's shiny backside. I don't think it's especially significant to the plot, though.
Intense green moment. Ros has tried to disable the remote control device, but this has made the aeroplane rebel. She speeds speedily towards the ground. Helpfully, the bloke in the control tower tells her that she's flying a bit low.
The aeroplane itself is also full of handy hints.
Ros is not wildly impressed by this. After a bit of buffetting and near disaster, she reconnects the Icarus device.
Then a quick (if unexpected) impersonation of Travis from Blake's 7 allows her to figure out the transmitter wavelength. Ed decides to track it to its source.
Obligatory flashy lights tech!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I believe somebody mentioned a ransom? Beckett decides to be very clever, and plants tiny electronic devices all over it, then gives chase in his gigantic Cherokee jeep. Subtlety has never been his strong point. As Ed dashes to find Icarus, Beckett discovers that - well, gosh! - Mr Sinister Stare over at the airport is an inside man, really working for Icarus. I know. It's always the ones you least suspect. Before either Ed or Beckett can catch up with their respective targets, the world's most obvious crook shoots the world's other most obvious crook, and then legs it. Ed arrives to find a dead computer genius, and Ros's plane hurtling towards a nearby village. Beckett meanwhile switches to intercept mode, and decides that roads are way boring. He therefore dashes - well, more sort of ambles, really - across some fields and stuff. Ed manages to figure out how to guide Ros's plane to safety, and then the bad guy crashes into a lorry just to wrap things up nicely. Miraculously for this show, he doesn't then explode. Still, you can't have everything.
Shiny.
Ed does his best Peter Fonda impersonation. But with a helmet, as this is the BBC.
Whilst Beckett films his own little advert for the off-roading capabilities of his jeep.
And gets shot at, because that's what he's there for. The bad guy really should have been looking where he was going, though. That sort of driving will only ever lead to disaster. And bad jokes.
I bet the only reason they didn't blow him up is because the car had all the money onboard.
Next time on Bugs, everybody goes for a nice dip in the sea.
A private plane flies towards an airstrip, and all is fine and dandy - when suddenly the pilot loses control. Somebody else is flying the plane, and clearly has some kind of point to make. Oh noes! Control is eventually returned to the pilot, and shortly afterwards the airport receives a threat from somebody who calls himself Icarus, who has no respect for punctuation. Immediately the airport manager calls in the Bugs team - because they just started up a week ago, and already everybody in the entire world is calling them. They've got some seriously good advertising. And the police are so passé. The team arrive with their flashy little headsets, and their detectors for all known forms of radio transmitting equipment, and set about trying to find out how somebody got ahold of the plane. The sheer obviousness of the identity of this week's bad guys should surely be clear to three alleged geniuses, so we'll assume that they're over-looking it in order to avoid making the local security team look bad. Which is nice of them. It's not easy to stay clueless, though. Ed nearly gets several tonnes of equipment dropped on his head whilst chasing a suspect, only for the airport head techie expert to 'suddenly' arrive on the scene, extremely breathless as though he'd just been in a chase. Nobody seems to find this suspicious. Apparently they're only any good with things that have little flashing lights on them. And things that go 'beep'.
The airport manager gets a nasty surprise when somebody else decides to fly her plane.
You have to love a bad guy who has plot-relevant desk ornamentation.
And fabulously over-dramatic décor.
Although he really needs to acquaint himself with a passing knowledge of fullstops. Or commas; I'd settle for a comma.
Another aeroplane comes in for the Icarus treatment; this time a jet filled with holidaymakers. At the last possible moment the pilot is given back control, and Icarus immediately makes a demand for five million pounds; although the complete lack of punctuation makes it look as though he's demanding the money from himself, which is an odd form of extortion. The hunt is on to find out who's responsible. Given that the list of suspects basically includes a man who keeps trying to perfect a sinister stare, and the local technological genius who designed the really clever computerised navigation system/auto-pilot used by all of the planes at the airstrip, I can't help thinking that it shouldn't take too much to guess. But apparently it does. The gang decide to have another examination of the first plane, but whilst Ros is still inside it, Icarus takes the opportunity to fly off with it for no apparent reason. Ros doesn't seem to think that jumping out might be a good idea, and instead feels that a free flight on Evil Loony Airlines would be a much better way to spend her evening. Ed and Beckett now have to race to save her, as well as everything else.
Ed's binoculars aren't nearly as big as Beckett's.
Hello [gasp] I'm [gasp] in charge of techy things here [gasp], and it's in no way [gasp] suspicious [pant] that I'm all out of [gasp gulp pant] breath just after you've been [gasp] chasing somebody.
It really honestly wasn't me. [collapse]
Yes, I invented the amazing computer-controlled auto-pilot, and yes, I'm an amazing genius. Yes, yes, absolutely I can do anything with computers, and yes, my equipment is on all of these planes, but nobody can possibly tamper with any of it. Except me, obviously. But gosh no, I'm not at all evil.
Would you like a cup of tea?
Icarus is really Davros! In a beige cardigan, which is unexpected.
Oh dear. Intense green lighting moment.
Well he's not acting at all suspicious, is he.
A not especially significant moment, but it was forever immortalised in the opening credits, so somebody must have liked it.
They should develop one of these things for people. Stick your finger in a socket, and have something with lots of little flashing lights on it tell you if your viruses are fatal or not. But with a little smiley face, obviously, to make you feel better.
Pretty airport lights.
Green alert! Also, the airport manager appears to have developed laser eyes. Which is pretty cool.
Ros is less than impressed, though. Her free flight aboard Nutball Airlines is not going as well as she'd hoped. To add insult to injury, the bloke in the communications tower is spectacularly unhelpful. Yes, she knows that she's not cleared for take-off, thanks.
The cameraman seems to have a real fondness for zooming in on poor little Icarus's shiny backside. I don't think it's especially significant to the plot, though.
Intense green moment. Ros has tried to disable the remote control device, but this has made the aeroplane rebel. She speeds speedily towards the ground. Helpfully, the bloke in the control tower tells her that she's flying a bit low.
The aeroplane itself is also full of handy hints.
Ros is not wildly impressed by this. After a bit of buffetting and near disaster, she reconnects the Icarus device.
Then a quick (if unexpected) impersonation of Travis from Blake's 7 allows her to figure out the transmitter wavelength. Ed decides to track it to its source.
Obligatory flashy lights tech!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I believe somebody mentioned a ransom? Beckett decides to be very clever, and plants tiny electronic devices all over it, then gives chase in his gigantic Cherokee jeep. Subtlety has never been his strong point. As Ed dashes to find Icarus, Beckett discovers that - well, gosh! - Mr Sinister Stare over at the airport is an inside man, really working for Icarus. I know. It's always the ones you least suspect. Before either Ed or Beckett can catch up with their respective targets, the world's most obvious crook shoots the world's other most obvious crook, and then legs it. Ed arrives to find a dead computer genius, and Ros's plane hurtling towards a nearby village. Beckett meanwhile switches to intercept mode, and decides that roads are way boring. He therefore dashes - well, more sort of ambles, really - across some fields and stuff. Ed manages to figure out how to guide Ros's plane to safety, and then the bad guy crashes into a lorry just to wrap things up nicely. Miraculously for this show, he doesn't then explode. Still, you can't have everything.
Shiny.
Ed does his best Peter Fonda impersonation. But with a helmet, as this is the BBC.
Whilst Beckett films his own little advert for the off-roading capabilities of his jeep.
And gets shot at, because that's what he's there for. The bad guy really should have been looking where he was going, though. That sort of driving will only ever lead to disaster. And bad jokes.
I bet the only reason they didn't blow him up is because the car had all the money onboard.
Next time on Bugs, everybody goes for a nice dip in the sea.
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