Many of the Spooks early entries, as well as some of the fourth and sixth series' episodes, provided interesting and sympathetic characterizations of the intelligent but often-misguided types who were targeted by terrorist groups. The danger is that there has sprouted an epidemic, social-profiling shoot among the masses, the which preys upon these kinds of TV-fueled side-linings of anything that smells of independent thought. God forbid. Well, what is refreshing about this episode of Spooks is the script's well-balanced portrayal of an old-school Socialist as portrayed by Christopher Fairbank. The off-handed manner in which Tom and Zoe discuss his fate at the end is frightening and reveals the ugly side of the roles their characters play, which provides a realistic and thought-provoking edge to this episode. Zoe makes a comment about Fairbank's character which makes the viewer consider him as truly admirable to the extent that he has an obvious love for teaching, whereas he is not blameless for his involvement with a group which might be up to more than he is aware of. However, it is this kind of person that would make Tom consider something along these lines later on, i.e. that MI-5 sometimes leaves questionable casualties in its wake. Thank you early script-writers for presenting these juicy ethical dilemmas, they are memorable.
3 Reviews
Episode 2.3
Prismark1022 May 2019
MI5 agents in the field are in danger as the MI5 computers are being repeatedly hack by cyber terrorists.
Suspicion falls on Gordon Blaney, a member of a socialist anarchist group with a violent past. Zoe goes undercover as a teacher in a school that Blaney works in. She finds that he is just a mild mannered and dedicated teacher.
Danny goes undercover at a small socialist newspaper to find out if they have any links with cyber hacks. Danny finds that they are just paranoid nobodies.
Harry Pearce finds that the cyber attacks are linked to a dead field agent and someone traumatised by it.
I think the editing made it easier to work out the culprit in this one. The portrayal of the damaged person was done well.
Suspicion falls on Gordon Blaney, a member of a socialist anarchist group with a violent past. Zoe goes undercover as a teacher in a school that Blaney works in. She finds that he is just a mild mannered and dedicated teacher.
Danny goes undercover at a small socialist newspaper to find out if they have any links with cyber hacks. Danny finds that they are just paranoid nobodies.
Harry Pearce finds that the cyber attacks are linked to a dead field agent and someone traumatised by it.
I think the editing made it easier to work out the culprit in this one. The portrayal of the damaged person was done well.
This episode made me want to throw things at the screen
tgabber20 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Definitely the worst episode of the early series of Spooks.
A teenage 'hacker' can supposedly gain access to the MI5 computer 'inner sanctum' from his bedroom. This episode includes all the worst clichés of computer hacking in film & TV. Meaningless graphics pop up on people's screens with just a few keystrokes from him and apparently MI5 have all the lights in the building flash when someone attacks their network firewall...
Did no one look at the script and say "this is just silly"? The human drama elements of the script were OK, and there was a bit of fun to be had with Zoe going undercover as a school teacher, but it was all completely ruined with the over-the-top computer aspects.
A teenage 'hacker' can supposedly gain access to the MI5 computer 'inner sanctum' from his bedroom. This episode includes all the worst clichés of computer hacking in film & TV. Meaningless graphics pop up on people's screens with just a few keystrokes from him and apparently MI5 have all the lights in the building flash when someone attacks their network firewall...
Did no one look at the script and say "this is just silly"? The human drama elements of the script were OK, and there was a bit of fun to be had with Zoe going undercover as a school teacher, but it was all completely ruined with the over-the-top computer aspects.
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