Production order: 13 | ITC code: 5121 | Airdate order: 08 | DVD order: 16
Those Responsible
Writer: Tony Williamson
Director: Cyril Frankel
Where & When
Heathrow Airport, London, England: December 6th
The Inexplicable Mystery
A man in pyjamas and dressing gown (no, he's not Arthur Dent) wakes up on the runway at Heathrow with clearly no idea how he got there. Before he can get away, a plane coming in to land almost hits him, causing the unfortunate gent a fatal heart attack.
The Mystery Explained
Renegade scientist Franz Dreiker has devised a high-tech brainwashing technique that can be used to induce both precisely-controlled amnesia and post-hypnotic suggestion, rendering its subjects highly obedient. Dreiker had used it on Gerald Blain, the dead man, to obtain five million pounds from his company before ordering him to commit suicide.
Review
Considering that Department S's co-creator was also a writer for undisputedly the most successful (and imitated) of all the 1960s spy-fi shows, The Avengers, it's perhaps a surprise that Interpol's equivalent of the X-Files only rarely ventured into the outright science-fictional cases often worked by John Steed and his high-kicking partners. It's a sign of the times that almost all of the episodes which push the boundaries of contemporary science involve what's now a dated-to-the-point-of-laughability gimmick: brainwashing.
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| Insert joke about listening to [popular beat combo] here. |
Big in the Sixties thanks to movies like The Manchurian Candidate and The Ipcress File, as well as general fears about communist infiltration, the idea that someone can be completely turned against every belief they hold dear and made into an unwitting agent of The Other Side by being forced to watch a hypnotic light show while wearing oversized headphones is nowadays a gimmick limited to only the cheesiest of comic-book movies. But back then it was a genuine fear, and as a result 'Six Days', 'Black Out', 'The Bones Of Byrom Blain' and this story all feature characters being mind-zapped with as much effort on the part of their controllers as ordering a pizza.
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| "I'm here to check out your figure. Figures." |
'A Ticket To Nowhere' is the only one of the quartet that makes putting the whammy on people central to the story rather than a mere plot device, and because of that it's also the best of the four, or at least the one with the courage to go all-out with the idea. The bad guys are multiple steps ahead of our heroes, because not only are they smart and suspicious enough to be prepared for contingencies like the interest of law enforcement, but Dreiker's technique means they can make anyone who gets too close forget what they've discovered - or, as happens to Gerald Blain and later Jason himself, they can simply be ordered to kill themselves.
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| Some people get very angry when you suggest their jacket is made of carpet offcuts. |
It's entertainingly done, making better use of suspense than normal; we know that the villains can implant post-hypnotic suggestions after Blain's niece Susan betrays Jason, but the good guys don't - so they blithely walk into traps even as they think they've outsmarted their opponents. Annabelle is the unsung heroine here, forcing Stewart and Jason to recall their missing days and saving the latter's life as he goes for a stroll on a Heathrow runway. Does she get a word of thanks? Of course not. Poor woman.
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| "I was going to be the Milk Tray man, but they only had Roses." |
The sole weak point in the story is that the bad guys have a bout of stupidity at a crucial moment, only asking the mind-controlled Jason about Stewart rather than also checking to see if anyone else from, er, frickin' Interpol might be with him too. But then, Jason foolishly doesn't tell his colleagues about his lead before setting off to investigate, so maybe they caught it from him. (You'd think that as a thriller author he'd be well aware of the inevitable result purely from familiarity with the genre, but perhaps the Mark Caine novels eschew such cliches.) The script also has a rather obvious contrivance up front: in a coincidence big enough to land on both Heathrow's runways simultaneously, the case Jason by chance involves himself in happens to be directly connected to the one Stewart and Annabelle are assigned by Sir Curtis. What are the odds?
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| "Annabelle, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship." |
Quibbles aside, it's one of the show's better episodes. In a parallel universe, there was a version of Department S that veered more towards The Avengers than The Baron, giving its viewers plenty of episodes like this rather than 'Dead Men Die Twice'. Not only would it have been better overall, but it might have run for more than one season and as a result saved its world from having to endure a series of Jason King. Anyone got a dimensional transporter?
Fancy Quotes
[Stewart goes undercover as a visiting American (tough role) to find out more about the dead man]
Stewart: I haven't flown all this way for the exercise, Miss, ah...
Lisa: Crane.
Stewart: Thank you.
Lisa: I'm afraid you have, Mr Sullivan. You see, Mr Blain's dead.
Stewart: Dead! Oh, that's great, this is just great. This is definitely not my week!
Lisa: It wasn't exactly Mr Blain's either.
[Annabelle quizzes the memory-lapsed Jason on what he might have done the previous night]
Jason: At this early hour of the morning, if I'm to be psychoanalysed I prefer it to be done privately, and certainly with a complete stranger.
[Annabelle suggests using the computer to work out a plan]
Jason: I think we can manage without the assistance of that overgrown, undersexed adding machine.
Annabelle: How? You can't remember where you went or who saw you, but they obviously know all about both of you.
Stewart: Blind man's bluff.
Jason: My favourite game. I think the answer's quite simple. We must allow them to trap one of us again, only this time, we'll be watching.
Annabelle: I'm sure the computer will have something much more logical to offer. [She checks a printout]
Stewart: Well?
Annabelle: It says we should let one of them trap us again and follow him.
Jason: I'd no idea those things were so brilliant!
[Jason shares a drink with the malevolent Lisa]
Jason: Here's to crime.
Lisa: And punishment.
[Jason is brainwashed into betraying Stewart]
Carter: Take Quince with you. And this time, kill Sullivan.
Jason: What a splendid idea.
Cheers!
• In his very first second on screen, Jason is enjoying a glass of whisky as he waits for his flight at Heathrow.
• When a distraught Susan turns down a drink offered by The Master, Jason instantly swoops in to claim it for himself.
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| "Oh, my dear Jason, you have been naive! And drunk." |
•Discussing the case with Stewart, Jason puts his feet up on the couch of his London pied a terre and helps his thought processes along with a wee dram.
• Jason has a second first drink with the amnesiac Susan.
• While waiting with Lisa at Waverley Grange, the scribe orders a whisky to help the time pass.
Fight!
Jason is ambushed as he and Susan enter her apartment. He puts up a surprisingly effective front at first, sending a couple of goons flying with punches from his mighty fists and quipping "Now, gentlemen - one at a time, please," but in traditional manner is soon battered into unconsciousness. KO!
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| Jason 7, Stewart 4. |
Stewart gets more than he bargained for when he jokes about wanting to see Lisa's karate skills. He's hurled across the room, then chopped into oblivion. KO!
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| Jason 7, Stewart 5. |
Hiding in the woods, Stewart decoys two of Dreiker's thugs into shooting at his empty jacket, then punches and chops their lights out.
Once inside the mad scientist's hideout, he decks another goon, Annabelle then taking down Lisa the karate black belt (impressive!), before the man in brown confronts Dreiker himself. He deals with a gunman by throwing a computer at him - a much more hefty piece of gear in the 1960s than now - and grapples the German into submission. Result.
This Looks Familiar
Susan's apartment building has the now-traditional corridor leading to her flat.
A quick coat of paint, and it transforms into the offices of the late Gerald Blain's finance company!
