The Guardians: Part 10 - The Nature of the Beast
I have had some difficulty getting my head round this episode, and am wondering whether it may just be me, so will apologise in advance if I've completely msiunderstood what is going on.
One of this show's great strengths, from my point of view, is that its plot involves important political or ethical issues and discusses them in a rather textbook way. If you were a particularly go-ahead teacher in 1971 you could have used this show as a discussion stimulant, or at least you could if the first video recorder, the Philips N1500 had been released then. It's probably a matter of personal taste, and no doubt both strands were included to try to make the programme more appealing to more people, but I've not been so keen on the human interest side of the show, with all the angst about relationships and whether you can love more than one person.
This episode, however is again quite different. There is no great angst about the human side in this one, and in fact it waits 45 minutes to introduce a theoretical political subject. In this case the theoretical subject is the idea that the only solution to England's situation is a complete take-over by the Communist Party and the imposition of a Communist state. This is occasioned by the introduction of a new character who explicitly represents the Communist Party and approaches the Quarmbies, ultimately suggesting the idea of a pact leading to a revolution.
Otherwise the episode is pure plot, moving the story on in one way or another. We have Tom Weston planting a bomb in a Guardians headquarters in Redditch, for example. And I have to say that if you have to go around planting bombs I can't think of a better way to do it than driving in an old Rolls Royce. We have the difficulty of Tom Weston getting hold of the tablets he's been given in the hospital so that he can avoid withdrawal, but this is also turned into a plot point.
The man who approaches the Quarmbies is a drama teacher and excellent visual use is made of his theatre as a backdrop for the discussion between him and Dr Weston.
My only criticism is that after the other episodes I found this one quite difficult to follow, and the fact it picks up a plot line from the last episode but one could have been very confusing. This could, however, reflect the way television of the time required concentration from the viewer.
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