Bugs

Well, Bugs started off with all the promise in the world. Season one was about finding its feet, which it did quite nicely by season two. The end of the second season was fantastic, and we all thought nothing could better it. Wrong. Season three gave the characters personal lives and a whole new situation. It became one of the most watchable shows in the usually dead end summer holidays. But we know what comes before a fall. And season four was definitely that. Changes in actors, naff schedules led many people to switch off what once had us reaching for the 'on' button on a Saturday night.

I used to be a devotee of this show; every Saturday night without fail was spent watching BBC 1's finest Saturday night show (admittedly there wasn't much competition). I loved it; the bangs, the fires, the fights, the hi-tec gadgetry.

And then I stopped.

What happened?

Steve Houghton. There is NO WAY he should ever have been brought into the show; Craig McLachlan was infinitely better as Ed, bringing some humour into the role and convincing viewers that he was a vaulable member of the team. Steve seems to convey the impression of being there just to make up the numbers. Sorry Steve fans out there, but he just isn't right for this show, and it was highly unsurprising that the show was axed. And a shame too, because it was once a great show.

The first series, apart from the epsiode "Assasins Inc." I thought was very good. For the first time in many years the BBC had applied a proper budget to a drama programme and added an element of SF/fantasy. Brian Celmins (who helped devise The Avengers) was a story consultant and the whole thing worked well.

After that things tended to go downhill, with the scripts getting less believable even though today, some years on, the idea of a computer virus attempting to take over the world through the internet isn't quite as far-fetched as we thought!

There were some entertaining episodes in later years but the ratings dropped from an excellent 9-10 million in the first series to more like 6 million I believe, and the BBC pulled the plug after four series.

the premise of this series is very good and the original cast of Jaye Griffiths,Jesse Birdsall and Craig Mclachlan are charismatic. The show has a very distinctive look and yet somehow the episodes are tepid and uninvolving.It is not just the reliance on technobabble or the poorly-staged action and stunts.The series is simply less than the sum of its parts.The problem was compounded in later years as changes to the format meant that the number of recurring characters was almost doubled and the already thin plotlines were spread pretty thinly between them. The final straw came when Craig Mclachlan left and was replaced by Steven Houghton as the same character.He was simply a dull wet piece of wood and enjoyed none of the rapport with his colleagues which had come naturally to his predecessor. The audience turned away in droves and the BBC stopped transmitting halfway through the series.

When I first started watching bugs when I was about 9, I through it was one of the best programs around. However as I got older the shows cracks started to show, the sometimes rather poor special effects and general things that did not make sense.

However, when Bugs was at its best it really did quite well, for example the "Cyberax" storyline really captured my imagination and when they did get round to doing the Special effects right, they did them well. I still enjoy watching the show on DVD and to me, it still has not lost its charm despite the noticeable errors.

It is my opinion that the show should be remembered well because of how fun it was. Bugs may not have lived up completely to the standards of cool gadgets and supper villains of James Bond or the Avengers, but it still packed some very interesting characters and organisations, i.e. "Jean Daniel" and "The Hive".

P.S Why did Craig McLachlan leave the show after series three???