Bugs: Complete Series 3 [DVD]

'BUGS' had a surprisingly long run for a science fiction series in this country as British TV gives science fiction very little time to find an audience. Witness the quick demises of 'The Vanishing Man' and 'Crime Traveller'(shot and made by Carnival Films in the same location as 'BUGS' series three).
Produced by Brian Eastman who also brought 'Poirot' to the screen, 'BUGS' had 'Avengers' writer/producer Brian Clemens on board as a consultant and contained contributions from 'Smallville' writer/creators Alfred Gough and Miles Miller. It attempted to create a sleek, exciting series unlike any other on British TV at that time.
It was widely predicted that this third series would be the end of Ros, Beckett and Ed but much to the surprise of the BBC the viewing figures for the series went up and a fourth series was commissioned.
The opening episodes had a troubled gestation as star Craig McLachlan wanted to be written out. The opening two parter was designed to kill him off and introduce a new leading character. When he decided to stay on at the eleventh hour the new character was discarded and the character of Ed survived.
Cleverly Carnival Films developed the series and gave their characters a new base and new positions. No longer were they freelances but working under new cast regular Jan Harvey's M figure for the reborn Bureau of Weapons.
This gave the characters a greater range of technical gadgets, more serious foes and an authority figure to kick against. With the final addition of Paula Hunt to the team, 'BUGS' series three built on the successes of previous series and dropped the more complicated arc story that confused many with series two.
It was the strongest of the four series made and its sad that this success wasn't built upon and was largely wasted in the disapointing series four.
These DVD releases finally give the public and the fans a chance to enjoy one of the few succesful science fiction series of the nineties. The DVD is excellent value for money containing as it does all ten episodes. It didn't always succeed as the 90's version of 'The Avengers' that it wanted to be but its still the closest British TV has come since the golden age of the sixties. A great DVD that I'm happily adding to my collection of Telefantasy DVD's.

Even though we still have the orignal core team of ED,BECKETT & Roz. This third series fails as we have Jan who heads the new Ministry of weapons.She manages to con Beckett played by Jessie Birdsall into joining the new organisation. Roz has made a mint on her new inventions and now lives in Milton Keynes.I don't like this new format as the element of risk to the team and adventure is missing. The villains seem less dangerous with less inventive evil plots.Such as 'Kitty mchague' played by the lovely Lesley Ash who almost kills Beckett & Ed. It's still good that the series has finally been released though the special features are paper thin.