ORBzine - Bugs TV Review
[Season 1 !Season 2 !Season 3 !Season 4 ]
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 1]
Out of the Hive
Shown 1 Apr 95
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 2]
Assassins Inc
Shown 8 Apr 95
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 3]
All Under Control
Shown 15 Apr 95
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 4]
Down Among the Dead Men
Shown 22 Apr 95
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 5]
Shotgun Wedding
Shown 29 Apr 95
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 6]
Stealth
Shown 6 May 95
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 7]
Manna From Heaven
Shown 20 May 95
Reviewed 26th July 2007 [Thursday]
A scientist has invented a new foodstuff, Phodex. Unfortunately a greedy MegaCorp wants to put him out of business. He hires the Bugs team to save the day.
Roz gets poisoned. Beckett (Jesse Birdsall) must find the poisoner, while Craig must break into a safe to get the antidote!
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 8]
Hot Metal
Shown 27 May 95
Reviewed 2nd August 2007 [Thursday]
A British company has invented a metal alloy that explodes. The BUGS team are brought in to protect this discovery and prevent it falling into the wrong hands. However, senior executive Nickolas Grace ( Robin of Sherwood ) has made a secret deal with an illegal arms dealer.
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 9]
A Sporting Chance
Shown 3 Jun 95
Bugs [Season 1, Episode 10]
Pulse
Shown 10 Jun 95
Bugs [Season 2, Episode 1]
What Goes Up... (1)
Shown 6 Apr 96
Reviewed 30th August 2007 [Thursday]
The team are hired to protect a privatised UK Space Shuttle from industrial sabotage. Beckett and Roz run around defusing bombs, while Ed goes undercover as a trainee astronaut.
This is an explosive start to the second Season. The first Season was a collection of one-offs, while this takes advantage of its popularity and actually uses hints of a plot arc!
Bugs [Season 2, Episode 2]
... Must Go Down (2)
Shown 13 Apr 96
Reviewed 6th September 2007 [Thursday]
Ed's trapped aboard the Space Shuttle. Roz and Beckett must defeat the saboteur on the ground.
Bugs [Season 2, Episode 3]
Bugged Wheat
Shown 20 Apr 96
BUGS [Season 2, Episode 4]
Whirling Dervish
Shown 27 Apr 96
Peter Woodward ( Babylon 5: Crusade ) pops up, purporting to be from an organisation set up to manage world trade. He hires the team to protect a private airline, plagued by sabotage by rivals. The owner is too stupid to hire BUGS himself, and the idea of a Government organisation subsidising him like this is quite shocking. Pity the BUGS team just want the money and do not risk offending the client with too many questions.
This week Beckett is the one who gets trapped by a boobytrap. Ed gets to pilot a Russian Stealth Fighter, which allows the director to use some nice flight shots.
Bugs [Season 2, Episode 5]
Blackout
Shown 4 May 96
BUGS [Season 2, Episode 6]
Gold Rush
Shown 11 May 96
Some greedy types have developed a biological weapon that can destroy gold. They plan to use it to destroy the gold reserves of several East European countries, and thus destroy their currencies. Pro-active currency speculation!
As usual, Ed gets trapped in a deathtrap. This time it is a time-locked bank vault with motion-activated sensors.
BUGS [Season 2, Episode 7]
Schrodinger's Bomb
Shown 25 May 96
Jean-Daniel (Gareth Marks) is on the loose again, with plans to set off a nuclear explosion.
BUGS [Season 2, Episode 8]
Newton's Run
Shown 1 Jun 96
Newton is a cybernetically enhanced dog stolen by the villains (Norwegian seperatists who act as eco-terrorism extortionists). The villain is the scruffy-looking Scottish bloke who went on to play a CID officer in The Bill.
Bugs [Season 2, Episode 9]
The Bureau of Weapons (1)
Shown 8 Jun 96
Reviewed 25th October 2007 [Thursday]
The team get a message from their Civil Servant friend, who is testing a high-tech interface. Unfortunately, Jean Daniel left a little surprise for them!
The team must stop Jean Daniel from getting hold of a secret substance being created in a particle accellerator. The result ... a lose-lose situation,
Bugs [Season 2, Episode 10]
A Cage for Satan (2)
Shown 15 Jun 96
Reviewed 1st November 2007 [Thursday]
Roz knows the others are keeping something from her. She tries to find the truth for herself.
Roz goes to the newly-built Central European city of Technopolis. Unfortunately it was designed by Jean Daniel, and he has a nasty surprise in store for the Bugs team!
3rd Series 1997
Bugs [Season 3, Episode 1]
Blaze of Glory
Shown 19 Jul 97
A freelance hi-tech weapons designer, Kitty ( Leslie Ash ), is double-crossed by one of her minions. Her money is hidden in a bank account, and only the minion can access it. And the minion tells Ed the info ...
Ed is kidnapped by Kitty, who uses every means at her disposal to break him.
BUGS [Season 3, Episode 2]
The Revenge Effect
Shown 26 Jul 97
The BUGS team have been recruited into a secret Government department. Their new boss is Civil Servant Jan ( Jan Harvey ), and Beckett has a talented wee blonde secretary, Alex ( Paula Hunt ).
They are on the trail of Arms Designer Kitty McHaig ( Leslie Ash ). Ms Ash was in the British 1980s show Cats' Eyes, a kind of Charlies' Angels rip-off. When this episode was made she was on a break from her regular role in long-running BBC sitcom, Men Behaving Badly. Her acting here owes a lot more to the latter than the former; she is very tongue-in-cheek, not that it really hurts the show.
BUGS [Season 3, Episode 3]
Price of Peace
Shown 2 Aug 97
Ros goes undercover.
BUGS [Season 3, Episode 4]
Hollow Man
Shown 9 Aug 97
The team uncover a plot to forge a new currency. The technical boffin behind the currency's security features is the man who inspired Roz into becoming a tech herself.
Bugs [Season 3, Episode 5]
Nuclear Family
Shown 16 Aug 97
Bugs [Season 3, Episode 6]
Fugitive
Shown 23 Aug 97
Bugs [Season 3, Episode 7]
Happy Ever After?
Shown 30 Aug 97
Bugs [Season 3, Episode 8]
Buried Treasure
Shown 13 Sep 97
Bugs [Season 3, Episode 9]
Identity Crisis
Shown 20 Sep 97
Bugs [Season 3, Episode 10]
Renegades
Shown 27 Sep 97
4th Series 1998
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 1]
Absent Friends
Shown 11 Jul 98
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 2]
Sacrifice to Science
Shown 18 Jul 98
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 3]
Girl Power
Shown 25 Jul 98
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 4]
The Two Becketts
Shown 1 Aug 98
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 5]
Hell and High Water
Shown 8 Aug 98
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 6]
Pandora's Box
Shown 22 Aug 98
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 7]
Jewel Control
Shown 29 Aug 98
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 8]
Twin Geeks
Shown 14 Aug 99 [Saturday]
This show returns to our screens today - this must be about season 5 by now, but this is to be the last 3 episodes. A true shame - this is the best thing the BBC have produced in 10 years, ever since they killed Dr Who .
This week the team has twin problems - two identical brothers (deranged scientists) are out to get payback from the company that ripped off their designs. To mirror this, Ros tries to buy her own designs back from a Nippon company that has now bought them.
The Blonde babe they added in Season 3 is engaged to marry a Hive guy named Adam, but Ed (the guy who replaced Craig M in Season 4) is jealous and has a bad feeling about it ...
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 9]
Money Spiders
Shown 21 Aug 99 [Saturday]
This sees a Bank official blackmailed by persons unknown. The villains keep the upper hand this time; they kill the Banker (which sends Boss-woman Jan into a bottomless pit of despair and self-pity), and blackmail Hive-man Adam into doing their bidding.
The strange thing about the programme is the fact it takes place in a world with no people, just deserted Industrial estates. Hey, they may not be able to get extras but at least they are not filming in a quarry!
Bugs [Season 4, Episode 10]
The Enemy Within
Shown 28 Aug 99 [Saturday]
This is purported to be the last episode ever. The bad guys from last week are out-smarted and out-fought, and as ever the good guys win the day. But the show ends with a cliffhanger ...