Not the strongest episode of the season. But worth viewing, of course.
John Drake gets in two fights in this installment, the first one leaving him with facial cuts that are seen throughout the episode. The second fight, which takes place late in the show, is probably the weakest fight scene I've witnessed in the series. And with a car full of police waiting just outside, it was unnecessary.
But although not the greatest story ever told, it's worth mentioning this episode like so many others is topical even today, in that it covers the kind of dirty tricks that countries are up to in an effort to keep tabs on what other countries are up to. In this case we are in what is probably Iraq, and the opposition wants to know what's going on in the oil industry there.
So how do you get access to the data? In episodes such as 'Yesterday's Enemies' employees are fooled into believing they are imparting information to a fellow countryman for the greater good of all. In this episode you locate a mid-level employee who happens to be naive and insecure, and play upon those weaknesses. You set up a rather elaborate sting operation that convinces the woman that a like minded "friend" is saving her from police trouble by coaxing her into imparting closely guarded secrets. It's an age old motif; Lying, cheating, and stealing. And like so many episodes, everything is working out for the opposition until master spy John Drake shows up and breaks up the party.
Anyway, we've got a few spy gadgets to cover. In keeping with the recent episode 'Dangerous Secret', spy gadgets are getting smaller and more efficient at doing double duty. Drake has a new lighter (!), and although this one does not take photographs, it acts as both a radio transmitter via a mic on the side of the lighter -which allows Drake to relay a conversation with the bad guys to the police- and it later sprouts an ear piece allowing John to employ the tiny gadget as a two-way radio to converse with the authorities. Who'd have thunk? You have to remind yourself that this was the mid-sixties, when even portable "transistor" radios stood out.
Drake plants what by this time we recognize as a standard issue tracking device (small round gizmo with a suction cup on the back and a metallic grill on the front... usually), but the receiver that picks up tracking signals from the gizmo is miniaturized to an even greater degree compared to previous models.
Be seeing you...
John Drake gets in two fights in this installment, the first one leaving him with facial cuts that are seen throughout the episode. The second fight, which takes place late in the show, is probably the weakest fight scene I've witnessed in the series. And with a car full of police waiting just outside, it was unnecessary.
But although not the greatest story ever told, it's worth mentioning this episode like so many others is topical even today, in that it covers the kind of dirty tricks that countries are up to in an effort to keep tabs on what other countries are up to. In this case we are in what is probably Iraq, and the opposition wants to know what's going on in the oil industry there.
So how do you get access to the data? In episodes such as 'Yesterday's Enemies' employees are fooled into believing they are imparting information to a fellow countryman for the greater good of all. In this episode you locate a mid-level employee who happens to be naive and insecure, and play upon those weaknesses. You set up a rather elaborate sting operation that convinces the woman that a like minded "friend" is saving her from police trouble by coaxing her into imparting closely guarded secrets. It's an age old motif; Lying, cheating, and stealing. And like so many episodes, everything is working out for the opposition until master spy John Drake shows up and breaks up the party.
Anyway, we've got a few spy gadgets to cover. In keeping with the recent episode 'Dangerous Secret', spy gadgets are getting smaller and more efficient at doing double duty. Drake has a new lighter (!), and although this one does not take photographs, it acts as both a radio transmitter via a mic on the side of the lighter -which allows Drake to relay a conversation with the bad guys to the police- and it later sprouts an ear piece allowing John to employ the tiny gadget as a two-way radio to converse with the authorities. Who'd have thunk? You have to remind yourself that this was the mid-sixties, when even portable "transistor" radios stood out.
Drake plants what by this time we recognize as a standard issue tracking device (small round gizmo with a suction cup on the back and a metallic grill on the front... usually), but the receiver that picks up tracking signals from the gizmo is miniaturized to an even greater degree compared to previous models.
Be seeing you...
