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Spooks Season 3 Episode 1

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 10/11/04

Tom Quinn has disappeared after shooting his boss Harry Pearce. He also stands accused of assassinating the Chief of Defence Staff. Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee Oliver Mace uses this a pretext to launch a punitive investigation of MI5. Zoe, Danny and the team must prove Tom innocent and save the service from government takeover.moreless

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

I spook, you spook, Us ......

8.0

By Lawrencevanrijn, May 04, 2006

The end of season one was nothing less then spectacular. I was at the edge of my seat, so how does a clifhanger go from amazing to... ah geee, the camera was tilted?

Well, you'll see it here. The prelude to a war is over in 1 hour. The problem here is not the storyline itself, that could have been great. I think that if they had spred this over two episodes and let the planning, plotting and weaves go forward a little more, the second part of it all could have been beyond amazing. all the pawns were in place, the only matter here was that the game got ended without imagination. It made for a somewhat sobering episode.

Which is really too bad.moreless
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Kicks season three of excellently.

8.0

By eamon24, Nov 10, 2005

After the catastrophic events that ended season two (admittedly Spooks' best season), season three and writer Howard Brenton could be forgiven for falling flat on their faces with this episode. A cliffhanger involving one character being shot, another being set up for assassinating a politician and then throwing himself into the ocean, how could the conclusion be anything other than dissapointing. Well, it isn't, in fact it's pretty darn good. Admittedly it isn't just as good as the fantastic season two finale, but like all good Spooks episodes it is fast paced and wickedly entertaining. The pacing is superb, I mean there is no set up here, the episode picks up right at the point where the last one left off and keeps running with it, although here it is functioning more as a thriller episode, rather than the creepy character driven tale that preceeded it.

Of course season three will always be remembered as the season that saw the three original lead actors leave and new faces come in, here we have the introduction of Rupert Penry Jones as Adam Carter, a man who is the complete opposite to Tom in that he seemingly loves being a spy, his cocky manner winning you over immediately. All the old faces are fantastic as always; McFadyen is great as Tom is forced to live on the streets, Peter Firth is still brilliant as Harry, although this time he brings a nice vulnerability as a more frail character due to his wound and Keeley Hawes and David Oyelowo are nice in support as Zoe and Danny come to terms with the situation around them.

So, after what had been a wait for over a year (season two ended in August of 2003, season three didn't begin until the middle of October 2004), the opener to season three did not dissapoint, however what we didn't realise at the time was how different this show would be as the year would go on.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Hugh Simon	Malcolm Wynn-Jones
David Oyelowo	Danny Hunter
Keeley Hawes	Zoe Reynolds
Matthew MacFadyen	Tom Quinn
Nicola Walker	Ruth Evershed
Peter Firth	Harry Pearce

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Frances Tomelty	Carmen Joyce	Guest Star
Michael Culver	Hugo Weatherby	Guest Star
Sam Spruell	Jason Belling	Guest Star
Rory MacGregor	Colin Wells	Recurring Role
Megan Dodds	Christine Dale	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- The message Ruth sends to Harry written in Morse code reads "JIC CLOSING GRID".
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QUOTES (6)
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- Herman Joyce: So, what are you gonna do? Take me in?
  Tom: Yeah, that's the idea.
  Herman Joyce: You remember my CV, who I am. I spent a year in Lubyanka, a prisoner of the KGB. You think English gents and MI5 are gonna get me to confess with a few sleepless nights and psychological games? Hell, they'd have to burn my genitals off with red-hot metal and even then I probably won't tell them how I set you up.
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- Danny: Tom… Not dead, I see.
  Tom: No, I'm not dead… I feel pretty dead inside, but we don't want to go there, do we?
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- Tom: Who the hell do you think you are?
  Adam: Actually, mate, I'm an officer who didn't get suckered by an American con artist.
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- Harry: The JIC will be recalled so that I can defend this department.
  Oliver Mace: There's a serious threat to national security here; I can't keep to the niceties.
  Harry: I like the niceties, they protect us from tyranny.
  Oliver Mace: The moral high ground's a bit of a sand bank for you, Harry. The tide is coming in.
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- Danny: What do we know about Oliver Mace? Has he ever done any real spying?
  Zoe: MI6, before he crossed over to chair the JIC. Reputation as a desk spook.
  Danny: Oh no, the worst.
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- Harry [ to Tom ]: You are a dead man in the North Sea, and you will remain so until you prove otherwise.
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NOTES (1)
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- The American title for this episode is Project Friendly Fire.
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ALLUSIONS (2)
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- Harry: "O my prophetic soul!"
  As Weatherby tells of the conspiracy, Harry uses Hamlet's line from Act 1, Scene 5 when his father's ghost says he was murdered by his brother Claudius.
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- Harry: Adam, you come most presently upon your hour.
  Harry seems to deliberately misquote a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 1, the changing of the sentinels at the Castle in Elsinore when Francisco says to Bernardo, "You come most carefully upon your hour."
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