Time has run out for the Germans. Gottfried must leave without his answers, but he decides to take Traynor with him to be tortured at home. Simon and Liz need to find a way home, but not before they get their answers.
The final episode of the story info dumps all the answers in one go, forcing them in before time runs out. There is some of what has been good and what has been poor about the show as Traynor gets two very well written grown up scenes, but the science is all over the place and the action is risible.
There is, at least, a surprise twist in the tail.
Liz and Simon have returned through the hole in the fence, but into a future time and the south pole. They nearly die, but are saved by members of a scientific research team who take them to be volunteers for the latest experiment.
From the past to the future - well, 1990 to be precise. There are research centres buried in the heart of Antarctica, people access computers by mind links, don't grow old and are generally pretty rude. They also don't take it askance that a couple of kids have been sent to be the latest guinea pigs.
It's a surprising and different set up, though many of the characters and the dialogue don't ring true and the fact that nobody knows the names of the expected volunteers or makes a phone call to find out is pretty unbelievable.
There's also the contradiction around the effects of the time bubble as both children are rendered unconscious by the cold, but don't get frostbite or simply die.
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Episode 2
Traynor tries to get the kids to go back to the future to find out what is going on and manipulates Simon into it against the will of the Skinners. As a result, they have to send Liz after him and she makes a surprising discovery about her future family.
Just as the science of the time bubble is confused here, so is the time travel effect around the big revelation. Surely Jean knows that Liz will come to her in the future and should be ready for her arrival.
Much more interesting is Traynor who is becoming more and more disreputable by the episode, twisting the children to his way of thinking and browbeating the Skinners to do as he wishes. His motives are suspect and his honesty deeply questionable. He makes for a surprisingly amoral inclusion into a children's show.
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Episode 3
Liz tries to come to terms with the family revelations that her future mother has dropped on her, whilst Simon tries to find out more about the leader of the project, at the risk of his life.
This is the first episode where the parents in the present haven't appeared at all. There is more than enough family angst, however, as Liz learns of the troubles that her family have yet to suffer and the changes that it will wreak on her. How neither her future self nor her mother have any recollection of her visit to them is not explained.
It is fairly obvious from early on that the chief scientist is being run by the computer rather than the other way around, but exactly to what extent is yet to be revealed and Traynor's lies over knowing the man intimately may be less perfidious than previously suspected.
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Episode 4
The Director continues to act strangely and Liz can't get the truth out of her mother about what happened in their past, her future. The truth about the AB experiment is revealed.
For much of this episode nothing happens. The chief scientist continues to act strangely, Simon takes another bash as finding out what lies beyond the secret door in the top man's office and Liz wheedles only a bit more information out of her mother about things in her future.
Only in the last moments, when there is a dramatic turn of events for no readily apparent reason, does the plot actually move forward again. Even the fact that Liz and Simon are to be turned into cyborgs is touched on and then forgotten.
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Episode 5
The Director goes completely mad, leaving Liz's future self to doubt him. Liz and Simon are suspected of murder and locked up, but Simon realises that if Liz can get back to the present and warn her mother then this future can never happen.
Things move along a lot more quickly in this episode. John Barron's turn as the Director grows ever more bonkers, but ever more fun at the same time.
The annoying 'romance' between Liz and Simon gets even more tedious when he declares that if she keeps flirting then she will become 'the kind of girl it's not good to know'.
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Episode 6
The discovery of Liz's father in the ice leads to more revelations, but computer failures may spell the end for the research centre.
It's certainly surprising to find an ending as downbeat as the one that awaits at the end of the last episode of this storyline. Although it has been specified that this is just one possible future the ending is impressively fatalistic.
It does feel slightly as though the story is one episode too long and the plot machinations are just filling out that last episode, but it's worth it for that adult ending.
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THE YEAR OF THE BURN UP
Episode 1
Simon reacts to Mr Traynor's instructions that he must never go through the time barrier by going through the time barrier again. Liz follows and they find themselves in future where Britain is a tropical country and the man prowling in the jungle is Simon's older self.
This is a two part episode. The first deals with the reactions to Simon and Liz's tales of the Ice Box from the last story and the second part moves on to introduce the tropical Buckinghamshire and a familiar future face. It also uses the introduction of future Simon as a cliffhanger moment, though it's hardly a surprising development.
Considering that Traynor is now ministerial level and thinks that the place might be dangerous there is a surprising lack of security around the time breach and that suggests he might be once more manipulating poor Simon. The introduction of a new future Liz suggests that the time breach is tied into the lives of people who travel through it.
The future earth is is well-realised, though studio-bound and the acting ranges from the so-so to the no-no.
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Episode 2
Whilst Liz tries to come to terms with what she learns of her new future self, Simon follows his older alter-ego into the city to learn about the plans that have created the global weather situation and who might be sabotaging it.
The future Liz here is increasingly annoying, her endless laughter sounding more maniacal by the minute. She sounds on the edge of insanity. Future Simon is also racked with doubt and paranoia, but that's partly because his underling is trying to oust him and someone else seems to be sabotaging the project and putting the blame on him.
The realisation of the future city is nicely done, though understated. It is the political undertones that actually carry the most weight and make this one of the more interesting episodes of the show.
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Episode 3
Simon has uncovered Commander Traynor as being the saboteur, but out in the community Liz discovers that the plan is having a harsher effect than previously thought.
The main thrust of the story could have been over by the end of this episode if Simon hadn't allowed himself to be browbeaten into trusting Traynor, a man who has shown himself throughout to be utterly untrustworthy.
The events in the city continue to overshadow the rather tedious goings on in the community.
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Episode 4
The editing of the tapes is discovered and future Simon starts to piece together what might be happening. In the meantime, Traynor attacks Liz.
The political manoeuverings in the city continue to overshadow events in the community as future Beth bemoans the worsening situation and nothing more. Liz persuades Simon to go to the city where they both discover more pieces of the puzzle, but things haven't moved much further forward.
The coincidence of Liz seeing Traynor in the jungle is a false step.
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Episode 5
Traynor's part in the sabotage is revealed but future-Simon's assistant takes both Simons prisoner. As they manage to escape, both Lizzes are captured.
As all the characters grope their ways toward the solutions, Dennis Quilley's Traynor takes centre stage to steal the show. Though the character is now deranged, he still retains a duality in terms of the kind of man he is.
For the main part, though, it's a game of musical chairs as the characters swap places in the halls of the city without achieving very much. If the music stopped and they all had a chat things would be worked out in no time.
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Episode 6
Simon and his future self escape, but Liz and her future self are captured and forced to show wher the community is hidden. Commander Traynor reveals his final grab for power.
The game of musical chairs continues as one pair escapes and another is taken. They are rescued, but then everyone's captured. It's all a bit of pointless action making up for the fact that the plot hasn't moved forward at all.
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Episode 7
Traynor is back in control and determined to see a new world created. Liz, Simon and their future selves make a bid for freedom.
Considering how long he has been considered a traitor and the biggest betrayer of the technocracy, it is ridiculous that anyone is willing to take orders from him, especially the clone who has been so enthusiastically taking power from Simon's future self. Traynor is revealed to be totally mad, wanting to create a new world by wiping out the old.
There is very little plot left to play out and this is evidenced by some sequences of running across a bleak landscape to the background of some urgent music for no readily apparent reason. There's a good five minutes of this to fill out the time. The storyline is being seriously padded.
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Episode 8
With the community safely settled, Liz and Simon head out for the time barrier, but Traynor is determined to stop them from returning to their own time.
The first half of this episode details Liz and Simon's attempts to get home. Once again there is a hugely convenient meeting to make this happen.
The second half of the episode is more about setting up the next storyline that finishing anything off, making it less of an ending and more of a story to be continued.
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THE DAY OF THE CLONE
Episode 1
Simon finds out where Liz is being held captive by Traynor and sets out to rescue her and find out what is going on at the secret laboratory.
The research station is noted as being the most secret place in the whole of the country several times, which makes it more than a little ridiculous that Simon can wander around at will without being caught and two children can capture a grown man with a few bedsheets.
The info-dump scene in which an unhappy scientist questions, and is lectured by, Traynor is clumsy to say the least.
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Episode 2
Having escaped Traynor in the present by going through the time barrier, Liz and Simon find themselves back in 1965. They track down Commander Traynor and learn about longevity and cloning experiments.
After a short and pointless scene with Simon's father, the story continues with more sneaking around government laboratories without any hint of competent security. It's almost as believable as John Barron's performance as Devereux, as mannered as a pantomime dame.
There's a room full of people dressed in Regency dress for no reason that makes any sense at all and why would any control room come with built in gassing equipment? It's sloppy plotting and the show deserves better.
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Episode 3
Traynor is helpless, drugged and paralysed. Simon and Liz learn more about the volunteers taking part in the experiments and try to go to the Commander's aid.
Considering that Simon's been sneaking around top secret establishments for three episodes running it is surprising that he allows himself to be so easily taken at the end of the this episode.
Actually, it's the situation with Commander Traynor, awake but unable to move and entirely vulnerable to the brainwashing planned for him, that is more interesting.
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Episode 4
Liz and Simon are subjected to Devereux's brainwashing techniques, but it fails to take. They escape from the centre but are unable to raise the alarm and so reluctantly return to the time barrier.
Much of this episode is taken up with a brainwashing technique that utterly fails,a conversation with a young volunteer who they are unable to save and another conversation with a man they are not going to be able to convince. To say that it feels like filler is an understatement to say the least. The pair even eventually abandon their travels because they can't think of anything else to do.
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