Spooks season 326 episodes 1 & 2.
The new season took off this Monday and continued the day after. As so often, it is difficult material to review. The episodes were both entertaining, the first, I thought, better than the second, with realistic character development, if less realistic storylines. This year’s season seems to be all about the Russians, as opposed to last year’s Iranians, and I think that’s where part of the problem lies.
On the one hand, yes, it does seem realistic for Russia and the UK to be involved in a spying war. The Litvinenko incident leaps to mind, and the recent war between Georgia and Russia also cooled relations. On the other, it doesn’t seem quite as convincing that Russia would try to destroy the British state; Russia may be cocky at present, but does it really think it can do without western imports and exports? Not that all of those are channelled through the UK, of course – far from it – but without a British market left, global markets would fall even worse than they are doing now. Quite shockingly, the writers didn’t even bother to smooth out this plot hole, apparently considering it nothing out of the ordinary that Russia would attempt to bring down the entire British computer system through hacking and while there was discussion of a nuclear fallout it was never quite explained what would cause this. However, the problems in the plot of the second episode were sort of masked by the hacking being conducted by a Russian submarine, which was pretty neat and an original idea.
The dubious nature of the loyalty of Lucas North was also solved with considerable ease and a bucketful of nationalism, but this was sort of to be expected from a show that’s about a bunch of mad chaps willing to put their lives on the line for an abstract idea. Concluding, this season seems tamer than the last, where in the opening episode MI5 was burdened with a considerable guilty conscience in an opener that dared cross some boundaries, but it’s still worth watching.
Eric Christiansen: The Northern Crusades (second edition 1997)
This is an excellent book with incredible depth and loads of detail pressed into 260 pages of text. The author covers the crusades in the Baltic from their inception to their conclusion, detailing all possible theatres and avoiding the common enough pitfall to concentrate on the Teutonic Order. Crusades in Pomerania, Prussia, Estonia, Livonia, Lithuania, Russia and even Finland pass by in considerable detail, leaving the reader with knowledge of the opposing sides, the social structures of the area, the strategies and tactics employed by all and the theoretical problems created by the conflicts. Even the different economies are examined, as they played a key part in shaping the conflicts, and a critical eye is cast on the traditional, nationalistic historiography of the crusades, be it from a German, Russian, Swedish, Polish or Lithuanian point-of-view. The latter, for example, long portrayed their struggle against the Teutonic Order as a defensive fight for survival against a cruel opponent. While the Teutonic Order certainly was a cruel opponent, Lithuania itself was far from innocent, and subjugated independent peoples to support its war effort. The ways in which the Baltic climate and environment dictated the flow of war are also made abundantly clear. Finally, the last theoretical legal fight over the existence of the Order at the Council of Constance was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening piece of writing which gives a great example of scholastic thinking. An excellent read.
