In catch up mode, with a weekend free - hurrah! Of course there's a bit too much to catch up on, but you've got to start somewhere... One of my catch-ups, inspired by
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gilda_elise's
post for Discovered in the Autumn is my Pros ALphaFic Bingo Card for 2022! It's not that I've not been reading Pros, it's just that I've not been doing the card... (rats, just realise I said the exact same thing in my last Bingo entry, way back in
April...)
The Alphafic Stories( A - At the Admiral Nelson )B
( C - Command Performance )D
( E - The Eyes of a Child )F
G
H is for
High Noon, by Brian Clemens of all people! I was flicking happily through the Network dvd Mark III book when I came across his
Operation Impossible at the end - imagine my surprise when I flipped past the last page and found another Pros story written by him! The only thing is that it turned out
High Noon for the Professionals was basically the
Blackout episode as a short story - so interesting, but not new Pros. Hey-ho!
There are a few differences in the short story though. It's Doyle who's shot at in the ambulance, and Bodie who goes running after him when he realises what might have happened, shouting his name (rather than one of my fave wee scenes where Doyle roars into the ambulance in search of Bodie, grabs him around his waist, swings him around and then holds onto him! *g*)
There's no Stuart - Doyle ends up working with Benny, but not the Benny we know and love from various eps either. This Benny is "...powerful and tall and blacker than any hat, and very, very experienced. But best of all he had an uncanny animal instinct that often overruled all logic, and which he would self-mockingly explain as 'Darwin's Theory proved, man'." Doyle likes working with Benny because of all this, and he follows Benny's instructions. Gotta love a highly competent agent. *g*
Bodie, on the other hand, we're told hates working with Cowley because of Cowley's unpredictability: "You never really knew when to call him 'sir', and when not to, and even money when you did or didn't it was the wrong time." *g* I think Doyle gets this wrong in the eps more often than Bodie does, but it seems very right to me!
The final thing is that they don't track Tilson down in the end because Ilse remembers about the accountant, it's Bodie passing a bank when they're trying to guard the conference at the end that makes him realise that's where Tilson probably is, and why Tilson was grabbed in the first place. He smashes his way in just as he does in the ep, but the moment he faints from his broken collar bone is where the story ends: "Thirty seconds, Bodie," Cowley's voice crackled back, then a lighter note crept into it. 'That nice new quartz watch of yours, Bodie. It's wrong.' Bodie couldn't see his watch anymore, the room was swaying, as he heard Cowley add: 'But you, Bodie, you're all right', before he passed out. Hee!
( I - Island Innocents )( J - Just a Neighbour )K
L
M
N
O
( P - Paying Their Respects )P -
Professionals Minus 1 by Ranald Graham - Another story from the Network dvd box sets, this one at the end of the Mk II book! *g* I know I've already got a "P", but I can't resist reading (and adding) this one too... *g*
Again, it's not a
new story, because it's apparently the short story that
Wild Justice was based on - and most elements in the story are much more clear. For instance, Bodie does his own motorbike racing and Doyle has gone along with him as mechanic for the bike. He also didn't loan Bodie a bike - Bodie bought a new one especially...
Bodies enemy in this story isn't King Billy, it's a South African called Visser, and it turns out that Bodie's mate Williams was not just killed - his girlfriend Cheryl was gang-raped in front of him first. So it's a much harsher story, but if Bodie found that out at William's funeral, it explains why he's reacting so violently against Visser (more so than just his mate being dead in WJ).
The only thing I
don't like about this story, is that the author doesn't seem to have watched the previous episodes at all, because when Cowley asks Doyle to keep an eye on Bodie, Doyle thinks this:
Bodie was not exactly Doyle's bosom pal. They had a close relationship which was professional. Bodie and he made a perfect two-man team. They knew each other's reflexes. Strengths, weaknesses.
"But they were both loners. They didn't hang out together all that much. Perhaps because they were too competitive, and went for the same women. Perhaps they wanted to keep a respectful distance. Perhaps Bodie made him feel a tiny bit insecure. But that was far too deep down to think about at the moment."
They don't hang out together?!! Have you not seen episodes like When the Heat Cools Off? Female Factor? Hunter/Hunted? They don't hang out with anyone else?! *g*
The Shusai bit in the story is made more relevant to what happens too. Shusai and Bodie spar with sticks, and Shusai is trying to tell Bodie that, like the child, he has to connect action and intent with nothing in between - it's not a sandcastle though, Shusai has them watch a three year old exploring the kendo sticks, and he picks one up and then smashes it down without further thought. So Bodie punching the car is the moment he finally connects action and intent, and that's what's happening when he hits Doyle who's come to his rescue (to stop him killing Visser). The very end is the same - Cowley is there too, and threatens Bodie, and Cheryl, Williams' girlfriend, agrees to testify against Visser, so Bodie lets him go. It stops there though, the lads don't come together at the end.
Oh, and it's not Doyle's girlfriend who comes with them to the enduro, it's Jennifer Black - although she leaves in disgust when it's clear Bodie has totally abandoned her, and Doyle's about to follow when Cowley turns up. There's no Kate Ross either, she's completely absent - Cowley works it all out after Craine calls him to say that he's worried Bodie's acting oddly...
And that's it! A shame it wasn't a brand new story, but it was interesting to read the original Wild Justice. *g*
Q
( R - Rule Britannia )
( R - Redemption )
S
( T - Table Conversation )
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
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