So there are a couple of older British television shows I’ve been meaning to watch. And I figured I’d write up some thoughts here on The Twice-weekly Daily Nightly Buzz. First up is The Sandbaggers, then at some point in the future probably Yes, Minister and The Prisoner.

First Principles

To start, The Sandbaggers is a show about the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). So… basically a spy show! But the crux of the show isn’t gunfights and high-stakes infiltrations. It’s politics and bureaucracy. Neil Burnside — the show’s protagonist and Director of Operations at the SIS — describes it as such:

“First Principles” is the first episode of The Sandbaggers. Here’s a bullet point summary of the episode for you fine folks of The Twice-Weekly Daily Nightly Buzz:

• Burnside and his SIS operatives — called sandbaggers — are tailed on their way to the SIS office. Burnside has the sandbaggers tail the people who were tailing them (counter tail the tailors?), discovering they were from the Norwegian secret service.

• Burnside meets with the head of the Norwegian secret service — Torvik — who asks for a sandbagger to train his woefully inexperienced operatives. Burnside says no.

• Later, Torvik comes to Burnside’s office seeking help. A Norwegian science aircraft crashed on Russian soil and he wants the sandbaggers to escort the survivors out. Burnside thinks it’s a suicide mission and absolutely refuses to aid.

• Burnside is called into his superior’s superior’s office where he is told that British diplomats and the Prime Minister have told Norway that the SIS would do the mission. In exchange for Norway purchases the British Nemesis missile instead of the American Warbonnet missile.

• Burnside goes up and down the chain of command, failing to get any of his superiors to oppose the mission.

• Torvik meets with Burnside asking when the mission will happen and emphasizing the need not to waste time. Burnside says the mission will happen when it’s ready.

• Burnside and one of his sandbaggers — Willie Caine — talk about how suicidal the mission is. During this meeting, the CIA’s Jeff Ross comes into Burnside’s office. Burnside tells him about the mission and asks the CIA to stay clear of the area so not to interfere with the mission.

• Burnside is once again in meetings with his superiors asking for a Royal Air Force plane to scout the flight path so as to find the exact position of the crash. This would allow for the sandbaggers to drop on a second flight having been briefed on an exact path out.

• Torvik complains to Burnside that this is taking too long. He thinks Burnside is dragging his feet and that the sandbaggers should have jumped from the first plane.

• Burnside is in (say it with me) MORE MEETINGS WITH HIS SUPERVISORS! This time, asking for a diversionary tactic to draw Russian troops away from the planned escape path.

• Caine is very unhappy with being sent on this mission. Burnside explains the whole… British missile vs American missile motivation. Caine responds “when I’m digging salt, I’ll remember that.”

• The plane the sandbaggers will be jumping out of takes off. It doesn’t have radio or any way to communicate with it.

• Burnside finds out from the Norwegians and from Jeff Ross that the Americans are doing the mission — and are already boots on the ground in Russia. It’s too late. There’s no way to stop the sandbaggers from jumping.

• LOOK RILEY ITS TWO MINUTES OF SKYDIVING

• The sandbaggers watch the empty crash plane from a distance, suspicious. They’d have expected movement and people about. Just as Caine is about to move in to investigate, it explodes. They realize that — like them — the Americans had been told to blow up the crash after they left.

• The two of them rush to join up with the Americans and the crash survivors, hoping to lend their aid and knowledge. Before they can catch up, the Americans and the survivors are caught by Russian troops.

• The sandbaggers make it out of Russia.

• Burnside flies to Norway to tear Torvik a new one then immediately flies back to the UK.

Now, it should probably be acknowledged that the woke brigade would find that uhhhhh…. there’s really only one demographic represented in this show: white men. There’s like… one woman with a speaking role but she is Burnside’s secretary. Sort of feels par for the course for late 1970s British television, alas.

One thing that I appreciate about is that characters in The Sandbaggers don’t… exposition at the viewer. It really annoys me in modern shows where a character will provide context that an actual person in that situation wouldn’t provide. Like if I were speaking to someone on AMS Council who I had spoken to many times before, it would be incredibly strange for me to be like “Let’s meet in The Nest — our student union building operated by the Alma Mater Society.” But it happens so often in media.

In this episode of The Sandbaggers, there are multiple phone calls where the character we can hear (technically you can sometimes hear the other side of the call through the telephone they’re using, but not regularly) only responds with “yes.” But based on context — who they’re with, how the rest of the scene proceeds, their reaction — we can figure out what the call was about. They’re taking phone calls… hope a normal person would and us viewers are trusted to be able to piece things together. It’s refreshing.

I also really love the idea of a spy show that’s all about the planning and coordinating different parts of government and diplomacy with other nations. Like… it is a lot of meetings, but it’s really really fun to watch. The set-piece action scenes that might be what an entire high budget movie is built around might just be a brief moment in the denouement in The Sandbaggers.

I’m fascinated by the priorities for people at different levels of the chain of command. For Burnside — the direct supervisor of the sandbaggers who would be sent on the mission — his main priority is the sandbaggers’ safety. But moving up the chain of command, people became less concerned about the safety of the operatives and more focused on the Nemesis missile. The sandbaggers weren’t people but a resource to be spent and traded. While Burnside is relieved by the safe return of his sandbaggers, Wellingham (Burnside’s superior by two levels) says “[The Nemesis Missile] is what it was all about… let’s not lose sight of first principles.”

Other News

AGM?

Sam Low told me I’d be like a celebrity if I went to The Ubyssey’s annual general meeting. There were truly so few people there.

I honestly really enjoyed it though. The little money graphs and 20-year long plans. Alas, I’m a sick freak who thinks that’s interesting.

I do wonder how one gets Ubyssey-branded golf balls though. Also like…. how effective at marketing The Ubyssey are they??????

Hopeslide Hopeslide

So it may be hard for you all to believe based off… my general vibes and interests and distaste for walls of party noise makers, but I don’t consider myself much of a concert person. In fact, going to see Hopeslide yesterday was my first concert (listen y’all, I’m not counting the Wizard Rock concert where Harry and the Potters played, okay? Don’t make me elaborate).

I really didn’t think I’d enjoy it if I’m being honest. Not because of Hopeslide, but…. you know. Loud noises have been known to make me cry, crowds of people make me anxious, and I don’t drink. But I wanted to confirm that concerts Weren’t My Scene.

So I was really expecting to just… be a little bit miserable because of the noise and all the people and dip out after like 15 minutes. But I actually had a really lovely time. Experiencing art with other people was nice. Elena and Fiona both slayed (other folks did to but I don’t know their names). I cried during one of the songs. ‘Twas a good time.

Concerts are somewhere between a sometimes and a never food for me, but Hopeslide was a great first experience.

(Also Esmé I’m sad I didn’t catch you while I was there. Happy birthday though!)

Doctor Who was Really Funny

There’s a new season of Doctor Who coming out and the most recent episode was really funny. Poorly paced? A million percent. But there were a bunch of funky meta ideas in there — I just wished there had been a bit more time to explore those ideas.

It was actually just like “oh no, we’re in this crazy funky situation.” “I know this situation is so scary.” “Look! You figured out how to get us out of this situation!” No tension, all resolution.

(I’m being vague because I know there is at least one person on this newsletter who hasn’t seen the episode yet but will and I don’t want to spoil :D)

From the Web

• Tariffs explained through Minecraft (Gragbuilds on YouTube). I— I just. What a wild crossover. I hope that the target audience for this is children because…. I just hope that adults aren’t learning about economic policy through Minecraft.

• Episode 1: Campus Safety (The Deep End). Northwestern University apparently has a knock-off Last Week Tonight covering campus issues. Obviously some of the jokes won’t land because we don’t have the campus context. And some of them just… aren’t funny. But at least in this first episode, the presenter has a good presence. Their most recent ones are worse and much more…. scream and do random stuff for the lolz. I wonder about the reach and impact of The Deep End. Like is it getting engagement on campus and making journalism and discussion of campus issues more accessible for students?

• Did Divestment Protests Succeed at UBC? (The Tyee). It’s really interesting reading a high level overview from a relatively external publication.

• ‘An important part of social dialogue’: A look into UBC’s history of divestment (The Ubyssey). I can’t believe I didn’t know about this article before. It covers the 50 year-or-so history of divestment at UBC. “Across issues and eras, UBC’s response has always been glacial – and always followed years of student activists. These movements demonstrate that divestment is far more than an economic procedure. It is a proxy for public debates and a desire for accountability.”

From the Archive

I’m just so fascinated by how the decision to support an “any way but yes” position was reached… through public discussion? That wouldn’t happen these days. It’d be all in-camera, all the time. I wonder what the student response to the councillors/executives who spoke at the meeting was like.

(I think there are reasonable arguments for some sensitive discussions to happen in-camera regarding councillor safety. Just in my opinion it’s Oops All In-Camera these days, even when it doesn’t have to be)

That’s All!

Hopefully I write a better conclusion, but if not, see you nerds next time (also AMS archives person I sent you and Sheldon an email :D).

Until Wednesday at 10:03 pm, buzz on, my busy bees!

Doug could fistfight a president since 2025