Discussion
Pitre said:
Line of Duty gets criticism for authentic attention to detail, Vigil get criticised because a 'sub' has to have enough room for a TV production team to move around adequately... Frankly, it's a drama not a forensic representation. I thought it was promising.
Even The Hunt for Red October was more convincing.
Craigybaby69 said:
Enjoyed it.... something a bit different. I've never been inside a submarine so can't comment on it's authenticity.
You can remedy that with a trip to see HMS Alliance at Gosport. I've been, and it is crazy cramped inside. I know it's apples/oranges because Alliance was ordered in 1943 and laid down in March 1945 so is a WW2 era submarine class, and Vigil is meant to be a modern nuclear deterrent boat, but you do get some idea of what little space there is on a submarine.I'm not sure about the show though. It's lacking something I can't quite put my finger on. Nothing to do with "rivet counting" but more to do with the jurisdiction issue that puts a Police Scotland detective aboard in the first place. The RN and MoD have police officers themselves for a start. Funny seeing the yellow Sea King in Royal Navy stickers over the RAF markings, but at least they used a real helicopter for those scenes. I'll give the second episode a go to see if it improves any, but I don't hold out much hope. I suspect I'll ditch it and end up watching recorded episodes of Bettany Hughes and her rather ample "treasures" of the ancient world instead. No plot to worry about, no story arc, no wondering whether the writers will try to wring another three series out of a three episode crime drama. Simpler pleasures...
yellowjack said:
Craigybaby69 said:
Enjoyed it.... something a bit different. I've never been inside a submarine so can't comment on it's authenticity.
You can remedy that with a trip to see HMS Alliance at Gosport. I've been, and it is crazy cramped inside. I know it's apples/oranges because Alliance was ordered in 1943 and laid down in March 1945 so is a WW2 era submarine class, and Vigil is meant to be a modern nuclear deterrent boat, but you do get some idea of what little space there is on a submarine.I'm not sure about the show though. It's lacking something I can't quite put my finger on. Nothing to do with "rivet counting" but more to do with the jurisdiction issue that puts a Police Scotland detective aboard in the first place. The RN and MoD have police officers themselves for a start. Funny seeing the yellow Sea King in Royal Navy stickers over the RAF markings, but at least they used a real helicopter for those scenes. I'll give the second episode a go to see if it improves any, but I don't hold out much hope. I suspect I'll ditch it and end up watching recorded episodes of Bettany Hughes and her rather ample "treasures" of the ancient world instead. No plot to worry about, no story arc, no wondering whether the writers will try to wring another three series out of a three episode crime drama. Simpler pleasures...
They skimped on the set dressing as well as making everything bigger to accommodate camera movement.
The jurisdiction point isn't quite so ridiculous. Civil police forces have primacy over investigations into all very serious crimes, including deaths. Investigation lead can be ceded to Ministry of Defence Police or Service Police but the final decision always lies with the civil authorities, which in Scottish waters would be the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and Scottish Ministers. The MDP and Service Police aren't really set up to run murder investigations. The MDP's primary task is armed policing of the defence estate and they do a lot of work around fraud and corruption in the defence sector while the Service Police primarily deal with service law.
MBBlat said:
Biggest problem, apart from the navy allowing an untrained police officer onboard a SSBN, is that whoever wrote this got the send/receive problem the wrong way round. Sending a message from a sub is trivial, it’s getting one to a deeply submerged submarine that’s the problem.
It wasn't a technical problem, it was about security. If they send a message they reveal their position but receiving doesn't. This makes sense.
You can't track who consumes (radio waves?) but you can track where a new source originates.
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