CAST LIST

SYNOPSIS

Under top security David O’Neill, head of Tronix Design and Development, prepares to film the launch of his latest automotive creation, the Tronix Trancer. Forced by his competitors into going public after photos of the sophisticated new car were taken at the test track he makes sure his assistant, Paul Cray, knows security will take a beating. The two "models" hired to pose with the car arrive, and filming of the launch commercial begins…O’Neill confidently extols the virtue of the Trancer’s built in intelligence, whilst behind him the two girls clamber into the car and start it up…and drive it straight out of the studio…

The Gizmos team is called in by O’Neill to give Tronix a security overhaul. Cray shows them around the development lab, explaining that the Trancer is in fact nearly two years away from production and still at the design prototype stage. The rival photography forced the pre-emptive launch of the car the day before, but O’Neill, meeting the team for the first time, is confident the theft of the launch model is no great loss. The two girls who stole the prototype (Sarita and Davina) open up the car and discover it is an ordinary model, which simply has a Trancer body shell placed on top. Their employer, known simply as "Bob" is not surprised, guessing that the REAL Trancer car is probably hidden under an ordinary car body shell itself. Davina protests, blaming Bob for making them steal the wrong car, but Bob is adamant…no money until something of commercial value can be produced. He urges the girls to try again…

Back at the Tronix lab Ed comes face to face with the REAL prototype…which is indeed hidden under an old, battered chassis. Ros explains the only real way to collect road test data is on the road, and that this is the safest way of doing so whilst avoiding detection. Ed is nonplussed until he gets into the car, and the rear view mirror automatically adjusts to his eyeline! He will drive the test car, as the car will be coded to his thumb-print, with Beckett following in a shadow car. Ros’ task will be to monitor the car from the Tronix lab, which involves the fitting of a number of extra trackers and transponders to the prototype. Ed and Beckett get on with this task whilst Ros checks the rest of Tronix’s premises as part of the security overhaul. Beckett is concerned when Ros fails to check in as arranged, remembering Cray’s warning that parts of the building contains "dangerous hardware" Realizing she has forgotten to perform her check in, Ros tries to find a ‘phone in the section of Tronix she is assessing. Walking into a marked-off area she suddenly trips a sensor and activates a plasma cage, trapping herself inside. Ed and Beckett locate her in what Cray has referred to as the Military Division moments before Cray arrives with a military officer, Major Cardenas, and his men. Cray successfully deactivates the cage, explaining it has been installed to house another Tronix project. Cray is obviously frightened of Cardenas and the "project" he is involved in…

The test drive proceeds the next day, with Ed less than happy with his role behind the wheel: having to drive the test car in circles was not what he had imagined. Ros allows him and Beckett a break at a Roadside Teahouse, unaware that Sarita and Davina have taken it over. Parking a van to partially obscure the car Sarita breaks inside and begins to take photographs: it is Ros who sees movement in the cars’ suspension from her added transponders and suspects something is amiss. A camera flash finally makes Beckett realise they are in trouble: unable to catch them, the girls make a getaway on a motorbike. Ed gives chase despite Beckett’s protests and decides to give the Trancer a "proper" workout. At the Tronix base both Cray and O’Neill are incensed at Ed’s behaviour but do nothing to stop him…because suddenly and without warning the car itself takes control. Ed is powerless to control the Trancer and sits helpless as it breaks off chase and heads back to Tronix. The REAL secret of the car is a Passive Safety System, which when interfered with takes over all controls and steers the vehicle back to it’s home, avoiding objects and traffic chaos along the way…something O’Neill knows EVERYONE is interested in.

As the Trancer arrives back in the lab O’Neill promptly dismisses Ros and Ed for incompetence: Ros angrily turns on him and demands they be given a chance to prove themselves more than capable of the task. Beckett arrives just as it seems a fight is about to ensue, and points out to O’Neill that as they only knew about the Test Run the day before, it is likely there is a leak of information inside Tronix itself. Beckett urges O’Neill to allow them to perform a full security check. Ros checks Cray’s office and asks him about O’Neill, and discovers that the Passive Safety System was originally developed for military use. Cray tells her that to offset the massive development losses the Trancer is making O’Neill is being forced to use military money as a fallback…and is having to make some dangerous allies. Downstairs, Beckett sees a large anonymous-looking vehicle being backed into the plasma cage with O’Neill himself supervising the operation. Ros finds the leak: a cellphone attached to the company’s e-mail system and suggests a set-up to try and catch the culprits. Leaving the car in a car park it seems the girls are unwilling to take the bait, much to Ed’s disappointment. As Ed and Beckett split up to leave Davina arrives and threatens Ed with what he believes is a gun, making him drive the test car to the girl’s garage. Beckett tries to follow, but Davina jams the car’s transmitter signals. With Ed tied to a beam in the garage, the girls reveal their reason for targeting O’Neill: he was responsible for putting their father out of business 10 years previously, and this is their way of taking revenge. However, a lone transponder gives the girl’s position away, allowing O’Neill an opportunity to take the situation into his own hands. Arriving at the garage with a gun he threatens the girls, ignoring Ed’s warnings that the car is wired with dynamite. It is only when Beckett finally gets to the garage and sees the explosives that the group can leave, mere seconds before the entire building, and the Trancer explodes. Ed grabs the girl’s photographs and notes on the Trancer as the pair make a getaway in O’Neill’s car. He is convinced that they should give up the job as a bad idea…back at Gizmos, Ros is adamant that the job should be seen through to it’s conclusion. Beckett agrees, suggesting a complete and proper security overhaul. As they perform the overhaul at Tronix Ros notices security guards surrounding the Plasma Cage with Tazers (stun guns) and becomes more nervous herself. Sarita and Davina meet with Bob and give him what they can remember of the Trancer from memory, but Bob is unimpressed…he needs something substantial, and is about to leave when the girls show him a photo of the Military vehicle kept in the plasma cage…

Breaking into the Lab, the girls manage to overcome the security, first blinding the cameras with an Isotropic light flare and then fooling the Plasma Cage’s palm-print reader. Sarita get the vehicle out of the building, but Davina is captured by Security. Meanwhile Ed stumbles across the blueprints of the Military vehicle, and is promptly grabbed by Cardenas’ men. O’Neill places both in the Plasma Cage, and Ros and Beckett are frogmarched in to be told their only concern now is to locate the vehicle… and Ed will be used as a hostage to ensure the job is done! Ros only then notices a number of "radioactive" symbols on the side of some packing cases…Sarita ‘phones O’Neill, giving him 45 minutes to release her sister. Ros decides that the reason there has been so much secrecy covering the military vehicle is because a Radioactive-isotope Thermo-Electric Generator (an RTG) powers it. Fuelled by Plutonium Dioxide it will run virtually for ever, but is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately Sarita is at the same time packing the Military Passive Vehicle with dynamite and setting a timer…Ed is at the same time explaining the workings of the MPV to Davina, until he realises he’s being pumped for information. Wondering if her sister is in danger from the radioactivity, Ed tells her only an explosion would affect the RTG, which prompts Davina to mention to Ed her sister’s intent. Ros correctly guesses that Sarita has tampered with the MPV’s shielding, and uses the electrical interference the vehicle now gives out to track it to where it is being kept. Angrily confronted by Sarita on their arrival Ros and Beckett ask exactly how much tampering she has done to the PMV, seconds before the Passive Safety System activates and the vehicle starts back to Tronix unaided. Realising the catastrophic consequences of Sarita’s actions Ros ‘phones Cray to warn him of the danger…who promptly panics and makes a run for the Airport. Beckett manages to get on board the PMV but is unable to deactivate the vehicle…Cardenas meanwhile has realised that is time to cut his losses and he leaves, but not before he tazers O’Neill for his "co-operation"

Ros joins Beckett in the MPV and decides that if they can’t get the explosives away from the Plutonium they should remove the plutonium from the vehicle, while Ed pleads with a stunned O’Neill to let them out of the Plasma cage. O’Neill walks away, pledging he’ll simply rebuild his business and start again. Ros had been planning that the Warehouse doors would slow the MPV’s progress and allow them to get out of the vehicle with ease: however, O’Neill opens the doors allowing the vehicle unrestricted passage. Removing the RTG and ejecting both it and themselves from the vehicle, Ros and Beckett escape as the vehicle rolls into the warehouse, trapping O’Neill in it’s path and throwing him against the Plasma Cage. Ed and Davina are able to escape the cage as the vehicle now crosses the Plasma beam’s paths and escape from the warehouse with seconds to spare as the vehicle, minus it’s deadly power source, explodes…