So, there you have it.   Everything you always wanted to know about the fugitives and their backpacks, and Burke and his waistcoat.   In fact, probably a lot more than you wanted to know—but isn’t that what being a fan of something is all about? Obsessing over details? And doesn’t it offer us some kind of insight into the series, at the end of the day?   One thing that becomes clear from looking at the episodes in production order is that the people making the series decided, at some point, to abandon the idea of the backpacks completely. Perhaps it was for continuity reasons, or perhaps it was because it added an obstructive element to the plotting.   Was it recognised that, if the fugitives lost their possessions at the beginning of a story, they would have to somehow reacquire them before its conclusion? Were the production team frustrated by the inconvenience of having to rationalise this—even though (as the preceding pages show) they rarely did. Is it significant that the decision to eliminate the backpacks seems to occur after the filming of “The Surgeon”—which contains the most consistent and rational use of the backpacks?   For my part, it doesn’t bother me that Virdon, Burke, and Galen might be without bags and baggage at the end of an adventure, yet magically reacquire them by the commencement of another. What matters, I think, is that they had them.   As I said in the foreward to this feature, our heroes needed those backpacks to carry their “things” in. To have easy access to the items that not only helped them to exist—bedding, water, food, cooking utensils, tools and materials to start a fire—but also the materials they required to pursue their goals!   When we see them with nothing but the clothes they are standing up in, it raises a major issue: how do they survive from day-to-day, or night-to-night? Where do they sleep? In the open? How do they stay warm without something to wrap themselves in and retain their body heat? What about food? Do they forage every day? What about fresh water? Is it credible that supplies of these basic necessities are constantly available?   The backpacks and the canteen provided a simple, shorthand explanation for all of this. When we saw the fugitives climbing hills, with their napsacks on their backs, we could ignore the question of their day-today survival, and concentrate on the adventure in hand.   Without the backpacks, the question remained, and the credibility of what followed was diminished.   For me, at any rate.   Mark. April 13th, 2005