Skip to content
1981
Volume 13, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2046-9861
  • E-ISSN: 2046-987X

Abstract

Though arguably an ensemble series, BBC spy drama (2002–11) often focused upon a single character as its ostensible lead. As such, this article focuses upon one of those leads, Tom Quinn, who was the leader of Section A from Season 1, Episode 1, to Season 3, Episode 2 (with a brief appearance in the series finale; Season 10, Episode 6). I will argue that the series uses Gothic tropes throughout these episodes to illustrate and make intelligible to the audience Tom’s increasing moral injury which takes him from the series’ initial moral compass to his final diegetic appearance as an ‘outside agency’ about to commit an assassination at MI5’s unofficial order.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jptv_00140_1
2025-11-18
2026-04-20

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aldana Reyes, X. (2018), ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015): Gothic film’, in S. Bacon (ed.), The Gothic: A Reader, Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 16976.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Brewster, S. (2012), ‘Seeing things: Gothic and the madness of interpretation’, in D. Punter (ed.), A New Companion to the Gothic, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 48195.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Chaplin, S. (2011), Gothic Literature: Texts, Contexts, Connections, Harlow: Pearson Education.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Chapman, J. (2020), Contemporary British Television Drama, 2nd ed., London: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Currier, J. M., McCormick, W. and Drescher, K. D. (2015), ‘How do morally injurious events occur? A qualitative analysis of perspectives of veterans with PTSD’, Traumatology, 21:2, pp. 10616, https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000027.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Dixon, P. (2000), ‘Britain’s “Vietnam Syndrome”? Public opinion and British military intervention from Palestine to Yugoslavia’, Review of International Studies, 26:1, pp. 99121, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0260210500000991.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gibbs, J. (2002), Mise-En-Scene: Film Style and Interpretation, London: Wallflower.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Kaye, H. (2012), ‘Gothic film’, in D. Punter (ed.), A New Companion to the Gothic, London: Blackwell, pp. 23951.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Kompare, D. (2005), Rerun Nation: How Repeats Invented American Television, London and New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Kruger, L. (2014), ‘Is there more to the experience of war trauma than PTSD? The development of moral injury and its impact on soldiers’, Journal of Military and Government Counseling, 2:2, pp. 13645.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Litz, B.T, Stein, N., Delaney, E., Lebowitz, L., Nash, William P., Silva, C. and Maguen, S. (2009), ‘Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy’, Clinical Psychology Review, 29:8, pp. 695706, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.07.003.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Mamoulian, R. (1931), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, USA: Paramount.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Mishra, V. (2012), ‘The Gothic sublime’, in D. Punter (ed.), A New Companion to the Gothic, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 288306.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Oldham, J. (2017), Paranoid Visions: Spies, Conspiracies and the Secret State in British Television Drama, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Punter, D. (1996), The Literature of Terror, Vol. 2: The Modern Gothic, 2nd ed., London: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Toscano, A. (2021), ‘Gothic romance’, in J. Kamblé, E. M. Selinger and H.-M. Teo (eds), The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction, London: Routledge, pp. 99117.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Spooks (2002–11, UK: BBC).
    [Google Scholar]
  18. ‘Clean Skin’ (Season 2, Episode 7; 21 July 2003).
  19. ‘I Spy Apocalypse’ (Season 2, Episode 5; 7 July 2003).
  20. ‘Legitimate Targets’ (Season 2, Episode 1; 2 June 2003).
  21. ‘Looking After Our Own’ (Season 1, Episode 2; 20 May 2002).
  22. ‘Nest of Angels’ (Season 2, Episode 2; 9 May 2003).
  23. ‘One Last Dance’ (Season 1, Episode 3; 27 May 2002).
  24. ‘Seventh Division’ (Season 2, Episode 9; 4 August 2003).
  25. ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ (Season 2, Episode 10; 11 August 2003).
  26. ‘Spiders’ (Season 2, Episode 3; 16 June 2003).
  27. ‘Strike Force’ (Season 2, Episode 8; 28 July 2003).
  28. ‘The Lesser of Two Evils’ (Season 1, Episode 6; 17 June 2002).
  29. ‘The Rose Bed Memoirs’ (Season 1, Episode 5; 10 June 2002).
  30. ‘The Sleeper’ (Season 3, Episode 2; 18 October 2004).
  31. ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ (Season 1, Episode 1; 13 May 2002).
  32. ‘Traitor’s Gate’ (Season 1, Episode 4; 3 June 2002).
  33. ‘Without Incident’ (Season 2, Episode 6; 14 July 2003).
  34. ‘Project Friendly Fire’ (Season 3, Episode 1; 11 October 2004).
  35. ‘Episode #10.6’ (Season 10, Episode 6; 23 October 2011).
/content/journals/10.1386/jptv_00140_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test