Pearl, 10.30pm
In place of Silent Witness this week, Pearl are showing this special episode of The West Wing written by the series creator and executive producer, Aaron Sorkin.
In response to the terrorist attacks to the United States on September 11, Sorkin explores why terrorists should target America and he places his fictional White House staff in the midst of a 'crash' - a lockdown in case of a security breach - with a group of high school kids on a trip to Washington, with the students asking questions many
Americans have asked in the past few weeks.
Sorkin's primary message is that extremists cannot comprehend the notion of a plural society such as the United States and seek to destroy it in the name of a perverted vision of what is sacred.
Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, the characters' quirks are intact and there is plenty of the series' well-established humour. Josh (Bradley Whitford) and his assistant Donna (Janel Moloney) engage in some of their typical argue-flirting while discussing the causes of terrorism. Meanwhile Toby (Richard Schiff) and CJ (Allison Janney, above) clash over the need for stepped-up CIA efforts and the fear that such efforts would infringe civil liberties.
