SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the finale of Prime Target on Apple.
Apple’s Prime Target — a twisty thriller about a brilliant math post-graduate student who’s close to making a huge discovery that takes him deep into a government conspiracy — wrapped its run March 5 with a bloody good payoff for Leo Woodall‘s Edward Brooks.
But what happens to him now? Will Martha Plimpton‘s Jane Torres get punished for her dastardly deeds? And did Edward’s decision to release the code wreak havoc on the world?
Here, creator Steve Thompson (Sherlock, Dr. Who) explains how he first came up with the idea for Prime Target, along with why it took a bunch of eggheads to make Edward look like a genius over eight episodes, whether we can expect a second season, and why viewers shouldn’t overlook those unique pins on this lapels.
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DEADLINE Before we get into the finale, how long had you been sitting on this idea?
STEVE THOMPSON I’d been sitting on it a very, very long time. I mean, in terms of just fermenting it in my mind … 30 years. I know that sounds extraordinary, but I’ve only been a writer for about 20 years. And prior to that I was a teacher and the subject I taught was maths. The whole prime numbers thing occurred to me in the early ’90s because there was a book on the shelf in the school library, and it had a chapter called Puzzling Primes. It said for thousands of years, mathematicians have been trying to find a pattern in prime numbers. And I remember reading it and being completely hooked by this idea that everybody thought there must be a pattern. But there wasn’t. And you could go back thousands of years and mathematicians have been trying to find it. About 10 years after that, a brilliant writer called Simon Singh came to the school where I was teaching and talked to us because he had just written a book about codes. He brought an enigma machine, a genuine enigma machine they used in submarines during World War II.
And in his book about codes, which I subsequently bought, he wrote a brilliant chapter about how all of modern computer codes were based on prime numbers, how modern cryptography was based on what’s called public key cryptography. And it’s how we code sensitive information in our computers. It relies on the fact that prime numbers are random. I took these two pieces of information, really quite abstract pieces of information. The first was this idea that people have been struggling to find a pattern in prime numbers for thousands of years. And then the second, which Simon Singh introduced to me, was this idea that all computer codes were based on their randomness. It suddenly occurred to me that if a mathematician were born who found a pattern in prime numbers, they would be the most dangerous person.
They could break any computer code. And that’s where it came from. So really, I’ve been sort of noodling away at it for years and then occasionally mentioning it in general meetings in TV. And about four or five years ago, I walked into Ed Rubin’s office at Scott Free in London and he said to me, ‘what’s the one thing that you’ve never written about, that you’ve always wanted to write about?’ I said I’ve never written about maths, and I just assumed he was going to kick me out of his office. He didn’t.
DEADLINE The reviews for this have been really entertaining. People find it fun, but others have suggested it’s a little absurd. Can you talk about tackling a subject like math for a series? Were you worried about folks complaining that it’s straight up bonkers?
THOMPSON No. It’s based on the premise that somebody finds a pattern in prime numbers and nobody’s ever found a pattern in prime numbers. But here’s the thing. About 10 years ago, Marcus du Sautoy, who’s a very brilliant mathematician, wrote an article in The Guardian here in England. It said, 10 questions science must answer. And one of those 10 questions was if there is a pattern in prime numbers. The fact that we’ve never found it, and the fact that nobody thinks it’s possible doesn’t mean mathematicians don’t keep looking. And that’s the interesting thing about maths. The Egyptians didn’t know what fractions were, they had no idea. Prior to the great Arabic mathematicians of the Middle Ages, there were no such things as negative numbers. Nobody knew they existed and then somebody came along and invented them. That’s always happened in the quest of mathematics. The things that you think are not possible, actually somebody comes along and invents the possible. So yes, it’s based on a fictitious notion and I totally hold my hands up. And if people want to criticize that, that’s 100 percent fine. Anybody’s entitled to say anything they want, and I don’t mind that. But mathematics has always had this rather charming and romantic quality that just because you think something’s not possible, a mathematician will come along and change the system.
DEADLINE Why dig deep, no pun intended, into archeology?
THOMPSON One of the most wonderful things about it is that we build bridges through time. So somebody might try to construct a mathematical theorem and then hundreds or even thousands of years later, somebody else finishes it off. Sometimes there are these unanswered questions from the past that people answer in the present, and I’ve always found really charming. As part of the show, I said, we need to go back into past civilizations. And the one we chose to look at, because it was so fertile, was the great Arab mathematicians of the 10th and 11th century. That’s why we go to Baghdad.
DEADLINE So if a Fields Medal winner happened to tune into episode seven where Edward is stuck in that room writing on the whiteboards, would they understand what you put on those walls?
THOMPSON I think they would understand a lot of it. I taught math and I’ve got a degree in maths but that doesn’t make me the greatest mathematician in the world. I’m not a PhD level mathematician. So we hired an entire team of mathematicians from Royal Holloway University to actually invent the symbols that you see on the wall. And Leo Woodall, who is the most fantastically hardworking actor, sat down and learned them and reproduced them all and wrote them on the walls. I take my hat off to the brilliant team that we had from Royal Holloway and also from Leo himself. So yes, it has a sort of coherence to it and it feels credible.
DEADLINE I thought you were great with the exposition, so I never felt completely lost when it came time to talk math.
THOMPSON I thought it was really important. I mean, for me it was really important that everybody got some of it, that you couldn’t watch the show and not just get a little bit of it. I mean, some of the greatest mathematics in history are actually quite easy to explain. Everybody has studied the pythagorean theorem in school. Everybody knows that A squared plus B squared equals C squared A square plus B squared equals C squared. It’s quite simple to explain, and yet it’s an incredibly potent and powerful piece of mathematics, which has existed for centuries. I kind of like the fact that there are these pieces of mathematics that are very, very powerful and yet very simple to explain. So for me, I’d feel good knowing that people have come away from the show just getting glimpses. If all they got was what is a prime number, then that’s great, then that makes me happy.
DEADLINE Does Edward have Asperger’s?
THOMPSON Nobody’s ever said that. But there are interesting subtleties in Leo’s performance, I think, which suggest it. Sometimes mathematicians, when they disappear into a world made up of an abstract world of numbers, the real world becomes a slightly ambient place to them. I think that’s what Leo’s playing.
DEADLINE There were some interesting choices made with his wardrobe. What was up with the lapel pins?
THOMPSON There was a huge debate between the producers and wardrobe about the lapel pins because they’re actually quite revealing. One of the charming things about maths and prime numbers is how they occur in nature. There’s a whole speech he does about this. He says, if you look at flowers, typically the number of petals is a prime number. If you look at a fruit or a vegetable, the number of seed chambers is a prime. The number of seasons before insects swarm is usually 17. The number of chromosomes in a human body is 23. So each of these little badges are natural phenomenon like plants or insects. But it’s a tiny detail. I mean, you’ve really got to be looking hard to notice it.
DEADLINE Martha Plimpton’s Jane Torres ends up being right. Edward would become a fugitive. So were her intentions truly evil?
THOMPSON Well, I think it’s arguable. I think it’s really important to give every single character and, for want of a better phrase, an evil character, a really coherent reason for behaving the way they behave. Years ago, I was lectured by a playwright who said, find the character you disagree with most and give them the most convincing arguments, which I thought was really good advice, because otherwise what you write is just bland and simplistic. Martha’s argument is quite profound. She’s saying, we have to stop this. Otherwise every digital lock in the world could be unpicked and everything that we have in the world that is precious — banking systems, air traffic control, missile defense [could be compromised]. Of course, the opposing argument is that you can’t stop an idea. Freedom of expression is absolutely vital to our world, and you can’t stop an idea from being born. That’s the counterargument. But Martha’s character is equally profound. We’ve created an entire society based on this one thing. If it was taken away, the world would decline. The evil part is that she and her agency got to the point of actually assassinating mathematicians.
DEADLINE Was there ever a scenario that Edward wouldn’t have shot Professor Alderman [Stephen Rea] in the end?
THOMPSON We went round and round on that one. How the story ends was a huge point of debate. What Alderman says is the math is out and I’m going to make sure it is released to the world. And if it’s not you, I’m going to find somebody else to do it because I know it can be done. That’s what makes Edward kill him, because Edward knows that somebody else will come along and trod the path that he’s trodden and then chaos will ensue.
DEADLINE So what is next? Will there be a season 2?
THOMPSON I’d love to think there would be one, but there are no assurances at this stage. We’ll see what happens with the response and see where it goes from here. Edward is now a rogue force. He has an extraordinary power and he’s out there in the world. So we teed it up and we’ll see what happens. We see him utilize it with his phone.
The post ‘Prime Target’ Creator Steve Thompson On Drama’s Future & Critics Who Doubted Premise: “A Mathematician Can Change The System” appeared first on Deadline.
