A Feasible Solution
‘This is the first time I’ve armed Caine in over a year.’

A vacationing British missile engineer goes missing in Cyprus. The SIS then learn that the Russians are also looking for a missing rocket scientist. Burnside’s station staff is attacked, forcing him to take action in the Mediterranean with a possible terrorist attack in the offing.

Hamad wasn't the only person smitten by Laura. Burnside asks Laura out to supper. Of course, being Burnside, he grills the in-house psychiatrist to learn what would be the best way to approach her. His hesitant, overly careful manner reveals much of what his profession has done to him.

At their dinner and at Burnside’s flat, Burnside and Laura discuss Burnside's inaccessibility and his entitlement ‘to behave like a schoolboy’. Laura makes Burnside smile. It's not the last time he'll smile in the series, but it's the last time he'll show such a big smile.

Sense of style
Laura seems to be wearing one of Princess Leia‘s spare frocks. And Jill Ferris's overalls are rather cute, aren't they? Topping the sartorial heap in this episode is Willies Six Million Dollar Man safari suit.

From the book
A Feasible Solution is one of two episodes in Ian Mackintosh‘s Sandbaggers novelization. A few lines of dialogue are changed in the book, and a few are added. The book has a new scene in which Burnside and Laura discuss the possibility of Laura remaining a Sandbagger.

This scene supplants the televised exchange about the ‘Tokyo Station Report of Proceedings.’ In the book, when Burnside tells Philip Jeremiah, ‘The rumor in the Field School was that she's a lesbian,’ the psychiatrist's answer is longer - and more intriguing - than in the televised episode.

On TV he says, ‘She isn’t.’ In the book he says, ‘She isn‘t. But that‘s another problem for her - she can‘t be sure. Doesn‘t know if she‘d like it better with another woman.’ The televised episode is ambiguous about whether Laura spends the night at Burnside's flat. The book makes it clear that she doesn’t, but also reveals that she and Burnside kissed: ‘On her leaving, he had kissed her for the first time; a gentle, exploratory and almost sexless kiss.’

Comment
Given Burnside’s dedication to ‘the destruction of the KGB’ as he puts it in Decision by Committee, it's remarkable how infrequently the KGB actually shows up. This is the most violent of all the episodes, and the one with the highest body count. Ironically, mention is made for the first time of Willie’s dislike for guns. Burnside tells C, ‘This is the first time I've armed Caine in over a year.’

Personnel file
The young man seen helping C in his office is C’s PA, Sandy, who is mentioned in previous episodes; the actor is uncredited, but the character is referred to as Sandy in Unusual Approach and appears in several more episodes.