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CRAIG BANNISTER

Craig Bannister

Craig Bannister was a DXS operative working for Pete Thornton. Several times, including missions to Burma and the Panjuk, Bannister had collaborated with MacGyver, and they had become friends as well as coworkers. When a mole within the agency had led to the deaths of four DXS operatives, Pete Thornton was concerned about MacGyver's safety during his mission to East Germany, and he sent Craig Bannister as backup. MacGyver met with his contact as planned, but they were surrounded by German officers, and Bannister arrived in a stolen police car just in time to rescue MacGyver from capture. The brake line in their car was damaged in the shootout, but MacGyver was able to repair the brakes by climbing onto the hood of the car while traveling 140kph and feeding the power steering fluid into the brake cylinder to complete their escape.

Craig Bannister had been recently married to Ingrid, who appeared to be the devoted young wife, but Bannister was unaware that Ingrid was in fact a Soviet agent. For four weeks during their honeymoon, Ingrid had used sophisticated techniques each day to program her new husband to act as the mole within the DXS. Under hypnosis, and without realizing that he was being used, Bannister had been feeding information to the Soviets through Ingrid and her partner Anton Lem.

In an effort to identify the mole and stop the leaks, Thornton turned to MacGyver and engaged the cooperation a Soviet defector named Viktoria Tomanova to set a trap. The plan made Viktoria a target, and at the prestigious and formal International Peace Through Science Symposium, the Soviets attempted to assassinate Viktoria by using similar programming techniques on Reverend Mather, one of the keynote speakers. Certain chemicals had been introduced into Mather's bloodstream, and he had been programmed to draw a gun during the event to shoot Viktoria. However, the assassination attempt failed, and Reverend Mather was eliminated when Lem used a small remote device to trigger what appeared to be a fatal heart attack by creating a magnetic field that would cause the chemicals in Mather's bloodstream to form artificial blockages in his arteries.

In a second attempt to eliminate Viktoria, Ingrid programmed her husband Craig to believe that Viktoria and MacGyver together had been behind the agency leaks and the deaths of the four DXS operatives, and that Craig must now kill them both. The intention was to frame MacGyver as the mole in the hope that Thornton would be so heartbroken by his friend's betrayal that he would resign, making room for Craig to step into his position as Director of Operations at the DXS.

MacGyver and Viktoria had returned to the Exhibition Center to search for clues behind Mather's suspicious death when Ingrid and Lem arrived with Craig, still under the influence of their programming. At Ingrid's orders, Craig fired the first shot, but MacGyver and Viktoria were able to disarm Lem and Ingrid, and as MacGyver turned to Craig and reminded him of their friendship and their missions together, the effect of the programming began to weaken. Craig lowered his gun, but Ingrid was determined to maintain control. As with Reverend Mather, chemicals had also been introduced into Craig's bloodstream that would cause artificial clots to form when exposed to a magnetic field, and Ingrid used the same remote device to trigger a heart attack in Craig. Rushing to his aid, MacGyver fashioned a makeshift defibrillator using a pair of candlesticks, electric cords, and rubber insulation, and the electric current successfully broke the magnetic field and counteracted the artificially induced heart attack. Craig Bannister survived and recovered, and Ingrid and Lem would have been taken into custody.

Portrayed by: Michael W. Goodwin

Cross Reference: Ingrid Bannister, DXS, East Germany, International Peace Through Science Symposium, Anton Lem, Reverend Mather, Viktoria Tomanova

Episode Reference: The Enemy Within