Corporal Punishment (Blackadder) didn't get any messages, and Captain Blackadder definitely did not shoot that delicious plump-breasted pigeon."). Finally, there are pigeon feathers on the floor, which Captain Darling and Melchett believe to be white. But after Baldrick points out that the feathers are "speckly," Melchett is enraged, as it was his beloved pet pigeon Speckled Jim, and tries to strike Blackadder, forcing Darling to physically restrain Melchett. Smugly, Darling then informs Blackadder that he's under arrest and, if found guilty at court-martial, he will face execution by firing squad. Blackadder sends for Sir Bob Massingbird (originally scripted as "Robert Moxon Browne"), a
Blackadder thirty-five miles from the front, where he is aided and abetted by his assistant, Captain Kevin Darling (Tim McInnerny), pencil-pusher supreme and Blackadder's nemesis, whose name is played on for maximum comedic value. The series' tone is somewhat darker than the other "Blackadder"s; it details the deprivations of trench warfare as well as the incompetence and life-wasting strategies of the top brass. For example, Baldrick is reduced to making coffee from mud and cooking rats, while General Melchett hatches a plan for the troops to walk very slowly toward the German lines, because "it'll be the last thing Fritz will