The series aired its second station fire in three years as racist PCSO Colin Fairfax staged a terrorist attack to shift blame onto the local Muslim community, the blaze resulting in the deaths of DC Ken Drummond, PC Andrea Dunbar and SRO Marilyn Chambers.

Young began plans to move the series away from soap and back into policing drama, swiftly writing out soap-style villain PC Gabriel Kent, whose actor Todd Carty had already announced he was quitting the show, in a plot that saw him commit suicide after being exposed for identity theft, murder, rape and a litany of other crimes.

Young also brought an end to several Marquess era plots including Gina Gold's aforementioned battle with cancer and DC Terry Perkins' affair with his imprisoned brother's wife.

The special episode showed a siege at Sun Hill in which several members of the relief were held hostage by a grieving father, seeking justice for his son's accidental death in a traffic collision.

He also ended a Marquess plot, the show's third serial killer storyline in as many years, by fatally writing out PC Lance Powell as the culprits were targeting gay men: it meant along with Gabriel Kent and the station fire victims, it was the second highest tally of police officer deaths in a series with 5, second only to the ten killed off in 2002.