TV Review: The Avengers ’68 Set 5
In 1961, a new show hit the airwaves in Britain, The Avengers. The main character was Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) whose wife had been murdered. He’s recruited by spy John Steed (Patrick McNee) to be an expert consultant in exchange for help avenging his spouse. After the fairly gritty first season, Mr. Hendry departed for a movie career and Steed became the main character with a number of assistants–the one that stuck was Catherine “Cathy” Gale (Honor Blackman), The series started getting wilder, but turned really weird once Ms. Blackman left for a movie career and was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel. (The one most fans remember.) Eventually she too left for the movies and was replaced by younger spy Tara King (Linda Thorson).
And that’s where this DVD set comes in, the final episodes of the Sixties Avengers. Miss King was a decent enough character, but no Mrs. Peel, and between production difficulties, behind-the-scenes drama, and a disastrous timeslot, it was decided this would be the final season. The set has seven episodes.
“Thingumajig” has Steed (who has a reputation as a troubleshooter even outside the espionage community called in by a vicar to investigate a mysterious death in the tunnels beneath the church where an archaeological dig is going on. It swiftly turns into a series of mysterious deaths–very Doctor Who, which is not surprising since Terry Nation wrote the script. Meanwhile in London, Tara is consulting an electrical specialist who takes snuff and ruins her entry for the Great British Bake-Off.
It turns out not to be ghosts or aliens, but a mad science project–basically evil Roombas, one of which attacks Tara in her apartment while Steed confronts the inventor. Apparently the Soviet spy who was waiting for delivery on the killer machines gets away as he’s not seen at the end.
“Pandora” is a creepy story in which Tara wakes up in a house where it’s 1915 and everyone calls her “Pandora.” Meanwhile Steed tries to track down the World War One agent “Ferocious Rabbit.” Twist ending!
“Requiem” has assassins kidnap Tara and use drugs and set dressing to make her think Steed is in danger so she’ll tell them where he’s hidden a key witness. Steed’s subplot is discovering that the witness is much better at strategy games than he is. While fun, two episodes back to back where Tara is kidnapped, drugged and made to participate in a villain’s scenario is a bit much.
“Take-Over” is very much a Steed episode. He goes to visit old friends in the country (who are some of the few people to call him by his first name), unaware that the other guests are uninvited intruders who have implanted bombs in the host couple’s necks. A game of cat and mouse ensues, Tara helping at the end.
“Who Was That Man I Saw You With?” starts with Agent King attempting to penetrate military security. Enemy agents frame her as a collaborator in hopes of bringing down Britain’s defensive missile shield. To be honest, the frame job is laid on way too thick, and the Department should have been much more suspicious.
“My Wildest Dream” features a manufacturing company whose board of directors starts killing each other. The gimmick is “agresso-therapy” where the patient is convinced to murder their greatest enemy in their dreams. Except the time it isn’t a dream. Blue Cross isn’t going to cover this treatment plan. It turns out corporate executives are more evil than quack psychiatrists.
“Bizarre” closes the series with a series of deaths of shady financiers. Except that according to a witness found in her nightie in the middle of a snowy field, one of them rose from his coffin in the middle of the night. Further investigation shows all these men are buried in one cemetery, a gaudy affair owned by one Bagpipes Happychap. His business is rapidly going down the pipes once Steed and King get involved.
This episode involves “brownface”, used deliberately by a villain as part of his racket.
At the end, Steed and King are launched into space, but there’s a promise they will return…
“Thingumajig”, “Take-Over” and “Bizarre” are the best episodes of this lot. There’s witty writing and fun action throughout, and Steed and King have decent chemistry. It’s just not top Avengers, that’s all.
Recommended to fans of the series who haven’t seen the Tara King episodes in a while.
