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Post by matthewsee on May 25, 2015 17:21:36 GMT -5
The Golden Eggs: Season 2, Episode 19. The second episode in a row in transmission order in which Peter Arne plays a villain, albeit a different one after Warlock, although the two episodes were far apart in production order. So quite a bizarre broadcast order of these episodes with Arne in them. Quite eerie episode in which the title eggs are basically like anthrax.
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Post by matthewsee on May 28, 2015 18:00:44 GMT -5
School For Traitors: Season 2, Episode 20. Not bad episode about suicides at a university and the ultimate revelation of the plot to kill Steed. Somehow it did not surprise me the mastermind in all this plus Melissa Stribling was devious as villain Claire Summers.
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Post by matthewsee on May 31, 2015 7:58:39 GMT -5
Man In The Mirror: Season 2, Episode 22. A Venus Smith episode. Guest stars include David Graham and I am also hearing his voice in Thunderbirds Are Go! Not bad episode about a man who had committed suicide only to be discovered to be still alive when Venus took a picture of him in the mirror, hence the episode title. Somewhat unsatisfying that the villains got away.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 2, 2015 5:43:48 GMT -5
Conspiracy of Silence: Season 2, Episode 23. Steed and Cathy has a case in a circus after an unsuccessful assassination attempt was made on the former. The episode title is quite apt for this episode as I did struggle in trying to enjoy it, the silence being there isn’t anything really good to say about it and I guess on paper it should have been a thrilling episode, thrills I did not feel at all.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 3, 2015 23:19:29 GMT -5
A Chorus of Frogs: Antepenultimate episode of season 2. Julie Stevens’ swansong as Venus Smith. Pretty good swansong for Venus and quite fitting that she herself is a singer. The episode title refers to Frogs, a team of deep sea diver and a pretty good episode that involves them.
According to IMDb, Julie Stevens didn’t do much acting and after leaving The Avengers in 1963 she had a handful of credits and stopped acting in 1974 with Cabbages and Kings but had one last job in an episode of Holby City in 2001
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 5, 2015 18:35:12 GMT -5
Six Hands Across A Table:
Penultimate episode of season 2.
This is mostly a Cathy episode with limited role for Steed here and a very good one at that.
Guest stars include Edward de Souza and just a couple of years after this episode came on in March 1963, de Souza got to be the star of Doctor Who for one night in 1965 playing Marc Cory in Mission To The Unknown, the only Doctor Who episode that featured none of the regular cast.
In Six Hands Across A Table, de Souza played Brian Collier and it was amusing that he got knocked out not once but twice at his office. I mean I would have thought he be cautious the second time around.
Absolutely well done episode by what Honor Blackman was given to do as Cathy here and intriguing what was going on with the shipbuilding situation that was the focus here.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 8, 2015 2:28:35 GMT -5
Killer Whale: Season 2 finale. Written by John Lucarotti. Steed and Cathy gets a young man into a boxing ring as part of their investigation of a perfume made from ambergris which comes from whales and the thing is the ambergris is illegally smuggled. The Avengers Forever site thought this was an odd combination of elements of the episode but personally it was not bad as I am always open to any series experimenting with their storylines. Not a bad way to end the second season.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 8, 2015 21:40:22 GMT -5
Brief For Murder: Season 3 opener. Very good beginning to the third season which had Steed and Cathy pretending to be adversaries in order to investigate lawyers who are helping guilty people to get acquitted and by no means by the law book. Pretty good that Steed had to pretend to murder Cathy and then get acquitted for her fake murder. The two crooked lawyer brothers were very nutty but does not marred my enjoyment of the episode in any way.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 10, 2015 23:42:47 GMT -5
The Undertakers: Season 3, Episode 2. Imposters takes the place of dead rich people and it has something to do with tax evasion. I know that rich people do tend to evade taxes but the explanation here about it does not leave me any wiser about it. Enjoyable episode especially the drumbeat music when Steed went after the villains at the near end.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 12, 2015 18:44:16 GMT -5
Man With Two Shadows: Season 3, Episode 3. Thrilling episode about doubles including one of Steed. At times been wondering whether the Steed that is in scenes that he is in is the real one or the double. However disconcerting that the fake Gordon is allowed for the time being to continue his cover and be married to Cathy’s friend Julie.
Just after watching Man With Two Shadows saw Sherlock Holmes (1954) 1.27 The Case of the Perfect Husband which coincidentally also had a deceptive husband.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 14, 2015 3:07:11 GMT -5
The Nutshell: Season 3, Episode 4. Guest stars Bud Tingwell in the first of two appearances in the series each as different characters. The Nutshell is the acronym for Thermonuclear Underground Target Zone Shelter and Steed and Cathy were sent there to investigate a break-in. Things sure took an interesting turn when it appears that Steed is a traitor who had helped out the intruder. Superbly handled episode as we eventually see the real villains being flushed out at the episode’s climax.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 14, 2015 22:21:33 GMT -5
In DWM’s The Official Guide to the 2013 Series, Andrew Pixley in his thanks gave a special mention to everyone involved in The Crimson Horror as he described it “as one of my favourite pieces of television ever: after decades of waiting for a Victorian version of The Avengers, Doctor Who serves one up to me with all the style and madness that I could ever have wished for.”
Pixley feeling The Crimson Horror to be like the Victorian version of The Avengers had no doubt been helped by the presence of Diana Rigg who had been Emma Peel in The Avengers not to mention the Doctor sporting a bowler hat which felt like he was emulating John Steed, Emma Peel’s partner in The Avengers.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 15, 2015 2:54:28 GMT -5
November Five: Season 3, Episode 6. The episode title refers to Guy Fawkes Day and the episode itself did not quite air on that particular date as it was aired three days earlier on November 2 1963. Intriguing that it began with a winner of a by-election being killed after he was declared the winner marking the end of the shortest political career ever. This led to Steed to endorse Cathy to run in the new by-election but they are not serious about it as it is part of their investigation on the assassination of the previous winner. This episode makes for a very good political thriller as it looks into the machinations of British politics. November Five guest stars David Langton as an MP and he would later play another MP in Upstairs, Downstairs. In fact this episode was directed by Bill Bain who would reunite with Langton on Upstairs, Downstairs as Bain directed several episodes of that series.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 16, 2015 5:39:00 GMT -5
The Gilded Cage: Season 3, Episode 7. Steed and Cathy planned a gold robbery by enlisting the resources of JP Spagge (Patrick Magee, which as one can see has a similar name to Patrick Macnee). This was done in order to get Spagge, a criminal mastermind, arrested. This episode was originally broadcast on November 9 1963 and Cathy Gale is played by Honor Blackman. This was Honor Blackman’s last season on The Avengers and she left the series to be in Goldfinger playing girl thingy Galore. Goldfinger was released in September 1964 and remarkably enough that too involved a gold robbery. The gold robbery in Goldfinger took place at Fort Knox and while Fort Knox is not in The Gilded Cage it did however got mentioned in it. Whether the gold robbery plotline in Goldfinger is a coincidence, The Gilded Cage is a very good episode in showing the heist and the plan to get Spagge arrested.
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Post by matthewsee on Jun 18, 2015 22:54:29 GMT -5
Second Sight: Season 3, Episode 8. Didn’t really got a handle on this episode and why Marten Halvarssen (John Carson) was not the villain. Peter Bowles however did make a pretty good villain here even if his motives are not that clear to me.
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