|
Post by matthewsee on Jun 19, 2015 21:30:04 GMT -5
The Medicine Men: Season 3, Episode 9. Coincidentally Sean Connery who played the villain Sir August de Wynter in the 1998 The Avengers movie was the unrelated Medicine Man in 1992. Medicine Men is another way to describe doctors and this episode written by Malcolm Hulke was originally broadcast on November 23 1963 exactly the same day of some show called Doctor Who made its debut and Doctor Who & The Avengers were both created by Sydney Newman. Quite nice seeing Cathy in a Turkish bath. Not bad plotline about artificial products, knock-offs of the real thing. Oh my what a revelation of what those Arabic words meant as that really put a spanner in the works.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jun 23, 2015 1:57:21 GMT -5
The Grandeur That Was Rome: Season 3, Episode 10. The villain here is the leader of the World Empire Party and aims to recreate the world in the shape of the Roman Empire. Calling himself Caesar, he undertakes this purpose by releasing deadly diseases. Like 3.7 The Gilded Cage, The Grandeur That Was Rome has a coincidence with the then upcoming Goldfinger which Honor Blackman would leave The Avengers for. In this case is that of the lead character pretending to have escaped from his cell but in actual fact was still in it. Definitely not wise for Caesar to name his chief lieutenant as Brutus as this Brutus killed this Caesar just like what happened to the originals.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jun 23, 2015 21:17:59 GMT -5
The Golden Fleece: Season 3, Episode 11. Guest stars Tenniel Evans and Michael Hawkins and they narrowly missed each other in Doctor Who when the former was in Carnival of Monsters and the next story Frontier In Space guest starred the latter. Also a good guest stint by Warren Mitchell in a straight role. The episode is definitely about gold but not exactly a fleece. Fun when Steed and Cathy had a pillow fight. A bit slow in places and the fact that the villains of this episode are not really villains did present a dilemma to Steed and Cathy.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jun 25, 2015 0:07:44 GMT -5
Don’t Look Behind You: Season 3, Episode 12. A Cathy Gale episode that was later remade as the Emma Peel episode The Joker. I saw The Joker almost two decades ago not long after I left a high school run by a terrible principal called Geoff McNeil. I remember The Joker being a very thrilling episode and the same thing can be said about Don’t Look Behind You. Just like The Joker, Steed has a limited appearance in Don’t Look Behind You and Honor Blackman as Cathy did superbly having this episode mostly on her own. She went through this episode magnificently through the scares to the ultimate reveal of the villain.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jun 25, 2015 20:38:10 GMT -5
Patrick Macnee has passed away.
Born on February 6 1922, Patrick Macnee is well known for John Steed in The Avengers (1961-69), a role he reprised for The New Avengers (1976-77). In a sad coincidence he passed away several weeks after I was able to resume viewing of The Avengers episodes I have not seen before after a lengthy period.
His other work included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Sherlock Holmes In New York (as Dr Watson), the original Battlestar Galactica, The Howling, The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair, A View To Kill, three Christopher Lee Sherlock Holmes TV movies in which Macnee was again Dr Watson, Around The Round In 80 Days (1989), Thunder In Paradise, The Hound of London (a Sherlock Holmes movie in which Macnee finally gets to be Holmes, Diagnosis Murder, NightMan & Spy Game TV series.
With regards to his above work Sherlock Holmes In New York & A View To A Kill saw Macnee paired off with Roger Moore as Holmes and James respectively. The curious aspect of the casting of Macnee and Moore together in these films is that Moore was The Saint in the 1960s, a show which ran concurrently with The Avengers. So those films were a case of John Steed and Simon Templar working together.
Macnee was one actor who never appeared in Doctor Who but I do remember at one time in the 1990s I browsed through his autobiography in a bookshop in which he mentioned The Avengers creator Sydney Newman had subsequently created Doctor Who. Curiously enough while it is not exactly Doctor Who, his last work according to IMDb is a short film called The Low Budget Time Machine.
He died on June 25 2015 at the age of 93.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jun 27, 2015 23:54:49 GMT -5
Death A La Carte: Season 3, Episode 13. Steed and Cathy are on the case of an Emir whose life is being threatened with Steed posing as a chef and Cathy as a social planner. I don’t watch MasterChef so I would not presume whether Steed’s take as a chef is an alternative to watching MasterChef but was very good in posing as one. (I actually once saw a brief segment of Young MasterChef in which my wife Karen Gillan was a judge.) Intriguing the political machinations that was going on here with the Emir. Thrilling when Steed had to walk over the edge as part of getting out the predicament that he and Cathy were in. The Emir does die here but perhaps surprising on the revelation for the cause of death.
This is the first episode that I saw since learning of the passing of Patrick Macnee.
So: In Memory of Patrick Macnee 1922-2015.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jun 29, 2015 19:55:18 GMT -5
Dressed To Kill: Season 3, Episode 14. Originally aired on December 28 1963. Guest stars Anneke Wills who would later to become Doctor Who companion Polly. On the same day this episode was shown the second episode of the original Dalek story was shown and Anneke Wills will meet the Daleks in The Power of the Daleks. The Power of the Daleks had guest starred Robert James and he narrowly missed Anneke Wills in The Avengers as he appeared in Death a la Carte, the preceding episode to Dressed to Kill. Whilst still on the subject of Daleks, Steed in Dressed To Kill mentioned the scenario of mutation from a nuclear missile and the Daleks are inhabited by mutants. So somewhat a fitting coincidence that this Avengers episode and the second episode of the Daleks showing the Daleks first full appearance came on the same day. In Dressed To Kill, Anneke Wills is dressed up as girl P(u)ssy Cat and her character is credited as such. This is episode in which Honor Blackman plays Cathy Gale. Somewhat prophetically, Honor Blackman left The Avengers not long after Dressed To Kill to play girl P(u)ssy Galore in Goldfinger. Still on the subject of Doctor Who companions, Honor Blackman would turn up in Doctor Who in the penultimate Trial of a Time Lord segment Terror of the Vervoids in which the companion was Bonnie Langford as Mel. Anneke Wills would make another appearance in The Avengers but as a different character in the Emma Peel episode The £50,000 Breakfast which aired in October 1967 not long after she completed her Doctor Who stint. Whilst still on links between Doctor Who & The Avengers in close proximity, Dressed To Kill also had someone dressed up as Napoleon and almost a year after Dressed To Kill was shown Napoleon would be in Doctor Who in the final episode of The Reign of Terror. Dressed to Kill is a very thrilling episode and plays well on the Ten Little Indians premise. It was funny that when girl thingy Cat sees Steed and Cathy who were handcuffed together we got the impression that she was going to release them only she left them without releasing them at all!
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jul 13, 2015 18:45:33 GMT -5
The White Elephant:
Season 3, Episode 15.
The episode title refers to an elephant that has gone missing from an animal distribution centre that has the fitting name of Noah’s Ark.
Despite the title and notwithstanding it had gone missing there was no sight at all in the episode of the said elephant in this not bad episode.
Karen Gillan is my wife, I love her so much and I love having sex with her.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jul 15, 2015 21:57:59 GMT -5
The Little Wonders: Season 3, Episode 16. Guest stars David Bauer and Lois Maxwell.
Bauer has a remarkable resemblance to Roger Delgado (who himself had guested in two The Avengers episodes) and there are similarities here between this episode and Delgado’s stint as the Master in Doctor Who.
In The Little Monsters, Bauer played Bishop, a man of the cloth and Delgado as the Master posed as a vicar Mr Magister in the Doctor Who season 8 closer The Daemons.
A toy doll played its part in The Little Monsters while another toy, a teddy bear had an infamous part in Delgado’s first Doctor Who story as the Master, the season 8 opener Terror of the Autons.
Enjoyable episode with Bishop doing a recruitment of other men of the other cloth and the decision on to choose for an upcoming task.
Quite bizarre the selection method that was used here thanks to the Maxwell character.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jul 16, 2015 20:32:22 GMT -5
The Wringer: Season 3, Episode 17.
Guest stars Barry Letts who would later become producer of Doctor Who.
Another guest star here is Paul Whitsun-Jones who would later appear in Doctor Who during Letts’ tenure as producer in The Mutants.
Absolutely thrilling episode in which Steed has been framed as a traitor and touching what Cathy went through to help Steed clear his name.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Jul 24, 2015 19:36:14 GMT -5
The Secrets Broker: Season 3, Episode 19. Not a memorable episode. The plot of what went on at a wine shop couple with that of a love affair seems somewhat disjointed for its eventual conclusion.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Aug 1, 2015 22:33:23 GMT -5
Trojan Horse: Season 3, Episode 20. The setting of this episode is at a racetrack in which the episode title alludes to.
Not bad episode about jockeys as assassins.
Coincidentally some days after watching this episode saw Glue 1.4 Tina/Dominic and that too also had a horse race in it.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Aug 7, 2015 17:40:15 GMT -5
Build a Better Mousetrap: Season 3, Episode 21. Enjoyable episode with two kooky sisters, a motorcycle gang and the plot about a nuclear facility.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Aug 16, 2015 10:35:57 GMT -5
The Outside-In Man: Season 3, Episode 22. A spy long thought to be dead suddenly comes back alive. Here he carries out an assassination assignment on a dictator that he was originally given not long before he was thought to have died even though orders on this assassination has since been cancelled. What ensues is not anyone expected and brilliant revelation at that.
|
|
|
Post by matthewsee on Aug 19, 2015 21:20:44 GMT -5
The Charmers: Season 3, Episode 23. Remade as the Emma Peel episode The Correct Way To Kill. Agents from both sides of the Iron Curtain joined forces to find the third party who has been killing their agents. Steed and Cathy have basically undergoes an exchange programme in their tasks to find the third party. Quite fun that Steed is paired up with Olga. In retrospect should not be surprise that the Warren Mitchell character turned out to be the real villain.
|
|