Customer Reviews

Avengers '67 - Set 3, Vols. 5 & 6

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Following the huge success of the first filmed series of The Avengers, starring Patrick MacNee as debonair British agent John Steed and his cool, sophisticated partner Mrs. Emma Peel, the producers opted to make the next batch of 26 episodes in color, to be broadcast in 1967. In order to accomplish this, foreign backing was necessary, and the American networks were approached. The US had broadcast the black and white season four as a mid-season replacement, and were interested in moving forward with a color season in prime time, however they only provided enough backing for 16 episodes initially. Another challenge was that Diana Rigg was not particularly keen to film another season of the show, and demanded a huge salary increase in order to secure her participation. She got the money, but it was made clear it would be her second and last season with the show.

Apart from the use of color film, there were other subtle changes to the show for this fifth season. Both Steed and Emma were given new apartments and Mrs. Peel a much more stylized wardrobe. The device of ending each story with the two leads driving off in a variety of vehicles was abandoned and instead a tag scene was used to introduce each story, where Steed informed his partner that they were needed in a variety of humorous ways. Each story title was also given a two-line subtitle. After completion of the first batch of 16, the American backers did provide finance for a further 16 but asked for both the subtitles and tag scenes to be dropped, and also requested that Mrs. Peel's wardrobe became more recognizably en vogue.

After only 8 episodes were completed, producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell left the show after a disagreement and the new producers opted not to continue with Mrs. Peel and began their own interpretation of the show. It wasn't long before Clemens and Fennell were back in charge, but the 67 series ended with "Mission highly improbable," although Rigg was brought back in 1968 for the one-off "The forget me knot," to introduce her replacement Tara King. This episode is included in this release as a bonus episode.

In terms of storylines, acting and the wonderful interplay between the two leads, there is little difference between this color season and the preceding black and white stories and the show had really reached its zenith by this point. Certainly in terms of popularity and ratings, it was never as successful again. Interestingly, several of these stories are in fact remakes of earlier episodes from the Mrs. Gale era. "The joker," "The correct way to kill," and "The $50,000 breakfast," are all remakes, whereas "The return of the Cybernauts," is a sequel to an earlier Steed/Mrs. Peel adventure.

Fans of The Avengers will of course be delighted to have these discs, and I'd highly recommend them to any other fans of the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and indeed fans of the 60's spy format. If you've ever seen the dreadful movie featuring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, don't let that put you off. These stories are the real McCoy!

Following the huge success of the first filmed series of The Avengers, starring Patrick MacNee as debonair British agent John Steed and his cool, sophisticated partner Mrs. Emma Peel, the producers opted to make the next batch of 26 episodes in color, to be broadcast in 1967. In order to accomplish this, foreign backing was necessary, and the American networks were approached. The US had broadcast the black and white season four as a mid-season replacement, and were interested in moving forward with a color season in prime time, however they only provided enough backing for 16 episodes initially. Another challenge was that Diana Rigg was not particularly keen to film another season of the show, and demanded a huge salary increase in order to secure her participation. She got the money, but it was made clear it would be her second and last season with the show.

Apart from the use of color film, there were other subtle changes to the show for this fifth season. Both Steed and Emma were given new apartments and Mrs. Peel a much more stylized wardrobe. The device of ending each story with the two leads driving off in a variety of vehicles was abandoned and instead a tag scene was used to introduce each story, where Steed informed his partner that they were needed in a variety of humorous ways. Each story title was also given a two-line subtitle. After completion of the first batch of 16, the American backers did provide finance for a further 16 but asked for both the subtitles and tag scenes to be dropped, and also requested that Mrs. Peel's wardrobe became more recognizably en vogue.

After only 8 episodes were completed, producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell left the show after a disagreement and the new producers opted not to continue with Mrs. Peel and began their own interpretation of the show. It wasn't long before Clemens and Fennell were back in charge, but the 67 series ended with "Mission highly improbable," although Rigg was brought back in 1968 for the one-off "The forget me knot," to introduce her replacement Tara King. This episode is included in this release as a bonus episode.

In terms of storylines, acting and the wonderful interplay between the two leads, there is little difference between this color season and the preceding black and white stories and the show had really reached its zenith by this point. Certainly in terms of popularity and ratings, it was never as successful again. Interestingly, several of these stories are in fact remakes of earlier episodes from the Mrs. Gale era. "The joker," "The correct way to kill," and "The $50,000 breakfast," are all remakes, whereas "The return of the Cybernauts," is a sequel to an earlier Steed/Mrs. Peel adventure.

Fans of The Avengers will of course be delighted to have these discs, and I'd highly recommend them to any other fans of the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and indeed fans of the 60's spy format. If you've ever seen the dreadful movie featuring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, don't let that put you off. These stories are the real McCoy!

Third set for 1967, this series is fully established with dapper John Steed, and sexy but very capable Mrs. Peel. The trademark wit and tongue-through-cheek continues with these episodes:

1) "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Station" - "Steed goes off the rails - and Emma finds her station in life" has out super sleuths trying to foil an assassination of the Queen.
2) "Something Nasty in the Nursery" - "Steed Acquires a Nanny - and Emma shops for toys" Emma and Steed must stop nasty nannies with deadly toys in a plot to take over Britain
3) "The Joker" - "Steed trumps an ace - and Emma plays a lone hand" has Emma lured to a remote house where an escape lunatic plans to murder her. He does not count on Steed riding to her rescue
4) "Who's Who???" - "Steed goes out of his mind - and Emma is beside herself" a quirky episode that has a master criminal switching the minds of Steed and Mrs. Peel with two "common" agents, showing you cannot judge a book or an agent by their cover!
5) Return of the Cybernauts - "Steed pulls some strings - Emma becomes a puppet" is the sequel to The Cybernauts. In this episode, beloved veteran horror actor Peter Cushing plays the brother to the mad scientist (Michael Gough) and is seeking his revenge on Emma and Steed. He has perfected the Cybernaut process to where a person wearing a watch becomes a human cybernaut.
6) "Death's Door" - "Steed relives a nightmare - and Emma sees Daylight" has dream-influencing drugs used to disrupt an important conference. Important conference members suddenly start having clairvoyant experiences of impending doom stopping them from attending the meetings.

A must for Avengers fans. Directed by Robert Day, John Moxey, James Hill and others; stories from Brian Clemens and Philip Levene.

If you fondly remember that great British import that we watched on TV way back in the 60s then you no doubt know about the content of what you are getting. You are more likely concerned about the quality of the product. Like John might say to Emma, "You scratch my back and I'll scratch your back. Just watch the hat please." John and Emma are back and are here to stay via DVD technology. Being on DVD, the aesthetics about the actual episodes are not in question here. More appropriately one may ask how they look. They look good, very good, excellent in fact. Great 60s pop culture.

The VHS (digital enhanced) version is beautiful. Vivid colors and seamless cuts. Looks as good as the day it was broadcast. Of course, the series is 5-stars plus (no doubt about that).

Prior to 1967, "The Avengers" was yielded in black-and-white. Going to color was a definite improvement!

This DVD package, (2 DVDs, individually cased and further packaged in a box, this is "Set No. 3," color-coded GREEN), is just one of FOUR sets which take in all the 1967 episodes. The marketing of "The Avengers" can be quite confusing so I wanted to get that information out up front. This is also the BEST way to buy the DVDs (by the "set") for any season, from 1963 through 1968.

1967 was Diana Rigg's last season as Steed's partner. Her career really launched in 1965 from this fine series in her role as Mrs. Emma Peel, the sexy and lively partner to the refined secret agent Englishman, John Steed, who was shrewdly played by Patrick Macnee. In fact, in the U.S., most of us didn't even know about Honor Blackman and Macnee's other (earlier, '63 and '64) partners until many years later.

Diana Rigg can probably claim about 60% of the credit for the vast number of U.S. audience members who were glued to their TVs when "The Avengers" finally hit here. The other 40% (not forgetting Macnee's fine performances) had to do with the presentation of the series. Starting in 1965, with Rigg, the filmscore was notably updated and played more prominently throughout the story, enhancing the action and suspense. Also, the action itself was boosted. Never a dull moment with Steed and Mrs. Peel. And these episodes were all FUN -- one embraced a sense that Macnee and Rigg were having a great time in making these films. Now that I've seen episodes from "The Avengers'" earlier years, ('63 and '64), I can see that they dragged quite a bit during that earlier era and were much more soap opera-ish.

Each 52-minute episode is futuristic and on the cutting edge of excellent television productions. I know of no series, "The Original Star Trek Series" excepted, which has remained as timeless as "The Avengers". You'll encounter, in these episodes, every nemesis ranging from a killer nanny to a mind-transfer device!

Here, we're talking about six very enjoyable, action-packed, color episodes.

Volume 5:

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" -- British agents are killed as they try to get to the bottom of suspicious activities on a mysterious train car. Steed and Mrs. Peel must act quickly to resolve the issue because the Prime Minister is about to take a train ride. A great episode.

"Something Nasty in the Nursery" -- A child's ball becomes a deadly instrument of espionage. The balls are treated with a chemical that makes people revert to their early youths -- and they're used on British officials, all of whom have lots of top secret stories to tell! Surreptitious and furtive activities seem to be centered at a local school for nannies. It's here that Steed discovers that he's a less-than-adequate baby-sitter, which gets pointed out to him by Mrs. Peel. There are some really malicious nannies at this place!

"The Joker" -- A maniac enemy of Steed and Mrs. Peel has escaped prison and is out for vengeance! Mrs. Peel writes an astute article for a bridge players' magazine and an old, renowned bridge player, a certain "Sir Cavalier," is so impressed that he invites her to his isolated manor house for the weekend. Once there, she finds Sir Cavalier gone and then faces more than one lunatic who is set on killing her. An attempt on Steed's life is narrowly averted but he's barred in getting to Mrs. Peel's aid due to a heavy fog. This is about the darkest and creepiest Avengers episode I've ever viewed.


Volume 6:

"Who's Who???" -- Minds get traded in this unusual "sci-fi" episode. A shrewd but evil professor invents a "mind transfer machine," and a male and female swarthy duo of spies lure in Steed and Mrs. Peel. Once the mind transfers have taken place and the spies are using the bodies of the two Avengers, they attempt to obtain all the secret information that Steed's and Mrs. Peel's smiling faces will gain them access to. But Steed and Mrs. Peel are not about to allow these two second-rate thugs to misuse their excellent bodies.

"Return of the Cybernauts" -- Remember those nasty, destructive Cybernauts back from the early Avengers black-and-white days? Well, the darned pesky things are back! Since the original evil inventor was killed, thanks to Steed and Mrs. Peel, the two are stumped now as to who could be behind producing the high-tech, dangerous robots again. In the meantime, important scientists are going missing and some are even turning up dead! And who stars as the evil inventor this time? It's the BROTHER of the original inventor and he wants ecstatic revenge against Steed and Mrs. Peel. This "mechanical Frankenstein" show is even further enhanced as the great Peter Cushing is cast in the role of the evil brother! You won't want to miss this superb "sequel" episode.

"Death's Door" -- An important international diplomatic conference is suddenly disrupted when the British diplomats experience prophetic nightmares that they're going to die... and then they DO die! Steed and Mrs. Peel are also nearly killed as a result of the evil goings-on in "Nightmare Alley".

The storylines of the various "The Avengers" episodes seem absurd to varying degrees as we view them today - but 1967 marked an even higher level of absurdity. This did not diminish my love for the "The Avengers" because the overall series always manifested a "Batman" (TV series) tongue-and-cheekness about it. I mention it only to prepare viewers for this actuality.

The casting in all episodes is spot-on, punctuated with the very best sets and scenic locations. And Rigg's provocative, '60s mod body suits much accentuate her sensual magnetism with the notable change from black-and-white to color.

I've reviewed all the '65, '66, and '67 sets so you can check the appropriate sites for details of each episode. In the meantime, this particular set garners my highest recommendation!

I bought this set on the basis of "Who's Who???", a classic laugh-out-loud color episode, with a fantastic opening sequence (check out Steed and Emma's discovery of the evil spies' first victim, "Rose" Hooper), marvelous byplay between Macnee and Rigg, and a to-die-for performance by the incomparable Freddie Jones, who almost outclasses Macnee as John Steed, if you can believe that! The plot is absurd, the action non-stop, and the dialogue some of the wittiest of the series. And, even better, there are several more classics on this set, including the extremely bizarre "Something Nasty in the Nursery", complete with machine gun toting nannies! I don't think The Avengers ever got any more surreal (or better) than they are on this group of episodes.

While all of the episode on this DVD are terrific, A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Station stands above all. If you like trains, this story is for you. Virtually the whole episode takes place on a train or on train platforms, with compartments, dining car, and even the engineer's car. Full of witty dialogue, such as Steed's "pop goes the diesel" when the villain explains to him his intention of blowing up the prime ministers car; and strangeness, a groom who hums "here comes the bride" before gunning people down.

Speaking of Steed, I can't verify this but Patrick Macnee must have been on holiday during filming of the second half of this story, because he disappears about 20 minutes in and isn't seen again until the very end. It's explained in the plot that he was captured and held hostage by the villains. Steed's role is taken over by railway loving eccentric Crewe, played by John Laurie, who acts as Emma's sidekick in helping bring down the enemy. A terrific actor, John Laurie will definitely remind the viewer of Christopher Lloyd's professor character in Back To The Future, in character as well as in looks.

Also, a very subtle reference to how The Avengers was at the time being written with an American Audience in mind. Steed discovers a clue, a slip of paper bearing the numbers "4-7-67". Emma thinks a minute and blurts out, "July 4, 1967?, Independence Day!", before the revelation of the actual meaning of those numbers. It's unlikely that a simple reference to an American holiday, especially Independence Day, would have slipped in the series in the grainy, black & white videotape days.

We also get a hint of Steed & Peel's political leanings. The prime minister in question, by all accounts, is labor party Harold Wilson, who was prime minister of Britain at the time. Steed and Mrs. Peel during the tag scene quip to each other that they didn't vote for him, and quietly sneak out the back. Tories til the end. Gotta love it. As if we didn't already know.

I am thoroughly impressed with A&E's reissue of the Avengers series. Never have these episodes looked so good: the color is sharp, the sound crisp, and the shows themselves are as witty and fun as you remember. Yes, the "extras" are skimpy but to have three episodes on one disc is worth the sacrifice

I remember watching the Avengers on TV 7-8 years ago when A&E was showing them. Now, I am glad to say that I can own this series. The Avengers have always been based on intelligent scripts, witty dialogue, and suspense. This set is no exception. This set contains very classic, very different episodes from the Avengers: suspense thrillers, psychological games, and good old espionage. I highly recommend it.