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THE CHAMPIONS |
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Series Overview
Craig Sterling - Stuart Damon Richard Barrett - William Gaunt Sharron MaCready - Alexandra Bastedo Commander Tremayne - Anthony Nicholls 
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Series OverviewWhen THE CHAMPIONS came out in 1968, globe-trotting spy stories filmed on shoestring budgets with judicious use of stock footage were widely available. The difference here was in the spies. These were no ordinary top agents, but a trio of people who had been not so much enhanced as tuned up to the maximum. A lost tribe in the Himalayas (hello LOST HORIZON) repaired their bodies to peak efficiency, making them stronger, faster, smarter than anyone else. They can hear and see beyond normal range, have photographic memories and are linked by a kind of esp. All of these talents make them perfect for carrying out assignments for Nemesis, an organisation dedicated to creating world peace by assuring NATO supremacy (well this was the cold war after all). Sadly, the majority of the stories that these three got involved in are formulaic spy stories that only slightly benefit from the use of their special talents. The limited budget also means that there isn't a lot of spectacular stuff being done, but the series as a whole is jaunty, entertaining and works well enough. The central trio are nicely matched with Stuart Damon providing the possibilities of the selling the show to the US as suave, but impulsive Craig Sterling. William Gaunt is the British agent, not as handsome, but more patient and analytical. The lovely Alexandra Bastedo provides the glamour, but is relegated to a more passive role in several episodes. It's a sign of the times. THE CHAMPIONS is bright,cheerful, rarely dull, often exciting and occasionally exceptional (The Interrogation) which is more than you can say for many of its contemporaries. It also set the template for later shows such as THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. Top The BeginningA trio of agents from UN spy organisation Nemesis sneak into a secret Chinese bacteriological research station to steal samples of a deadly weapon being produced there. They complete their mission, but the escape plane is damaged in take off and crashes in Tibet, mortally wounding them. They are saved by the inhabitants of a lost civilisation hidden amongst the peaks of Tibet and are returned not just alive, but with their bodies and senses tuned to peak performance. Stronger, faster and sharper than any other humans, they will neeed all their new attributes to evade capture and get out of the mountains alive. Another in ITC's long list of spy series, this one at least benefits from the sci fi angle of creash landing near Shangri-La and being upgraded to superhuman, not enough to ensure invulnerability (where's the fun and drama in that?), but enough to give them an edge over the bigger numbers of the enemy. Stuart Damon is the brash american heart-throb hero, whilst William Gaunt provides the stiff-upper lip British brains and Alexandra Bastedo is the glamour. Hers is the weakest character as a new recruit brought in for her biological knowhow and she is required to give sudden outbursts of feminine weakness that don't sit well with the otherwise capable woman. All three immediately mesh as a likeable and believable team. Some expense has been laid out to recreate the mountain wastes of the Himalayas and it all looks pretty good, even if it is sometimes a little too obvious that the same set is being used for different locations. The origin story means that the action is low key, but the suspense of the opening operation is nicely done. Avoiding the cliches of the usual ITC globetrotting spy story this is an impressive opener. We will have to wait to see how the rest turns out. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Cyril Frankel Top The Invisible ManA report of a potential movement of a huge amount of gold, unscheduled by any of the major governments, sends the agents into the field. Craig locates where he believes the gold is originating in London, but also finds that the bank's head man is hearing voices. When the banker turns up dead, Craig tracks down the killers, but is outmanouvred and wakes up to find that he has been implanted with a device that makes him hear voices and can inflict pain if he doesn't do what they want. The first real outing for the Nemesis trio after their pilot and it's an intriguing mish-mash of straightforward detection and crime (ie the gold robbery) and the science fiction slant of implanted two-way radios with the power to send men mad, or even destroy their minds. The use of the champions' powers is restricted to being able to Craig being able to hold his breath for several minutes (something that he spectacularly fails to do earlier in the episode when he is gassed) and a bit of super hearing. Peter Wyngarde is the guest baddie of the week, lending proceedings some of his class. It's all right as a start, but something a bit more stretching for the heroes is going to be required if this is likely to be memorable. Written by Donald JamesDirected by Cyril Frankel Top Reply Box No 666A Russian agent turns up dead in Jamaica. He was play acting being a vactioning playboy so he was clearly on a mission and about to make contact through a small ad for a parrot that speaks Greek. Craig impersonates the man to find out what his mission was, but is shot and thrown out of an aeroplane. Sharron and Richard must find out what the Russian's mission was whilst still searching for Craig, whom Sharron 'feels' is still alive. And the stock footage world of ITC comes to THE CHAMPIONS. To be fair the use of the stock footage to create the exotic locales of Jamaica and the Caribbean is done pretty well and isn't as obvious as it can be in other ITC shows. It's easily spotted, but doesn't mar or detract from what's going on in the story. The story is pretty straightforward espionage stuff with Craig impersonating a dead hero, Richard sneaking into enemy agent back rooms to find secret maps and Sharron seducing the bad guys (without having to go too far of course). The seduction sequence is rather funny, actually, though not meant to be. As if Alexandra Bastedo would ever need to use pick up techniques to charm anyone. That it morphs into an amusingly useless hypnosis session is even funnier. The use of the agents' powers is restricted to a bit of far-seeing, Sharron being able to be used as locating device for the injured Craig and Craig himself being shot, thrown out of a plane and spending 16 hours in the sea without losing the brylcreem shine on his hair. It's easy to sneer, but THE CHAMPIONS is easy on the brain entertainment and succeeds as such. Just don't ask too much of it. Written by Philip BroadleyDirected by Cyril Frankel Top The ExperimentCraig and Richard are put on the case of a break in at a UK research centre in which a man carried out feats of superhuman speed and skill before being reduced to a mental age of 2. Sharron is on leave when she is approached by a man from UK intelligence wanting her to take part in an experiment in creating advanced human police officers. The two cases prove to be linked, but the Nemesis agents always seem to be one step behind their artificially enhanced opponents. And so the first super villains appear to face off against the super heroes. Admittedly these bad guys merely have enhanced strength and speed and the tendency to suffer from brain burnout after a few minutes, but it's a sign that ordinary opponents are no longer good enough to take on the Nemesis trio. This is shown hilariously in the game of catch that Sharron participates in, the film being sped up and everyone looking totally ridiculous. There is certainly nothing special about that effect. The mental capacities of the trio are much better represented. Written by Tony WilliamsonDirected by Cyril Frankel Top HappeningRichard falls out of a helicopter and finds himself in Bad Joke Springs, Australia. The Bad Joke might be that there are no springs there, but the bigger joke of the moment is that a test of the first completely clean nuclear bomb is about to go ahead and enemy agents have attached a dirty bomb to the device which will cause a huge death toll. Of course, Richard will be the first. The thing that is instantly clear in this episode is that the australian desert is a tiny sound stage badly dressed. The obvious staging undermines the rest of the plot which is mainly an exercise in tension and claustrophobia. Strange to think of a story of claustrophobia in the middle of the australian outback, perhaps, but a big space can still seem pretty small when the bomb blast will obliterate the first twenty square miles utterly. Richard also has a pretty bad time of it. Apart from being thrown out of an aircraft (it's only two weeks since since Craig did the same in Reply Box No 666) he has a bout of highly convenient amnesia and gets bitten by a poisonous snake. Sharron, however, shows a remarkable talent in being able to resuscitate him from a great distance away through their power links. Now that's a skill that could come in handy. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Cyril Frankel Top Operation Deep-FreezeSomeone has let off an atomic bomb on the supposedly international continent of Antarctica. Craig and William are sent to investigate and discover a plot by a small country to become a world power by seizing the mineral wealth of the coldest place on Earth. This is a muddled and dull episode that wanders around the arctic wastes even more than its characters. The plot set up is OK, but it moves with the pace of an arthritic snail as the good guys travel slowly across the snow and the bad guys travel slowly through the ice. They then finally meet, part and a second bomb resolves everything. On top of everything else, Sharron is left at home to worry prettily with nothing else to do at all. Written by Gerals KelseyDirected by Paul Dickson Top SurvivorsThe deaths of three students on a diving trip to Austria (No, you read that correctly) brings the Nemesis star trio in search of secret SS gold. What they discover is buried in abandoned mines nearby, but it is far stranger than they could ever have imagined. After wandering around the antarctic wastes last week, the show wanders around a bunch of caves this week. The plot is faster and more fun, though it is also completely bonkers taking in drwoened trucks, treasure maps, buried nazi weapons stockpiles and evil twins. It also has the unintentionally hilarious sight of Sharron shifting a falled pile of great boulders without ever removing her fashionable coat, breaking a nail or getting her hair out of place. This isn't Alexandra Bastedo's fault (she plays it quite well), but the show's creators haven't got to grips with her character yet. Written by Donald JamesDirected by Cyril Frankel Top To Trap a RatA new batch of drugs has hit the streets of London and this one is killing people. Craig goes undercover, but is discovered. His only hope is that Richard and Sharron can work out where he is from the sounds on a phone call. Apart from the rather overt fashion in which the subject of drugs is introduced (soemthing not seen so often on television at the time) this is a straightforward spy story. Change the drugs to secrets and it would pretty much work the same. An addict (Kate O'Mara) is shown both strung out and happy after a hit. This is shown with a sheen of glamour, of course, and seems quite tame now, but for the times it was quite forward reaching. Written by Ralph SmartDirected by Sam Wanamaker Top The Iron ManWhen the life of an exiled dictator is put in danger by the assigning of an assassination squad, Nemesis sends its best team undercover to protect him without raising his fears for his life. This is a hideous attempt at a comedy episode based around a horrible character El Gaudillo (George Murcell), a man with almost no saving graces and whose only value to Nemesis is that he wasn't as bad as the current regime of his country and at some point might go back and reclaim his place. Dubious politics aside, the episode fails because the character of El Gaudillo is too loathesome to be funny (a womaniser, coward and self-deluding failure ought to be more fun than this) and the plot is so thin that it has to be filled with endless sequences of him shooting at clay pigeons in the back garden. William Gaunt gets a 'comedy' cooking scene and Alexandra Bastedo gets the only decent sequence in which she has to fend off El Gaudillo's advances without upsetting him. Written by Philip BroadleyDirected by John Moxey Top Ghost PlaneThe mach 5 super fighter is just a pipe dream due to overheating issues, but one seems to have just shot down a bunch of NATO planes. Investigations into a professor who first proposed such a plane leads to a revolutionary refridgeration unit capable of overcoming those problems, a shipment of which is on its way behind the Bamboo Curtain. This episode is scuppered before it even starts by the use of stock footage in the aerial battle sequences that is of such poor quality and so obviously out of place with the rest of the footage that the suspension of disbelief is dumped straight into the ocean before it even has a chance. What follows is a fairly straightforward spy story that doesn't have any surprises and falls back on the threat of one of our heroes being frozen to death, something that they had already proven to be resistant to in Operation Deep Freeze and so diminishes the possibilities of tension in Sharron's plight, even though Alexandra Bastedo does her best to sell the situation. Written by Donald JamesDirected by John Gilling Top The Dark IslandWhen a military team put ashore a mysterious island to find out what is going on fails to return, Nemesis is called in to get to the bottom of matters. What the team finds is a devious plan to start World War 3. Not entirely dissimilar to some of the plots foiled by a certain James Bond, the scheme underway here owes a debt to the likes of DR NO, but manages to keep its secrets for a while longer than expected, keeping the curiosity going a bit longer. The rest is the usual running around studio jungles and beating up a few extras. Written by Tony WilliamsonDirected by Cyril Frankel Top The FanaticsImportant men around the world are being assassinated by true fanatics, but since they are of different nations it is hard to see what the plan is behind the deaths. Richard goes undercover as a man who is expected to be recruited by the organisation and discovers that the next target is his boss, Tremayne. DOCTOR WHO writer Terry Nation takes on this episode and comes up with a muddled plot that never quite makes sense. A scientist is able to recruit and brainwash people into making his killings for him, each time putting a new politician in his pocket, but that seems an unlikely route to world domination. When Richard is captured, he is tortured to find out who he really is when the people who took him have no reason to think he should be anyone other than who he says he is. Still, there's a bit of action before the end and it all wraps up quite nicely. Written by Terry NationDirected by John Gilling Top Twelve HoursAn important dignitary is given Nemesis bodyguards in the shape of Richard and Sharron and a tour of the latest British nuclear sub still under trials. During a dive, however, a bomb goes off and the sub is left at the bottom of a scottish loch. Sharron must carry out a tricky operation, which means that they can't try to surface for several hours and by the time she's finished she and Richard may be the only people able to breathe the thin air. And neither of them has ever steered a nuclear submarine. It's a straightforward enough plot (submarines stranded on the bottom is a common theme), but there are some interesting wrinkles in it. Richard's refusal to put the lives of the 30 strong construction crew ahead of the dignitary is maybe practical, but it's also pretty cold. Unfortunately, the battle of wills between him and the leader of the construction gang never manages to develop into anything. Even so, the confined space makes it claustrophobic and the time limit gives it some built in tension at the end. It's a shame that the submarine looks so much like a child's toy in a bath. Written by Donald JamesDirected by Paul Dickson Top The SearchA nuclear submarine is hijacked and the Champions are assigned to track it down before anyone can use the nuclear weapons aboard. Richard follows the trail of a scientist who might be able to arm the device whilst Craig and Sharron follow a hunch on old U-Boat pens that could house the vessel incognito. Clearly the submarine footage and models used in Twelve Hours were expensive because they are recycled straight away in this story. It also falls back on the idea of nazis trying to bring back the Third Reich (see also Survivors). Amongst all the deja vu, however, is a fairly entertaining spy story that doesn't waste its running time, but also doesn't raise too many pulses. The climax also shows how much fear of global warming wasn't an issue when this series was produced. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Leslie Norman Top The Gilded CageRichard is kidnapped and wakes up in a luxurious apartment with bars on the windows and locked doors. He meets an attractive blonde who he learns will be killed if he doesn't decode an urgent messge in 12 hours. Whilst Craig closes in on the place where he is being held, Richard works on the code whilst also trying to persuade the girl that she is in danger. She, however, may also have an agenda of her own. A cat and mouse game of wills that uses the champions' powers almost not at all, this is another entertaining, though hardly standout, episode. It is helped by the presence of Jennie Linden as Samantha, the duplicitous blonde, but the speed with which she and Richard end up playing tonsil hockey is somewhat unbelievable, short running time or not. The tangle of motives at the end is pleasing, though. Written by Philip BroadleyDirected by Cyril Frankel Top Shadow of the PantherSomething funny is going on in a hotel on Haiti. Sharon goes undercover to investigate, but comes under the voodoo influence so Craig and Richard go in to assist, but can their powers hope to overcome the supernatural powers of voodoo? Donald Sutherland guest stars so it's not hard to guess who is the ultimate villain of this piece, but it doesn't matter since the silliness of it all has already shattered any suspension of disbelief. The people affected by the voodoo signals are so obviously zombied out that they couldn't possibly pull off the assignments that they are being given. Still, it's nice to see Sharon as the principle in the investigation for a change and managing things better than the boys. Written by Tony WilliamsonDirected by Freddie Francis Top A Case of LemmingsTop law enforcement operatives are committing suicide all across Europe and nobody has a clue why. The Champions, however, are able to tie the victims to a mafia head in Rome and set off to find out how he does it by getting Craig targeted as his next victim. Starting off with a poor flashback structure, this episode then picks up by having a decent plot and letting Alexandra Bastedo let her quite considerable hair down for a change. Written by Philip BroadleyDirected by Paul Dickson Top The InterrogationCraig wakes up in a cell with no way out and a single interrogator trying to find out about his last mission. Now this really is something different for the show. Instead of a mission it's a one on one battle of wills - Craig's superhuman endurance against the tricks of a wily and experienced torturer. Oh nothing so crude as the infliction of physical pain, of course, but the twisting of memory, identity and psyche. It helps enormously to have Colin Blakely as the questioner, as he manages to make his man human whilst infusing him with the pride and even arrogance of a man who is very, very good at what he does. That means that Craig really does have a challenge equal to him. Stuart Damon also gives a good showing, managing to be quite convincing as a man under the influence of drugs, confused and disorientated, but fighting back. It's certainly his best work on the show to date. The ultimate identity of his torturers is also a nice twist. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Cyril Frankel Top The MissionTop criminals are disappearing in London, just vanishing. Craig and Sharon masquerade as a man on the run from a crime syndicate with $2 million in his pocket and his girlfriend whilst Richard follows up a lead with the much less salubrious cover of a drunk down and out. Plastic surgery changing faces and the down and outs providing the body parts. No the most original plot even when this show was first shown and the addition of ex-nazis yet again makes it very old hat indeed. Still, it's a solid enough story and Stuart Damon's moustache is worth the price of entry alone. Written by Donald JamesDirected by Robert Asher Top The Silent EnemyA nuclear submarine drifts in with its entire crew dead still in their seats. Mystified, the vessel is sent back out to retrace its steps with the top agents of Nemesis aboard to see if they can work out exactly what happened. A volcanic island not on the maps would seem to hold the answers. Someone clearly paid a bit for the stock submarine footage and the interior sets as this is the third time that submarines have cropped up in the show to date. The initial mystery has a lot of promise and the introduction of a stowaway aboard is a nice touch, but the final resolution on the island leaves a lot to be desired in terms of both originality and excitement. Written by Donald JamesDirected by Robert Asher Top The Body SnatchersRichard is called in by an old acquaintance to investigate the loss of a friend. Tremayne sends Craig and Sharron to find out what's going on in northern Wales and how it concerns a dead american general. Celebrated DOCTOR WHO Terry Nation makes his second contribution to the show and comes up with a simple enough tale involving cryogenics and dead generals, but that's just the background to some generic running around. It is only Bernard Lee's presence as the sadistic Squires that makes the episode stand out at all. Written by Terry NationDirected by Paul Dickson Top Get Me Out Of Here!A famous lady scientist on the verge of an important breakthrough is forbidden to leave her home island even though she is now an american citizen. The Nemesis team are sent in to find a way of getting her out without causing a major international incident. This is a low key affair, certainly different from many others where the future of the human race seems to have been in jeopardy. The team hang around a lot, taking stock of the situation before finally sorting things out in a suitably satisfactory fashion. The main point of note is Philip Madoc, undeniably welsh, but making a good job of playing sleazy caribbean. Written by Ralph SmartDirected by Cyril Frankel Top The Night PeopleSharron is taken prisoner whilst investigating an old house in Cornwall that seems to be at the heart of a conspiracy of murder and witchcraft. The truth is possibly scarier than anything supernatural. This episode goes all out for atmosphere. Lingering shots of an evil looking house in the gloom. Lone figures on the ramparts. Poachers dying of heart attacks. Witch museums and tiny effigies with pins sticking out of them. Cornish witchcraft isn't the most likely of subjects for superhuman spies to be investigating, but it proves to mask a more down to earth conspiracy that is far more believable. Written by Donald JamesDirected by Robert Asher Top Project ZeroWhen a top scientist turns up dead, Nemesis is spurred into action. Many scientists, it appears, are being lured away to work on something called Project Zero, something very secret and probably very deadly. Richard is sent in undercover, but when he is rumbled Sharron and Craig have to go in after him. This is rather an odd episode with echoes of THIS ISLAND EARTH (scientists recruited to work on a project they know nothing about) and STAR TREK (everyone's favourite exploding neckbands and sonic torture devices) about it. Richard proves to be astonishingly inept at working undercover, asking so many questions on his first day that it's obvious to anyone that he's a spy in their midst. That the organisation then goes and recruits Sharron and Craig right after Richard is revealed beggars belief. Written by Tony WilliamsonDirected by Don Sharp Top Desert JourneyAfter a bomb attack on the government, a small north african country is driven to the point of revolution. The only hope of stabilising the country is the return of the last member of the Royal Family. Since he is being paid handsomely by the rebels to stay out of politics, Sharron kidnaps him and takes him on a perilous journey across the desert to restore him to his rightful place. Quite apart from containing some dodgy politics (it's OK to kidnap someone, expose them to risk and force them to do something they don't want to do in the name of stabilising a foreign country's government?) this episode is all about establishing a sense of the desert, something that it does quite well considering that it is completely studio bound. Unfortunately, the plot is less effective as the threats that Sharron and Craig face are people who decide to kill them only after they have sneaked away. The one gunman who has them in his sights shoots and injures the playboy prince, but then fails to follow up the shot for no readily apparent reason. The biggest threat, though, comes from Alexandra Bastedo's unrestrained hair. Released from its usual tightly bound bun, it is lacquered to within an inch of its life and is easily the biggest thing on the set. Written by Ian Stuart BlackDirected by Paul Dickson Top Full CircleA foreign country is incensed when an intruder in their embassy, identified as having taken photographs, is taken by police without a film. That suggests he is working for British intelligence and peace negotiations are suspended. Craig is infiltrated into the prison holding the criminal and engineers an escape, but he is not the only one trying to get his cellmate out. Exactly who is responsible for the break in and why? Bluff and double bluff abound in this spy's story, but the biggest bluff is that the plot moves fast enough to hide for the fact that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. A trained operative trusts Stirling as soon as he is placed in the cell with him and joins his escape attempt when he has only a couple of months to wait before he will be free? A professional 'fixer', proud of his reputation for doing the job with no questions asked, is paid to get a prisoner out of jail, but decides that he needs to know why he is being asked to do it all of a sudden? Gabrielle Drake given a supporting role and then completely wasted? None of this is believable. The torture technique that is tried out on Craig, though does look particularly painful. Written by Donald JamesDirected by John Gilling Top NutcrackerA top official tries to steal the 'F' File, some of the most important NATO secrets there are, from its supposedly theft-proof vault. He is intercepted and can give no reason why he did it. The Nemesis trio are called in to check the security of the vault, but are given only the information that might have been leaked plus one other fact - the final 'lock' on the vault can prove fatal. What initially starts off as a fairly simple story begins to morph inot something altogether more tricky as it becomes clear that the breaking of the vault security is only part of the story and the reasons why the first man tried to steal the file leads to a dentist with a neat line in mind control. It's a more satisfying tale than it initially promises to be. Written by Philip BroadleyDirected by Roy Ward Baker Top The Final CountdownA nazi war criminal, recently released from a Russian jail, disappears. Soon after, the pilot of german bomber that was shot down in the last days of the war is killed. The cargo on that plane was Nazi Germany's only atomic bomb which could have changed the course of the war. The plan now is to use the bomb to start an exchange of nukes between the USA and Russia and take over whatever is left of civilisation afterwards. THE CHAMPIONS's favourite villains, the nazis, are back once again in an interesting race against time to find and use the atomic weapon that unoriginally turns out to be at the bottom of a lake. When the weapon is armed and the titular final countdown begins, Craig comes up with a delightfully original plan to deal with it. Written by Gerald KelseyDirected by John Gilling Top The Gun RunnersA cache of guns from World War 2 is found in the Burmese jungle and the Nemesis trio are sent to intercept them. They underestimate their urbane gun-running enemy, however, and are forced to follow the shipment to Africa in order to stop a coup. William Franklyn plays Hartington, the clever and civilised gun-runner who manages to outwit the team at every turn and then,having captured them in the jungle leaves them with only a single guard to watch two prisoners whilst the other is left unguarded in her tent. It's hardly believable at the best of times and the end sequence is utterly ludicrous. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Robert Asher Top AutokillA Nemesis agent walks into the Geneva headquarters and kills a top military officer. Shortly thereafter, head of the organisation, Tremayne, tries to kill the main medical officer. Brainwashing techniques that prove fatal are identified and the next target is Richard. Sharron and Craig try to locate him, but can they stop their colleague, especially as Craig is his assigned kill. An intriguing idea goes nowhere as the plot for this fizzles out. The enemy's motives are muddy at best and they are so unimpressive that it's hard to believe that they present any threat at all. The main threat comes from the incompetence of the main trio. The moment that Richard is identified as bait, the other two let him go walking about the place without a tail or a bug. It also takes them an immense amount of time to realise that a police car is involved and trace the registration. At least the final showdown between Craig and Richard has plenty of clout, though we might have hoped for something a bit more spectacular. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Roy Ward Baker Top |
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