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THE NEW AVENGERS |
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Season Overview
Steed - Patrick Macnee Purdey - Joanna Lumley Gambit - Gareth Hunt 
OTHER NEW AVENGERS SERIES Season 1 OTHER SUPER SPY SHOWS The Champions Bionic Woman Chuck 
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Series OverviewThe second series of this offshoot show from cult classic THE AVENGERS took the unflappable British trio of spies global. With The Lion and the Unicorn and the two part K is for Kill storyline facing off British cool reserve and the savoir faire of the French in Paris and the final four episodes being set (for no good onscreen reason) in Canada, the locations are bigger and better than before. Sadly, that's all that is bigger or better. The first series got by with the fizzy characterisations and lively banter. Patrick MacNee, Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt all return to their roles, but the poor scripts don't give them much to work with and they don't seem to care enough to try and get the most out of them that they can. None of the plots are believable, but that never was a problem with the show. What can't be forgiven is how dull they are. One of them (Obssession) is even turned into an advert for fellow ITV show of the time THE PROFESSIONALS. Sad though it is to say, this was the last run our for a TV icon (until the execrable film) and it took the franchise out with no style at all. TopDead Men Are DangerousA man who was always second to John Steed defects to the East, but is shot in doing so. Ten years later, he learns that the bullet has finally worked to a place where it will kill him at any moment. With nothing to lose, he returns to England to wreak his final vengeance on the man he never could beat. Since we know who is after Steed and why the mystery element of this episode is somewhat redundant. the cast spend so much time trying to figure out who is responsible that it gets a little dull. Fortunately, the cast continue to have great fun, especially Gareth Hunt as Gambit, this time around getting to seduce Gabrielle Drake as the kind of maths teacher that they never had in our schools. Clive Revill also gives a fine performance as the perennial second to Steed's champion, almost justifying everything that his character does. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Sidney Hayers Top Angels of DeathTop officials in government and security circles are dropping down dead of natural causes. There's nothing natural about it, of course, and a health farm is the key, mind control building up stress to impossible levels and then a trigger being used to cause a 'natural' death some time later. Whilst Gambit and Purdey track down the culprits, Steed becomes their next target. Whilst the idea of mind control and stress being used to simulate a death by natural causes might be interesting, the manner in which the process is administered is utterly absurd. It seems to consist of dancing to some really dodgy disco music with bunch of pretty girls and then wandering around a maze like a mouse. And just to make sure that you get the point, the mad scientist in charge keeps a white mouse in a maze. Genre favourite Caroline Munro and Pamela Stephenson play two of the nurses who make up the title. Written by Brian Clemens and Terence FeelyDirected by Ernest Day Top Medium RareA paymaster running a series of informants uncovers a unique form of embezzlement and ends up dead. As he was a friend of Steed's, Steed investigates. He is initially unaware however that he is also being investigated for murder, a murder that he is being expertly framed for. His only hope would appear to be a fake psychic who can see his future. This is an odd episode that mixes up its ingredients into a not quite satisfying whole. There's the straight investigation story based around a rather ridiculous money making scam with Jon Finch dressing up as every one of the informants collecting money and Steed's being framed all of which is fair enough, but then the addition of Sue Holderness' fake medium who can suddenly tell what's going to happen to Steed unbalances things again. Normally the nonsense manages to mesh into a fizzy hour of entertainment, but this is just choppy. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Ray Austin Top The Lion and the UnicornSteed manages to capture an old enemy, the Unicorn, in Paris, but an assassin sent to kill him kills the Unicorn instead. Steed hides the fact in order to prevent all out war, but the opposition kidnap a very important man to make a ransom swap, something that will be somewhat difficult with a corpse. This episode was filmed in Paris. You can tell this by the sheer number of shots of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe that are jammed into the running time. The story also wants to have the lightness of a french farce, but it falls completely flat, the humour not working at all and rendering the whole thing rather embarrassing all round. Written by John GoldsmithDirected by Ray Austin Top ObssessionPurdey is in love and with a man called Larry, yet. When his father is shot as a spy in a Middle Eastern country, he takes it into his head to kill the envoy currently in the country, putting an end to the relationship. Years later, that envoy returns and Larry walks back into Purdey's life. THE NEW AVENGERS, like its parent show, has been all about the frivolous, the fun, the silly. It comes as a surprise to get a jolt of real emotion running through this episode. It's a fairly cut and dried story, based around a lot of stock footage of RAF jets that someone clearly had gotten hold of and didn't know what to do with. The stunt casting of Martin Shaw (APPARITIONS) and Lewis Collins from ITV's popular THE PROFESSIONALS is another jolt, but doesn't upset the main aim of the story, which rests on the relationship between Purdey and Larry, right up to its inevitable end. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Ernest Day Top TrapWhen a shipment of drugs is intercepted in the UK, the corpulent chinese drugs baron sets out to save face with the other members of the syndicate by eliminating those responsible. Since it's Steed, Purdey and Gambit, that proves to be more difficult than supposed. Apart from the comic book criminal members and keystone cop chinese guards, this is a straightforward cop/spy story that fails to ignite interest. It's neither remotely believable nor entertainingly silly. What it is, mostly, is dull. That, is unforgiveable. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Ray Austin Top HostagePurdey is drugged and captured by a group of men who demand that Steed carry out a number of apparently unimportant tasks. What he does not know is that these tasks are being used to create an unbreakable case against him as a traitor and he cannot even turn to Gambit for help. This is another straight spy story that is fairly unremarkable and also keeps the three principles apart for most of the time, thus ensuring that their lively banter (one of the things that has kept the show alive) is completely absent. As a result, the episode is flat and uninspiring. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Sidney Hayers Top K is for Kill Part 1:The Tiger AwakesWhen a band of Russian soldiers with the habit of turning into old men when killed go on the rampage in France, Steed is reminded of an earlier case in Berkshire and sets off with Purdey and Gambit to find out what is going on. This is something unusual; a two part story. That should mean that it's more ambitious, but it turns out to mean that it's more rambling. It takes a long time for the team to figure out that the Russians are attacking out of date targets and no explantion is given as to why they are ageing instantly on death, except that they have a receiver chip in their heads and it has something to do with a Tibetan monk and a misfiring Russian satellite. There is lots of running around in the woods to little effect and the Russians are so completely aimless in their tactics (shoot in any direction, and awful lot) that it makes a mockery of their supposedly being highly trained and with a very small ammuntion supply. Perahps part 2 will make it feel worthwhile. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Yvon Marie Coulais Top K is for Kill Part 1:Tiger by the TailThe secret Russian army hidden inside France has been sorted out, but there are two other agents who are woken 48hours after the fighting in order to assassinate top level targets. These two have had their targets changed to include a retired General and then a target designed to bring World War 3 down upon the planet. In an abrupt change of gears, this second episode goes off on a completely different tack from the first half. There is no more combat action, but rather a slow burn as an assassin goes about his business and the secret agent trio try to figure out who his target is and try to stop him. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense (why does anyone want to cause WWIII and why would the death of the President of France bring that about?) and languishes about for what seems like long periods of time going nowhere. Fortunately it pulls itself together for the build up to the big finale which it then botches completely. Steed gets shot twice and survives whilst Gambit gets both hands injured, but survives. It's a bit repetitive and unimaginative in the end and seems designed to make the most of being on location in France without paying to film anywhere obviously touristy. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Yvon Marie Coulais Top ComplexThe greatest secret agent of them all is making a mockery of the western intelligence operations, but a clue places him in Canada, so Steed, Purdey and Gambit head across the Atlantic. There, they find things a bit different. No dusty old filing rooms here, but state of the art computer equipment running the whole security headquarters building. A screen credit at the start of this episode identifies it as 'THE NEW AVENGERS IN CANADA' and that's where they certainly are. Presumably some sort of co-financing deal was set up to make this happen. The plot is pure bunkum with the identity of the superspy obvious from soon after the trio's arrival in Canada. The action is pretty poor as well, with Gambit caught up in a fairly sedate looking car chase that seems to stay well within the speed limit and two deaths completely messed up by poor direction and editing. The humour that is also supposed to be at the heart of the show, but which has been in short supply throughout this second series is also sadly absent, not least because the team are split up for most of the running time. What little humour there is comes from Gambit's habit of getting locked up and that sadly isn't all that funny. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Richard Gilbert Top The GladiatorsA Russian expert in the training of extreme fighting techniques enters into Canada and immediately goes into hiding. The British trio of Steed, Purdey and Gambit are investigating the disappearance of two canadian agents when they discover what the Russian is up to, but how do you fight men who are trained the point where they can punch through steel and deflect bullets with their hands? A rather dour episode this in which not a lot actually happens and in which the plot of the bad guys is obvious from so early on that the fact the good guys don't twig it straight away makes them look particularly dense. The big showdown also displays the series' complete inability to choreograph a decent fight. Written by Brian ClemensDirected by Claude Fournier Top EmilyThe Fox is a top agent working in Canada, but nobody even knows what he looks like. Working on information gained from Purdey's undercover operation, the British trio try to trap him, but fail. They do, however, get his palm print on the top of an old car. The task, then, is to get the car to Toronto's forensic lab with the handprint intact no matter what the Fox, and the police, can throw at them. Whimsy is a notoriously difficult thing to pull off and this episode, whilst clearly meant to be whimsical what with the bowler hatted car and the little old lady, is a perfect example of how not to do it. The direction is too heavy and the dialogue neither light nor witty enough to carry it off. What we're left with is an indigestible fallen souffle. It's also the second episode in three based around a top agent whose identity is known to nobody. The Canadians, apparently, are rubbish at this intelligence lark. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Don Thompson Top Forward BaseWhilst tracking an upgraded missile targeting system that has been smuggled into Canada Purdey, Steed and Gambit coem into contact with rumours about FB1, but what is it and where is it? It appears to be on the coast of Lake Ontario, but it also disappears on the coast of Lake Ontario. What is going on and what does it have to do with a Tornado that struck in 1969? A lumpy and leaden final episode sinks the end of this second (and final it turned out) season for the British spy trio. The plot is wafer thin (and we're talking an anorexic wafer that's been on a diet here) bolstered up by an amount of ham-fisted comedy that is more often cringe-inducing than amusing. The use of the old 'fisherman in a boat ends up with no water under him and looks confused' joke gives away what's really happening almost right at the start, so the fumbling around of the British trio is just painful. This is the way THE NEW AVENGERS ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Don Thompson Top |
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