The
New Avengers - 1976
(Season One/A&E DVD Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
This
set of The
New Avengers
is long out of print, but StudioCanal U.K. has remastered and
reissued the series on DVD, Blu-ray and a deluxe 4K box set.
After
The
Avengers
went off the air in 1969, the reruns kicked in and the show continued
to find new fans worldwide. Color TV finally came to England in the
early 1970s, meaning the last three color seasons were seen in color
for the first time there. The Tara King episodes with Linda Thorson
got their due in France, where she became a big star. The Diana Rigg
shows became international classics with an influence beyond TV and
even film. Rigg herself even got a TV sitcom called Diana,
but it was a big miss. However, rumors of Rigg as Emma Peel and
Patrick Macnee as John Steed reuniting circulated with the excitement
of a Beatles reunion, but both failed to materialize.
The
people behind the original series had had successful theatrical films
since, and before they knew it, a revival of the series that put them
on the map was an offer on the table. Syd Cain of the Bond films was
called in as Production Designer, Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell
were back as producers, and they brought many of the people back from
the old series for this revival. That included Laurie Johnson to do
more music. French producer Rudolph Roffi had first got Clemens and
Fennell to do a Steed/King commercial that did get produced for
Perrier champagne, and it is he who instigated The
New Avengers.
Many
were unhappy that none of the original ladies would be back, then did
not know what to expect when two new partners would join Steed. The
first was Gareth Hunt as the extremely centered ace agent Mike
Gambit. This was the first time Steed had a male partner spy in the
whole franchise. Hunt's previous success included Frederick The
Footman in the early part of the British mini-series Upstairs,
Downstairs.
Then came the new female partner. The bob-headed blonde with a
self-defense technique based in ballet was named Purdey, just Purdey.
Cast in this role was Joanna Lumley. Lumley is now British
entertainment royalty, but was up and coming at the time. Her best
previous exposure was in the 1969 James Bond film On
Her Majesty's Secret Service,
with George Lazenby as the one-shot 007 and former Mrs. Peel Rigg as
female lead Tracy. Lumley was actually a ''Blofeld girl'', the
English one with the line ''Of course, I know what he's allergic
to'', but Purdey made her a more permanent part of espionage fiction
history.
With
everything set, here are the first 13 episodes, with the highlights
getting more cyber-ink than the rest, in order of
title/writer/director:
The
Eagle's Nest
(Brian Clemens/Desmond Davis) - This debut episode guest stars Peter
Cushing as Dr. Von Klaus, an expert on deep freezing, suspended
animation, and cryogenics. People are turning up dead with scratches
on their body, which turns out to be from poison. Fishing rod hooks
turn out to be the culprit, which leads the team to an island where a
Nazi flight mysteriously crashed. Something from the flight has
survived! At the time, this was a much-criticized show, but the
reason it fell to that is it (still is) just was comparatively (to
disposable TV and films) too intense, smart, and dark for the
audience, who wanted something lighter. The series would sadly allow
itself to be pressured in that direction, but it is uncanny how it
picked up from the direction the series had taken with the Tara King
shows.
The
Midas Touch
(Brian Clemens/Robert Fuest) - The mysterious transport of gold leads
to the trail of the deadly transmission of a deadly disease, a
disease that will be used after many experiments on other victims to
commit a political assassination. Fuest was the most stylish and
successful of the directors of the original Avengers with his feature
film career, and his sensibilities are here in tact, but the teleplay
is very problematic, causing the entire piece to not work. It just
does not gel.
House
Of Cards
(Brian Clemens/Ray Austin) - This show deals with the idea of sleeper
agents, which is now a much more known concept currently, but this
show holds up well-enough. In addition, it brings back Peter
Jeffrey, an actor who has been a favorite to play villains in
general, and on the original Avengers in particular. This is more
like what this series was capable of being.
The
Last Of The Cybernauts...?
(Brian Clemens/Sidney Hayers) - Trying to be a sequel to two great
Diana Rigg/Mrs. Peel episodes is not easy, but this one does not even
try. Instead of advancing the idea and madness of the killer robots,
this one mocks the old ones! The result is the worst episode of The
New Avengers,
and the mere mention of Mrs. Peel makes it worse
To
Catch A Rat
(Terence Feely/James Hill) - Ian Hendry, who was the lead in Police
Surgeon,
the series that became The
Avengers,
is cast as a former agent with memory loss for 20 years. Now that he
is starting to remember, can he help Steed and the gang track down
the mole high up in British Intel known as ''The White Rat''? This
one is not bad either.
Cat
Amongst The Pigeons
(Dennis Spooner/John Hough) - Loaded with more references and
in-jokes than any other episode of this series, it may be the best
one they made. An expert on birds named Zarcardi (Vladek Sheybal,
who was a chess playing SPECTRE agent in the 1963 James Bond film
From
Russia With Love
and then recent co-star of TV's U.F.O.
from Gerry Anderson) seems to have a score to settle with some people
in the bird world. At first, mysterious attacks (not unlike the
color Mrs. Peel show The
Winged Avenger)
go unexplained, but it turns out they are from a school of birds (ala
Alfred Hitchcock's The
Birds,
released the same year as Sheybal's Bond film). Steed, Purdey and
Gambit are son on his trail…. I mean tail, but there is one other
twist that might be a stretch, but let me be the first to note it.
The American series Kolchak:
The Night Stalker
(1974 - 1975) was being accused of becoming Avengers-like
during its later episodes. One show, which is hardly see stand-alone
in the U.S. anymore called Legacy
Of Terror,
also involves men dressed as giant birds and an older flute-like
device that is played before each sacrificial murder. This show has
almost the same flute, often shot and framed in the same way.
Coincidence? Hmmmmm.
Target!
(Dennis Spooner/Ray Austin) - Despite all the advances in
interactivity and digitally animated computer games, this episode
about a test shooting gallery with mannequins that fire marker
bullets is still decent. When agents are dying for no apparent
reason, all due to go on leave, the gang realizes they all did target
practice before their break. Curare poisoning is the final clue
needed to figure out the plot, in an episode that owes something to
the 1974 James Bond film The
Man With The Golden Gun.
Faces
(Brian Clemens & Dennis Spooner/James Hill) - One too many
retreads start to catch up with the series in a plot to replace key
people with plastic surgery fakes, but the color Mrs. Peel show Never
Never Say Die did this much better, and had Christopher Lee to boot.
Not good.
The
Tale Of The Big Why
(Brian Clemens/Robert Fuest) - Even more problematic than the
Clemens/Fuest pairing on Midas Touch, but missing Fuest's touch, top
secret information is for sale when an imprisoned agent is set free
from jail. The New Avengers and enemy agents race to get the
information first. By the end of watching the show, the title refers
to asking the point of this show.
Three
Handed Game
(Dennis Spooner & Brian Clemens/Ray Austin) - Like Faces,
this show is haunted by a much better color Mrs. Peel show, the
ever-wacky and controversial Who's
Who,
but the mind switching here is not helped by ''advances in micro
electronics'', so this is another miss.
Sleeper
(Brian Clemens/Graeme Clifford, who edited some of the shows on this
series) - A sleeping gas is going to be exploited so a London town
can be robbed, a gas of military origins. This should have worked
much better than it did, but it does not click, though it is more
amusing now than when I first saw it eons ago.
Gnaws
(Denis Spooner/Ray Austin) - Yes, its Jaws
with a rat in the sewers, which goes to show you how far off the path
the show went just to try to please a 'new' audience. The guest cast
is better than usual, with Julian Holloway and Jeremy Young here, but
the show is a dud.
Dirtier
By The Dozen
(Brian Clemens/Sidney Hayers) - How does a soldier, who was
supposedly discharged years ago, seem to be showing up at the scene
of every major battle of the last few years? Some 16mm film and
detective work lead them to a military unit, where the soldiers are
not exactly ready to be the best. This one has a few moments, and
the title makes fun of a film the show has little to do with.
The
1.33 X 1, full screen, color picture was processed in Rank Color and
comes from late PAL analog transfers of the show done a few years
ago. This is passable, but no match for the higher quality
restorations on all the color original Avengers
on Blu-ray or the 4K set of this show, though those films and more
complex color systems used on those shows, so some comparisons are
limited. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo remixes the TV mono,
which is not bad, but has some of the slight harshnesses here and
there that similar sound work on A&E's boxed set of U.F.O.
Set One
offered, a series long since issued on Blu-ray and hopefully 4K soon.
Otherwise, the presentation is above average overall.
The
show wanted to be more realistic, yet still be quirky like the
original series. It eventually could not have it both ways, but the
show continued for another season, which you can read about at the
following link to our DVD coverage:
New
Avengers 1977
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1313/New+Avengers+1977+Set+Two
-
Nicholas Sheffo
