Life, Writing, Weirdness

I’m not sure how to best describe the Avengers. It’s part Cold War spy thriller and part weird science fiction, with the occasional mystery thrown in for good measure. Sometimes all of these in the same episode. I tend to think of it as a mix of Science Fiction and Spy novel, so SciFiSpy or SciSpyFi or something like that.

It’s one of the shows in my current rotation and I’m nearing the end of Diana Rigg’s tenure. I probably won’t carry on after that. It was the Steed and Peel seasons I watched as a teenager in syndication, which is why I’m doing that nostalgia rewatch now, I think. And while the weird SF mix continued after she left the show (which was mostly not present before she joined it), the tone of the show changed a lot after her departure and didn’t work for me as well. Patrick Macnee was still Steed, of course, but the chemistry wasn’t there anymore. I’m sure Linda Thorson was fine, but Tara King wasn’t written nearly as well as Emma Peel and never really stood a chance. That could be why the show only had one season and it seems likely to me that it was only Macnee’s performance carrying it the whole thirty-two episodes.

And by nearing the end, I mean I have two episodes left with Mrs. Peel, the second of those being the transition to having Tara King as the female lead.

The second most recent episode I watched was “The Positive Negative Man”, which is either S06E06 of a very short series, or S05E22 of a rather longer one. There are background and production reasons for the discrepancy that I’m not going to go into here. If you’re watching in production order, I’m not convinced you can tell there’s a break other than the change in numbering.

This one definitely qualifies as SciFiSpy, with the working plot points being the development of broadcast power, insulating makeup allowing the wearer to channel said broadcast power into an electrocuting shock, and a plot to take over the country.

The most recent, “Murdersville” is more a mystery with no real speculative element as I’d define it (well, almost everyone in a small town being in on the idea of being paid to look the other way regularly), but “Mission… Highly Improbable” promises a shrink ray and a miniaturized Steed, so I’m looking forward to that one even though it takes me one step closer to saying goodbye to Mrs. Peel.

For more of that Weird Science Spy Thriller feel, I’d recommend “The Cybernauts”, “Escape in Time”, “Return of the Cybernauts”, and “The Winged Avenger”. But honestly, it’s hard to go wrong with any of the Steed and Peel episodes from the moment Diana Rigg joined the show.

Be well, everyone.