A bitty episode
that only gains traction in the final ten minutes, `The Gladiators` sees
our team once again in Canada this time on the trail of a KGB agent called Karl
Sminsky who may be behind the disappearance of a number of Western operatives.
Played with stoic Russian determination by Louis Zorick, Minsky is super
trained in disciplined martial arts to the point that he can stop bullets with
his hands. Yes, it’s one of those slightly tedious training based plots in
which a group of bulky muscle men are put through rigorous tests to find the
best. These sequences are almost comically straight faced as the assembled
beefy blokes are clearly not actors. They alternate with the Avengers chasing
about somewhat randomly for clues allowing us to take in the Canadian scenary.
Add to this the preposterous idea that a top secret security organisation would
have an open day (even Steed questions the logic of this) and you have a
storyline that neither engages nor convinces.
I’m not sure of
the point of setting episodes in Canada in any case. It makes little difference
to the plots and takes away some the quintessential Englishness of the series.
Nonetheless the producers seem proud to `Present the New Avengers in Canada`.
There a couple of genuinely amusing moments- when Steed turns out to be a great
friend of the Russian envoy and later when Gambit gets to drive a police car
and revels in turning on the siren. Otherwise it’s a bit of a snoozefest till
the last ten minutes when some sharp action wakes us up even if the conclusion
somewhat undermines Sminky’s earlier rhetoric. Against the Avengers he’s still
in second place; perhaps that’s the point. Steed and co are initially
pretending simply to be on holiday and I think that would have been more interesting!
The Canadian
sojourn continues with the delightfully playful `Forward Base` in which
events take place around a secret aquatic Russian enclave on the shore of Lake
Ontario. The audience soon grasps the idea of where this place everyone is
searching for actually is but the episode has some fun along the way making it
clear that this is not a serious story. Even the explanation of how the base came to
be deployed- in the middle of a hurricane- is a quirky one. So its an episode
that very much fits into the off kilter aspect we might expect from The
Avengers including an extremely slow chase in boats dressed as swans, a
fisherman who keeps getting stranded in the water and a melodramatic Russian
boss who enjoys listening to classical music. It’s directed with the timing you
might expect from a sitcom with perfectly placed reaction shots and a sense of
the absurd.
The regulars
love it and are clearly at ease with this sort of material displaying the more
individualistic performances that marked the first season; Patrick McNee in
particular is excellent. There are the usual fatalities of course but nobody
seems to be taking things that seriously. It ends with Steed and a fishing rod
with a magnet on it as he calls the base to tell them they’ve been rumbled.
There’s a
distinct end of term vibe to `Emily` in which the Avengers are chased
across the Canadian scenery in an old car which has a bowler hat taped to the
roof. The archetypal headgear is protecting a hand print that will identify yet
another mysterious agent called The Fox. This time the viewer is quickly shown
who this felon is and the fun is in seeing how he attempts to stop the print
reaching headquarters. And it is fun to some extent with a light tone from the
start and unlike some episodes it never really gets more serious as if the
whole thing is a bit if a jape. Quirky banjo led incidental music and
incredulous looks from policemen is the order of the day in what is mostly an
extended chase scene.
Along the way
we have such tomfoolery as Purdey lying astride the car roof as it travels
through a car wash, an encounter with a brewer who challenges Gambit to a fight
and ultimately the trio being attacked by the Fox who has a shell launcher. The
car belongs to an elderly woman who adds to the eccentricity of matters. Some Avengers
fans reckon this series wasn’t really an authentic continuation of the classic
series so this episode must stand completely on its own as it doesn’t even
resemble any other New Avengers episode. Even the lead trio seem
different, more relaxed, perhaps they already knew this was to be the last ever
episode as indeed it turned out to be.
These Canadian
episodes where apparently a necessity as the series was co funded by Canada but
it might have been better to have spread them out rather than bunching them together
giving the impression that Steed and co have been in Canada for months
presumably leaving Britain vulnerable. `Complex` and `Forward Base` are the
better two of the four yet the wide open spaces, roads and countryside feels
like a different series altogether. Generally the second season suggests the
writers had run out of original plots as several of the episodes are a
variation on similar themes. Though there were plans for a third series Brian
Clemens was preoccupied with The Professionals (which was more suited to
his sensibility) and financially it proved unviable. Despite several attempts
to relaunch the format `Emily` turned out to be the final ever episode. There
was a film of course but nobody talks about that…
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