In the Dennis
Spooner penned `Target!` several agents die soon after taking part in a
shooting range exercise and while the viewer pieces this together quite soon,
Steed and co take a little longer. Inevitably this makes the episode repetitive
but luckily this deadly facility is more
imaginative than you might expect. Mocked up as a country village street it has
an armoury of doors, windows and roofs from which potential assassins, all
looking like shop window dummies, can let loose their firepower. It’s surreal
in true Avengers fashion and somehow director Ray Austin manages to find
new angles to shoot it from each time. His busy cameras rush and zoom keeping
things fresh. It is not apparent- and neither should it be- just how the
mannequins are operated or if some of them are stuntmen in masks.
A plethora of
familiar television actors of the Seventies populate guest roles including
Keith Barron, John Paul, Frederick Jaeger and Robert Beatty. Barron is the
villain of the piece, a planted Russian agent whose dapper appearance and
casual demeanour masks a calculated killer. His sidekick is the diminutive Deep
Roy who adds a disturbing feel to some scenes, especially one where he’s
dressed as a girl with balloons! It does seem a pity to use John Paul, at the
time well known as the star of Doomwatch, in the supporting role of a
doctor but he makes the most of his screen time.
