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Posted: |
Nov 24, 2015 - 11:35 PM
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By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
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THE·AVENGERS·WRITERS | SEASON 6
BURNHAM, Jeremy (5)
You’ll Catch Your Death
False Witness
Love All
Fog
Who Was That Man I Saw You With?
CLEMENS, Brian (9)
The Forget-Me-Knot
Split!
They Keep Killing Steed
The Interrogators (co-written)
The Morning After
Pandora
Homicide and Old Lace (uncredited)
Requiem
Bizarre
FREEMAN, Dave
The Rotters
HARRIS, Richard (2)
Game
The Interrogators (co-written)
HULKE, Malcolm & DICKS, Terence
Homicide and Old Lace
JAMES, Donald
Have Guns – Will Haggle
LEVENE, Philip (3)
The Curious Case of the Countless Clues
Get-A-Way!
My Wildest Dream
NATION, Terry (6)
Invasion of the Earthmen
Noon Doomsday
Legacy of Death
Take Me to Your Leader
Thingumajig
Take-Over
SPOONER, Dennis
Split! (uncredited)
Look - (Stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers...
VANCE, Leigh
All Done With Mirrors
WILLIAMSON, Tony
Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?
Super Secret Cypher Snatch
Wish You Were Here
Killer
Stay Tuned
Notes
The most prolific writers remain producer Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, Tony Williamson and also Jeremy Burnham and Philip Levene. From season 4, only Clemens, Levene, Hulke and Williamson still work. Writer Philip Levene left the series at the start of season 6 because of his involvement with producer John Bryce. Four writers from Doctor Who participate in: Malcolm Hulke, Terrence Dicks, Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner who is known as a famous ITC man and a good friend of producer Brian Clemens. Jeremy Burnham is a former actor appearing during season 4 and 5. Two writers will work on Mission: Impossible: ITC man Donald James and Leigh Vance.
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Posted: |
Nov 25, 2015 - 2:16 AM
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By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
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THE·AVENGERS·DIRECTORS | SEASON 6
AUSTIN, Ray (2)
Have Guns – Will Haggle
All Done With Mirrors
BAKER, Roy Ward
Split!
CHAFFEY, Don (5)
Legacy of Death
Wish You Were Here
Stay Tuned
Who Was That Man I Saw You With?
Requiem
CRICHTON, Charles (2)
False Witness
The Interrogators
DICKSON, Paul
You’ll Catch Your Death
FRANKEL, Cyril
Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?
FUEST, Robert (7)
My Wildest Dream
Game
They Keep Killing Steed
The Rotters
Take Me to Your Leader
Pandora
Take-Over
HILL, James (2)
The Forget-Me-Knot
Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers...
HOUGH, John (4)
Super Secret Cypher Snatch
The Morning After
Fog
Homicide and Old Lace
NORMAN, Leslie (2)
Thingumajig
Bizarre
OWEN, Cliff
Killer
SHARP, Don (3)
Invasion of the Earthmen
The Curious Case of the Countless Clues
Get-A-Way!
SYKES, Peter (2)
Noon Doomsday
Love All
Notes
The most prolific directors remain: Robert Fuest, Don Chaffey, John Hough, Don Sharp. Many season 4 directors return: Roy Ward Baker, Charles Crichton, James Hill. Director Ray Austin is a stuntman. Directors Cyril Frankel and Don Sharp are feature film veterans but Frankel ends up working actively at ITC television and Robert Fuest is a notorious horror movie director. Don Chaffey is another feature film artisan and a recurring Danger Man and Prisoner director who shoots the homage to The Prisoner: “Wish You Were Here”.
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Posted: |
Dec 4, 2015 - 12:13 AM
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By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
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S06E01 The Forget-Me-Knot
Notes on Producer Brian Clemens’ First Batch of Scripts
After the forced departure of veteran producer John Bryce, Brian Clemens had to write two scripts quickly: “The Forget-Me-Knot” and “Split!”. Notice that these two episodes have a unique main titles that take place in a bare orange studio set which is a direct reference and linkage to the season 5 one. According to Avengers historians, the first batch of produced episodes (“Invasion of the Earthmen”, “The Curious Case of the Countless Clues”, “The Forget-Me-Knot”, “Split!”, “Get-A-Way!”, “Have Guns - Will Haggle”, “Look”) had those opening and end main titles during the original American broadcast. During his unemployed period of The Avengers under Bryce, Clemens found out some writing task at ITC thanks to his friend Dennis Spooner so therefore The Avengers after his return tended to be ‘ITCized’.
The season premiere “The Forget-Me-Knot” sets the tone of the season because it deals with altered minds—here, drug-induced amnesia—breeding odd situations and odd camera angles (mostly extreme low and high angle shots) and the theme of the enemy from inside the secret service and the inclusion of two regular characters: Miss Tara King and Mother who appears standing on his two feet (sic!). It’s the third episode in the production order but the second one produced by Clemens and Fennell. Since former producer John Bryce tried miserably to introduce Miss King in the failure “Invitation to a Kiling” so Clemens repairs that misfire here. During the epilogue, we witness Miss King’s kinky outfit from the Bryce era. Miss Tara King meets Steed many times under various circumstances: hit him in the garden of Mother’s HQ, seduce him by giving him her calling card inside Mother’s HQ, neutralize him with a judo pinch at her flat. All the leading characters and the running agent (Sean Mortimer) are tortured.
It’s a sad farewell to Mrs Peel which closes Steed’s romantic relationship—after being shot by a drug handgun, Steed undergoes many hallucinations and sees Mrs Peel all over: while looking at the nurse and Miss King. The actor playing the faceless husband of Mrs Peel during the tag scene is, of course, Patrick Macnee—in the real world, Macnee was broken hearted by the loss of actress Diana Rigg to the series. The gloomy aspects foreshadow the downbeat episodes of The Persuaders. Actress Linda Thorson carries a brown wig to cover her hair loss from the Bryce era and the unique orange end titles was shot with that wig. Season 6 writer Jeremy Burnham appears as agent Simon Filson with a beard, aide of Mother.
Featuring actors Jeremy Young (see the season 4 “A Touch of Brimstone” and the season 5 “Never, Never Say Die”) and Patrick Newell (see the season 4 “The Town of No Return” and the season 5 “Something Nasty in the Nursery”).
Categories
Identity Loss (amnesia: agent Sean Mortimer, Mrs Peel, John Steed, Miss King)
Killer (two henchmen on bike)
Prison (the glass factory)
Running Agent (Sean Mortimer)
Treason (John Steed, agent George Burton)
Two Episodes Notes
Two episodes show Steed’s sudden passing out after facing henchmen: “The Forget-Me-Knot” and “The Curious Case of the Countless Clues”.
John Steed Notes
In my ‘free’ interpretation of the character, he becomes bitter as a sort of soft Mr Hyde since the departure of his dear beloved Mrs Peel at the end of “The Forget-Me-Knot”: notice how Steed is dressed like (rather dark colored suits: blue or brown) during that season which sums-up his inner mind and becomes more and more savage with the outside world. The season is gloomy and therefore Steed is depicted as a vulnerable, weak and flawed man in order to please ABC’s initial and absurd demand for ‘realism’—foreshadowing the fifth and sixth season of Mission: Impossible: “The Forget-Me-Knot” (amnesic and disregarded as a traitor)
Miss Tara King Notes
The character of Tara King is not presented as an equal partner of Steed as Mrs Peel and displays a rather sensitive and younger attitude because of the generation gap: she's only a Miss, by the way.
Mother Notes
First and only season with the male chief of the secret service: wheelchair-bound Mother (actor Patrick Newell)! In a way and in addition to the James Bond reference of M, Mother is a composite character that borrows from Ironside (wheelchair-bound Detective Michael Ironside) and The Wild Wild West (Secret Service head General Grant) but transposed into the British eccentricity.
Mother appears in twenty episodes out of thirty three: from the season premiere “The Forget-Me-Knot” to “You’ll Catch Your Death”, “All Done With Mirrors”, “Super Secret Cypher Snatch”, “False Witness”, “Noon Doomsday”, “They Keep Killing Steed”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Killer”, “The Rotters”, “The Interrogators”, “Love All”, “Take Me to Your Leader”, “Stay Tuned”, “Fog”, “Who Was That Man I Saw With You?”, “Pandora”, “Homicide and Old Lace”, “Requiem”, “Bizarre”.
James Bond Notes
As a reaction to the ABC character imposition of Miss Tara King and her lack of chemistry and humour with her partner, producer Brian Clemens writes the character of Mother as a nod to M from James Bond but for the season premiere only in which Mother is rather subdued at first. ABC reacts positively to the newly created character and asks Clemens to bring him back and writes some funny exchanges between the two men.
The Persuaders Notes
Terry Nation pens seven scripts for the series. Terry Nation’s “Someone Like Me” features the staged road block inspired by “The Forget-Me-Knot”.
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Posted: |
Dec 12, 2015 - 3:25 AM
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By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
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"Killer" is my favourite episode from season 6.
This review is dedicated to my fellow FSM member John Johnson
Notes on Tony Williamson’s Scripts
Season 4 and 5 alumnus Tony Williamson offers five scripts (“Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?”, “Super Secret Cypher Snatch”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Killer”, “Stay Tuned”) and, among them, a pair of cybernetics-oriented narratives (the silly subpar “Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?” and the techno masterpiece “Killer”) and a homage to the spy series The Prisoner (“Wish You Were Here”). To sum-up, Williamson offers one failure to start with and four successes.
“Killer” is a tough variation of the automated house concept from season 4 “The House That Jack Built” and denounces the insanity of a computerised environment and clean killing by an industrial method because the victim is washed, sterilised, dry-cleaned, packaged, delivered and dropped by helicopter straight into a graveyard. Instead of a country house, a factory is used to host this monstrous machine that is supported by automated vehicles: a helicopter and a coach (filled with dummies)—I wonder what is the purpose of this coach because it is never explicit? Foes Mr Merridon and killer Brinstead first push Remak creator and electronic engineer Arthur Wilkington inside an automated room in which he undergoes a series of killing methods that we will never see and instead we witness a blinding light with a distorted and saturated sound effect a la The Prisoner. An additional henchman named Paxton work for Mr Merridon and meets his government contact in an old film set, pretends to be on the brink of dying and gives a false lead (a pub called ‘The Pirate’ at Lower Storpington) to the agents to trap them—in my opinion, the weak point of the story because it’s too redundant and contrived and Paxton is over-acting.
Miss King is on holiday and is replaced by another female agent: skinny Lady Diana Forbes-Blakeney. Many male agents try to decipher the mystery of Remak and die: Trouncer (shot down by Brinstead), Gillers (crushed by Remak), Calvin (garrotted by Remak), Lawson (heart punctured by Remak), Chattel and even Wilkington’s partner: blackmailer Ralph Bleech. The sherry on top of the cake is the masochistic ordeal of Steed traveling through the many trapped rooms of Remak and, thanks to director Cliff Owen, the attention to details is sharp when Steed covers his ears because the sound is turned off. Oddly enough, Forbes succeeds in entering Remak from the rear end? As in “Game”, Steed faces the impossible during an ordeal of skills and we witness Steed suffering from saturated sounds: see the extreme close-up of Steed’s sweating face. “Killer” remains the best of the two cybernetics entry by writer Tony Williamson because the previous “Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?” was very clumsy and slow-moving. The episode title is in red as in the previous cybernetics narrative. As in “Who’s Who???” and “Split!”, an individual relying on technology (Remak costs £1 million) try to erase the members of the British secret service and we learn the purpose of the scheme from his author at the very end. Many season 6 episodes have the same recurring killing pattern: see “Look”, “You’ll Catch Your Death” and “Game”.
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