The Avengers '68 Set 2

Rating:
Summary: VERY VERY GOOD.
Review: I JUST GOT THIS A FEW DAYS AGO AND I THINK IT IS FAB
THE STORIES ARE AS FOLLOWS.

ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS- TARA MUST CLEAR STEEDS NAME BUT CAN SHE DO IT.

LEGACY OF DEATH- A JAPANEESE SWORD CAUSES CHAOS FOR STEED AND TARA.

LOOK (STOP ME IF YOU HEARD THIS ONE BUT THERE WERE THESE TWO FELLAS)-STEED AND TARA CLOWN AROUND WITH SOME HOMICIDAL CLOWNS.

HAVE GUNS WILL HAGGLE-WHERE TARA'S LIFE IS FOR SALE...TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER.

THEY KEEP KILLING STEED..AN ARMY OF STEED LOOKALIKES CAUSES CHAOS AT A PEACE CONFERANCE..WILL TARA SHOOT THE RIGHT ONES.

ALL IN ALL A MIXED BAG I FOUND EPISODE 6 A BIT BORING BUT IT IS ALL VERY WATCHABLE.I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU BUY IT NOW.

Rating:
Summary: Steed has some rare outings - Tara's on the dance card
Review: The Avengers Season 6 - the final season of the ever popular British TV cult classic. In this, the second set of the Tara King era, we have six rare outings. Featuring fan favorite "All Done With Mirrors". So join join the always suave and sophisticated John Steed, and his able bodied female counterpart Tara King, as they battle ville villians, confounding criminals, and dangerous doubles.

We have two class acts in volume one. The solo Tara King outing "All Done With Mirrors", and the outrageous and stylish "Maltese Falcon" spoof "Legacy of Death". In "All Done With Mirrors", Steed is put under house arrest by Mother, and Tara is sent to investigate the leakage of secrets from a top-security facility. One of my favorite Tara King episodes, "All Done With Mirrors" is sharp and clever, with great direction and performances, and Tara at her series best. She proves quite resourceful, level-headed, and good in a fight (looking wonderful in her denim wardrobe, I might add). In "Legacy of Death", Steed is given the Falcon Dagger, which is the key to unlock a secret buried treasure, which is also the central interest of a bunch of crazed criminals. It's actually quite fun in spots, and then exessively over-the-top in others. But just a bevy of weirdos help it to succeed.

Volume two also has two keepers. The heavy romantic qualities of "Noon Doomsday", and the gag-filled luncy of "Look (stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers...". Both are quite good, "Look..." being somewhat of a polarizer as not everybody loves it as I do. In "Noon Doomsday" an injured Steed, again, becomes the the target of an old foe who put him away. Not the best episodes, but still enjoyable. Features some good romantic interplay between Steed and Tara, if you like that sort of thing. Could have done without the western music cues though. "Look..." is a much better episode, as retired vaudiville artists seek revenge on the compapny who are planning to bulldoze their old theaters, in order to build and underground miltary shelter. The number of gags in this episode is immense. Beautifully directed by James Hill, "Look..." is absolutley hilarious! And I stand (in good company) firmly on the positive side of this when I say that this is a great episode.

In volume three, we have the rather dull "Have Guns - Will Haggle", which is recycled from an earlier unused Tara episode, and the slow but solid "They Keep Killing Steed". In "Have Guns - Will Haggle", a bunch of top-of-the-line rifles are stolen and tested on living targets, only to be auctioned off to foriegn bidders. A real yawn, as nothing really exciting happens, in this below average episode. I'd advise you to fast-forward to the much better episode "They Keep Killing Steed", in which a madman attempts to create a duplicate of Steed in order to infiltrate and sabotage a peace conferance. It's slow, but it' still good. Worth it for the fights alone, which are great.

In a nutshell - a good buy. Most of the episodes are good, but worth the price alone for "All Done With Mirrors". And, as I said for set one, if you don't like Tara, don't bother. Still, it's great fun for any Avengers fan!

Rating:
Summary: Steed has some rare outings - Tara's on the dance card
Review: The Avengers Season 6 - the final season of the ever popular British TV cult classic. In this, the second set of the Tara King era, we have six rare outings. Featuring fan favorite "All Done With Mirrors". So join join the always suave and sophisticated John Steed, and his able bodied female counterpart Tara King, as they battle ville villians, confounding criminals, and dangerous doubles.

We have two class acts in volume one. The solo Tara King outing "All Done With Mirrors", and the outrageous and stylish "Maltese Falcon" spoof "Legacy of Death". In "All Done With Mirrors", Steed is put under house arrest by Mother, and Tara is sent to investigate the leakage of secrets from a top-security facility. One of my favorite Tara King episodes, "All Done With Mirrors" is sharp and clever, with great direction and performances, and Tara at her series best. She proves quite resourceful, level-headed, and good in a fight (looking wonderful in her denim wardrobe, I might add). In "Legacy of Death", Steed is given the Falcon Dagger, which is the key to unlock a secret buried treasure, which is also the central interest of a bunch of crazed criminals. It's actually quite fun in spots, and then exessively over-the-top in others. But just a bevy of weirdos help it to succeed.

Volume two also has two keepers. The heavy romantic qualities of "Noon Doomsday", and the gag-filled luncy of "Look (stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers...". Both are quite good, "Look..." being somewhat of a polarizer as not everybody loves it as I do. In "Noon Doomsday" an injured Steed, again, becomes the the target of an old foe who put him away. Not the best episodes, but still enjoyable. Features some good romantic interplay between Steed and Tara, if you like that sort of thing. Could have done without the western music cues though. "Look..." is a much better episode, as retired vaudiville artists seek revenge on the compapny who are planning to bulldoze their old theaters, in order to build and underground miltary shelter. The number of gags in this episode is immense. Beautifully directed by James Hill, "Look..." is absolutley hilarious! And I stand (in good company) firmly on the positive side of this when I say that this is a great episode.

In volume three, we have the rather dull "Have Guns - Will Haggle", which is recycled from an earlier unused Tara episode, and the slow but solid "They Keep Killing Steed". In "Have Guns - Will Haggle", a bunch of top-of-the-line rifles are stolen and tested on living targets, only to be auctioned off to foriegn bidders. A real yawn, as nothing really exciting happens, in this below average episode. I'd advise you to fast-forward to the much better episode "They Keep Killing Steed", in which a madman attempts to create a duplicate of Steed in order to infiltrate and sabotage a peace conferance. It's slow, but it' still good. Worth it for the fights alone, which are great.

In a nutshell - a good buy. Most of the episodes are good, but worth the price alone for "All Done With Mirrors". And, as I said for set one, if you don't like Tara, don't bother. Still, it's great fun for any Avengers fan!

Rating:
Summary: Steed has some rare outings - Tara's on the dance card
Review: The Avengers Season 6 - the final season of the ever popular British TV cult classic. In this, the second set of the Tara King era, we have six rare outings. Featuring fan favorite "All Done With Mirrors". So join join the always suave and sophisticated John Steed, and his able bodied female counterpart Tara King, as they battle ville villians, confounding criminals, and dangerous doubles.

We have two class acts in volume one. The solo Tara King outing "All Done With Mirrors", and the outrageous and stylish "Maltese Falcon" spoof "Legacy of Death". In "All Done With Mirrors", Steed is put under house arrest by Mother, and Tara is sent to investigate the leakage of secrets from a top-security facility. One of my favorite Tara King episodes, "All Done With Mirrors" is sharp and clever, with great direction and performances, and Tara at her series best. She proves quite resourceful, level-headed, and good in a fight (looking wonderful in her denim wardrobe, I might add). In "Legacy of Death", Steed is given the Falcon Dagger, which is the key to unlock a secret buried treasure, which is also the central interest of a bunch of crazed criminals. It's actually quite fun in spots, and then exessively over-the-top in others. But just a bevy of weirdos help it to succeed.

Volume two also has two keepers. The heavy romantic qualities of "Noon Doomsday", and the gag-filled luncy of "Look (stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers...". Both are quite good, "Look..." being somewhat of a polarizer as not everybody loves it as I do. In "Noon Doomsday" an injured Steed, again, becomes the the target of an old foe who put him away. Not the best episodes, but still enjoyable. Features some good romantic interplay between Steed and Tara, if you like that sort of thing. Could have done without the western music cues though. "Look..." is a much better episode, as retired vaudiville artists seek revenge on the compapny who are planning to bulldoze their old theaters, in order to build and underground miltary shelter. The number of gags in this episode is immense. Beautifully directed by James Hill, "Look..." is absolutley hilarious! And I stand (in good company) firmly on the positive side of this when I say that this is a great episode.

In volume three, we have the rather dull "Have Guns - Will Haggle", which is recycled from an earlier unused Tara episode, and the slow but solid "They Keep Killing Steed". In "Have Guns - Will Haggle", a bunch of top-of-the-line rifles are stolen and tested on living targets, only to be auctioned off to foriegn bidders. A real yawn, as nothing really exciting happens, in this below average episode. I'd advise you to fast-forward to the much better episode "They Keep Killing Steed", in which a madman attempts to create a duplicate of Steed in order to infiltrate and sabotage a peace conferance. It's slow, but it' still good. Worth it for the fights alone, which are great.

In a nutshell - a good buy. Most of the episodes are good, but worth the price alone for "All Done With Mirrors". And, as I said for set one, if you don't like Tara, don't bother. Still, it's great fun for any Avengers fan!

Rating:
Summary: Final series makes it to DVD
Review: The final season of the original Avengers finally comes to DVD & VHS in region one. "The Forget me knot," the debut episode of Ms. Tara King played by Linda Thorson, was released back in 1998, but only now is the entire series seeing the light of day - and it's been well worth the wait.

There are many of course who do not rate these last adventures featuring the debonair John Steed as Britain's top government agent as highly as what had gone before, and it's easy to see why. Steed's pairing originally with Mrs Gale (Honor Blackman) and later Mrs Peel (Diana Rigg) had been an excellent match for his skills. With Mrs Peel leaving the show, the producers, Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell followed suit and John Bryce was brought back to the programme, following his stint producing the early Mrs Gale episodes.

The first thing Bryce did was to cast his girlfriend, twenty one year old Canadian Linda Thorson as Steed's new assistant, Miss Tara King. In order to complete the delivery of episodes to the US market, production was fairly rushed, and what came out of it was deemed substandard. Bryce was sacked and Fennell and Clemens brought back to rescue the production. Clemens was particularly unhappy about Linda Thorson's role, but it was too late in the day to do anything about it. They set about filming the initial block of 8 episodes (extended to 9), rehashing two of the abandoned Bryce episodes, and bringing back Mrs Peel for the one-off story "The forget me knot" to introduce the new character of Tara (although this "debut" was actually filmed third). Once these episodes were ready, they set about producing the final batch of 24.

There is a very significant shift in the character of Tara King between these two production blocks as Thorson began to gain confidence in the part. Also added as a regular into the later stories is Steed & Tara's boss, "Mother," played by Patrick Newell. Thorson's inexperience and the naivety of the character are often cited as the reason the show was cancelled after these episodes were transmitted. Personally, I think the inclusion of the very annoying "Mother" to be a far more valid reason. But it's all a matter of taste.

The stories are included on the discs in the order they were first transmitted in the UK. I would strongly recommend viewing them in PRODUCTION ORDER (easy to track on any Avengers website). There are several reasons for this. It's easier to warm to Miss King as you follow her character development. It also makes more sense to understand her constant hair changes and costume. She started as a blonde, moved to a be-wigged brunette, and only in the latter 24 episodes did we see Thorson's own hair. We can also see how the actress started in "slimmed down mode" (on the orders of the TV station) but regained her lost weight as the series moved along. The character also started out as a complete "spy" trainee, but by the second production block, had become one of the most experienced agents in Mother's department. I also enjoyed seeing the rehashed sets from episode to episode too. All these nuances are lost by following the stories strictly in disc order, and indeed the characterisation of the leads is actually confusing if you simply watch the shows in disc order.

As for the discs themselves, sadly A&E have once again neglected to include any extras at all. All there is are a few still photos, although it has to be said that the menus are at least very well done. The picture quality is certainly very sharp, but there are definitely flaws due to sparkle and dirt. Sadly, "You'll catch your death" has been transferred incorrectly, and the picture strobes and jumps throughout. Clearly no-one at A&E was paying much attention to the remastering process.

Clemens believes this batch of episodes to be the best of the entire run of The Avengers. He has stated that everything came together right in terms of production and scripts. I can't say I agree entirely. They are certainly as enjoyable as anything else, but the total fantasy nature of the stories and the weakness of Tara and Mother characters combine to take the edge away when compared to the earlier Peel episodes. Regardless, it's all camp and wacky fun and I still highly recommend this collection to any fan of the series as there is plenty here to enjoy.