Sunday, February 12, 2012

Naive Avengersthon - 27. A Chorus of Frogs

One of my least favourite episodes so far, though a summary can make it sound quite exciting: millionaire Mason (Eric Pohlmann) is conducting depth-diving experiments from his yacht, duping his tame scientist as to their real purpose and incurring the enmity of a secret organisation of expert divers (the eponymous frogs) by getting their members killed in accidents.

Steed is on the scene to investigate. A couple of nice scenes with Venus, who's scandalised by his requests to stow away in her cabin. He doesn't show much regard for Venus, does he, using her as cover for his dangerous missions; in this one he puts her in danger by getting her to send a coded telegram which is immediately spotted by the villainous Anna (Yvonne Shima), who's the best thing in this by miles.

Also noticed: Alan 'Hector' Haywood and John 'Ambril' Carson as members of the diving fraternity. (Thanks to WarrenAndrews for spotting JC where I missed him)

I think what makes the story fail for me is the lack of anyone other than Venus to sympathise with: the divers are a mercenary bunch and Steed comes across as using Venus quite ruthlessly. Frank 'Ortron' Gatliff gets a speech about how he isn't the stereotypical cold-blooded scientist, but he doesn't put up any resistance when Anna takes over the project and explains its true purpose. (She is holding a gun on him, mind).

File this story with Immortal Clay, Box of Tricks and Intercrime as ones that failed to grab me.

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