Michael Dyter wins the South East Anglia by-election on a platform of exposing corruption, but is gunned down at the count by Frank Maher (the unknown stuntman who made The Prisoner and many other series look so fine).
Then top politicians Swinburne (David 'Granada's Sir James Damery' Langton, returning from The Mauritius Penny) (possibly Con.) and Arthur Dove (probably Lab.) are unwillingly getting together to deal with the very pressing matter of a nuclear warhead that went missing in South East Anglia.
Publicist Mark St John is happy to host their meeting at his 60s image consultancy - because he's conspiring with Fiona (Iris Russell returning from Mission to Montreal) and Max, who operate the high class gym frequented by Mrs Dove, who Cathy befriends.
Fill in the gaps yourself, the suggestion in the title is all you need. I get the impression that regular Avengers writer (and Mac Hulke crony) Eric Paice didn't appreciate the power of a 5-megaton nuclear warhead, which would have instantly vapourised everything in a radius of several miles. Anyone hoping to watch the fireworks would have learnt the hard way that the observer is part of the experiment.
This is the first episode that I failed to properly understand after three viewings - I still can't grasp why Dyter had to get shot, or indeed stand for election at all, the nuclear blackmail plot doesn't seem to need either of those elements.
Having said that, this episode rather grew on me; there was some decent pathos with the loveless Doves, and I always enjoy 60s political dramas where they can never be explicit about which party MPs belong to. Also there was what I took to be a bit of self-mockery: I've noticed that in series 3 the fight scenes have become increasingly formalised and stylised: Cathy is confronted by an opponent, the shot changes to show a convenient wide open space, the exciting fight music starts and she does a series of judo throws on her attacker. (Joss Whedon must have been watching). In this episode, there's a scene at the gym where all these cues are deployed - and then the action is interrupted by the return of Mrs Dove. The music stops and Cathy, Fiona and Max stand around looking sheepish. 'I just came back for me handbag,' says Mrs D.
No comments:
Post a Comment