Saturday, March 17, 2012

Naive Avengersthon - 47. Dressed to Kill

Someone is using jamming to create false alarms at Britain's missile radar stations. And someone has invited Steed and six other people to a mobile fancy dress New Year's Eve party on board a train - and then left them at an abandoned station in the middle of nowhere.

This is one of those 'Six Napoleons' stories, with a limited number of possible explanations - though the setup (the idea that six people would all have options on parcels of land in a particular area) is incredibly contrived. But it does feature a Napoleon, as well as a returning Richard 'Gatherer Hade' Leech as a Victorian peeler, and two prize catches in Leonard Rossiter as Robin Hood and our very own Anneke Wills in a sexy cat costume. You can see why the last two went on to better things - Rossiter in particular seems to jump off the screen demanding our attention.

The abandoned station is quite eerie, with things changing behind the characters' backs, people being killed or knocked out and a mysterious hooded friar hanging about. Mixed with this there's a 'New Year special' comedy feeling, with Steed's cowboy costume leading to a couple of enjoyable Western-style shots.

Leon 'Jabel' Eagles as the jammer, Frank Maher returning from November Five as the barman.

Quite enjoyed this one. I've made it sound as though the chills and the comedy didn't mix, but they do work together pretty well. Also there are plenty of reasons to suspect all the characters, so the identity of the villain comes as a surprise - most Avengers eps fail in this regard, it's usually blindingly obvious.

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