Bit of a let-down this one, a dull tale about heroin being smuggled in lobsters via a chess shop run by Bert 'Lin Futu' Kwouk.
Corin Redgrave on show, also Norman Scace, who I think is the psychiatrist in Hammer Into Anvil who gets fooled by Number Six and ranted at by Number Two. Also appearing: Gary 'Arthur Terrall' Watson returning from Immortal Clay, and Jennie 'film Barbara' Linden.
I detected some of the 'stylisation' I'd heard about in this, with the chess-themed sets (why is a pathology lab decorated in chessboard squares?) and Alice In Wonderland references. Readers will recall that the object of the original Lobster Quadrille was to throw the lobsters as far out to sea as you can - treatment which I'd feel like giving the DVD if it didn't also have Esprit de Corps on it.
Perhaps that's a bit harsh, there are one or two good moments, like Kwouk's character cutting off Cathy's Confucius quote by saying that all that sort of thing just sounds pompous in these modern times. And I did feel rather sad at Cathy's clearly delineated departure. Her final experience is a traumatic and narrow escape from a conflagration, which makes it believable that she would now decide to refuse any future missions.
There's a quiet moment after she's gone, and I was strongly reminded of the inter-companion bits in the Fourth Doctor era, at the end of Invasion of Time and the start of The Ribos Operation, or the start of Destiny of the Daleks.
Steed however wastes no time in getting on the phone to sort himself out with a new 'companion'. Who will it be I wonder?...
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