Physicist John Wadkin disappeared, and has returned semi-catatonic, and in his livelier moments he's filled with hatred and fear of Chinese people, which is unfortunate as his wife comes from Singapore. Steed and Mrs Peel are on the case, as is keen Ministry man Varnals (a young Peter 'Count Grendel' Jeffreys). Some nice by-play between him and Mrs Peel: he starts off putting her down, and has the tables turned on him.
I do like the chess-themed chain of Chessman Hotels to which the action next moves: Philip 'Five Doctors Borusa' Latham is the maitre d', rather Mesurieresque I thought. Paul Whitsun-Jones making his third appearance as the eponymous Chessman: he's got more than letting rooms on his mind, what with his Ipcress File-style contracted-out interrogation service, to which Wadkin has fallen victim and which he's enterprisingly trying to flog to dour Russian Pushkin (Vernon 'Chief Scientist' Dobtcheff).
It's the unusual hotel theme that kept me watching, which is interesting as it has no connection with the actual plot. The idea of making the interrogation victims think they're in China, Russia etc would be clever if it didn't have the very obvious antecedent previously mentioned.
Peter Arne makes his third appearance btw, a bit of a waste I thought, if you're going to have him you should give him something interesting to do.
