Naive Avengersthon - 131. Fog

Very underwhelming this. The central idea is OK - that one member of a club of pseudo-Ripper obsessives is murdering foreign dignitaries who threaten his interests - but there are two major annoying things about this episode.

Firstly, although the historical murderer that the club admire flourished in 1888, and had the Ripper's M.O., he's actually called the Gaslight Ghoul, possibly because the real Ripper targeted prostitutes and that idea (a) isn't US-friendly and (b) doesn't suit the type of killing that's being done in the main action.

Secondly, although the story obviously takes place in London in 1968, its heart is in Victorian London and so all the visual trappings are from that era. I suppose that might be considered clever by a more sophisticated viewer, but I thought it was contrived. For example, a lot of the action centres around a firm that runs hansom cabs (presumably for novelty purposes), Tara is in a Victorianesque costume and all the 'exterior' shots are shrouded in Victorian fog. Steed actually explains this, when he's welcoming the comedy foreigners, as a typical feature of London; when he and the viewer know quite well that pea-soupers had been rendered a thing of the past by the Clean Air Act in 1956.

One thing I did like though was the presence of Patsy 'All my puff' Smart as the housekeeper. That seemed appropriate to the setting.

Previously and also seen: Paul 'The Marshal' Whitsun-Jones, who I completely missed, in his fourth appearance.

Previously seen: Nigel Green and John Garrie from The Winged Avenger, Arnold Diamond from Who's Who?, Frank Sieman from Six Hands Across A Table, Norman Chappell (fourth appearance), William Lyon Brown from Death's Door.

Naive Avengersthon - 130. Stay Tuned

A very unsettling episode. The opening has an interesting similarity to Arrival with Steed just about to go on holiday when he's knocked out. We're then immediately shown him about to go on holiday once more; I thought I had a dodgy DVD at this point because all his actions are repeated. And that isn't the last time it happens either.

Not only has he lost his memory but he begins to behave strangely, trying to kill himself and Tara at one point. I don't think it helps that he chooses to consult a highly sinister-looking psychiatrist about his amnesia. The one thing he can remember is the image of a Chinese weightlifter, and he thinks he's achieved a breakthrough when - shadowed by a man who we can see but he can't - he locates a house with a doorknocker in just such a shape. What a moment when the door is opened by Kreer, played by Roger Delgado. Oh Steed, things could have been so much worse.

Delgado is, intriguingly, playing an evil hypnotist here. You could read this ep as a missing Master adventure. Unfortunately he's killed off before we can see much of him. What a waste. Luckily, as well as the invisible man his other confederate is Kate 'Rani' O'Mara.

They're conditioning Steed to assassinate 'Mother'; he is, however, able to break free of their conditioning before punching the invisible man and going off for a proper holiday. Hurray!

Great stuff this, both the psychological unpleasantness and the fascination of the repeated holiday departure scenes.

Also seen: Duncan 'Galloway' Lamont, Denise Buckley from Dance of the Dead.

Previously seen: Iris Russell and Howard Marion-Crawford, both making their third appearance.

Naive Avengersthon - 129. Take Me To Your Leader

A really good episode this with a fascinating central concept, a case that's programmed with verbal instructions to enable it to be passed along a sequence of enemy couriers. On this particular run, Steed and Tara's mission is to insert themselves into the chain and eliminate each successive courier, in order to find who's at the end of thes list.

Excellently, each courier also has a key with which to make the case issue its instructions: so our heroes can't eliminate them and seize the case back until that's happened. For each exchange they have to improvise tactics, and quickly.

One of the exchanges takes place at a ballet class for girls, forcing Steed to try and bribe the young contact with lollipops (she holds out for £25 instead). Penelope Keith very funny as the long-suffering teacher. I wonder if it's her or a stuntwoman in the balletic fight that ensues with Tara?

The plot forks into two in the closing act, with the introduction of a deadly decoy case. Tara's escape from the crypt is quite ingenious. Then there's just time to double-bluff the viewer about who the man at the end of the chain really is.

My only regret with this story is that there did seem to be a couple of cheats, in which the case's program seemed to be responding to events rather than strictly issuing the next instruction. It's supposed to have a tape player in it, not a radio receiver. I'd love to have the job of programming such a case and ensuring that the speeches fitted the planned locations of the couriers.

This is one of my favourites so far. It's ingeniously put together and it rattles along excitingly. I particularly liked the way that the scene in the teaser makes perfect sense in retrospect, when Steed and Tara reach the same stage in the chain that we saw there.

Previously and also seen: Michael 'Mace' Robbins from Mr Teddy Bear, Michael 'General Williams' Hawkins from The Golden Fleece.

Also seen: Patrick 'Hobson/Gamling' Barr, Henry 'Anton in Enemy of the World' Stamper

Previously seen: Raymond Adamson making his third appearance, John Ronane returning from Murdersville.

Naive Avengersthon - 128. Love All

This episode features Martha, probably the most unalluring femme fatale ever seen on screen. She's like Maureen Lipman playing George Orwell's charlady. But we soon find that there's a solid reason for her hypnotic appeal to civil servants who know government secrets.

The plot requires Steed and 'Mother' to be very obtuse in realising what's going on, so that Tara can confound them with her intuition. Once Steed's on the trail, there's an over-long scene at Casanova Ink, romantic publishers; Patsy 'Carry On' Rowland's explanation about how the books are generated by a computer programmed by their in-house genius Bromfield (Terence 'Lord Ravensworth' Alexander in his third appearance) is amusing enough, but the story's marking time here.

Once it gets going again, Steed soon discovers the hypnosis mechanism and deploys it against the Casanova plotters. Interesting that they don't chicken out of having Bromfield affected by it too, but as this is the 60s it merely causes him to think that Steed is a terribly decent chap. This bit is rather sweet actually.

Not a bad episode, the comedy is acceptable and we do feel rather sorry for Martha's victims. But ultimately not a very exciting episode either.

Also seen: Frank 'Ortron' Gatliff, Peter 'Cyril' Stephens, David 'Ralpachan' Baron and Larry Taylor, who's the Mexican lynchmob leader in Living In Harmony and also, so they say, the Burpa in the 'name of a good dentist' gag in Khyber.

Previously seen: Brian Oulton returning from The Charmers.

Naive Avengersthon - 127. The Morning After

Steed and Tara are knocked out by nerve gas capsules while attempting to capture Jimmy Merlin (Peter 'Leader Clent' Barkworth in his third appearance). Merlin succumbs to the gas too, and next day all three find themselves in an apparently deserted world. A strong Triffids vibe here, and an even stronger Invasion of the Dinosaurs one when Steed and Merlin face summary execution as looters.

Several escapes and recaptures from and by Brian 'Yrcanos' Blessed (returning from The Superlative Seven) later, we find exactly what Brigadier Joss Ackland's motive is for ensuring that he has the town all to himself for a day. Luckily Merlin shows some honour among thieves and saves the day.

An intriguing episode, but - as in some of the other ones with very interesting conceits - once the real threat is revealed, it's disposed of very quickly. Very little Tara in this, she spends most of the time asleep.

Reminded me a bit of The Hour That Never Was, in the way that the silent scenes take up such a long time, making the action seem all the more brutal once it starts.

Also seen: Donald 'Vural in The Sontaran Experiment, yunnerstan' Douglas.

Naive Avengersthon - 126. The Interrogators

A very good episode, where we spend less time on the hunt for the villains and much more on being intrigued as to what they're up to. The interrogations interspersed with tea breaks and friendly chat are completely intriguing.

My only complaint is that I'd liked to have known who Colonel Mannering (Christopher Lee returning from Never, Never Say Die) is and how he came to know about 'Mother' and contrive his ingenious plan to use Mother's organisation's own secrecy against it.

Previously and also seen: Neil 'Thawn' McCarthy (third appearance). Philip 'Ganatus' Bond, Glynn 'Dave in Minder' Edwards, Neil 'Sam Seeley' Wilson (third appearance). The non-speaking Chinese bloke is supposedly Vincent Wong (Ho in Talons).

Previously seen: David Sumner from Death on the Rocks, Cardew Robinson from The £50,000 Breakfast.

Naive Avengersthon - 125. The Rotters

I like the super-fast dry rot gimmick in this, but it's not much of a story. The rot gun is simply used to corner and kill off previous associates of its inventor, who fortuitously all place themselves in positions where the destruction of wooden objects terminally affects their safety.

However there's a great sinister duo (Jerome 'Dr Stevens' Willis in his third appearance, Gerald Sim in his fourth) with their faux 60s working man outfits and laconic posh chat.

Back on the negative side, there's a stupid fight between Tara and unpleasant henchman Sandford. She runs girlishly off into the woods rather than driving away in her car, and he clumsily attacks her with a woodsman's axe, which predictably gets stuck in a tree and rendered useless.

And there's a very silly conclusion where Charles 'Songsten' Morgan reveals his ridiculous plan to hold the world to ransom with fake pillarboxes which spray an even more effective wood-rotting fungus.

Previously and also seen: John 'Rev Ernest Matthews' Nettleton returning from The See-Through Man. Harold 'Gilbert M' Innocent from The Medicine Men.

Also seen: Amy 'his sister Dolly' Dalby.

Previously seen: Toni Gilpin from Death on the Rocks, John Stone (third appearance), Noel Davis from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station, John Murray Scott from November Five. And Garry Marsh who may or may not be the Brigadier from Look (etc).