An agent smuggling rocket formula is murdered en route to Marseiles. A rather cranky Mrs. Gale is recruited to help, and Steed becomes a suspect by the police after first asking too many questions, then breaking into the airport office in the middle of the night. 2 separate bottles may be the container they're after, and it gets more complex when a rival agent murders a stewardess, then tells the cops they can find Steed in the apartment where her body is!
When I first saw the season 2 episodes, they reminded me VERY much in look, feel and style to the earliest DOCTOR WHOs from the same period. Both very low-budget, studio-bound, shot on video. And again, in both cases, it's the main characters who make the show. John Steed, clearly working for some secret government outfit, always seems to be far too casual and cavalier and smiling as he works (very much "a George Sanders type", a description that explained more to me about his character than watching the series for decades). Then there's Cathy Gale, smart, independant, tough, but clearly realizing that despite his attitude, Steed is doing important work. It's often amusing that at times she seems better at his job than he is.
At one point, Steed's boss (whose face we never see in this one-- an uncredited Douglas Muir as One-Ten?) says a line that reminds me of a scene in the Roger Moore film "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY"-- "Oh, and Steed? No more slip-ups." The look of irritation on Steed's face is hilarious, you can see he's really putting in a lot of effort NOT to respond to it.
At another point, Steed tells Cathy the head cop at the airport seemed to already know something was going on, and she says, "Perhaps it's time you changed your code." I heard that and thought, if I'd been in his position, I'd have smiled and said, "GOOD idea! I'll be sure to pass it on to my BOSS."
Steed gives Cathy a special minature gun with 10 cartridges, which really comes in handy when one of the baddies tries to stab her. She takes him down without firing a shot. Later, we find she's ALSO got another gun strapped to her thigh. This is one lady you DO NOT wanna mess with!
What could have otherwise been a "dull crime plot" (or espionage as the case may be) was the sole contribution in the series from Jon Manchip White. I wonder if he never did any more because this was considered TOO "standard"?
Apart from the leads, what really makes this stand out is the guest cast. Among them are the gorgeous Katherine Woodville (who for a time later became Patrick Macnee's wife), the equally-stunning Justine Lord (who specialized in "bad girls", particular the title character in THE PRISONER episode "The Girl Who Was Death"), Nicholas Courtney (who found fame as "Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart", my all-time favorite supporting character on DOCTOR WHO), John Gill (who among many other things turned up on a "CAMPION" story and a Jeremy Brett "SHERLOCK HOLMES"), Geoffrey Palmer (who played "Lionel Hardcastle", my favorite character on "AS TIME GOES BY"), and John Dearth (who played "Lupton", the character who basically FILLED IN for the deceased Roger Delgado in the final Jon Pertwee DOCTOR WHO story, "Planet of the Spiders").
Even with such a low budget, this show seems better-written and acted than most episodes of "VOYAGE" or "UNCLE" I'm watching.
When I first saw the season 2 episodes, they reminded me VERY much in look, feel and style to the earliest DOCTOR WHOs from the same period. Both very low-budget, studio-bound, shot on video. And again, in both cases, it's the main characters who make the show. John Steed, clearly working for some secret government outfit, always seems to be far too casual and cavalier and smiling as he works (very much "a George Sanders type", a description that explained more to me about his character than watching the series for decades). Then there's Cathy Gale, smart, independant, tough, but clearly realizing that despite his attitude, Steed is doing important work. It's often amusing that at times she seems better at his job than he is.
At one point, Steed's boss (whose face we never see in this one-- an uncredited Douglas Muir as One-Ten?) says a line that reminds me of a scene in the Roger Moore film "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY"-- "Oh, and Steed? No more slip-ups." The look of irritation on Steed's face is hilarious, you can see he's really putting in a lot of effort NOT to respond to it.
At another point, Steed tells Cathy the head cop at the airport seemed to already know something was going on, and she says, "Perhaps it's time you changed your code." I heard that and thought, if I'd been in his position, I'd have smiled and said, "GOOD idea! I'll be sure to pass it on to my BOSS."
Steed gives Cathy a special minature gun with 10 cartridges, which really comes in handy when one of the baddies tries to stab her. She takes him down without firing a shot. Later, we find she's ALSO got another gun strapped to her thigh. This is one lady you DO NOT wanna mess with!
What could have otherwise been a "dull crime plot" (or espionage as the case may be) was the sole contribution in the series from Jon Manchip White. I wonder if he never did any more because this was considered TOO "standard"?
Apart from the leads, what really makes this stand out is the guest cast. Among them are the gorgeous Katherine Woodville (who for a time later became Patrick Macnee's wife), the equally-stunning Justine Lord (who specialized in "bad girls", particular the title character in THE PRISONER episode "The Girl Who Was Death"), Nicholas Courtney (who found fame as "Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart", my all-time favorite supporting character on DOCTOR WHO), John Gill (who among many other things turned up on a "CAMPION" story and a Jeremy Brett "SHERLOCK HOLMES"), Geoffrey Palmer (who played "Lionel Hardcastle", my favorite character on "AS TIME GOES BY"), and John Dearth (who played "Lupton", the character who basically FILLED IN for the deceased Roger Delgado in the final Jon Pertwee DOCTOR WHO story, "Planet of the Spiders").
Even with such a low budget, this show seems better-written and acted than most episodes of "VOYAGE" or "UNCLE" I'm watching.