This was the first great Avengers episode I watched. I absolutely love this episode (enough to warrent a number nine spot). It is the very first "Emma Episode." These episodes feature Mrs. Peel who is in a dangerous situation and has to get out of it. Like "Death's Door," these episodes feature very few Emma/John moments, but Emma is so awsome, I don't care. Besides, the endings where Steed actually reaches her are so sweet that it just makes you love the Avengers all the more.
The episode features Emma Peel, primarily, who goes to see her inherited house that she got when her uncle died. The house has another agenda, however. This is a very psychological episode with some freaky moments like with the neverending room of DOOOMMM! The house itself has such a personality that it ranks up there with one of the most original masterminds in the series. Diana Rigg really acts up a storm here and its cool to see here gradual progression into desperation. This is good because there is virtually no other actors that I care about in this episode (except Steed of couse, but he gets a small amount of screen time).
There are problems with this episode. It tends to drag a little and once Mrs. Peel seems to know what she is doing, the episode gets a little less interesting (though there are lots of surprises later). But its so well directed and features so many cool moments (spikes coming out of the ground to break the tires of Steeds jalopy). If they didn't make a better version of this same episode later ("The Joker") then it would be higher on my list, but as it stands, its one of my personal favorites.
2 comments:
I think this episode was one they used extensively when they did the remake of the Avengers for the movies version. Of course the movie version sucks because Uma Thurman is simply not in the same category as Dianna Rigg. And, well, there's simply not another John Steed except Patrick McNee. Period.
Bad casting, bad plotting, and the fact that the makers of the movie had not seen the actual televsion show, brought the film down a lot. Patrick McNee has gone on record saying that he was happy that the movie was a travesty.
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