The Avengers Forever: Website News Archive

	Website News Archive January 2001

Illuminated Reviews. 28 January. Not only is Jonathan Woods a fine wordsmith, but he's also a talented illustrator. That he is a fan of The Avengers creates a killer combination—for proof, check out his illustrated review of "Honey for the Prince."

So, what does a script look like, anyway? 26 January. Courtesy of Dave Matthews (Authorized Guide to The New Avengers), the cover and first page of the actual shooting script for "Death's Door" are now online for you to see.

Can't Decide. 23 January. One minute the Movie Commemoration Special is there... the next it's gone. On a happier note, Ian Beazley, a.k.a. The Collector, has launched a new website that presents images of rare Avengers collectibles. And site regular Stephen La Riviere has "guested" for Pete Stampede and provided bios of Nicholas Courtney, Roger Delgado, David Graham, Philip Madoc and John Tate, as well as an expanded bio of Anneke Wills.

New Images All Over The Place. 22 January. The Avengers Image Archive has enjoyed a major overhaul—do stop by and have a gander! Closer to home, there are new DVD images for "The See-Through Man," "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" and "The Winged Avenger." And it's not just new screen grabs for the review pages... with each episode comes a slew of images for pages such as the actor profiles and the Doppelganger Gallery, where you'll notice that, one by one, all those little faces are being replaced.

Lots o' Readin' Material. 20 January. I am pleased to present several superb new Visitor Reviews for your enjoyment, virtually all of which are for episodes that have not yet been reviewed by others. As a bonus, there is an essay on Patrick Macnee. (Be sure to scroll down to find it all.) Coincidentally, there is a touching story by a Scottish poet on his meeting Patrick Macnee, which, along with an original poem about John Steed, make a grand new Fan Tales entry. Other stuff: Enjoy Steed in period dress. And the following review pages have new DVD images: "From Venus With Love," "The Fear Merchants" (which features some new Trivia as well), "Escape in Time," "The Living Dead" and "You Have Just Been Murdered."

New Links. 19 January. Here's an interesting stop along the Information Highway that, curiously, does not seem to have a "front door." Also Television Heaven has a place reserved therein for The Avengers. In other news, my remark that Emma only ever appears in a leather catsuit on color film in "The Strange Case of the Missing Corpse" was challenged by a reference to her outfit in "You Have Just Been Murdered." However, assuming Piers Johnson is correct, the latter is PVC, so my assertion still stands.

In Color! 18 January. Enjoy "The Strange Case of the Missing Corpse" in all of its colorful glory.

New French Video Sets. 16 January. There are many new French tapes and DVDs available. And with the introduction of the French SECAM VHS tapes—and the format confusion they will probably create—I've added a page of video format information.

Full-Length Steed. 14 January. After having completed the DVD-izing of the Season Four images, I was finally able to create something for the hard-core Steedophiles. Enjoy!

Keep Trying. 12 January. The Avengers Illustrated is not offline! Crosswinds, the host for the website, is making some extensive hardware upgrades which can interfere with access to the URL. Mike Noon assures me that his site is very much alive and well and will be there when the dust settles. In other news, I have learned that this site can be helpful in getting a job! See this astounding letter.

Video Glitch. 10 January. Seems A&E is having some video quality control problems. Apparently one of the VHS tapes in their "Best Of" video set is defective. They are shipping replacements to customers reporting the problem, and also shipping new copies to stores. The DVDs, however, are unaffected.

How a Fantasy Flowered. 9 January. Read all about it. Also... I have been reminded by visitor Ken Dickson that "Look - (stop me..." originally bore the "shooting gallery" title sequence, whereas on the new DVD it features the "suits of armor" titles. Recall that the credits were changed by the UK prior to airing... this suggests that the new videos were made from the modified version. Pure trivia, to be sure, but it does raise the possibility of a new version of the "Where's the chessboard intro?" outcry on the horizon—"Where's the shooting gallery titles?"

New site! 8 January. I am pleased to announce that Mike Noon and Alan & Alys Hayes have once again teamed up to produce another fabulous, unique resource: The Avengers Illustrated, a cracker of a new website devoted to The Avengers in the world of comics! Once again, the online Avengers universe has been enriched. Please stop by and express your encouragement! Also... it would have been nice if A&E's new "Best Of" video set arrived yesterday to aid in the birthday festivities, but better late than never. Courtesy of the new DVDs, I was able to put some dazzling new screen grabs on the "All Done with Mirrors" and "Look - (stop me..." pages, with more on the way.

Happy Birthday, Avengers!

The Avengers turns 40 today! 7 January. Hard to believe that a television show could enjoy such a strong following for so long, but this perhaps stands as proof of its ineffable, timeless qualities. To celebrate, here is a baker's dozen of excellent new visitor reviews, five of which are from first-time contributors. There is also an important and, sadly, discouraging update from Argentina.

Defenders of The Avengers Forever answer. 6 January. "M. Le Gall's taking credit for your work (a lot of very, very hard, diligent effort on your part) is downright low down! I also agree that another Avengers website is heartily welcome—the more the merrier—but not [by means of] theft or misrepresentation. As someone who works in a university library, I frequently get to see this attitude of, 'Well, if it's out there where I can get it, why shouldn't I get it and then say it's mine?' We live in a world where rights are demanded but where responsibilities are ignored. Quite sad. And... it seems to be a global trait, not just us greedy, capitalistic 'Merkuns.' As for M. Kasovitch's contention that your site is poorly designed with confusing navigation, I can state unequivocally as someone who has to explain the Internet to students and the general public all day long that your site is by far the easiest to understand and navigate with a minimum of explanations." — Susan Minobe

French fan speaks out against The Avengers Forever. 4 January. Received from Mr. Matthieu Kasovitch: "I think your site is complete. But the design is bad and the navigation is not implicit. I prefer http://theavengers.free.fr/ So let him to come back because is beautiful and is a nice translation of your web site IN FRENCH. — A FRENCH FAN." I informed the fan that Mr. Le Gall could certainly create a new site, as long as is not based on mine.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the "real" millennium. 1 January. As if it really even matters when the new millennium begins. Much ado about nothing, as far as I'm concerned. The purists say there was no "year 0." But if history was a person, how would we measure their age? We're not 1 year old when we're born, right? Well, enough silly philosophy. Turning to things Avengers, you can now order the new "Kinky Boots Collection" videos from Contender.