Episode 29: Cathy Gale Era
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A.K.A.
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Other Viewpoints |
La trahison
La Traición
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Production completed: 9 June 1962
UK Premiere (London, Season 2): 24 November 1962
US Premiere (A&E cable): ca. 6 February 1991
Every time a meeting is set up to
negotiate a settlement to some Middle East crisis, a mission-critical person is
killed. Steed is convinced that there is an informer, a view that his superior, One-Twelve,
does not share. To flush out the informant, Steed poses as the delegate he is to deliver
to the next meeting.
IMHO |
The first Cathy Gale episode I ever saw proved to be a strange and disappointing experience. As Patrick Macnee was the only actor to receive opening title credit, I sat waiting expectantly for Cathy Gale to appear (when Honor Blackman hadn't even been cast yet). Worse, the uninspired yarn, consisting almost entirely of talking heads, was made even more soporific by dreary performances.
Still, I figured things could only get better. In the meantime, it took me a while to get used to the significant stylistic differences between the Cathy Gale and Emma Peel eras. Steed is familiar yet unfamiliar, and it is quite disconcerting seeing him behaving less than gentlemanly, regularly carrying and using a gun, driving a modern automobile, and behaving, to be blunt, like a sexist pig.
The "as live" videotaped production is laced with bloopers, usually consisting of such things as fluffed lines and microphone booms caught in the frame. This episode also has an unusually large number of filmed inserts (most episodes have none at all) which tend to be crude and awkwardly edited into the video. To make matters worse, the audio track is badly muffled, leaving the dialog—most of which is uttered in low tones to begin with—nearly unintelligible at times. Thankfully this episode is probably the worst of the lot from the technical standpoint.
Trivia |
Strictly speaking, this is not a "Cathy Gale" episode, even though it was broadcast as part of the UK's second season. After Ian Hendry left, Jon Rollason was brought in as a replacement for three leftover Keel scripts, before Honor Blackman was signed on.
Gillian Muir, who played Judy, was the daughter of Douglas Muir, who appeared five times as One-Ten.
Arthur Hewlett appeared in the Police Surgeon episode, "Wilful Neglect," and Frank Gatliff appeared in "Man Overboard."
The studio paperwork for this episode identifies it as "Project 3502."
*This unofficial subtitle is by Yours Truly.
Essential Reading |
- The Avengers Declassified by Alan Hayes
- Mrs. Peel... We're Needed by Piers Johnson