Guest Essays
Page 13 of 14

The Avengers as Science Fiction
by Terri C

Several episodes from the Emma Peel era have plot lines that can clearly be described as science fiction, while many others have story elements that feature contemporary technology being used in prescient ways. Good science fiction, from the novels of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells to the multimedia worlds of Star Trek, has always been notable for its remarkable insight into the future. Although sometimes the result of pure luck or inspired genius, this future vision largely comes about because good science fiction is based upon solid scientific principles, logically applied and accurately portrayed. So, how good is the science in Avengers' science fiction? How well has it held up over the years and how has it proved to be predictive of the future? The answer, of course, ranges from very good indeed (The Cybernauts) to downright awful (The Positive Negative Man). I thought it would be interesting to look at some Avengers' science fiction and, with the benefit of thirty years' hindsight, sort out the good from the bad. I'd be very interested in others' comments (both pro and con), additions, or changes to this list!

THE GOOD

  • Integrated circuits (The Cybernauts) - the new circuit system developed by Tusamo which would allow for miniaturization of electronic devices was certainly right on the money
  • Pocket pagers (Dial a Deadly Number) - but did they predict kiosks at the mall selling them in a rainbow of colors?
  • Car phones (What the Butler Saw and others) - Mrs. Peel, Steed, just hang up and drive!
  • Answering machines (The Bird Who Knew Too Much and others) - unusual technology for the early 60s, but now ubiquitous
  • Virtual reality (Dead Man's Treasure) - Benstead's virtual racetrack can now be found in almost any video arcade
  • Laser weapons (From Venus With Love) - I seem to remember a U.S. president who wanted to base an entire missile defense system on this idea
  • Biological warfare (Small Game for Big Hunters) - not really a new concept for the 60s, but still the plan to release infected flies on a vulnerable population was scientifically plausible; hits home with anyone familiar with the West Nile Virus scare on the east coast of the U.S.
  • Environmentalism (Silent Dust) - again, not really a new concept for the 60s, as evidenced by the allusion to Silent Spring, but still, addressing the far-reaching consequences of the indiscriminate use of pesticide was ahead of its time; wash your hands before you eat that apple, Steed!
  • Sound waves to scare fish away (Castle De'ath) - the use of sound deterrent/attractant systems to manage the movement of fish is one of the hotter areas of research among marine biologists
  • Electrical jamming device (Build a Better Mousetrap—not an Emma episode, but worth mentioning anyway) - it is commonly known that the electromagnetic pulse generated by a nuclear explosion can short out electronic equipment; research is rumored to have developed portable electron lasers that can produce the same effect without the nuclear explosion
  • Automation (The House That Jack Built) - "smart" houses of today make Jack's house seem mentally challenged
  • Cloud seeding (A Surfeit of H2O)- all right, it hasn't turned out to be very popular because it really doesn't work very well, but the rain making idea was based upon solid scientific principles

THE BAD

  • Psionic attack (Too Many Christmas Trees) - a fantastic episode, but a weak premise; Uri Geller where are you?
  • Boots for walking on walls (The Winged Avenger) - these haven't shown up in people's closets, mostly because magnets in boots wouldn't help one to walk on a wooden ceiling; now if they had just made the walls out of Velcro...
  • Total mind transference (Who's Who???) - do I really need to explain this one?
  • A ridiculously high reading of 67.8% humidity (A Surfeit of H2O) - the writer obviously never spent a summer in Nebraska
  • Patches of vegetation have been observed on the moon (Man-Eater of Surrey Green) - even if the show didn't have a science advisor, someone should have known better than this!
  • Armies of Positive-Negative Men (The Positive Negative Man) - I would choose a small group of skilled archers, or even a few guys with a fire hose, over a host of P-N men; if the aluminum make-up was needed to disperse the electric charge over P-N man's body, why didn't his eyeballs explode?; if Steed couldn't put his hand in the path of the broadcast electricity in the laboratory, how could people walk between P-N man and his little blue van?; how could the broadcast power travel through the walls of a house without igniting them (as it did to papers in a safe)?; why didn't P-N man arc to metal objects?; why weren't Steed and Emma really inseparable?

THE POSSIBLE

  • Robot assassins (The Cybernauts, Return of the Cybernauts) - this was such a great idea that it was copied in Bladerunner, The Terminator, and Terminator 2, with very lucrative results
  • Man-eating plants from outer space (Man-Eater of Surrey Green) - why not?
  • Gaseous creatures living in the clouds of Venus (From Venus With Love) - again, why not?
  • Reduction/Enlargement of objects (Mission... Highly Improbable) - there is a great deal of scientific interest in creating materials with closely packed atomic or molecular lattices which would be relatively dense and reduced in size; although probably not possible on the scale shown in the episode, it might someday happen
  • Ultrasound used as a weapon (The Hour That Never Was) - this is common science fiction fodder; I don't know if it has ever worked, but I'm sure the military has looked into it
  • A better mousetrap (Build a Better Mousetrap) - Ermantrude's dream might someday yet become a reality; after all, my mother recently spent $$$ at the hardware store for little electronic gadgets to plug in around her house to keep field mice out!

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Page last modified: 5 May 2017.

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