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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