Episode 7: The New Avengers |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
"It's the one percent that kills you!" Agents in Steed's department are suddenly dropping like flies, apparently of natural causes. The only common factor is that they had all gone on leave after taking target practice on a special shooting range—a range which Steed had the distinction of being the only agent to complete at 100%. Determined to match Steed's record, Purdey runs the course, but only achieves 99%. When Gambit plays an unintentionally deadly trick on a colleague, he learns that the shooting range has been compromised by the enemy and is poisoning agents—at which point he realizes that Purdey had been hit. Now Gambit must run the course at 100% to retrieve the antidote and save her life!
It gets off to a shaky start, with the premise established by a series of abbreviated, abstruse vignettes—a second viewing is helpful here. The guest cast is not especially memorable (Keith Barron looks as if he is sleepwalking). Then there's the closing scene, when our recovered heroes drive off—crashing through the shooting range gate... wait—why didn't they do that when they arrived to retrieve the antidote? Yet despite its abundant flaws, it remains a favorite, mostly for the manifest camaraderie of the threesome.
"German-born Frederick Jaeger started out in the leading role of Bradshaw in 'Target', this week's episode of The New Avengers, sat around for two weeks in pouring rain, and ended as little more than an extra! His contract limited him to two weeks' work, so when the rain came to ruin the schedule of location filming, he only had enough time left to play the minor role of a character called Jones. Roy Boyd took over the Bradshaw part. 'Circumstances beyond our control,' explained Avengers executive Brian Clemens. 'Sometimes you can't beat the English weather.' " From TV Times magazine, 20-26 November 1976 (with many thanks to Alan and Alys Hayes) Director Ray Austin was the stunt arranger for the Emma Peel era, and made a credited appearance in "The Gravediggers."
A delirious Steed stumbles into the shooting range and snitches a hat from one of his mechanical doubles before proceeding.
Professor Lopez offers Steed some of his (apparently vile) special brew, commenting, "That's the way I judge a man." Steed groans in response, "Intestinal fortitude."
|
TARGET |
|
Written by |
Dennis Spooner |
CAST |
|
John Steed |
Patrick Macnee 007 |
UNBILLED |
|
Nurse |
Suzanna Macmillan |
# DOPPELGANGERS |
|
Keith Barron |
|
Frederick Jaeger |
Death of a Great Dane |
John Paul |
All
materials copyrighted per their respective copyright holders. |