The Avengers Forever: The GLG Reports

	The GLG Reports Page 32 of 67

Never, Never Say Die
By Grant L. Goggans

"No body? But there's always a body!" This is one of those delightful Avengers installments that I've watched ten or more times over the years and I've never gotten bored of it. While no means one of the strongest outings, it has a fun plot, great location filming (a wonderful contrast to the studio-bound hour that preceded it), a sense of parody (both of the series itself and of old school horror films), and a great guest cast led by Christopher Lee. It's hard to imagine any other actor playing Frank N. Stone (a name more suited to Sid & Marty Krofft than Fennell & Clemens, actually), and Lee does a perfect job sending himself up by playing both "the unstoppable menace with the eyes of steel" and "the suave host in a tuxedo" absolutely straight. The final fight, with Steed and Mrs. Peel in a losing battle against two replicas, is great fun to watch. Perhaps the only real complaint you could level against the episode is that it's truly superficial, and most of the actors are playing pretty one-dimensional characters. There's also an unusual lack of attention to continuity, as Steed's suit goes from brown to grey and back. Not too much deep thinking went into this episode, but everyone involved had a great time making it, apparently.