Avengerland

[Rodney]

With your wonderful help I've made a stab at defining Avengerland, as follows:

I need to define the term ‘Avengerland’. Anthony McKay’s informative Guide to Avengerland explores it in purely geographical terms but this is not what interests me here. To me it is any physical space in the series – be it on location or a studio-based set – which has one foot in the real world but one elsewhere. On the surface it might appear, from the outset, to offer a normal 1960s backdrop: a train station, churchyard, City bar or country pub. However, these public spaces have been emptied of normality and the mundane: an abandoned airbase, a deserted country lane or pedestrian-free London mews. We have entered a parallel universe; a timeless, two dimensional never-never land.
Sometimes Avengerland even promises a romanticised, green-and-pleasant land: an idyllic village, Scottish castle, punting on a lake or the excitement of a treasure or fox hunt. This sense of an Arcady is never allowed to establish itself, however. It is immediately cut through by unexpected or surreal acts of violence. The emptiness, or lack of ordinary people, simply adds to the sense of surrealism, providing an unsettling atmosphere. Avengerland becomes more a state of mind than a geographical location.
Contrary to popular belief, Avengerland is explored – if not firmly established – in the taped seasons, through locations such as a circus, joke shop or Cornish churchyard populated with London corpses. As the series moved on to film, these unusual locations became the norm; the fantasy elements were taken to greater extremes. This heightened sense of Avengerland – possibly the brainchild of Brian Clemens – is carefully contrived and controlled by the writers and production team, ensuring that The Avengers offers us a wonderfully disconcerting, alternative Britain full of eerie locations peopled only by extraordinary characters. The mundane and the ordinary have been excluded and anything seems possible in this bizarre new land/cityscape.

Please feel free to comment.

[kim]

With your wonderful help I've made a stab at defining Avengerland, as follows:

I need to define the term ‘Avengerland’. Anthony McKay’s informative Guide to Avengerland explores it in purely geographical terms but this is not what interests me here. To me it is any physical space in the series – be it on location or a studio-based set – which has one foot in the real world but one elsewhere. On the surface it might appear, from the outset, to offer a normal 1960s backdrop: a train station, churchyard, City bar or country pub. However, these public spaces have been emptied of normality and the mundane: an abandoned airbase, a deserted country lane or pedestrian-free London mews. We have entered a parallel universe; a timeless, two dimensional never-never land.
Sometimes Avengerland even promises a romanticised, green-and-pleasant land: an idyllic village, Scottish castle, punting on a lake or the excitement of a treasure or fox hunt. This sense of an Arcady is never allowed to establish itself, however. It is immediately cut through by unexpected or surreal acts of violence. The emptiness, or lack of ordinary people, simply adds to the sense of surrealism, providing an unsettling atmosphere. Avengerland becomes more a state of mind than a geographical location.
Contrary to popular belief, Avengerland is hinted at – if not firmly established – in the taped seasons, through locations such as a circus, joke shop or Cornish churchyard populated with London corpses. As the series moved on to film, these unusual locations became the norm; the fantasy elements were taken to greater extremes. This heightened sense of Avengerland – possibly the brainchild of Brian Clemens – is carefully contrived and controlled by the writers and production team, ensuring that The Avengers offers us a wonderfully disconcerting, alternative Britain full of eerie locations peopled only by extraordinary characters. The mundane and the ordinary have been excluded and anything seems possible in this bizarre new land/cityscape.

Please feel free to comment.

Excellent!

[Frankymole]

Yes, I agree that the unusual locations: circuses, joke shops etc. are there in the video taped era, too, though to a lesser degree.

...and trains, "Dressed to Kill" is a wonderful episode and seems to cover quite a distance!

The observatory in "White Dwarf" is in Cornwall I think - and the islands of St Dorca and wherever "The Superlative Seven" takes place are even further outside the strictly geographical "Avengerland"...

Actually, wasn't there an old thread that had a world map of where The Avengers had been?

I think Rodney has nailed its "myth space".

[Allard]

Reading what you wrote Rodney makes me realise, that many Avengers episodes take an idyllic setting for diabolical going ons. This does provide that eerie and sinister feel the best Avengers episodes have. This fits perfectly with the somewhat upper class people we see, both the scenery and the people are perfect on the outside, idyllic, scenic and courteous and sophisticated. Although I do think this changed somewhat during the late Peels and the Tara King episodes, it be became more Swinging London and modern (culture).

[helenofirvine]

With your wonderful help I've made a stab at defining Avengerland, as follows:

I need to define the term ‘Avengerland’. Anthony McKay’s informative Guide to Avengerland explores it in purely geographical terms but this is not what interests me here. To me it is any physical space in the series – be it on location or a studio-based set – which has one foot in the real world but one elsewhere. On the surface it might appear, from the outset, to offer a normal 1960s backdrop: a train station, churchyard, City bar or country pub. However, these public spaces have been emptied of normality and the mundane: an abandoned airbase, a deserted country lane or pedestrian-free London mews. We have entered a parallel universe; a timeless, two dimensional never-never land.
Sometimes Avengerland even promises a romanticised, green-and-pleasant land: an idyllic village, Scottish castle, punting on a lake or the excitement of a treasure or fox hunt. This sense of an Arcady is never allowed to establish itself, however. It is immediately cut through by unexpected or surreal acts of violence. The emptiness, or lack of ordinary people, simply adds to the sense of surrealism, providing an unsettling atmosphere. Avengerland becomes more a state of mind than a geographical location.
Contrary to popular belief, Avengerland is explored – if not firmly established – in the taped seasons, through locations such as a circus, joke shop or Cornish churchyard populated with London corpses. As the series moved on to film, these unusual locations became the norm; the fantasy elements were taken to greater extremes. This heightened sense of Avengerland – possibly the brainchild of Brian Clemens – is carefully contrived and controlled by the writers and production team, ensuring that The Avengers offers us a wonderfully disconcerting, alternative Britain full of eerie locations peopled only by extraordinary characters. The mundane and the ordinary have been excluded and anything seems possible in this bizarre new land/cityscape.


Please feel free to comment.

Now, all I need is to find a way to move there!

[mousemeat]

With your wonderful help I've made a stab at defining Avengerland, as follows:

I need to define the term ‘Avengerland’. Anthony McKay’s informative Guide to Avengerland explores it in purely geographical terms but this is not what interests me here. To me it is any physical space in the series – be it on location or a studio-based set – which has one foot in the real world but one elsewhere. On the surface it might appear, from the outset, to offer a normal 1960s backdrop: a train station, churchyard, City bar or country pub. However, these public spaces have been emptied of normality and the mundane: an abandoned airbase, a deserted country lane or pedestrian-free London mews. We have entered a parallel universe; a timeless, two dimensional never-never land.
Sometimes Avengerland even promises a romanticised, green-and-pleasant land: an idyllic village, Scottish castle, punting on a lake or the excitement of a treasure or fox hunt. This sense of an Arcady is never allowed to establish itself, however. It is immediately cut through by unexpected or surreal acts of violence. The emptiness, or lack of ordinary people, simply adds to the sense of surrealism, providing an unsettling atmosphere. Avengerland becomes more a state of mind than a geographical location.
Contrary to popular belief, Avengerland is hinted at – if not firmly established – in the taped seasons, through locations such as a circus, joke shop or Cornish churchyard populated with London corpses. As the series moved on to film, these unusual locations became the norm; the fantasy elements were taken to greater extremes. This heightened sense of Avengerland – possibly the brainchild of Brian Clemens – is carefully contrived and controlled by the writers and production team, ensuring that The Avengers offers us a wonderfully disconcerting, alternative Britain full of eerie locations peopled only by extraordinary characters. The mundane and the ordinary have been excluded and anything seems possible in this bizarre new land/cityscape.

Please feel free to comment.

Excellent!

ditto ! one of the best things about forums such as this one, is the amount of info shared, etc...It was and always will be a special show..

[happychap]

Rodney's Avengerland rings true to me.

Also, and I don't know if this will be dealt with by Rodney's book but one thing I really loved from the start (thinking S4 here) is how there is never a set up for Steed/Emma. No organizational entity is mentioned. Odd things are afoot and Steed/Emma simply show up, almost clairvoyantly. This was watered down somewhat in S5 with "Mrs. Peel We're Needed". But it seems related to the Avengerland concept.

[mousemeat]

Reading what you wrote Rodney makes me realise, that many Avengers episodes take an idyllic setting for diabolical going ons. This does provide that eerie and sinister feel the best Avengers episodes have. This fits perfectly with the somewhat upper class people we see, both the scenery and the people are perfect on the outside, idyllic, scenic and courteous and sophisticated. Although I do think this changed somewhat during the late Peels and the Tara King episodes, it be became more Swinging London and modern (culture).

I guess the latest episodes, merely reflect the culture and era

and should be conisered as such...big dif between early to mid 60's,
to the end of the decade..i.e. circa 1968-1970..

[Rodney]

I think you're spot-on, HappyChap, and the unexplained arrival of our heroes each week is a key component of Avengerland in my opinion.

[Borgus Weems]

Thoughts about Avengerland...

Underpopulated? Maybe it's just that we can't see the ordinary - that Avergerland focuses our attention on the uncanny, the eccentric, the novel. Those things still exist, but they have a half-life in Avengerland, kind of how we occasionally have something spectacular happen in our mundane lives, but not usually... I suspect that Steed may have an ordinary moment or two, but they pass quickly.

Diabolical plots in the Avengers begin days, weeks and months before the Avengers show up... usually almost to the point of completion on the part of the villains.

Almost every character.... no, make that EVERY character is highly idiosyncratic... individual... eccentric... different. They are often types, but many times their quirks play against type, or strengthen the type outrageously but taking every attribute to the 11th degree.

An Avengers episode means:

- there is something going off, an evil plot afoot
- Our Heroes, the Avengers, get involved one way or another
- the villainy is met head on, and is always shown to be weaker than witty and fun heroes who really don't show fear (though Mrs. Peel comes close in The House That Jack Built) and they come out on top in the end.
- it is not a straight action-adventure, or a parody, or a comedy, or a mystery, but it uses all of them in a blender and uses each story element in a mix that is unlike other shows, AND it never falls into being "just" an action-adventure, a parody, a comedy, or a mystery.