Clemens best/worst screenplay

[Frankymole]

A Brief For Murder is a superb script, easily one of his best for the show.

Dressed to Kill is a perfectly constructed plot for videotape production.

Very true. I often forget to mention Dressed to Kill but it's chock-full of shadowy claustrophobia (the abandoned Victorian train station), a great collection of characters thrown together in adversity, and a compelling mystery. And I've always loved adventures on trains when done well - mainly as they embody the "characters trapped and under siege" with all its murder-mystery frissons.

I watch it every New Year which always reminds me how great it is. There's top humour too - Leonard Rossiter's bolshy businessman, the lovely fancy-dress costumes, Cathy teasing steed about "cat woman", not to mention the glamour of Honor Blackman and Anneke Wills in the same episode. Touches like the speak-your-weight machine and its apt "you have a stressful day ahead" to someone being chucked about in the fight... ah, great stuff. Probably a great introduction for anyone new to the Gale era.

[mousemeat]

His best episode is undoubtedly Death at Bargain Prices, for me. Whether or not it's the cleverest script, it allowed Steed and Emma (or Patrick and Diana) to have as wonderfully warm and witty a relationship as they ever did, for the director and personnel to construct a fabulously menacing, quirky, and atmospheric episode, and space for the music to shine and the suspense to build. Therefore a perfect screenplay.

The worst was Trap - the total antithesis of the above, and a ludicrous hour of television. Not even "so bad it's good", much of it was downright offensive.

I would concur DEATH was certainly his best..and one of the best episodes ever done..it hit on all creative cylinders...as for the worst ? I'm still pondering my choice.

[Charlie Parker]

His best was Don't Look Behind You and his worst... Trap is pretty dire but I don't think you can escape the abomination that is A Touch of Brimstone. Why this episode is so popular.... ok I know why! But it is a dreadful script the saving grace is that it is made so well.

[Lhbizness]

Once more, I don't understand the hatred for A Touch of Brimstone. Granted that it is not a subtle script at all, and it usually gets subsumed under the excitement over Diana Rigg in a corset, but it has some excellent scenes (Steed outwitting the baddies), a great villain, and some good repartee. In fact, in terms of masculine representations and the difference between the "good man" and the "bad men," it's quite an effective and interesting episode.

[mousemeat]

Once more, I don't understand the hatred for A Touch of Brimstone. Granted that it is not a subtle script at all, and it usually gets subsumed under the excitement over Diana Rigg in a corset, but it has some excellent scenes (Steed outwitting the baddies), a great villain, and some good repartee. In fact, in terms of masculine representations and the difference between the "good man" and the "bad men," it's quite an effective and interesting episode.

always like this episode...and actually focused on the interaction of steed and emma...while dealing with Peter W....but some people focus on Peel's queen of sin get up....

[Frankymole]

A lot of people don't like the "do with her what you will" implied incitement to rape. It doesn't seem light-drama "Avengerish" somehow.

[Lhbizness]

A lot of people don't like the "do with her what you will" implied incitement to rape. It doesn't seem light-drama "Avengerish" somehow.

Well, it's very icky no doubt (although what they do apparently is go and watch a wrestling match), but it does come from a villain who is accustomed to using women as "vessels of pleasure." What's more, it takes the whole scene to another level: it has stopped being "boys having fun" and has become something very serious - a logical progression of that kind of mentality and a pretty solid damning of the whole culture that permits it.

I'm more bothered by the implications in Return of the Cybernauts, quite honestly.

[Frankymole]

Yes, good point re: the immobilisation stuff with Peter Cushing. Both examples (in Return... and Brimstone) can take viewers out of the "fantasy" of the Avengers of those eras and consequently those episodes have more than their fair share of detractors. A bit like the sadistic "Take-Over". Maybe that's also why some people just can't take Season 1 and TNA either - they're not "Avengerish" to them.

[Lhbizness]

Yes, good point re: the immobilisation stuff with Peter Cushing. Both examples (in Return... and Brimstone) can take viewers out of the "fantasy" of the Avengers of those eras and consequently those episodes have more than their fair share of detractors. A bit like the sadistic "Take-Over". Maybe that's also why some people just can't take Season 1 and TNA either - they're not "Avengerish" to them.

It's one of those moments when the show moves into a slightly more serious arena, which I quite like (as long as it didn't become a rule). Take-Over I think is one of the better Tara episodes for just that reason. It stops being overly silly and actually deals with some of the implications.

[darren]

I love the show for the diversity of styles in the different eras, always something different to suit my mood.

The end of Emma's era moving into Tara's is fascinating for its tone. I've talked a bit about it in one of my chapters for the season 6 book. You can see a darker edge coming along in the late Peel episodes and regardless of the production hassles, you can see the more serious tone in aspects of John Bryce's aborted episodes. Philip Levene started season 6 as script consultant but allegedly left due to disagreements with Clemens. Once Levene has gone the show becomes more frivolous again and it's only towards the end that the darker episodes like Requiem and Take Over start appearing. I do think that Levene was on the right track before leaving the show. Clemens seems to have seen it eventually. But I do like the variety in season 6.