Does anyone else think Mrs Peel should have been killed off?

[QueenOfSin]

Against my better judgement I decided to watch The Forget Me Knot tonight to see if I could see it any differently after the comments on here. Uuurgh it's even worse than I remember. The main part of the show isn't bad apart from the insufferably annoying Tara, but the last five minutes are truly awful. They manage to trash and stamp out Steed and Emma's partnership/relationship in seconds. Him briskly phoning up for a new partner as if he's asking for a replacement coffee cup and her airily swanning off and driving away without a care, all the days, moments and events they've been through together seemingly forgotten. It's not a good ending at all and leaves a horrible bitter taste as you can't help but wonder where they just using each other? Did Steed just put up with her while waiting for another partner? Did Emma simply use Steed as a stopgap until her husband returned? "Nice knowing you Steed, it's been fun and all but my husband's back now so I don't need you any more - bye". That's exactly how it comes off. I maintain my view that she should have been killed off. It would have been a lot easier to swallow.

[Frankymole]

But did you at least enjoy the playful humour of her husband being Patrick Macnee?

It's all just a bit of fun, not a hyper-realistic gritty drama.

I guess Emma didn't feel happy continuing to risk her life now she knew she had someone to live for. With Steed, they'd shared the danger. But as a seeming widow, Emma knew what it felt like to lose a spouse. She didn't want Peter Peel, the love of her life, to go through that. They'd already been separated long enough.

A lot of people had a cheesy grin, a lot of people would miss her, sure (especially in the days before instant video replay of all our favourite episodes), but I think the bitter aftertaste is a minority view - in fact you're the only person I've ever heard mention it.

As the saying goes "don't be sad that it is over. Be glad that it happened." All good things come to an end, as Steed well knows after Cathy Gale left him.

I do wonder what Emma meant by "I'm not Mrs Peel anymore" in The New Avengers, though. Maybe she was just reminding him that when they last met, he called her "Emma" for the first time... so she is no longer "Mrs Peel" to him... That's as close as they get to adultery

[QueenOfSin]

No I didn't like that either. Making him look like Steed if anything makes it even worse. Not only was Emma apparently only bothered about Steed while her husband was missing, her attraction to him was because he happened to be a doppelganger . They really went all out to stamp on the pairing didn't they? Why - to downplay Mrs Peel's importance and presence in the show so the fans would forget about her and not desert it?

Everything that had been built up over the last two series, all the little scenes, the knowing looks, the comments were dismissed in an instant with all the subtlety of a burst balloon and both characters end up not looking good at all. Steed and Emma obviously loved each other and it's hinted at fairly clearly that they had a physical relationship.

So bearing that in mind you now have a Steed who sees Mrs Peel as no more that a bit of fun, easily replaceable with the first bimbo who appears and an Emma who is happy to run back to her lost husband whom she 'loves' despite having been sleeping with Steed for months. Neither sound like the characters that have been on screen for the past two series and it's made even worse as it implies they didn't mean much to each other after all, which up to this point was blatantly not the case. I don't think I've ever seen a show where the characters are so hurriedly and completely trashed for the ending . Anyway I'm off to watch Return of the Cybernauts to cheer myself up.

[Frankymole]

No I didn't like that either. Making him look like Steed if anything makes it even worse. Not only was Emma apparently only bothered about Steed while her husband was missing, her attraction to him was because he happened to be a doppelganger .

I think you might be overthinking it just a bit

Of all the Avengers seasons, the colour Emma Peel one is the merest confection, large amounts of silliness and playfulness and no real sense of threat or the real world (and real emotions) impinging on the whimsy.

Having Peter Peel be the spitting image of Steed is just meant to be a joke.

Did you see how fast the Cathy Gale breakup went, at the end of series 3? It's not unprecedented. And that was a more serious tone of series.

And Steed has very strict requirements and high standards. Tara King is certainly not a bimbo!

However, if you didn't enjoy it, that's fair enough. The Forget-Me-Knot was an afterthought anyway, made long after Diana Rigg had left, during production of the final season and after several changes of producers behind-the-scenes (and resultant turmoil), and taking advantage of her still having contractual commitments to produce at least one more episode. It can be ignored if you like. View it as a sort of bad fan fiction

[QueenOfSin]

If it was meant to be a joke then I'm afraid I don't get it. What was the point of it? Why the need to be Steed rather than any other man? The only reason I can think of is the Steed left in the flat is an imitation one and the one in the car with Emma is the real one. A bit like the two Dr Who's, one the real deal and one not so that both characters had an ending to keep everyone happy.

I've never seen series 3 so wouldn't know how Cathy Gale left.

Actually I think that's not a bad idea about The Forget Me know as apart from the awful ending I really didn't like the episode. It's not the same, it lost something (and I don't mean Mrs Peel) between series 5 and 6 and from what I saw in the episode I dislike the way it was going. Tara King got on my nerves within a millisecond of appearing on screen. And that 'Mother' was no better, sorry but I find it preposterous that the whole of Britain's security is in the hands of a fat guy in a wheelchair. What happened to Steed's unseen mysterious Ministry? Major B in Who's Who was far more believable and actually looked like the top man in a secret organisation. I think your idea of ignoring it and seeing it as bad fanfiction is a very good idea .

[dissolute]

It's one of those polarising episodes, some love it, some don't.

When Cathy left at the end of series 3 she is tired of help Steed after just barely escaping with her life after being trapped in a burning building.
Steed tries to get her to join him for a mission in the Bahamas but she firmly tells him it's good-bye.

Then there's a joke about Goldfinger and he rings another woman to convince her to join him.

[Frankymole]

If it was meant to be a joke then I'm afraid I don't get it. What was the point of it? Why the need to be Steed rather than any other man?

The joke's implication is that the only man who would ever be good enough for Emma now is Steed, so her husband "just happens" to be identical to him. I guess humour is subjective. Some people get the joke, some don't, it's no biggie. The important thing is that the intention was light-hearted.

It's the same as when Rose goes off with the cloned Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who. No-one else is good enough for her.

Of course in real life it was the breakup of a years-long great working relationship between two huge friends, and Patrick went back to his dressing room and cried. Steed is made of sterner stuff!

Mother was probably meant to be a one-off bit of fun, yet another crazy Avengers eccentric guest character. For better or worse, the American backers loved Mother and wanted him back as a regular. It's strange because despite all their demands, they cancelled the series anyway.

[Allard]

Mrs Peel leaving was a unique moment in the colour era as it was a crack of reality in that fairytale version of the England that never was. No female deaths, no drugs related stories, everything stylish and no dwelling on the almost disaster averted by our heroes. Life goes on and people go in and out of our lives and the fairytale moment doesn't last.

[QueenOfSin]

I was a big fan of the tenth Doctor and Rose episodes and got the ending they had. Maybe because the doctor was a clone I didn't mind it, I thought it a good way to get an ending that suited everyone and keep the pair of them "together permanently". Peter Peel isn't a clone of Steed though (actually I'd have preferred that, if Emma had left with a cloned Steed a la the doctor) he's just a man who looks like him so the joke falls flat, at least to me it does. The man is not Steed, not a clone or a copy, switch or a 'second Steed' so Emma doesn't get the happy ending like Rose does. Rose has a half version of the actual doctor. Emma has a lookalike but not the actual thing even in half form.

[Frankymole]

I remember a big backlash amongst fans in 2006, saying that Rose would not have settled for an economy pack imitation of the Doctor, a "new born" biological human rather than the exotic Time Lord she'd fallen in love with. They don't even share the same history together. So it's horses for courses, I guess. You can't please everyone

At least Emma was back with the man she'd pledged to spend her entire life with, "til death do us part". That's right and proper in many ways. She's the faithful kind