The Avengers International Fan Forum

So thankful someone put in the time and effort to restore. Can't wait to watch!

You're in for such a treat, anti-clockwise. I was overwhelmed by Honor. The Avengers women are all so powerful and wonderful, but her relationship to Steed is ambiguous and intriguing and so damn sexy. He irritates the hell out of her, and she can't get enough of it.

Well, you'll see

Frankymole wrote:Although film made from videotapes from the early 60s will never look brilliant, the prints used have been restored quite well, they look a heck of a lot better than the 1990s versions. The sound's a lot clearer now too.

Agreed. The restoration has made a world of difference. I can actually see and hear what's going on, compared to the A&E releases where I had to crank up the volume and try to spot Steed and Cathy in the gloom.

I hope they eliminated the big fly that was briefly walking all over the screen in one of the Steed/Gale DVDs.

Dfrise wrote:I hope they eliminated the big fly that was briefly walking all over the screen in one of the Steed/Gale DVDs.

Funny you should mention. I saw my first Gale episode The White Elephant on my PC. All of a sudden there was huge nat on my screen. I got a kleenex out to kill it only to realise that it was a 50 year old bug.

Nope. The bug is still there, as it is burned in to the telerecording negative and removing it would probably cost more than the sets would ever make in profit.

It's just now a much clearer bug

I kind of like the bug. It's part of the fun of the "live" experience of the Gales. I like to imagine the cameraman silently cursing as he watches it crawl around, unable to do anything without further interfering with the scene.

The bug is most likely a telerecording artefact, because when the videotaped show is recorded on to film for preservation (sometimes weeks after the episode was made) there is an air gap between the projection screen and the film camera. The insect must've flown in when someone had the door open in the telerecording room!

However, it is indeed a definite possibility that this episode (and others) were recorded directly to film - with a film camera pointing at the main studio output on a "live" projection screen, and edited down (on film) later. This was sometimes done on Dr Who, though it is rare. It enables episodes with lots of action (and breaks needed on the studio floor) to be amde without cutting up valuable master videotape, which costs many times as much as film, ironically (even if studio VT productions were overall cheaper than films to make due to other overheads).

The only way to tell is if the original film negative survives and has lots of physical edits.

The ultimate horror might be when the VT engineer or film camera operator went off for a cigarette or had a chat during the recording and only later spotted the fly, when only the film negative survived. Poor them! Thank goodness they're uncredited. Still, the bug has a kind of immortality now. It's the Avengers equivalent to the Saint's giant ant.

That's interesting. I always assumed that the fly had crawled onto the camera lens during recording, and couldn't be shooed away without the cameraman waving his hand in front of the camera and ruining the shot. Clearly it's more complicated than that. Either way, I think the fly is a part of the episode now--it deserves a credit.

So do tell. Where is the Saints giant ant? What does the scene look like? That is very interesting.