When did you discover The Avengers ?

[darren]

I was 6/7 and it was 1986 or 1987, I caught the show on Channel 4 and the episode was The Town of No Return. Even though I can't recall how many more episodes I watched, it left such an impression on me and I recalled whole sequences. I thought that my hairdresser looked a lot like Diana Rigg at the time. My next memory was to do with seeing a Tara King episode. It felt like an introductory episode but wasn't The Forget-Me-Knot. To this day I can't see which episode it was but it gave me a nightmare due to it's surreal quality. I registered that it was in colour so I could have seen any "color" Rigg episodes. It didn't bother me at all that there was a new woman as I liked her.

Then I saw nothing for ages until 1992 when we went on a family holiday to Florida. I was flicking through the many channels on TV and came across a fight scene accompanied by jazzy music. It was the end to Who was that Man I saw You With? I instantly knew it as The Avengers and managed to catch the whole episode the following lunchtime. From then on I saw Bizarre and then it jumped back to Town of No Return. I was thrilled that I remembered it so vividly.

In 1993 whilst browsing through a video store, I was surprised to find up to 13 volumes of The Avengers. It took me ages to decide which video to buy as there were so many tempting episodes. I went for volume 11 which had Noon Doomsday and Fog - two very different episodes but I loved them both.

I bought my first Cathy Gale video in 1995 I think and saw Mr. Teddy Bear and Bullseye, both proved very enjoyable - the videotape episode didn't surprise me as I was used to the old Doctor Who episodes.

I didn't get into the New Avengers after seeing The Eagles Nest and Last of the Cybernauts..? The 70's-ness of them put me off. It wasn't until bbc2 starting repeating them that I came to love them. The broadcast of Angels of Death in 1996 will be forever in my memory as the IRA bomb at Canary Wharf in London went off whilst it was on and it sounded like a car backfiring.

I really looked forward to the film in 1998 but seeing the trailer the day before the preview gave me a sinking feeling (even though the lack of publicity had been a major pointer to the quality). I came away from the film really miserable but it had a great effect as I put on some episodes that had previously never gone down well and they suddenly came alive.

[Timeless A-Peel]

I always feel like Steed's too weary of the game to be interested in chatting up Purdey. Even when she makes a few advances, he doesn't jump at them, just sort of smiles along. By that point, I think Steed wants friends and someone competent to take over when his luck finally runs out. Gambit and Purdey are peers and have possibly the sweetest and strangest relationship in Avengerland.

You certainly have Steed's character down pat (no pun inended). I've never thought of it before but I think you're right - Gambit was the linchpin of The New Avengers, as Steed was in the core show.

Exactly. Steed was the core of the original, but when Gambit's left out of TNA, the show suffers. A lot of the season 2 episodes that really push him into the background feel really lop-sided and off-balance, and the Steed/Purdey scenes especially feel really...bland. Purdey and Steed don't actually have a very good line in witty repartee, suprisingly. I don't know why, but the two characters never click that way. But the minute Gambit walks in, things start getting fun again. Take the early bits of Medium Rare, for example. When Victoria Stanton visits, we get a few catty quips from Purdey and baffled looks from Steed. But when Gambit shows up we get that great little aside when he mouths "Who was that?" at Purdey and she points at her head like "Not all there." Never fails to make me chuckle.

Ultimately, I think some of it might stem from the fact that both Steed and Purdey are sort of mad, and they need a saner character like Gambit (well, as sane as anyone who jumps on airplane wings is, anyway) to play against. Not only that, but he's got the implied role as the next Steed, and that means dialogue exchanges between the two of them that draw another side out of Steed. I don't know if anyone else thinks this way, but I've always viewed Steed as a slightly sad character. Think about it. He hangs about fighting diabolical masterminds year in and year out, and everyone ends up leaving him and carrying on with their lives. By the time Purdey and Gambit come along, it's pretty clear that by pairing them up he intends to be the one to leave this time, either voluntarily or in the line of duty. So Purdey and Gambit are the keepers of the flame so to speak, and that influences how he relates to them.

[Dandy Forsdyke]

You should write a theses on that, Timeless. Excellent summary.

[darren]

Some New Avengers episodes that I didn't previously rate have come alive as I noticed the exchanges between Purdey and Gambit. Episodes like Forward Base passed me by pretty much but I love the sequences like with them in the swan boats that are really endearing.

[Timeless A-Peel]

You should write a theses on that, Timeless. Excellent summary.

Sometimes I think about it, but I don't know when I'd find the time and discipline!

Some New Avengers episodes that I didn't previously rate have come alive as I noticed the exchanges between Purdey and Gambit. Episodes like Forward Base passed me by pretty much but I love the sequences like with them in the swan boats that are really endearing.

The quality of the Purdey and Gambit exchanges are pretty much the sole determinant of how much I like an episode (same goes for most eras of the original). Sometimes there's a really good plot on top of that, but that's always what I look for first. Really, if it weren't for their lighthearted squabbling, TNA would probably be too grim and depressing to watch. Steed's just not the character he was in the Emma era. It's realistic that he isn't, but that means less in the way of light relief from his end. Most of the funny bits come from Purdey and Gambit together, or even Gambit on his own. Think about darker episodes like Dead Men are Dangerous. It's his scenes with Gabrielle Drake and quip about the Bishop of Lichfield that provide the light relief. I'm not saying he was only good for the comic bits, because he's the most outwardly grim character of the bunch, too. A lot of his really early episodes he's actually quite brutal (see the scene in the funeral home in House of Cards just before he gets creative with the crematorium). Later on they use him for more comedy, but in the best episodes he's got both a light and a serious side.

But his exchanges with Purdey aren't always just funny. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but there are little bits here and there that hint more about the characters than they did in the original. Maybe it's because Purdey and Gambit don't talk so exclusively about the case. Watch Forward Base again (and I love that one for the exchanges as well), particularly the bits where Purdey and Gambit are sitting in the car messing with the head of the Russian agent. Purdey starts on about their argument from last Tuesday, and reiterates what they said. She says the topic was "fickleness of mind" and her argument was "men's minds are much more changeable and dynamic." Gambit apparently disagreed and said "No man would up and leave a woman. Not if he really cared about her." The punchline of course is that Purdey turns around to find that Gambit's left the car, but when you think about it that's quite the thing for "swinging bachelor" Gambit to say. Purdey's view is cynical. Gambit's says something about him and how he relates to Purdey, including just what "one of these days" is all about in his eyes. Little things like that give you food for thought about the pair of them. There's way more going under the surface than meets the eye. I think that's part of the reason I like the series so much.

Now I've really gone on. Prod me a little more, and I'll start in on my character assessment of Purdey.

[Philippa]

^Wow Timeless, you're good! Now I wanna watch TNA so badly! But sadly I haven't got any of the episodes with me at the moment

[Timeless A-Peel]

^Wow Timeless, you're good! Now I wanna watch TNA so badly! But sadly I haven't got any of the episodes with me at the moment

Thank you kindly! I have lots more floating around my brain, but I don't want to bore anyone. I just have fun trying to figure out the characters. That "thicker cardboard" really worked in my view. Had the show gone on, I think there was potential to go even farther with it. C'est dommage. That's what fanfic is for.

[kim]

*Prods Timeless*

[Artanis]

Yeah, excellent posts, Timeless! I haven't watch the TNA yet because I want to finish the Cathy episodes first, but after reading your posts I can't wait to see them.

[Timeless A-Peel]

*Prods Timeless*

You asked for it.

Purdey. Bottom line. Something's snapped. Or not snapped so much as twisted out of alignment. She's damaged. Now, this could be said about pretty much any of the characters. I mean, one's fiancee died in his arms, another's husband was murdered, a third's is currently missing presumed dead. Tara's probably the most well-adjusted of the bunch. But TNA took the unprecedented step of showing the heroine hit by someone other than the guy who gets pummeled in the last five minutes. I found this extremely shocking when I first watched Obsession. We don't often see our Avengers girls quite so frightened and confused. The closest that comes to mind is when Basil, in Steed's body, clouts Emma over the head with his brolly when she ducks the 2x4 in . Who's Who?. But I think it's worse for Purdey because she put a lot of stock in Larry. She was terribly young when her father died, and I think she was trying to fill a void by marrying young and living some sort of idealised dream life. Then it all goes down the drain, and shortly after she's fired from the ballet. By the time TNA rolls around, she's infinitely tougher, but it's come at a price. There's something slightly ambivalent about Purdey. I don't want to say she's suicidal, because she isn't. But she's about a couple notches below. She's reckless. I'm not saying Steed and Gambit are particularly staid, but neither of them sport mile-wide grins while being shot at the way she does driving around in that little car in Sleeper, or play distraction for a whole army like in Dirtier by the Dozen. Think about it. Her father was shot as a spy. So what does she decide to do? Yes! Become a spy! The logic is staggering!

I think she may be trying to understand what he did, or what was worth dying for. As time goes on, I think she also wants to prove that she can do it. Face it, the Ministry's pretty much all men. There's no sign of an "official" female agent since Tara. She figures she's toughened up enough that she's on a level playing field. And she is tougher, there's no question. Getting slapped by someone else, like Perov, doesn't make her crumble--she decks him back (which is pretty good continuity since Brian Clemens and co. chruned out those episodes more than a year apart). She's also clearly decided that she's not interested in home and hearth the way she was before, so she keeps all the male interest at arm's length. She can hold her own pretty well.

The problem is, she's not so good at the arm's length thing when it comes to Steed and Gambit. She cares about both of them, but she's already lost one person to the job. Everytime she thinks she's lost one of them, the veneer cracks. When Larry comes back, the veneer cracks big time. She's tough on the outside, but still terribly vulnerable on the inside. Because of this, she's afraid to get into another serious relationship. She's already been burned.

Really, though, I don't she's in love with Steed. She admires him, certainly, and there's a good bit of hero worship, but I think it's more the legend that has her so interested. As time goes on, that'll fade. I actually think she flirts with Steed because she knows it's "safe." He really doesn't seem as interested in chasing his partners anymore, and in Dead Men are dangerous he looks almost uncomfortable at her advances. I think she knows at some level that it's not going to happen, so there aren't any consequences.

Gambit, on the other hand, she can't be quite so forward with, because he's not interested in putting the brakes on. He's made his interest abundantly clear, and like I mentioned above, it seems to me that he wants more than a quick fling. But Purdey's last relationship didn't go so well. So they have this strange relationship where she has dinner with whoever she chooses, and gives him the evil eye whenever she hears that Gambit has a social life himself. The even weirder thing is Gambit looks guilty about it. She also drops little teasers here and there, but never enough to go over the line. But I think she's clearly interested, and near the end of the show she's back with Gambit more than Steed again. Her reaction when Gambit's "murdered" in Faces says it all, really, even implying some regrets about what she didn't do when he was alive (Steed, in contrast, gets laundry list of noble traits in the same situation in K is for Kill, but it always screams "good friend" more than anything to me). So there it sits--the ball's in Purdey's court and it takes something drastic for her to admit anything to herself. Whether or not she'll get it together before it's too late is anyone's guess.

Man, I went on forever. It's been a long day and I'm tired. But that was fun to write. I could probably do the same thing all over for Gambit. Why can't I ever write papers for things like this? Why is it always something like Arctic sovereignty?