Most dark/sinister series 4 or 5 episode?

[QueenOfSin]

Having just watched Murdersville it's got me wondering if this is the most dark/sinister episode of the series. Not only has it got the murders, threats and dunking, the episode itself has a creepy chilling feel and ominous presence. There's something deeply disturbing about watching someone's possessions being joyfully smashed up, the inhabitants of a village surround someone like preying hyenas and people not reacting in the slightest to someone being shot in front of them, as it's not how normal people behave. It's disturbing and unnerving to see them act this way as it's so completely unnatural. They seem almost unreal somehow as nobody could see someone killed in front of them and not react at all no matter how much money they were given. There's a real nasty feel to it, these people are ruthless, capable of anything, you can sense it and for once I really did think Mrs Peel was in serious trouble. Watching her run around in panic like a frightened rabbit is rather distressing, even if she did act stupidly by not staying under cover of the trees or even running to her car and getting the hell out of there when she had the chance.

[Frankymole]

I agree Murdersville has that disturbing edge, and I also find Take-Over from the final season pretty evil and "un-Avengerish". However I enjoy the performances more in Take-Over, and think it is more confident in its violent, threatening "atmosphere" without trying to have one foot in the twee Avengerland almost-pastoral setting. It's unrelentlingly grim but knows what it is doing.

Strangely, Small Game For Big Hunters is another with a tangibly harsh undertone, at least for me.

Too Many Christmas Trees is a lot more stark and bleak than its reputation suggests. Certainly very sinister, especially the manipulation of Steed's psyche, and some of the imagery of death, decomposition and sickness. For those of us of a pagan persuasion it perfectly encapsulates the darkest time of year when nature is at her most subdued.

[dissolute]

There are some that spring to mind, all for different reasons, interestingly enough - I suppose that shows the depth of the writers' ability.
I won't cover those you have both already mentioned, you're descriptions are spot on, but there's these as well:

• Death at Bargain Prices has Kane planning to blow up London with a nuclear bomb, but it's more goofy than dark in the way it plays out.
• The Hour That Never Was has a delightfully spooky ghost town atmosphere as they try to work out what's happened at the air base.
• The House That Jack Built is the classic dark and scary mansion horror film... and draws heavily on Don't Look Behind You.
• Epic has that feeling of impending doom for Emma, but you know she will escape - with lovely recreations of silent film backdrops and sets to add to the atmosphere as well.
• The Joker is the classic dark and scary mansion horror film... and the second version of Don't Look Behind You, sometimes word for word.
• Return of the Cybernauts is more ominous than the original, with Robert Day's direction delivering a note of unease throughout.

[Frankymole]

Yes, I thought about Death at Bargain Prices, despite its eccentricity it has a number of dark and sinister elements. Certainly. T.P. McKenna's character is dark, there's the opening murder by shooting of someone trapped in a lift cage which is horrendous for claustrophobes!

Together with the unsettling atmosphere of a big, deserted (but jam-packed with paraphernalia that evil-doers can hide behind) department store at night - similar to Toy Trap in season 1. Locked in with people who want to do you harm and who are looking for you...

The "department of discontinued lines" where Kane lives also has a sinister edge due to being isolated (at the top of the store, and inaccessible due to security / separate lift), strangely-lit, apparently deserted (at first) and full of stuffy Victorian items you might associate with a haunted house.

Doesn't Professor Popple have shackles on his feet as he works, evoking slavery? This is far from the bright and breezy eccentricity of (much of) series 5!

[Frankymole]

For me, most of series 5 is too colourful (if a little pastelly) to be very frightening though I do like the unnerving night-time atmosphere of some episodes, especially if studio-based because the artificiality somehow makes it a bit of a dream-world like a Powell and Pressburtger film... From Venus With Love and The Hidden Tiger both have that strange atmosphere. Not really dark, though, I suppose.

The Positive-Negative Man has a kind of vicious tingle to it, with the remorselessly oncoming enemy that you can't resist (unless you have rubber boots). Being human, but completely amoral, I find the enemy more threatening than the robotic Cybernauts who I always felt I could just run away from. The electric man can outwit you, even kill you at a distance through the wire of a fence as you try to climb away.

Thank goodness this beautiful thing comes at the end:

[dissolute]

One of my favourite tags, you wonder how much was ad lib given Diana had already quit the show by that point.

[J.Mac3]

One of my favourite tags, you wonder how much was ad lib given Diana had already quit the show by that point.

I guess this is getting off-topic but a quick comment about the tag. I do enjoy the very end of it but have always felt the lead up, with Diana walking out of the laboratory and saying, "Steed, where have you been? I've been waiting for you," is rather awkward and trite. I would have thought Tony Williamson (who wrote some wonderful episodes for the series) could have written something a little more teasing and interesting.

[Allard]

One of the things what makes series four so glorious is that ominous undertone present in most episodes. Especially the country side episodes have this eerie feeling.

Most sinister episode is probably Man Eater of Surrey Green, an invasive brain eating plant species with hypnotic powers!

Many episodes have a dark plan by the diabolical mastermind, but take a classic episode like The Hidden Tiger. The nation nearly wiped out by all cats going feral..... that's pretty dark. Yet The Hidden Tiger is one of the most charming and playful episodes.

Also interesting to note that the darkness in the videotaped era is sometimes present in the dealings of "the ministry" Steed sometimes almost falling victim to intrigue and Cathy's disapproving certain practices. Here you see the real shift from crime fighting to sci-fi-ish TV.

[Allard]

Later on the episode NOVEMBER FIVE came to my mind, nuking London, that's pretty dark to be honest. Yet in later Avengers style Cathy and Steed have a very light-hearted conversation about it in her flat, one of the best Gale-Steed bits.

[Frankymole]

Later on the episode NOVEMBER FIVE came to my mind, nuking London, that's pretty dark to be honest. Yet in later Avengers style Cathy and Steed have a very light-hearted conversation about it in her flat, one of the best Gale-Steed bits.

Perhaps the only thing you can do if you nick the plot of Moonraker...

Mind you, Death at Bargain Prices and The Morning After owe a lot to this episode, and they're two of the very best.