Series 5 — Episode 18
Death’s Door

Regional broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
Rediffusion London	5/10/1967	9.00pm
ABC Midlands	7/10/1967	9.05pm
ABC North	7/10/1967	9.05pm
Anglia Television	7/10/1967	9.10pm
Border Television	8/10/1967	10.05pm
Channel Television	5/01/1968	7.30pm
Grampian Television	4/10/1967	8.00pm
Southern Television	6/10/1967	8.00pm
Scottish Television	7/10/1967	9.10pm
Tyne Tees Television	7/10/1967	9.10pm
Ulster Television	12/10/1967	7.30pm
Westward Television	5/01/1968	7.30pm
Television Wales & West	8/10/1967	7.25pm

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABN2 Sydney, Australia	24/10/1967	8.00pm
ABq2 Brisbane, Australia	27/11/1967	7.30pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia	23/10/1967	8.00pm
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia	5/12/1967	7.30pm
ABC New York, USA	31/01/1968	7.30pm
ORTF2 France
Suisse Romande, Switzerland	22/01/1968	9.10pm
French title	La porte de la mort
ZDF Germany
German title	Der wahrgewordene Alptraum
KRO Netherlands	9/01/1968	9.10pm
Dutch title	De deur des doods
Svizzera Italiana	7/12/1973	9.00pm
Italian title	la porta della morte
Spain	15/01/1968	4.10pm
Spanish title	La puerta de la muerte

This episode was not broadcast in France or Germany in 1968.

Episode Rating

Subject	0–5
Direction	4½ stars
Music	4 stars
Humour	4 stars
Intro/tag	2½ stars
Mastermind	3 stars
Plot	4½ stars
Emma	2½ stars
Set Design	4 stars
Overall (0–10)	8½ stars

This was in a five-way tie for the #5 spot of my top episodes, pipped at the post by The Joker. It is one of the finest of the season and well worth you’re seeing.

Government officials trying to attend a peace conference have been having disquieting dreams, which become reality with fatal results.
The Avengers are called in to ensure they do finally attend, but the next official tells Steed of a missing button on his butler jacket, and seeing a lion before he died, all of which come true. The Avengers babysit the next man to fill the post, but all three feel a sting on their necks and fall asleep, troubled by nightmares. It’s all a plan of Becker, an Eastern European observer at the conference, and his cohorts, but Steed and Emma individually find the storage area where the delegates have been drugged and brainwashed. Stapley is exposed as the inside man, the bandaid on his cheek covering no wound and he dies by one of the of deaths predicted in the dreams — crushed by a chandelier.
Mrs. Peel predicts a visit to the theatre.

The Cars

Marque/Model	Colour	Number Plate
Bentley Speed Six 1926	British racing green	RX 6180
Morris 5-ton ballast lorry	white	704 CUT
Daimler Majestic Major Limousine	black, champagne upholstery	AUV 719B
Alvis TE21 limousine (or maybe a TD21 Series II)	blue	CAN 972D
Austin Princess 3-litre Limousine by Vanden Plas	black	347 BXX
Austin Princess 3-litre Limousine by Vanden Plas	black	-
Bedford J10 pickup	red & white	484 GNM
bicycle	black	-
Jaguar S-type	white	LMU 364C
Lotus Elan S3	glacier blue	SJH 499D

Who’s Killing Whom?

Victim	Killer	Method
Sir Andrew Boyd	Jepson V*	Run down by car
Jepson?? V*	Emma	Karate blow (this is according to the original synopsis).
Alfred Becker V*	Steed	Fires bullet through hole in target.
Stapley V*	Steed, Emma, Haynes & himself V*, sort of)	Crushed by falling chandelier

The Fashions

Emma’s Fashions

Steed’s Fashions

tan and beige dress with belt orange jacket & skirt blue & diagonal plaid jacket with diagonal plaid sleeveless top & matching blue skirt, beige shoes & stockings above without jacket green catsuit with white trim & laces, white watch & boots purple and burgundy silk pyjamas

charcoal pinstriped single-breasted 3-piece suit, white shirt, elec blue tie & handkerchief navy single-breasted 3-piece suit with a peaked collar, pale grey shirt, purple red patterned tie navy single-breasted 3-piece suit with a peaked collar above with embossed navy tie, white shirt navy single-breasted 3-piece suit with a notch collar, white shirt, navy tie [continuity error] brown and green hunting blazer with matching waistcoat, brown/red cravat gold pin, pale khaki shirt, brown bowler hat & umbrella, houndstooth trousers, grey socks, brown suede Chelsea boots charcoal chalk striped single-breasted suit, white shirt, knitted light grey tie, black bowler, black umbrella boots black/midnight blue tuxedo with silk facings and piping on trousers, pale blue ruffled shirt, blue velvet bow tie, black dress shoes

Continuity and trivia

1. 3:07 — This was the first episode produced without the “Steed does this, Emma does that” subtitles.
2. 6:50–7:43 — There’s colour shift in the close-ups due to back projection.
3. 7:00–7:40 — Stand-ins were used in the actual driving shots & long shots, Patrick Macnee & Diana Riogg are in the close-ups with back projection of passing scenery.
4. 7:24–7:42 -
   
   
   Steed swerves off the road down Spout Hill to avoid that white truck, which we see then pass behind them over his shoulder. A minute later, when they’re discussing what to do, it passes them again — you can just see it over Mrs. Peel’s shoulder.
5. 8:10–8:40 —
   
   Sir Andrew gasps “How did that get there?” when he hears the ashtray hit the floor. How indeed — it was on the coffee table in front of Steed only seconds earlier.
6. 10:00 — The same newspaper as seen in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" is being read by Sir Andrew Boyd in the back of the limo with Steed. Note that both the front and back pages carry the same headlines.
   It wasn’t the same page when first given to him by Dalby however!

   In Dalby’s hand...	Death’s Door	A Funny Thing...

7. 10:00–10:35 — There’s colour shift in the close-ups due to back projection.
8. 12:30 — tall dark str. / back of car
9. 15:01, 39:42 and throughout -
   
   Death’s Door

   Mission...
   The same outsized desktop calendar as seen in "Mission... Highly Improbable" is used by the villains in their dream-inducing warehouse.
10. 18:52 (bluray) / 17:42 (dvd) — we see the shadow of the boom mic on the ceiling
11. When Steed is walking to the car with Lord Melford, he’s suddenly in a different navy suit that is never seen again after this short scene — was it Macnee’s own suit?
12. 18:48–19:20 — There’s colour shift in the close-ups due to back projection.
13. 28:35–29:10 — There’s colour shift in the close-ups due to back projection.
14. 31:30–31:40 — There’s colour shift in the close-ups due to back projection.
15. 34:04 (bluray) — we see the edge of the lighting gantry above Steed’s ‘ceiling’
16. 33:38 & 35:03 — We see a close-up of the target Becker is shooting at as Steed arrives (33:38), but when Steed goes to change the target we discover that none of them has the same pattern of bullet holes as first seen. (35:03).

    Before	After

17. 46:02 and throughout — Diana Rigg does some of her own stunts in the fight scene and at the end of it (47:08) she’s limping as she rejoins Steed. It’s the kick at 46:56 that does it, a lot of the rest of the sequence is Cyd Child sparring with Terry Yorke.
18. 46:32 — Patrick Macnee and William Lucas, however, have stunt doubles do all their dirty work except the close-ups that were filmed after the master shot was compiled — Joe Dunne for William Lucas and Paul Weston for Patrick Macnee.
19. 46:50 — the order of the delegate placenames on the table changes during the fight sequence.
20. Running time: 49′19″