"The Avengers" The Positive Negative Man (1967)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Robert Day

Writer:

Tony Williamson (teleplay)

TV Series:

"The Avengers" (1961)

Original Air Date:

4 November 1967 (Season 6, Episode 6)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A scientist is killed by having been hurled through and embedded in a wall. This is the latest death...

Plot Keywords:

Gagged And Bound | Death Trap | Rubber Boots | Foil | Electricity

Cast

Patrick Macnee	...	John Steed
Diana Rigg	...	Emma Peel
Ray McAnally	...	Dr. Cresswell
Michael Latimer	...	Haworth
Caroline Blakiston	...	Cynthia Wentworth-Howe
Peter Blythe	...	James Mankin
Sandor Elès	...	Maurice Jubert (as Sandor Eles)
Joanne Dainton	...	Miss Clark
Bill Wallis	...	Dr. Charles Grey, AD
Ann Hamilton	...	Receptionist

Quotes:

[Steed rescues Mrs. Peel, who is wrapped from head to toe in tin foil]
John Steed: Mrs. Peel! I'd recognize those eyes anywhere.

Among The Wittiest Chapters Of The Series, With Superior Performances By The Leads.

From among the nine scripts that Tony Williamson wrote for The Avengers television series, this one must be placed high upon the list for its drollery, despite a violence-laced science fiction tinged plot that engages secret agents John Steed and Emma Peel in an effort to solve a series of murders that, if not abated, might lead to the collapse of the British Empire. Three scientists, formerly attached to a government sponsored "Project 90", have been brutally slain by being hurled through solid walls, while top-secret Project 90 documents of the most secret security category, "Button-Lip", have been carbonized despite being ensconced within locked and sealed safes. Because the crimes have occurred at a State-run research facility, Steed and Mrs. Peel direct their sleuthing efforts there, whereupon they determine that something named "broadcast power" may have been utilised to enable humans to be carriers of a potent electrical charge at no harm to themselves, and powerful enough to cause the instantaneous death of all those they touch, a situation that has clearly unsettled those in command of the dauntless Avengers. Directed ably by Robert Day with no observable technique, as is his custom for the six Avenger episodes he helms, this work emphasises the amiable consociation of John and Emma, working together as usual against bizarre adversaries. This production also displays an unexpected hint of romantically inspired banter exchanged between the pair. Of the 161 Avenger narratives, the 51 that include Rigg (1965/7) are easily the most favoured by a majority of viewers, and this piece showcases the reason, as there is nary a miss by the agents of the sophisticated dialogue penned by Williamson. The eighth in sequence from the sixth season for the programme, it suffers from the only consistent flaw of the group: the climactic fight scene, as ever clumsily choreographed and with sub-par stunt work. However, also as ever, a viewer by then will be agreeably sated with the film's well-constructed plot line, in addition to the ineffable appeal of Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel.