Greetings of the Season from Our Great and Benevolent Founder

[jonathanlhoward]

 Hello.

I should really hold off writing my address to a grateful planet until after Christmas, but I should be too stupidly busy to do it then so I shall impose upon your holiday cheer earlier rather than later. Specifically, a brief report on my year for your elucidation and delight. 

Comments

[vegan_vulcan]

Congrats on your recent successes! I especially love the new title--sounds like an old Avengers episode in all the best ways.

[jonathanlhoward]

Oh, I always loved "The Avengers," especially the last black and white series, which contained some of the best episodes. I'm also very fond of the Dr Phibes films -- is that Vulnavia you have for your avi? Just off to assist the good doctor in delivering the "Plague of Frost," if memory serves.

[vegan_vulcan]

OMG, I was raised on The Avengers--my dad bought the whole collection on VHS when I was young enough that it overwrote parts of my psyche. For good, I think. My husband is just as fond of the series; he and I still watch "Too Many Christmas Trees" every Christmas. The last season with Diana Rigg, when it went to color, is a wee bit campy for my taste (though "The Correct Way to Kill" will always be one of my favorite episodes, as well as the one where two sinister con-artists switch bodies with them? Using a sinister machine? Or something?) but I love them all. Hellfire

[jonathanlhoward]

There's a strong connection between "The Avengers" and Phibes in that Robert Fuest directed some episodes of the former ("Game" for certain, the story in which people are murdered by forcing them to play giant and lethal board games), which probably got him the director's chair for both Phibes films. I think my favourite Avenger's episodes are "Too Many Christmas Trees," "The Day That Never Was," "The Cybernauts," and especially the nightmarish and deeply cunning "The House That Jack Built." That one made a huge impression on me as a child

[vegan_vulcan]

I forgot about "Theatre of Blood" but yes that's what I was thinking about! Oh man.

"The Day that Never Was" is awesome, and yes--"The House That Jack Built" is supremely creepy! I'll have to watch that one when I get back into town after the holidays. I think they were actually trying to reference that one in the dreadful, nigh-unmentionable film, but the whole thing was such a train wreck by then I couldn't even appreciate the shout-out.