Avengers Picspam ("The Superlative Seven" 1967)
I realised recently that I obviously had never picspammed this episode of The Avengers, which I watched early this year. I don't know how eager you all are to see James Maxwell in a silly costume, but there is also Emma Peel. No excuse is needed for picspams involving Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, obviously. Her awesome is reason enough in itself.
This picspam comes courtesy of the wonderful liadtbunny, a terrible Enabler of Old TV-watching. (Thanks, Liadt, for these 12 episodes of The Avengers, for Enemy at the Door - and therefore Public Eye - and even for Children of the Damned! Everyone else: okay, you can blame her for all my obsessions, basically. ;-p)
Emma Peel, probably pondering her own awesome. Because she is.
Pondering your own awesome is fine, but everything is more fun with two.
Fancy dress, parties and admiring each other; these are things Emma Peel and John Steed are great at. Also defeating all enemies and consuming champagne and admiring each other some more. It's hard to blame them, really.
Steed also has a hat.
Probably Emma's opinion on Steed getting invited to dangerous parties without her and how well that's going to go. She'll need to come and rescue him before the end, obv.
Oh, look, James Maxwell in a silly costume with an even sillier hat. Understandably, he is consoling himself by hanging onto the champagne a lot. (Everyone, btw, is on a plane here.)
... even when shaking hands. (But, I mean, honestly, you don't want Steed to get hold of the champagne. He even has it for breakfast probably.)
James Maxwell is the baddie. You can tell because he stands around in the background looking shifty and watching the others closely. (I failed to notice this while watching it, but it was REALLY OBVIOUS when I was screencapping. I am a simple person. I was just worried about how soon he was going to die, because I'd watched other Avengers episodes by then and knew that most people in it do not live very long.)
He's also a bit two-faced and possibly a contortionist.
And back on the champers again.
At that time a mysterious hooded man also joins the party on the plane and turns out to be Brian Blessed, looking younger than should be possible.
Not in fact the awkward group photo, but the moment everyone discovers the plane has no pilot!
Shocked close-ups ensued. And then they all went back for more champagne, because what else do you do?
I know there was a plot, really, but I like to think of this as the moment James Maxwell realised the costume had been a mistake...
... and that everyone else was laughing at him behind his back...
... and so clearly he would have to kill them all.
(All right, there was a plot, but I watched it six months ago. I think there were these people who were claiming to have created a Super Soldier and were trying to sell it to people, except there was no such thing and all they had was two James Maxwells in silly costumes killing these really famous fighters, which would make people think they had. Possibly they overcomplicated things a bit. Villains do that.)
"Look we're landing - no hands!" (Everyone gets a bit scared by planes without pilots trying to land on isolated islands in the middle of nowhere, but this is reasonable, I feel.)
The Avengers is comparatively glamorous for old British TV, but never let there be anything without that moment that everyone had to go on location in freezing weather in inappropriate clothing. Luckily all of the rest of the outside is clearly inside.
They arrive at their location to more shocks.
Coffins for (nearly) all! (This is actually more thoughtful than most master villains; funeral costs are really quite steep, so good on them for helping out the grieving relatives.)
Nobody's very happy about it.
Also weapons for all. (I'm a little unclear, but I think that at this point that have been told that one of them is a super soldier out to kill the other six, they all have weapons and they can all... hunt each other. Or they were asked to kill each other. I can't remember.)
Actual villains, but don't worry about them. They didn't do very much.
Brian Blessed and Hana Wilde the sharpshooter discover James Maxwell deaded by spear and as they and Steed are the only ones left conclude that Steed Dunnit & tie him up and leave him alone in the creepy castle.
This is not true. James Maxwell was only pretending to be stabbed to death by a spear.
Steed may not be Emma, but he can untie himself no probs. He's less good on people creeping up behind him, though.
"Yay, you're not deaded!"
*is obviously the baddie* Whoops, Steed.
They fight and Steed makes sure the spear does its job properly this time, although with no blood, obviously. That would just be messy.
Funnily enough, Hana Wilde is not convinced by Steed's story that actually he is not to blame, it was James Maxwell who wasn't dead, except now he is and in the same way as they originally thought, because Steed just killed him, proving he was innocent and didn't kill him before. Understandably, she just knocks him out & scarpers.
Happily for everyone, especially members of the audience dying for cruel and unusual lack of Mrs Peel, the cavalry has arrived.
Steed making a pretty damsel in distress.
Ta da!
You don't get away with killing Steed, not when Emma's anywhere around.
Emma gives James Maxwell a good kicking and then kills him.
Naturally, then she and Steed stand around and argue about which of them actually killed James Maxwell.
Emma being totally sure she did. Because awesome, obv.
She goes to prove it and finds that there were two James Maxwells and they killed one each. So, here you go, this was that time James Maxwell was secretly super strong homicidal twins with matching silly hats and two faces. I think that definitely scores in the ridiculous stakes, even by Mr. Collings's standards.
Hana Wilde has also survived and gets the villain...
... while Steed and Mrs Peel duck and hold hands because also adorable, seriously.
After all that excitement, Emma goes off shooting. In the studio, apparently.
Luckily she avoids hitting the lights and only gets the host of the Generation Game, winning herself a champagne filled teddy bear.
And Steed, who bags two champagne glasses to go with it. (Yep, seriously. That's The Avengers for you. Emma's actual line re. the teddy bear involved worrying that she'd winged Father Christmas...)
"Cheers!"
And for a bonus, Emma from another ep, reading nice things the Russians have been writing about her:
(They only thought Steed was dangerous and to handle with care...)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
This picspam comes courtesy of the wonderful liadtbunny, a terrible Enabler of Old TV-watching. (Thanks, Liadt, for these 12 episodes of The Avengers, for Enemy at the Door - and therefore Public Eye - and even for Children of the Damned! Everyone else: okay, you can blame her for all my obsessions, basically. ;-p)
Emma Peel, probably pondering her own awesome. Because she is.
Pondering your own awesome is fine, but everything is more fun with two.
Fancy dress, parties and admiring each other; these are things Emma Peel and John Steed are great at. Also defeating all enemies and consuming champagne and admiring each other some more. It's hard to blame them, really.
Steed also has a hat.
Probably Emma's opinion on Steed getting invited to dangerous parties without her and how well that's going to go. She'll need to come and rescue him before the end, obv.
Oh, look, James Maxwell in a silly costume with an even sillier hat. Understandably, he is consoling himself by hanging onto the champagne a lot. (Everyone, btw, is on a plane here.)
... even when shaking hands. (But, I mean, honestly, you don't want Steed to get hold of the champagne. He even has it for breakfast probably.)
James Maxwell is the baddie. You can tell because he stands around in the background looking shifty and watching the others closely. (I failed to notice this while watching it, but it was REALLY OBVIOUS when I was screencapping. I am a simple person. I was just worried about how soon he was going to die, because I'd watched other Avengers episodes by then and knew that most people in it do not live very long.)
He's also a bit two-faced and possibly a contortionist.
And back on the champers again.
At that time a mysterious hooded man also joins the party on the plane and turns out to be Brian Blessed, looking younger than should be possible.
Not in fact the awkward group photo, but the moment everyone discovers the plane has no pilot!
Shocked close-ups ensued. And then they all went back for more champagne, because what else do you do?
I know there was a plot, really, but I like to think of this as the moment James Maxwell realised the costume had been a mistake...
... and that everyone else was laughing at him behind his back...
... and so clearly he would have to kill them all.
(All right, there was a plot, but I watched it six months ago. I think there were these people who were claiming to have created a Super Soldier and were trying to sell it to people, except there was no such thing and all they had was two James Maxwells in silly costumes killing these really famous fighters, which would make people think they had. Possibly they overcomplicated things a bit. Villains do that.)
"Look we're landing - no hands!" (Everyone gets a bit scared by planes without pilots trying to land on isolated islands in the middle of nowhere, but this is reasonable, I feel.)
The Avengers is comparatively glamorous for old British TV, but never let there be anything without that moment that everyone had to go on location in freezing weather in inappropriate clothing. Luckily all of the rest of the outside is clearly inside.
They arrive at their location to more shocks.
Coffins for (nearly) all! (This is actually more thoughtful than most master villains; funeral costs are really quite steep, so good on them for helping out the grieving relatives.)
Nobody's very happy about it.
Also weapons for all. (I'm a little unclear, but I think that at this point that have been told that one of them is a super soldier out to kill the other six, they all have weapons and they can all... hunt each other. Or they were asked to kill each other. I can't remember.)
Actual villains, but don't worry about them. They didn't do very much.
Brian Blessed and Hana Wilde the sharpshooter discover James Maxwell deaded by spear and as they and Steed are the only ones left conclude that Steed Dunnit & tie him up and leave him alone in the creepy castle.
This is not true. James Maxwell was only pretending to be stabbed to death by a spear.
Steed may not be Emma, but he can untie himself no probs. He's less good on people creeping up behind him, though.
"Yay, you're not deaded!"
*is obviously the baddie* Whoops, Steed.
They fight and Steed makes sure the spear does its job properly this time, although with no blood, obviously. That would just be messy.
Funnily enough, Hana Wilde is not convinced by Steed's story that actually he is not to blame, it was James Maxwell who wasn't dead, except now he is and in the same way as they originally thought, because Steed just killed him, proving he was innocent and didn't kill him before. Understandably, she just knocks him out & scarpers.
Happily for everyone, especially members of the audience dying for cruel and unusual lack of Mrs Peel, the cavalry has arrived.
Steed making a pretty damsel in distress.
Ta da!
You don't get away with killing Steed, not when Emma's anywhere around.
Emma gives James Maxwell a good kicking and then kills him.
Naturally, then she and Steed stand around and argue about which of them actually killed James Maxwell.
Emma being totally sure she did. Because awesome, obv.
She goes to prove it and finds that there were two James Maxwells and they killed one each. So, here you go, this was that time James Maxwell was secretly super strong homicidal twins with matching silly hats and two faces. I think that definitely scores in the ridiculous stakes, even by Mr. Collings's standards.
Hana Wilde has also survived and gets the villain...
... while Steed and Mrs Peel duck and hold hands because also adorable, seriously.
After all that excitement, Emma goes off shooting. In the studio, apparently.
Luckily she avoids hitting the lights and only gets the host of the Generation Game, winning herself a champagne filled teddy bear.
And Steed, who bags two champagne glasses to go with it. (Yep, seriously. That's The Avengers for you. Emma's actual line re. the teddy bear involved worrying that she'd winged Father Christmas...)
"Cheers!"
And for a bonus, Emma from another ep, reading nice things the Russians have been writing about her:
(They only thought Steed was dangerous and to handle with care...)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: