"I say, Steed... shouldn't the Doctor handle these Cybernauts?"

[dr_hermes]

THE AVENGERS for October 16, 1965

Comments

[brin31]

My funniest memory of the Avengers was one episode that involved clowns being killed. They went to a British Government office that had all of the clowns faces registered and drawn on eggs. I cannot remember for certain but the person in charge there was one of the Monty Python group, perhaps John Cleese. Their Ministry of Silly Walks seems a little more reasonable, now.

[dr_hermes]

Ha. I don't recall that particular episode (but then I've only seen some of the Tara shows and even fewer Cathy Gale ones). One of the big draws for me is that Steed and Mrs Peel have to cope with a variety of eccentric people during their investigation, and these are often played by wonderful British veterans. Big guest stars like Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee or Brian Blessed are always welcome of course; but I am invariably amused by the less well-known actors in the eccentric roles.

[stevegreen]

That actually was the way clown designs were registered. May still be, for all I know.

[dr_hermes]

Somewhere I read that clown designs are still stored that way, but on styrofoam eggs rather than real ones. I can imagine the vicious turf wars between West Coast and East Coast clowns after Sleepy Jack's make-up was swiped by Tired Old Soul. Red rubber noses lying in the blood...

[m_faustus]

I am pretty sure that the British weren't using Celsius at the time of this episode. They were a bit resistant to all that metric nonsense, although not as resistant as we are in the US.

[dr_hermes]

I suppose at some point the metric system will make its way into US usage, but it will be fought, as if it was a plague, every inch of the way (see?). The only thing that caught on was the 2-liter bottle because of its convenience.

Thinking about that scene, I wonder if the actor simply blew the line. Maybe he was supposed to say 90 and had 70 on his mind for some reason and it wasn't thought to be worth a retake.

[jhall1]

You are right. The big switch to Celsius was in the 1970s, I think, though even now I think that the elderly are happier with Fahrenheit.

Even for the 1960s, before most people had central heating, I doubt that 70 would have been perceived as hot. On a summer day, even without any heating at all a room is likely to be warmer than that.

[dr_hermes]

America might be the last holdout against Celsius. It's not quite rational to keep to the Fahrenheit system, but it doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon. Maybe if we started labelling everything with both systems, to get people used to it?

[terry_mccombs]

Alistair Cooke once said that after being in America for so long and returning to England for the first time in years he saw a newspaper headline reading “Temperatures to remain in high 70’s, no relief in sight.” He then understood why Americans would regard that as funny.

[dr_hermes]

Ian Fleming has Bond going to America and reflecting a few times on the "central heating being almost bearable," so that Bond was used to a chilly environment.

Climates have changed before (there was the Little Ice Age) and certainly seem to be readjusting themselves now. A following generation might find references to today's weather amusing. ("Snow in New York? Come on, that would be like people going swimming in England.")

[jhall1]

Seeing a clip from one of today's (for example) Jet Li films would likely have seemed nothing but a confusing blur of motion to an audience back then.

I'm increasingly finding that to be the case with modern action films. I suspect that as I get older the ability of my brain to process a large amount of data from my eyes is starting to slow down.

[dr_hermes]

That's possible, I certainly have the same reaction. But if we hear this response from kids ("it's too choppy! what just happened?") then it's the filmmakers going wrong.

Watching THE MARK OF ZORRO or THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, you see the swordfights show long sequences that require skill and effort from the actors, as well as long rehearsals. The same for Bruce Lee's films. Using quick little cuts of each seperate move from a different angle not only hides that an actor is not in shape and can't do the moves, it's much easier on the director to assemble.