Forgotten Heroes: Odyssey 5’s Chuck Taggart

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

In another universe I wouldn’t have to be writing about Odyssey 5. It would have been on all our lips like Quantum Leap. My first view of it was on a late night slot on television and by the end of the hour and a half I was hooked. Very few shows have caught my attention in the first episode like this for example X Files and The Walking Dead but Odyssey 5 was a trailblazer for other shows today. It had swearing, full frontal nudity all wrapped up in a sci fi coat.

The characters were flawed; three dimensional good and bad in all their glory. To get the show’s premise you should click on the video above which is the show’s intro and gives you everything you need to know. What is beautiful about Odyssey 5 written and created by the late Manny Coto, was that it played with our expectations of time travel in the same way as it did the characters. They all know what is going to happen in their lives and the world so all they need to do is live it again and look for signs of the mystery of what caused the Earth to explode and stop it. However this is not the case as their very investigations begin to change the future within months. These themes were also explored in the series Travellers. The Odyssey was the name of the shuttle they were all on when the Earth died. The titular 5 refers to the occupants of the shuttle. Three of them are astronauts Chuck Taggart (Peter Weller), his son Neil (Christopher Gorham), scientist Kurt Mendel (Sebastian Roche), astronaut and senator’s daughter Angela (Tamara Craig Thomas) and reporter Sarah Forbes (Leslie Silva).

Chuck Taggert was played by Robocop actor Peter Weller. He is a tough no nonsense astronaut fiercely loyal to his friends and deeply devoted to his wife Paige (Gina Clayton). Now because Chuck and Neil are the only ones aware they are five years in the past, their whispered conversations and sudden changes in behaviour immediately make Paige suspicious to the point she thinks Chuck might be having an affair. While infected with the virus that begins turning him into a synthetic, Chuck seeks refuge with Kurt who desperately searches for a cure. However Paige discovers where Chuck is and goes to Kurt’s. There he tells her to go away using language that creates friction between him and Neil. She doesn’t believe his tale of aliens and time travel. It is their long marriage and deep love for each other that gets them through the mad tale. If he were having an affair, he could think of a thousand better stories that time travel. One of the rules of time travel is tell no one the future or it may change the entire timeline with disastrous consequences. What is so lovely about their argument is it is clear they are deeply in love and plays exactly how a fight like this would happen in real life. This show is intense and this is partly due to the relationships between the cast. Chuck is forever ready to kick the crap out of the annoying Kurt but as a leader recognises his worth to the team and saving the planet. Chuck’s word is law. But Kurt forever butts head against him openly defying Chuck’s wisdom and decisions but they have a respect for one another (Nicknaming him Kurtrude along the way when the name Chucky is used). Angela is a protoge to Chuck and when they are returned to the past, Angela is in the middle of a space walk at the time. She was badly injured in the future so the shock of finding herself back in the past causes her to nearly die. It’s only Chuck talking her through that saves her life. This action alone begins to raise suspicions because there was no way for Chuck to know what was happening. Further investigations into NASA including the theft of a strange moon rock brings attention to Chuck he’d rather not have. His loyalty is brought into question but his position protects him somewhat. However he discovers a whole world around him of lies and deceit that he never saw the first time he lived those years. There are synthetics, seemingly two sets, one of which originated from Mars who can grow human bodies and one has infected the internet. Old friends are conspirators, some are living secret lives well aware of the alien threat and a secret cabal battling the aliens called the Cadre, forms the heart of the space agency who have Chuck and his team firmly in their sights as a threat. They even blackmail Chuck’s son Marc into spying on his father to ensure he gets the grades he needs to enter the astronaut programme. This applies equally to the aliens, the Sentients who invade cyberspace and the synthetics. Chuck is infected with a virus that almost turns him into one of the alien cohhort and barely survives. The Sentients have been using human as hosts to carry out missions like murder including children and Chuck and the others are now on the list to be converted. However with two sets of aliens running about which one is the real enemy and responsible for Earth’s destruction?

What keeps the team going is they have the chance to change the bad things that happened in their own lives. For Chuck, it is a chance to rebuild bridges with his other son Marc. Marc failed the astronaut programme the first time round and Neil discovers now that Marc is only doing it for their father. He doesn’t want to go to space and it is putting severe strain on him. Chuck has a strained relationship with Marc and even with that foreknowledge Chuck cannot stop it falling apart again. In the opening scenes we see both Paige and Marc standing with others watching a massive explosion that sounds the Earth’s destruction. The audience is immediately sidestepped into thinking that these characters will go to the end of the series.

However Marc’s running away changes the timeline but it is the events of the 13th stunning episode Skin that is the show’s biggest game changer. A synthetic organism created to kill Angela’s father is on the loose jumping from person to person. It infects Paige, turning her into an assassin who dies in Chuck’s arms. This is a ball breaker as it lets us and the characters know loud and clear that everything they knew is no longer guaranteed. Paige never died in the original timeline. Chuck was never a widower but now he is because of his mission. Devastated by his wife’s death, Chuck’s relationship with his boys is wrecked especially Neil who blames him for getting their mother involved. He tells the team he is leaving and takes off on a road trip. He’s going to enjoy his last years. Along the way he meets a hitchhiker. It turns out that Chuck is reliving the trip when he first met Paige. He cares about nothing. With Paige dead, Chuck doesn’t care of the world dies or not. For him, his world is already destroyed. As he poignantly relives his memories, you cannot help but be moved by his plight. The power of knowing the future should make you a god but instead it stabs you through the heart. Ignorance is bliss as they say and here it is never been more true. Chuck’s gruff manner stands him in good stead in dealing with authority figures especially when the FBI come snooping asking why Paige tried to murder a leading politician. Now a single parent he must find a way to keep his two boys safe but he cannot be emotional or sensitive with Neil calling him cold and that he is running away instead of facing his pain. Theey have a huge fight where Neil tries to bring him back to the mission but it isn’t easy when your a cigar smoking tough guy.

Chuck is brought back to the fold when he is kidnapped by a group of synthetics and a Sentient creates a fake world where Paige is alive. She has been using humans to understand human mind and been searching Check’s memories for what he knows about the alien plan. Here he discovers people are being experimented upon, their minds drained into this virtual world before being murdered and dumped like rubbish. This tips Chuck back to the fight, When she releases both of them the Sentient Paige offers Chuck one last moment with his wife but Chuck dismisses it saying she doesn’t have that power. She has his wife’s face but not her soul.This is his first step to bringing the fight to them and honouring Paige. While he is hurting bad over his loss, he realises that others are being murdered needlessly by these things and he is in a unique position to stop them. Chuck even strikes up a new female friendship with a waitress at the cafe they frequent, Penny but keeps it platonic despite her wanting to date him. If there is one positive to come from Paige’s death, it’s that Chuck’s feud with his sister Jennifer ends when she comes to help him sort through Paige’s affairs. Their relationship is frosty to say the least but it is the most vulnerable and open Chuck has been with anyone else bar his wife.

What is nice that aside from Chuck and Neil and a past fling between Kurt and Angela, these people are not friends. They have been thrown together to face an almost impossible task. Their relationships are not easy but over the course of their solitary season, they grow closer especially when tragedy calls and they fail to change their own past issues. Indeed the beauty of Odyssey 5 is how emotional it is hand in hand with action and aliens. The Odyssey 5 see the world through new eyes as the intensity of their mission increases. They see the suffering the Sentients and Synthetics have caused which went unnoticed before. Now their compassion and humanity steer them towards saving the Earth.

Out of everyone Chuck goes through the biggest journey in the solitary season. Sadly we will never get to know the resolution to the story especially with the passing of Manny Coto. However Chuck would live on in a way in the Star Trek universe.

Manny went on to bcome a writer on Star Trek Enterrise and literally saved the show’s final two seasons from being banal until it was cancelled. Using the cancellation news he crafted two of the best seasons of Trek ever using what had come before. When Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled Peter Weller was brought in for a two part block buster Demons and Terra Prime. As John Frederick Paxton leader of an anti alien group that wants Earth for humans, Terra Prime of the title. He creates a baby girl from the DNA from chief engineer Trip Tucker and science officer Vulcan T’Pol. He uses her as an example of how the human race will die out from mating with aliens robbing humanity of its unique genome leading to their extinction. He wants all aliens gone from Earth and the entire solar system or he will fire upon Earth from his Orpheus mining complex. He kidnaps T’Pol and she discovers the baby is dying. Paxton is suffering from Taggart’s syndrome, a nod to Chuck and the irony was he could have found a cure amid the alien medical bases.

But we’d like to think that Chuck Taggart lead his team to victory and save us all. If you ever see a cigar smoking astronaut in sunglasses swearing like a trooper pop up unexpectedly, rest assured that he is there to save us all.

Doctor Who: New Trailer and Episode Titles Revealed

Photo copyright BBC Disney

The new season of Doctor Who is almost upon us and the new trailer and episode titles have been released.

The titles are Space Babies, The Devil’s Chord, Boom, 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble, Rogue, The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death.

New Guest Announcement for Dublin Comic Con

We are delighted to add another well known name amongst gamers and film and tv audiences, Jeff Teravainen!

Best known to our gaming audience for his role as Sam (zero)Fisher in Rainbow Six Siege, Jeff has played many characters in so many popular video games such as Walton Purefoy in Far Cry 2, Walker in FC5 along with many NPC’ s and Vasily Gulov in FC6. He was also a big player in Splinter Cell Blacklist, Starlink, Starcraft and so many more.

Jeff recently starred in Eli Roths Sony Pictures horror hit “Thanksgiving “. Jeff played Deputy Labelle to Sherriff Newland played by Patrick Dempsey. Speaking of holidays pics, Jeff played, Vincent, the main villain in Netflix’s hit, The Christmas Chronicles with Kurt Russell.

On television, Jeff has played many memorable roles, such as Anders in the SYFY hits Dark Matter and Agent Stack on 12 Monkeys as well as Gerald on Hulu’s Utopia Falls.

Jeff is also well-known in the Voice world many diverse gigs. He has been the voice of the Olympics numerous times and the FIFA World Cup. He is the voice of Argo Garcia in Beyblade and and Bakugan as Damdos and. Shargo Ronin along with other animation.

Jeff is the voice of hundreds TV ads you may know but also many documentaries you’ll see on Shark Week like Air Jaws. also, other popular series like Secrets in the ice. One particular highlight was being chosen by Clint Eastwood himself to Voice, the HBO documentary series on his life.!!

Jeff won the Jim Russell Car Almost doneRacing School Scholarship in 1996. Though his favorite sport is MotoGP, you can usually find him on weekends at the cottage, or digging for fossils. He is a massive fan of paleontology, science and history.

Photo ops are live!
📲 Get your tickets via https://www.tixr.com/groups/comicconireland/events/dublin-comic-con-summer-edition-2024-79332

Call of Duty: Vanguard Actor for Dublin Comic Con

We are delighted to continue our guest announcements with a foray into the world of gaming with Martin Copping!Martin is an actor and voice actor. Best known to our audience as the voice of Mozzie in Rainbow Six: Siege and as Lucas Riggs from Call of Duty: Vanguard as well as Zombie Hunter amongst a host of other titles! Photo ops are live !📲 Get your tickets via https://www.tixr.com/groups/comicconireland/events/dublin-comic-con-summer-edition-2024-79332#dccsummer #dublincomiccon2024 #comicconireland #dublincomiccon #callofduty #martincopping #rainbow6seige #lucasriggs             

TW watches Toy Soldiers

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

1991 saw the release of Toy Soldiers. An action movie written by Petrie and David Koepp and directed by Daniel Petrie Jnr. it saw terrorists taking a school hostage in order to secure their leader’s father’s release from prison. It brought together a team of actors that were familiar to audiences and have sci fi links.

Louis Gossett Jnr (Enrmy Mine) played Dean Parker while the Goonies Sean Astin played Billy Tepper. Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton played Billy’s best friend Joey Trotta, estranged son of Mafia boss, Albert Trotta. Indiana Jones’ sidekick Denholm Elliott played the headmaster while Wishmaster baddie Andrew Divoff played the madman Luis. The rest of the gang comprised of Hank Giles (T.E. Elliott), Ricky Montoya (George Perez) and “Snuffy” Bradberry (Keith Coogan).

They are all staff and pupils of Regis High for boys. Their families are wealthy and influential but many including Billy and Joey have been expelled from other schools. Despite their antics, Dean Parker is protective of his boys and seems to spend his time battling Billy and the gang’s escapades.

But when Luis Cali takes the entire school hostage in return for his father’s freedom, teenage mischief becomes vital in order to save the lives of everyone at the school and defeat Luis and his men. The entire shool has been wired with bombs and Luis has the detonator on his wrist at all times. His men have made Regis a fortress and no one can get in. It’s an impossible scenario from which there will be seemingly no resolve but Luis has not counted on Billy Tepper.

This movie may have sounded cormy on reading but it is executed in a heart pumping fashion. No movie really succeeds without a heart at its very core and the heart here is the friendship between the five boys especially Joey and Billy. Anybody can make an action movie but without the human core then it is simply a paint by numbers exercise. While Toy Soldiers is a great action movie, you can’t help but feel for the characters.

All of them have rich parents and have been estranged from them for various reasons. This is showcased in Jpey’s character. He hates his father to the point of no return and this relationship will be key to the plot. It is not specified as to why he hates him but we can only assume with no mother figure his gangster father somehow maybe caused her death. Add to being sent away to Regis when he really needed love from a parent and you can feel Joey’s hatred. His complete and total loyalty is to his friends. He and Billy balance each other out. Billy tempers Joey’s hothead reactions and Joey encourages his buddy to plan his revenge against the teachers rather than act irrationally. Interestingly enough Dean Parker refuses to give up on these kids and is very protective of them. With him trapped outside when the school when it is taken over, he is helpless but is secretly betting that Billy will somehow come up with a way to contact the outside world. And he’s right.

Using the combined talents of the other students, Billy manages to get details of how many terrorists there are and where they are positioned including names and weapons. The military have taken up position nearby and trying to stall negotiations. In a heart in your mouth sequence, Billy escapes to the outside world using a secret drain they use to bunk off school into town. He has less than an hour to get back before the hourly headcount is done, If he isn’t back in time then five students will be executed. The military detain Billy but Parker helps him escape. He is chased by soldiers in jeeps and falls into the waterway. With only seconds to spare before the headmaster and four kids are murdered Billy rushes in wearing a towel saying he was in the shower and never heard the call. It’s great stuff that elevates this movie beyond a cheesy run through. You care about these people as the deranged Luis Cali (Wishmaster himself Andrew Divoff) whips Billy in the Dean’s office. This gives Billy a chance to scout the layout including an air shaft leading to the rest of the building.

But Albert Trotta is not happy his son is being held hostage and sends word out for his release. Luis cooperates but fails to see how dangerous it is for Joey not to be more heavily guarded. He refuses to leave without his friends and is furious that his father has arranged this. But he is manhandled out but without Billy, Joey assaults the terrorist accompanying him and steals his automatic weapon. He rushes outside and has no control of the weapon as it fires random shots. The others have to hold Billy back as Joey is shot repeatedly lying dead on the school’s steps.

This is really the heartbreaker of the movie. It really shows the bond between these kids and now the fun is suddenly very real. Billy is distraught and forced to pull himself together by the others. The tragedy is felt on many levels as Joey dies for nothing. His father is devastated even knowing his son hates him beyond repair. The lone trumpet soundtrack makes you well up especially when Dean Parker has to go to the school to retrieve Joey’s body. Louis Gossett Junior underplays his fury and grief at one of his own being killed. He is tough with his kids especially with Billy and his vodka scam but he will die for them. You can the griEf and hatred in his face but his years as Dean of the school let him hold it together so he can look Luis in the eye and warn him. His words are not lost on Luis who know his days are numbered. It is clear along with the haunting solo trumpet backtrack that the Dean’s loss is killing him as surely as if Joey were his own. He warns Luis in a level, calm voice that they will bring him down but he is too busy being terrified at the retaliation from the Mafia for this. Rightly so, as his father is murdered in prison taking away his only reason to not kill everyone.

This triggers the run to the heart stopping finale as we get the kids fighting back as helicopters battle the roof machine guns. Navy Seals use the secret storm drain to gain entrance along with Dean Parker but an accidental grenade stops them leaving Dean alone with the wounded. Snipers take out the roof top terrorists and soldiers drop from helicopters as the terrorists are shot dead. Luis is freaking, knowing this is the end and detonates the bombs. However he is unaware Billy has swopped the chips in the detonator with a toy plane. Luis shoots Parker before being shot in the head. The kids are released and Billy and Parker have a new understanding.

There isn’t a poor performance here and even now the tension and the heartbreak is still as poignant as it was on the first viewing. Wrapped in this rollercoaster hostage movie is a story about family and what constitutes that. Family is supposed to be blood but on the absence of that, family will find you in people you never expected.

Amazing movie.

Forgotten Heroes: Manimal

By Owen Quinn author

Photos copyright Universal

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

In 1983 a a new type of hero never before seen hit our screens in the form of English actor Simon MacCorkindale as Doctor Jonathan Chase, a billionaire and a man with a dark secret. As a child he watched his father die only for the body to disappear Jedi Knight style. He left his son with a gem of wisdom. “My son you must have faith and learn. This is not the end. This is the beginning.”

Ok not the best parting words but Chase would travel to the deepest recesses of Africa and the peaks of Tibet and learn these dark secrets. One of these was how to bridge the gap between man and animal. By deep breathing and concentration he could turn himself into any animal you could think of. Using this ability he helps the police as a consultant until he meets officer Brooke MacKenzie (Melody Anderson) who discovers his secret. They form a partnership in which they flirt for all eight episodes of its short lived run. Making up the team is Chase’s best friend Ty (Michael D Roberts) who also provides the comedy relief.

Every animal transformation was anticipated like the Wonder Woman spin or Bruce Banner’s eye change heralding the arrival of the Hulk. While we never really knew how Chase was able to do this, it was impressive nonetheless. Simon MacCorkindale who went on to feature in Falcon Crest had a very distinctive face and shape. Academy Award winner Stan Winston created the transformation effects reminiscent of the Howling wolf. You would see Chase at midpoint of either his panther or hawk metamorphosis then cut to the real animal. This was in a time where effects were pushing the envelope to be better than before until the arrival of CGI. There is a lot to be said about practical effects.

John Carpenter’s The Thing was all practical effects and delivered a stunning movie with some of the most memorable monsters from the big screen never seen before. Jump forward to the prequel where both were used and you can clearly see the practicals are better than computer generated. Similarly when they did a CGI Pumpkinhead, it was woeful.

Manimal was not well received but again fell victim to network scheduling before being cancelled. However the show now has cult status. The stories bar a couple are pretty standard and logic as always where shapeshifters are concerned went out the window. Chase would change wearing clothes and when he turned back to human he was still wearing the clothes. At least the Hulk lost his shirt and shoes on more than one occasion. It was a similar problem with Maya from Space 1999 but not one for the gelatinous Odo from Deep Space 9.

Chase and his friends would deal with a wolf girl, a tiger accused of murder, Chinese mobsters threatening a neighbourhood, Russians, traitors, scrimshaws and falling from aeroplanes. Perhaps the best was Breath of the Dragon where a Chinese mobster was terrorising a neighbourhood and converting young peple to his cause as the Dragon. In this one Chase had to adapt the skills of the animal world and fight as a man to free the people from the Dragon. It is also the most hard hitting of them all and violent as an elderly man refuses to be intimidated and is set on fire along with his property. Logic fails here probably due the writers counting on kids watching the show as the man was up and about again in no time with minor burns. This was despite the fact he was engulfed and even Chase had trouble putting out the flames. Dialogue could be clunky as the show failed to find its own identity.

But ultimately Manimal failed due to having no money put into it. It was clear they were on sets rather than real buildings and a wall part cardboard was obvious when the bull smashed through it. It was also a show before its time with a huge idea that the times could not fully realise into a show that didn’t follow the standard formula. Chase would transform into a panther, hawk, snake, bull and a dolphin to name a few but not even Stan winston could come up with a human dolphin effect. There was no attempt to explore where Chase had gone and what other mad mysteries and secrets he discovered. We had a global playground here that went no further than the streets of New York. Why did his father vanish when he died? What did the cryptic message mean? Who were the tribe Chase was with when they witnessed his father’s death? Didn’t that freak him out and did he get the answer he needed?

Like Wakanda, Manimal had its very own mythology that was wasted completely.

if done today Manimal could be anything he wanted thanks to technology but alas 1983 was not the right time for him to be born. However the show did have its fans and MacCorkindale would return once more to the role of Manimal in an episode of Night Man. This time Chase returned as Night Man fought a time travelling Jack the Ripper. Chase now had a daughter who could also change into animals but this went against the original as Chase learned how to do this from someone. It wasn’t passed on through irradiated cells. Also all animal transformations here were CGI rather than practical. There a brief possibility of a new live action revival in 2012 but it never went ahead.

MacCorkindale rejected the role of Captain Archer in Enterprise but was one of the British actors tht paved the way for others in america alongside Joan Collins. He would die in October 2010 from cancer in London. He was a great actor that held your attention on screen. I personally liked the show despite its failings because there wasn’t a kid in the world that hasn’t seen it and done the animal transformation actions. You start breathing through your nose and mouth and stretch your hand out in front of you hoping it will bubble and became a panther’s pae or hawk talon. That’s why the kid in me will never die.

Manimal remains a victim of being born in the wrong time when television minds and money couldn’t handle such big ideas.

Forgotten Villains: The Avengers: Cybernauts

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

Between 1976 and 1977 larger than life villains, bizarre situations and even monster rats were every day life for our heroes. In one episode there was even a Pied Piper who controlled birds rather than rats. In Gnaws, a lovely spin on Jaws, the Spielberg great white shark movie, they fought a giant rat, grown to elephant size by means of a top secret government formula that accelerates growth. It was aimed to end world hunger but as always with these things, some was stolen. They would face one odd situation after another with some of the action transferring to Canada who had partly funded some of the 25 episode run.

Only in the Avengers could a fishing rod become a deadly weapon on an island where the body of Hitler is being kept in suspended animation and a gang of monks are actually Nazis that have stopped aging. They faced mad Chinese Mandarins and old school friends with a grudge as well as criminals that could put half of London to sleep to pull off the ultimate robbery and plastic surgeons that could take people, change their faces and replace people like the Prime Minister were ten a penny. There was nothing that Steed, Purdey and Gambit couldn’t handle. Watching them back now I think they are great stories, some have a logic problem, but it’s all done with such energy and enthusiasm. Gambit is in love with Purdey and constantly tries to get her into bed but she is a lady that has the deadliest high kick in the world and can take down anyone that got in her way.

Played by Joanna Lumley who is a national icon, let’s be honest, Purdey fitted the quintessential Avenger girl; beautiful, deadly and fun. For the first time ever, Steed had a male side kick in the form of Gareth Hunt’s Gambit who was a super spy and a martial arts expert though he could pull off a mean Irish accent. Steed, as played by Patrick Macnee, was…well, Steed. An English gent who enjoyed the finer things in life, loved the ladies and he was still lethal with an umbrella. Week after week these three acted as a team to keep the world safe and there were times they came close to failing but triumphed in the end.

One such battle was the Last of the Cybernauts…? which brought back an old enemy from the sixties series, the titular robotic Cybernauts. First encountered twice by Steed and Mrs Peel, played by Diana Rigg. It seemed they were gone forever but not so. It was this battle almost saw the end of all three of the Avengers.

The episode begins on Steed’s birthday when they receive a call that a double agent has been identified and they leave to take him down. Felix Kane is his name and in the ensuing car chase he is caught in an explosion. Fast forward a year later and we discover that Kane wasn’t killed and the events still bear heavily on Steed’s mind. Kane is now a wheelchair bound cripple who wears masks to convey his moods and he is hellbent on revenge. He tracks down the Cybernaut technology via the original builder, Frank Goff, now released from prison, and has him reactivate the robot. Killing Goff , he uses the Cybernaut to kidnap a surgeon, Professor Mason, who will be able to complete Kane’s plan. He wants to be augmented using Cybernaut technology so he can kill the Avengers himself. Steed is almost killed by the robot when Kane sends it to steal some technology that Mason needs to complete the surgery.

Gambit also has a run in with the Cybernaut along with Purdey on a staircase where they manage to throw it from the top flight. Mason succeeds in combining Kane with a Cybernaut and he targets Purdey first, knocking Gambit down along the way with a car. Mason manages to warn Steed about Kane’s plan. He intends to leave her in the same state as himself to torture Steed and when he invades her apartment, it seems Purdey is going to die. They really go for it in the fight scene and her flat is trashed. The famous Purdey moves are there but she is worn down by the Kane cyborg and he manages to grab her, ready to smash her body for her friends to find. However, Steed and Gambit burst in and spray Kane with plastic skin which freezes the Cybernaut tech and stops him in his tracks.

A lot works well to make this an unforgettable episode. The Cybernauts themselves are creepy, blank faced silver robots and can kill you by breaking your neck with one blow. Unlike the Cybermen in Doctor Who, the Cybernauts are mindless, controlled by remote using cameras in their eyes to allow the controller to see where they are going. The incidental music makes a huge impact in conveying their menace.

These really are lethal weapons and the fact they have no expression to read means that you never know when they are going to break your neck. And again, when Gambit and Purdey go up against it they might as well be fighting air as nothing they do can stop it or slow it down. Kane himself is a Davros-like villain made even creepier by the false plastic masks which he changes to convey his mood. He is also reminiscent of the John Lumic character in the 21st century Doctor Who’s Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel starring David Tennant. But he is much more sinister, living in a place that is covered in pictures of Steed, Purdey and Gambit’s faces as well as life-sized cardboard cut-outs, all the focus for his hate and vengeance making him the quintessential Avengers villain. There was almost an appearance by Diana Rigg but it never happened and the episode works well none the less. A complete classic from a classic show.

Hellraiser Special Now on Sale, London Launch This Week

The latest Phantasmagoria special is out now. This time it is a Hellraiser celebration with three articles by yours truly. Packed with features and interviews thre will be an official launch this week in London on Saturday 23rd March between 1 and 3. Check out the advert below. Sadly I can’t be there but if you’re in the area pop in and support a cracking magazine.