The Avengers Forever: Book Bloopers

	Book Bloopers Page 3 of 4

THE AVENGERS COMPANION
Alain Carraze and Jean-Luc Putheaud

I understand from one of the book's contributors that the authors did not have videos of the show to reference. Which begs the question: why publish an episode guide in a vacuum?—particularly when so many episode guides had already been published? Worse, they appear to have relied on Dave Rogers, who based his synopses on scripts and press releases instead of the actual shows. Since readers of Companion may not know this, let's set the record straight:

The Town of No Return: "Bazeley-by-the-Sea is a remote village on the Norfolk coast." Actually, according to two large signs at the railway station, the town is Little Bazeley, although Steed does refer to it once as "Little Bazeley by the Sea."

The Gravediggers: "...the exhumation of [Marlowe's] coffin, arranged by Steed, causes a panic." Steed does not arrange the exhumation of the coffin—the enemy does. "Marlowe has been burying jamming devices in graveyards all over the country..." Marlowe did not do the burying—he only designed the jamming device. And they aren't being buried all over the country, just around one radar station.

Death at Bargain Prices: "Kane, the new owner, keeps arranging night-time meetings for many of the staff." Actually, the meetings are arranged by Wentworth, and for a select few of the staff. "Emma is captured, leaving Steed to find out that the till receipts are in fact punch cards for a computer." Actually, it is Emma who makes the discovery about the punch cards, after Steed rescues her.

Castle De'Ath: "...a set of turbines, part of the machinery involved in cornering the local fishing market by trapping the fish using submarines." Not quite. The turbines are pumps used to flood the submarine bays, and the subs carry ultrasonic units to drive the fish away from the fishing areas.

The Master Minds: "A high-ranking government official is caught and kept
in custody following his attempt to steal top secret papers." Actually, he is shot by one of his own group, and is recovering at his home. And the group is simply called "Ransack," not the "Ransack Club."

A Surfeit of H2O: "Many of the villagers are preparing for the worst, thinking that the Great Flood is about to come again." Actually, Jonah Barnard and Eli Barker are the only two villagers who are preparing—the rest spend their time ridiculing Jonah and his ark. "Emma realises that the storm clouds emanate from a wine-making factory, a theory confirmed by a meteorologist friend of hers, when he then also mysteriously meets his death." Actually, at this point neither Emma nor the meteorologist think the storms emanate from the wine factory; they are simply taking measurements. And the meteorologist does not die mysteriously—he dies the same way everyone else does: he drowns in one of the freak rainstorms.

The Hour That Never Was: "Invited to a closing down party for one of his former RAF regiments at a military base..." Actually, it was the airbase closing down, not the regiment. And Steed was never in the RAF. "Steed loses Emma, and after an encounter with a drunken tramp is knocked unconscious." Steed encounters a sober scavenger, not a drunken tramp. "On reaching the base a second time...an hour has passed." Actually, an hour has not passed—at least according to all the clocks—which is the whole point of the story.

Man-Eater of Surrey Green: "Steed calls on his friend, Dr. Sheldon..." Dr. Sheldon does not appear to be a friend of Steed's, and he does not call on her—she comes out to the site.

Two's a Crowd: "Ambassador Brodny thinks he has found the perfect double for Steed in a male model he sees on the street..." Actually, Brodny finds the double at a fashion show.

Too Many Christmas Trees: "Emma thinks the best thing to cheer him up is to invite him along to a party given by her publisher where everyone must turn up in costumes with a Charles Dickens theme." Brandon Storey is not Emma's publisher, but a collector of Dickensian manuscripts. As host of the Christmas party, he provides the costumes for his guests. "Two telepaths who bluff their way into the function are able to further influence Steed's thoughts." No one bluffs their way into the function. It is the host who is responsible for gathering the telepaths in the first place, and the party is a cover for their operation.

The Girl from Auntie: "She is unwittingly part of a scheme devised by a gang of international kidnappers..." It's not a gang, just one man, Auntie, who is a thief, not a kidnapper (ordinarily, anyway).

Honey for the Prince: "A membership form for Q.Q.F. at the crime scene leads Emma to investigate the company that makes people's fantasies come true." Actually, Steed did the initial investigating of the Q.Q.F.

The See-Through Man: "Brodny... thinks he has stumbled on an excellent weapon for use in espionage..." Actually, Brodny is merely a pawn, duped into believing the invisibility formula works. "When Steed and Emma visit the inventor..." Only Steed visits him.

The Bird Who Knew Too Much: "They find themselves attending a rare bird exhibition, where they discover Crusoe is in fact a parrot..." Before they conclude that Crusoe is a bird, Emma visits the exhibition alone, after it has closed, and finds the parrot missing.

The Hidden Tiger: "A Siamese cat has just been delivered to Emma..." She receives an ordinary street cat, not a Siamese.

Never, Never Say Die: "Steed and Emma find out that such survival has been quite commonplace in the area..." They find no such thing—this is the first occurrence. (The episode was apparently extensively rewritten, and this is one of the original story elements.)

Death's Door: "...the representative thinks he sees a lion and falls under the wheels of an approaching car." Actually, the representative describes to Steed a dream he had that a lion is the last thing he sees before he dies. Running from the conference for the second time, he is hit by a car—right in front of a concrete lion.

The £50,000 Breakfast: "A ventriloquist and his dummy are travelling in a car which is involved in a mysterious accident with a hay lorry." There is nothing mysterious about the accident.

Dead Man's Treasure: "Steed is invited to compete in a rally organized by an old friend..." Steed has never met the man before the rally—the invite came by way of the slain agent.

The Positive Negative Man: "The two agents then encounter a formidable foe, a masked man in rubber boots..." The man is not masked, unless green makeup constitutes a mask.