As others point out, the "trick" is obvious and the story just falls flat, because there is no way that the magician
could be involved and not be arrested after the second murder.
Loses a bowler for Venus and the parade of anonymous/interchangeable blondes, plot "twist" visible a mile off, inept
antagonists, desperate sets, and just general ugh-ness. Okay, half a bowler for Steed's millionaire act.
Box of Tricks
by Matthew Moore, a.k.a. Sixofone
Plot: Good. Taping secrets reminded me of "What
the Butler Saw."
The magic show never tied in well with the main plot.
Humour: Good. My favourite line from the episode comes from the scene where Steed is chatting up a girl
trying to find out about the murder. "What about this cabinet, eh, is that the same one they used when..." "When
that silly little girl got herself killed? Yes, it is the same. If that is all you are interested in, why don't you
go and have a look at the cabinet for yourself? It's backstage." "Is it really? Thank you, I will."
Direction: OK.
Acting: Good. Patrick did a good job as the hypochondriac millionaire.
Music: OK. I liked Venus' first song. It reminded me of that song they sang on the The Lawrence Welk
Show at the end. Although I never liked The Lawrence Welk Show in particular, I always liked that song.
Tag: Poor. Pointless and annoying.
Miscellaneous: I didn't like Venus' haircut, but she did seem a little smarter in this episode. The intro
to this episode was very different. It flowed from the intro to Act 1 almost seamlessly where as usually we are
treated to the fade to black. I enjoyed the opening footage of London. Venus looked like a genius next to the
gullible Kathleen Sutherland. This is the best of the Venus Smith episodes I have seen so far.
Overall Rating: 5/10
Box of Tricks
by Ron Geddes
That magician's cabinet seems to be the box of tricks and the nightclub
owner looks bound to play some part in anything underhand. It might have been good to link the
long sequence of scenes of city nightlife to the action indoors by zooming in on the club
exterior. It still feels like they're somewhere near Piccadilly Circus.
Given that the club gets closed after the magician's first assistant is killed in the show
the big weakness in the plot is how little the police are involved after the second death. Other
things such as why a transmitter wouldn't be located in a private apartment can maybe be
explained.
The spying plot is good and leaves me wondering what the motivation of Gallam and the
magician was. Perhaps it seemed safe enough operating from that basement initially. When things
start to get out of hand does Gallam resort to murder because he's acting out of some idealistic
beliefs with the magician just in it for the money? Quite a nasty way they try to get rid of
Steed, too. The General's daughter acts in good faith but is really quite gullible in believing
in the healing boxes. It's clear she isn't involved, just foolish; and, as things turn out,
stops short of getting very emotionally involved with him too. I thought Steed might be counting
bullets before she intervened.
Venus's songs are enjoyable; it was a good idea to have a singer in the show for a while.
She's very agreeable and helpful to Steed in his assignment even looking to him to give her the
nod to take over in the show. Of course she would be inquisitive of the box he gets delivered to
her address. I like his reaction on hearing that she's opened it. He's really done all the
intelligence work this time however so her enthusiasm at the very end is quite adorable in
telling him all they've achieved. She gets everything right but still needs some reassurance. He
doesn't even mind getting a kick on the dance floor from another blonde acquaintance because of
her. Venus obviously believes they make a great team and for the few episodes she was Steed's
Avengers girl—they did.
3 Corks
