The Young Avenger
Page 17 of 110

Second Sight
By Joseph A.P. Lloyd

Direction: Five out of five. There are some extremely weird camera angles in this episode. This, and the fact that it is directed by Peter Hammond is all you need to know to imagine this as another first class-effort.

Plot: Three out of five. What actually starts off as a rather special story with dark undertones, seemingly about new surgical techniques, becomes just an elaborate diamond smuggling ruse. Woodhouse must have been having an off day, and run out of ideas. Shame.

Music: Four out of five. For once, Dankworth seems to have come up with some new music. How wonderful! The recycled stuff also complements the action rather well in this particular episode as well. A good score.

Wittiness: Two out of five. As with many of the Cathy Gale stories, I can never remember the best lines in this episode. But I remember the overall wit content, so here we are.

Action: Two out of five. There is a brilliant fight at the end of this episode in Halversson's house, but it seems to be over extremely quickly, and it is not particularly realistic. The other point comes from the location for the fight itself.

Cars/Sets/Locations: Two out of five. Here we see one of the finest sets in all of the series, Halversson's house, juxtaposed with one of the best missed opportunities in the series: the Mont Blick clinic has no location filming! No cars either. Couldn't they just give us a little bit of location filming?

Introduction/Tag: Two out of five. Hmm. The introduction doesn't seem to need to have its own little title, it is immediately part of the story. The tag at the end is not very funny, either. A serious episode.

Overall Impression: Here we see a brilliant partnership between Hammond and Woodhouse, with far more pace than the best episode for Hammond fans, "The Golden Eggs," great performances from Carson and Bowles, and a nasty sense of altitude. However, the plot is a bit confusing, although very good, and Steed does not seem to be on form this week. Rather satisfying, though.

Rating: Seven and a half out of ten.

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Page last modified: 5 May 2017.

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