The Medicine Men
by Nick Griffiths
This episode is strange in various ways. Firstly, the whole thing is
incredibly dull. Somehow copyright issues and cheap imitations of products
doesn't really make attention-grabbing drama. This is another episode to be
directed by Kim Mills, whose direction, shall we say, is not up to the
standard of Peter Hammond or Bill Bain.
But this episode is fairly good. It's not the best of the third
season—far from it. It's also not the worst, either, but it is
entertaining, despite the signs that it shouldn't be.
The story, like many from its season, is mainly character-driven, and
there are few fights to be seen. Maybe it's the guest cast which spices
things up a bit. Harold Innocent delights as always, this time as the
murderous action painter, in a way this is a clever way of the
run-of-the-mill "lets get the oil" story (other examples include "Honey for the Prince").
The highlight of the episode has to be the scene where Steed pretends to be
an Icelandic art collector and delivers some witty remarks.
Also, Peter Barkworth is good in his role, even if his role as villain
doesn't really make that much sense. And Kim Mills puts in some unusually
good direction at times, with interesting sweeps of the Turkish bath and the
art studio.
Overall an average 3 out of 5.