The Avengers Forever: Detail Point

	Episode Ranking

LOOK - (stop me, but is this really a top 25 Avengers episode?)...

I had only been following the "Look..." debate with wry detachment until I saw a comment from J.A.P. Lloyd, better known as the precocious chief Young Avenger, referring to the fan voting which I tabulate on a monthly basis for David. Young Master Lloyd was quoted as saying, "This is the only Tara King episode to have made the top twenty in the fans list, and the reasons for this are too long too list." While it is true that it is far and away the highest ranked Tara King episode in the original manual visitor voting poll, outstripping many Emma Peels by a wide margin, is it really a tour de force of creative genius, or is it a case of the numbers masking the true worth of the episode in our visitors' eyes?

"Look..." scored 90 points on 90 ballots cast—an average of one point per ballot, as if every voter had ranked "Look..." as the tenth placed episode on their ballots. But it accumulated those 90 points by appearing on only sixteen voting forms. In other words, only 18% of voters thought the episode worthy of top ten consideration.

That got me thinking. What would the top ten Avengers episodes look like to the sixteen "Look..." aficionados? I crunched the numbers and came up with their top ten list:

RANK	EPISODE	OVERALL VISITOR RANKING
1	Look...	22
2 (tie)	Dial a Deadly Number	18
2 (tie)	Castle De'ath	11
4	The Town of No Return	10
5 (tie)	The Joker	4
5 (tie)	From Venus With Love	25
5 (tie)	The Correct Way to Kill	27
8	Something Nasty in the Nursery	22
9 (tie)	The Positive Negative Man	30
9 (tie)	Game	37

Respectable episodes all, but somewhat askew from the overall visitor voting results (indeed, the top-rated episode of all time, "Too Many Christmas Trees," doesn't even make this list).

Two of these sixteen voters ranked "Look..." as the number one of all Avengers episodes. But some of the other number one picks left me scratching my head: the only first place votes for "Game" (okay, a close call as far as Tara King episodes go), "All Done with Mirrors," "Small Game for Big Hunters," "Who Was That Man I Saw You With?" and "The Rotters" came from the "Look..." ballots. In addition, the following episodes received their sole mention from the sixteen submitted forms: "The Mauritius Penny," "The Medicine Men," "The Little Wonders," "Mission to Montreal," "Esprit de Corps," "November Five," "My Wildest Dream," "False Witness," "Have Guns - Will Haggle," "Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?," "Second Sight" and "Invasion of the Earthmen." "Bizarre" received its only two votes from this lot of sixteen.

As curious as the inclusions were, the exclusions were, if possible, even more remarkable. "The Cybernauts," #6 overall, appeared on only two ballots; "Death at Bargain Prices," #5 overall, appeared only three; "Murdersville," #3 overall, placed on three of sixteen ballots, as did second-ranked "A Touch of Brimstone." "Too Many Christmas Trees," which has been the wire-to-wire leader since the inception of visitor voting, only rated inclusion on two ballots for a measly eight points, some 82 points behind "Look..."

So, what does this say about "Look..." in particular and visitor voting in general? With regard to the former, it appears that this episode’s ranking is artificially inflated at the expense of other more credible choices that did not appear on the ballots of those who voted for the show in question. This brings up the latter point because this inflation is a direct by-product of how we conducted visitor voting.

Let me give you an example. Every autumn in the United States a weekly poll is conducted among members of the sports media to determine the top ranked collegiate American football team. If a certain sportswriter ranked winless Rutgers (the State University of New Jersey) as the top team and omitted entirely undefeated and consensus number one Florida State from his ballot, the sportswriter in question would have his vote voided and his voting credentials revoked.

We did not do that here at TAF. This voting was entirely a matter of taste. It was also completely subjective, unguided as it were by objective criteria like wins and losses. Is it accurate as to viewer preference? Well, yes, but to a point. Had the voters been asked to rank 25 episodes as opposed to 10, the results would have been more accurate. Indeed, the most accurate measure would be to have individuals rank all 135 eligible episodes, as the larger the pool, the more precise the measure would be. David and I both thought that ranking ten was a large enough commitment which would still give reasonably accurate results.

So, is "Look..." one of the great or not-so-great Avengers episodes? My only recommendation is to be careful of the numbers when making your respective arguments pro or con; they are not the whole story. Largely it is a matter of taste. I know some folks who, if asked to rank all 135 episodes, would place all the Peel and Gale episodes end-to-end before even considering a Tara King. Others I know believe that if "Look..." had been a Diana Rigg script it would be among the all time greats, but barring that, think the episode is middle-of-the-road. Still others believe that "Look..." holds its own among the better shows of the series. My opinion? Sorry, I’m just the beancounter, and besides, I don’t need that kind of grief.

—Mark Hale