The Avengers Forever: The Young Avenger

	The Young Avenger Page 53 of 110

Game
By Joseph A.P. Lloyd

Direction: Five out of five. If anyone wants to dispute this episode as the best filmed episode, they are welcome to do so, but this one is my No. 2. It does not ever get better than this.

Plot: Three out of five. Although we know that this one is a repeat of an old Batman episode, it does not really matter, as it is not like "The Winged Avenger" in these terms. Actually, for The Avengers, the plot is so well executed that it is difficult to remember its presence. However, Peter Jeffrey is just so brilliant that the plot does not matter so much.

Original Music: Three out of five. Here we have Howard Blake's first score for The Avengers, and it is actually rather good, with his very own action theme at the end, used to great effect in "Who Was That Man I Saw You With?" Rather a good score.

With Music From: "Death at Bargain Prices," "The See-Through Man," "From Venus With Love," "You Have Just Been Murdered," "What the Butler Saw," "All Done with Mirrors."

Wittiness: Three out of five. Like "The Joker," this episode does not need real wit, but there are some good lines in it. "He speaks Greek very well." "He has a distinct advantage. He is Greek, it's English he's studying."

Action: Five out of five. We have great selection of fights here, something to everyone's taste, I feel. But, that chloroform is extremely suspicious. Hmm, surely she is not that easy to overcome? The fight with the dicemen is enough to dispel this, though. Wonderfully choreographed and very well shot, it looks like the fight on the rooftops from You Only Live Twice. James Bond would be proud.

Cars/Sets/Locations: Four out of five. For the first time, we see Steed's Rolls-Royce, although he regains his Bentley again for "Split!" The location filming in the fields is also very good, along with the sets, which are of a high standard throughout. Steed gets caught in a very Bondian position when he has to stop the clock. Brilliant!

Introduction/Tag: Three out of five. Steedopoly is a very poor joke which makes me suspect that Harris did not write the tag. However, the introduction deserves five here, for its inexplicability and excellent direction, especially from the lucky operator of the Scalextric model!

Overall Impression: This was my favourite Tara King episode for a long time, until I saw "Super Secret Cypher Snatch" again the other day. Unfortunately, this one loses out because of a silly speeded up piece of film in the Jigsaw shop. If that had not been there, it would get nine and a Half, it really is that good. Just sit back and play the game!

Rating: Nine out of ten.