Episode 116: Emma Peel Era |
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Production completed: 13 March 1967 Steed is invited to a fancy dress party—aboard an airplane! When he and the six other guests discover they were each invited by a different host, they check the cockpit and find it empty! Soon they land on a deserted island where they are told that one of them is a trained "super-killer." But which of them is "it"?
Since the plot is quite obviously a Ten Little Indians variation, it is thus a bit predictable. Plus, portions are recycled from the Cathy Gale episode, "Dressed To Kill." The device of luring a group of people to a remote place with bogus costume party invitations from different hosts, and then picking them off one by one, is shared by both; the difference lies in the purpose of the ruse. Still, it's awesome to see such a heavy-duty guest cast—Donald Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling and Brian Blessed—all at once.
I'd always thought it was a shame they didn't get Ms. Rampling to play Mrs. Hana Wilde as Steed's partner instead of Linda Thorson as Tara King. As it happens, this may not be an entirely original idea, as Hanna Wild was Steed's partner in the short-lived Avengers stage play. A piece of footage is recycled in an episode of The Prisoner. The shot of the plane approaching the island, from the cockpit, appears in the episode "Many Happy Returns" when Number Six is searching for The Village. (Ben Cottam) That same said footage also appears in the last episode of Secret Agent, "Shinda Shima." It's the island for which Drake is headed. (Symantha Drake)
When Hana explains she knocked out Steed, Emma scolds, "Naughty. He won't like that."
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THE SUPERLATIVE SEVEN |
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Teleplay by |
Brian Clemens |
CAST |
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John Steed |
Patrick Macnee 007 |
UNBILLED/STUNTS |
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Fighter |
Royston Farrell |
Brian Blessed |
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John Hollis |
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Gary Hope |
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Hugh Manning |
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James Maxwell |
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