The Avengers Forever: The GLG Reports

	The GLG Reports Page 33 of 67

Epic
By Grant L. Goggans

"Pink pages, Kirby! This will mean pink pages!" I had always thought "The Forget-Me-Knot" was the worst Mrs. Peel episode, but that was because I'd never seen "Epic," a cheap, turgid, derivative mess in which Macnee and Rigg are the only actors even rising to the level of competence, and Dame Diana's not doing that great a job. Peter Wyngarde manages exactly one cute moment in "Epic" when, dressed as an Indian and getting trashed by Mrs. Peel, he lets out a subdued wheeze of exasperation that is onscreen for less than a second. In every other scene, he's an over-the-top clown, not giving an inch of concentration to what he's doing. It contains one of the least funny gags in the series, when Mrs. Peel imitates the MGM lion, and just goes on for too long. Z.Z. von Schnerk, incidentally, an uncontrolled and unfunny parody of Erich von Stroheim, is certainly the worst villain in the series. If this were Batman, he'd be about as effective as the Minstrel or Minerva. Speaking of Batman, "Epic" seems awfully familiar. Where have I seen this storyline of criminals filming their scheme and destruction of the hero before? Where have I seen the use of the real studio backlot doubling as a fictional abandoned studio backlot, the regular costume changes into various genre stereotypes, the parody of von Stroheim, the helpless hero strapped on a treadmill inching towards a giant saw? All in a 1966 two-parter called "Death in Slow Motion"/"The Riddler's False Notion." That wasn't Batman's finest hour either, but it was acres better than this piece of crap. At least the teaser sequence is great.