Andrew Pixley reviews Escapades: An Exploration of Avengers Curiosities, curated by JZ Ferguson and Alan Hayes

“Compare and contrast.” A mantra that I recall from GCSE English essays of decades back, a concept so familiar that one takes it for granted in life… and that makes it all too easy to forget how very, very effective it can be when deployed with superb examples, as in this book concerning the off-beat, stylish 1960s television series The Avengers with a dash of its similarly effective 1970s descendent The New Avengers.

Or rather not The Avengers. Or The New Avengers. It’s more like a peek into alternative dimensions of the multiverse, pondering like comic publishers what things might have been like if Character A had been written by author B and lived in city C. It’s a series of studies into some stuff that did happen and some stuff that didn’t happen.

What would The Avengers be like if it was played out by female Mexican wrestling stars? What would The Avengers be like written by that bloke who did The Onedin Line? What would The Avengers be like if it was relocated to San Francisco by an American production company? What would The Avengers be like in a post-Watchmen picture strip form? What would The Avengers look like as an early 1980s cinema film? What would The Avengers be like on South African commercial radio sponsored by the makers of Cold Water Omo? What would The New Avengers be like written by a bloke who did write The Avengers but who’s not really got a format for this revival worked out yet? What would The Avengers be like if two blokes from a West German photographic supplies shop who owned an 8mm cine camera decided to have a go at making it? What would The Avengers be like as a theatrical sex comedy with material that makes the smuttier Carry On films look sophisticated?

These items – some of which happened in this universe and some of which didn’t – are all described and then analysed. Some of the material that appears in this volume will have a whiff of familiarity to some readers. Some of it has appeared in print previously in an earlier incarnation. Some of it was housed on now-defunct websites, and benefits massively from now having its words lying static on a page rather than sliding around on a smart screen of your choice. Some of it is gorgeously and refreshingly new and exciting. Together, it all adds up to a very engrossing 350 or so pages of reading.

In some cases, it’s possible for the reader to experience the original text before diving into the heart and soul of the analysis and context. The 1970s Springbok Radio serialisations of 1960s filmed episodes of The Avengers have been in circulation for some time, and should the reader want to join in with the delights of Donald Monat and Diane Appleby as Steed and Mrs Peel then a few seconds Googling for Old Time Radio sites should satisfy them with ease. The scripts for The Avengers: This’ll Kill You by Cyril Abraham and The New Avengers: Tell Me About It by Tony Williamson have been made commercially available as script books, while other unrealised scripts have been unofficially in circulation in fandom for some years – with others some reside in private collections and this is a rare chance to understand their nature. Former US comic publisher Eclipse released Steed and Mrs Peel over an agonisingly long period in the early 1990s with subsequent reprints, the German home movie presentations of Diana Rigg in a copyright confounding Mrs Peel-like role have appeared on digital discs, and again the world wide web can quickly source off-air recordings of the Quinn Martin pilot Escapade (formerly Avengers USA) or Las Luchadoras vs el Robot Asesino (a presumably unlicensed remake of the 1967 episode “Return of the Cybernauts”… but now with added Mexican lady wrestlers). As such, most readers can access the source material if they want – otherwise, detailed synopses convey the style and content of the item under analysis giving them all the information that they need.

And it’s generally the analysis where the true value of the volume is to be enjoyed. Rather than presenting simplistic reviews based more on the personal whims of the writer, these offer something far meatier that attempt something very laudable and far-reaching: to understand what the nature of The Avengers actually is. 

Not an easy thing.

The Avengers is one of those series which – due to longevity and revival – changes. And a lot of people don’t like change. Even within the fanbase, battlelines are drawn as perspective are espoused on digital platforms. The early videotaped episodes aren’t The Avengers because they’re dull and slow. The later filmed episodes aren’t The Avengers because they’re stupid and silly. The episodes with Tara King in them aren’t any good because they don’t usually have Emma Peel in them. The episodes without John Steed in them aren’t any good because they don’t have John Steed in them. The episodes of The New Avengers are awful because they aren’t episodes of The Avengers. The episodes of The New Avengers in Canada are particularly awful because they aren’t episodes of The Avengers and they’re in Canada. That sort of thing.

Indeed, a whole stack of stuff where commentators imprint their own boundaries on a series as opposed to allowing the programme to define its own territory by just – y’know – being itself.  And being allowed to change.  And being whatever it wants to be.

As such, it’s a wonderful experience to read pieces of analysis that understand that part of the joy of The Avengers is that it did develop rather than stand still and stagnate – that each different approach tracked to the changes of TV technology and society in general moved it onwards into new territories, keeping it fresh and unexpected and experimental. The understanding of the authors manifests itself in a beautiful level of detail – backing up instinct with fact as myriad plot elements and character traits from the original TV series are compared and contrasted with the variant incarnations under examination in their respective chapters.

Thus, it’s not just a case of looking at the script for Avengers International – an unmade TV reboot pilot scripted in 1985 – and saying ‘Do these characters, concepts and situations feel like they did in the original series?’, but instead asking ‘Given the show’s history of development and the changes in TV production and broadcasting, what would these elements have looked and felt like by 1985, and how does the text compare against these estimated trajectories?’ So much of what’s written here is enhanced by the understanding that this is a series that changes and develops. Does a call-back to the 1960s successfully reignite the spark of the original?  Or does it merely remind one of past glories and look like reheated left-overs? 

Furthermore, the change in media is considered. It’s no longer the issue of film or tape production – it’s how these characters and notions translate to the theatrical stage, to serialised radio, to the graphic form… and what these approaches do and don’t allow compared to television. The evidence presented in the analysis – in the form of astute observation and revealing interviews with some of those involved – makes for fascinating reading to understand how and why a venture would have or did succeed or fail by its own aims and criteria. As such it’s a text filled with thought and understanding – not just some knee-jerk reaction reckoning of some stuff based on a highly selective experience.

So – yes. Compare and contrast. It is still a thing. And in this tome, it’s done very well indeed.

Andrew Pixley

Andrew Pixley is a retired data developer. For the last 30 years he’s written about almost anything to do with television if people will pay him – and occasionally when they won’t. In addition to his work for various publishers, he is a regular contributor to CST Online

• Escapades: An Exploration of Avengers Curiosities by JZ Ferguson & Alan Hayes, published by Quoit Media | ISBN: 978-1-911537-25-0 | Available from a number of outlets, including AmazonUK; Foyles; and Hatchards

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Tags: Alan Hayes, Andrew Pixley, JZ Ferguson, Quoit Media, The Avengers