Tara King and Female Physicality in The Avengers

Fight scenes are an important part of each Avengers episode, whether the fights are a quick scuffle to get away from a villain or the big battle at the end that vanquishes the bad guys and puts things to rights. Starting with Season 2 and the advent of badass judoka Cathy Gale, the female leads had at least as much fighting time as Steed did, and possibly even more in Seasons 2 and 3. (I don’t know for sure because I haven’t gone through those seasons and counted, but I’d be willing to bet that Cathy thrashes more baddies than Steed does.)

These instances of combat aren’t just moments that advance the plot and add excitement to the adventure: they also say some important things about the characters. I’ve already explored facets of the combat aspect of the show in some other blogs (links at the foot of this post), but here I want to talk about Tara King as a combatant and about Steed’s responses to Tara’s physicality, in contrast both to the response of Tara’s friend Teddy in “My Wildest Dream” and especially in contrast to the dynamic between Steed and Cathy Gale.

Thoughts About “A Touch of Brimstone”

I was watching some clips from the Season 4 episode “A Touch of Brimstone” as part of preparing a new music video, and I noticed a few really interesting things going on in Act II. Here are my ideas about these, in no particular order.

Foreshadowing Cartney’s Demise

When Mrs. Peel meets the villain John Cartney (Peter Wyngard), he invites her to a meeting of the Hellfire Club. We initially see the lads are all drinking, eating, and wenching, but Cartney and Mrs Peel haven’t arrived yet. One of the Hellfire Bois, Roger Winthrop (Michael Latimer), calls for a toast. He starts reciting the Hellfire Club’s own special toast, and other members of the club join in. Cartney and Mrs Peel enter the room in the middle of the toast, whereupon Cartney takes a torch from the wall next to the door and finishes the toast by himself before throwing the torch into the blazing fireplace to one side of the table where the party is going on.

“In for an Interesting Challenge”: Steed vs Dr Campbell in “The Master Minds”

Sir Clive Todd, an important British politician, has been found shot in the head in a safe containing secret documents, which he apparently was helping to steal. Steed and Mrs Peel go to Sir Clive’s house, where he is recuperating from his injuries. Mrs Peel is placed under cover as Sir Clive’s nurse. When Sir Clive finally regains consciousness, Steed and Mrs Peel question him, but he has no memory of the robbery, and his memories of other important things seem to be fuzzy as well.

Steed decides that it would be a good idea to have a psychiatrist examine Sir Clive, to see whether the amnesia is real or a clever cover for illegal activities. The Ministry sends Dr Fergus Campbell to help with the case, and his first interaction with Steed is a testy dick-smacking contest, which is worth reproducing in full:

Emma’s Date With George Miles as Critique of Rape Culture in “What the Butler Saw”

 ⊕ Content notice for discussion of sexual assault and mentions of rape

“Emma, Darling, You Look Ravishing”

Secrets have been mysteriously leaking to the opposition, and the primary suspects are all highly placed military officers—a vice admiral in the Royal Navy, a major general in the Royal Army, and a group commander in the Royal Air Force—each with his own potentially exploitable personal weakness. Group Commander George Miles is known as something of a Lothario, so Steed asks Mrs Peel to use her feminine wiles to see whether she can’t worm some information out of him. Mrs Peel obliges, managing to wangle a date with Miles at his home. Steed, meanwhile, goes under cover as Miles’ butler, to see whether he can find any info himself and also to be on hand to protect Mrs Peel in case the date gets ugly.