User Reviews

As this episode opens a flight from Montreal to Ireland is approaching its destination when the crew get a message claiming to be from air traffic control telling them that they are five minutes from arrival, not twenty as they believed, and are too high. They descend and the last thing they see is a headland; they try to pull up but the plane crashes and explodes. Steed and Dr King fly to Ireland to discover why the plane crashed and what happened to the £250,000 that was in the hold. Dr King goes to the local convent, where the bodies were taken, and it soon becomes apparent that there was one survivor; a stewardess who was found later some distance from the plane. There are a couple of other anomalies; the pilot was strangled and the co-pilot is missing. Later the stewardess is also murdered and Steed intends to call in the Garda but the convent's mother superior reminds Steed that he is in Ireland not England and the authorities will not be entering the convent. With a second flight carrying money due soon it is imperative that Steed and Dr King get to the bottom of the case swiftly.

This episode gets off to a great start with a plane crash with a death toll that is surprisingly high for this series. The actual crash may not be exciting by modern TV standards but for the shows age and budget it was pretty impressive. The plot was interesting; the villains are modern versions of the old wreckers only instead of luring ships onto the rocks they are luring planes into the ground. The setting was good; one could believe that a convent in '60s Ireland would be considered beyond the suspicions and reach of the law… or at least that an Englishman might be persuaded that it was. There were a few surprises to be had; I certainly didn't expect the surviving stewardess to be murdered and the identity of the person behind the atrocity involves a good twist. Overall I found this to be a pretty impressive early 'Avengers' episode.

Looking back at the early episodes of "The Avengers" is like looking at a completely different kind of series. Beside Patrick MacNee as John Steed there is nothing to remind you of what would become a cult classic, the British tongue-in-cheek humor, the artificial look, the mix of old and brand new fashions, the science fiction elements, and so on. Instead, we see many things which were completely forbidden from the Emma Peel-episodes onwards.

1. This installment starts out with a veritable plane crash that causes 38 deaths. After Emma Peel (EP for the rest of this review) entered the series such a mass murdering would have been impossible.

2. One stewardess survives only to be strangled later. From EP onwards no females get murdered (with one exception in a late EP episode).

3. We see practically no single outdoor scene although the whole story takes place in a secluded part of Ireland. (Later, in strong contrast to the outlandish stories, the series sports many real landscapes and outdoor scenes. Just think of the first episode with EP, "The Town with no Return".)

4. Speaking of Ireland, foreign locations are more the rule in the early episodes than an exception. (Although we hardly get to see much of it.) After EP appears not a single story has a location outside of England (although some play with the illusion of taking place somewhere else, e.g. "African Summer").

5. This particular episode has a strong connection to Canada, which is also the case with other early episodes. The reason could be that Patrick MacNee worked as an actor and producer in Canada before he started in "The Avengers".

6. Religion was a no-no theme in the EP and Tara King episodes, here we have a convent and "nuns" with guns.

7. Steed has no female companion here but instead a male one, a Dr. King, which appears in three episodes.

In this episode we also have a rare personal comment by John Steed, telling that he flew a Lancaster throughout the war. This is picked up in the EP episode "The Hour that never was".

Overall, "Dead on Course" has many surprises for people who think they know what is coming. One drawback is the fact that all pre-EP episodes were videotaped and not filmed. The used film only for outdoor scenes and videotaped that later which looks simply awful! The scenes are sometimes oddly connected, when the stewardess got murdered, Dr. King and Steed are very relaxed that their only witness is death. For a few seconds one even believes that they have not found out yet! The ending is very fast paced, one hardly gets any answer to too many questions. There are no fight scenes and one explosion is happening off screen. But maybe this was a common thing in a 1962 TV series. On the other hand, John Steed already has some of his later antics, like joking about drinks with pub personnel. Worth seeing!

Up, up and away: Shooting on the second season of the Avengers gets off to an uncertain start after the enforced 7-month break (due to a strike). Keel is gone, Carol is gone, so is Keel's "cosy" surgery base. Once again the Avengers are branching out abroad, this time only across the Irish Sea. Plenty of stereotypes: spirits in the breakfast coffee, "Shamrock Airport", lots of blarney about nuns. Sounds like a recipe for disaster but somehow this story provides enough intrigue to keep one awake.

The Avenged?: The crime is a variation on the old wreckers who used to lure ships onto rocks with false beacon fires. This time, passengers on jet liners have received the treatment, all for the sake of a case full of banknotes. Oddly, despite using petrol to ensure a post-crash fire, some of the survivors are kept prisoner. Why?

Diabolical Masterminds?: The machinegun-wielding Mother Superior who has hijacked the nunnery presages "The Eagle's Nest". Vincent had me convinced that he was a fleeing innocent, cleverly realising the gig was up when Steed arrived and so putting on an act as the only helpful informer - which even fooled Steed. Vincent's suspicious boss (Doyle) was the red herring in the mix. The twist worked well, though I began to suspect Vincent when he'd already packed a bag for Canada despite being told to rush to steed without delay. It was a good idea to have him run out on his companions in crime, taking the loot.

The Avengers?: Dr Martin King is an adequate replacement for Dr Keel. He has a certain cheerfulness that Keel didn't, less cynical but nevertheless wary of Steed's old tricks. His weary digs at Steed's early-morning perkiness speak of an old acquaintance, and they seem to trust and admire each other's skills.

Umbrella, Charm and a Bowler Hat?: Steed gets some kind of rustic walking-stick (not a shillelagh) and a rather affected cigarette holder which he insist on sporting every time he makes a 'phone call. He is turned out impeccably despite trotting around dusty cellars, an eerie nunnery-morgue and possibly a crash site. King looks a bit rumpled after having to sleep "swimmingly" in damp lodgings. Both are rather terse, although Steed perks up when around the air hostesses. He also talks on equal terms with the co-pilot's likely widow, the balance of professional urgency and respect is just right. Good acting.

Bizarre?: Possibly the only story where an act ends with Steed loudly proclaiming what a "jolly good idea" it would be to feign a visit to "the gents" (toilet)! This facility also forms a plot point later on as an alibi for wandering the cellars. Most odd. And one of the nuns has five o'clock shadow. The blinking corpse has already been remarked upon, but as it happens during the zoom in to his face just before the commercials, it's a very unfortunate glitch (but unintentionally hilarious).

Dr King is a cheerful fellow (wonder if he and Tara are related?). Reasonable use is made of the cramped sets. Some fun is to be had with the elderly crash analyst whom Steed disgruntles at the airport; peevishly he remarks that Steed will eventually take over the running of the airport - which he does, to the man's grim amusement! 7/10.

A plane crashes under mysterious circumstances; when a 2nd one goes down in the same spot, Steed is sent to investigate, and drags Dr. King along to examine the large number of bodies.

This is another story where a mystery takes place in some tiny village, and everyone there could be in on the plot. There's the airport officials, one of whom really doesn't like Steed practically taking over the place; the owner of a local pub; his halfwit assistant who seems all-too eager to talk to both King and Steed; and the nuns at a local convent, whose imperious Mother Superior keeps pointing out all the rules of their "silent" order that she will NOT allow anyone, not even representatives of the law, to break.

It turns out the planes were wrecked and (nearly) all onboard murdered, to STEAL MONEY. And a 3rd such atrocity is being planned! Steed's really got his work cut out for him here. It's no wonder he's more serious and quick-witted than in nearly any other story I've ever seen on this show. Eric Paice, he of PATHFINDERS, DIXON OF DOCK STREET, STAR MAIDENS and many other series, supplies another intense script (with moments of levity to balance it out).

Crazy enough, for many years, this was the oldest episode of THE AVENGERS known to still exist. It was the 1st of 3 Dr. King stories (but last to be aired), and the 1st episode of season 2 to be produced. From the 1990s-onward, once I got a list of the production order, I'd start watching the entire series with THIS one! But it does kinda fit better where they slotted it.

For several of the guest-actors, this was their only appearance on the show. As it happens, the only one I'm really familiar with was Bruce Boa, who played the "missing" co-pilot. I've seen him in 3 episodes of THE SAINT, a CHAMPIONS, a MADIGAN ("The Lisbon Beat"), a NEW AVENGERS ("Trap"), THE OMEGA FACTOR, a PHILIP MARLOWE ("The Pencil"), AS TIME GOES BY (where he played "Young Rocky"), and, whatta ya know, FULL METAL JACKET, OCTOPUSSY, and most memorably, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!

The big twist at the end is finding out the identity of the real leader of this obscene criminal gang, who decided to double-cross his partners, take all the money and run for it. But you'll have to watch to find out who that is!

This story must have been cut on A&E; for all these years, I had the impression it took place in Canada, not Ireland!

I was glad that on my 2006 DVD the sound on this was CRYSTAL-CLEAR. I've got the remastered versions on order... it'll be interesting to compare the quality.

Addendum: shockingly, the 2009 Studio Canal version is an inferior print: grainy, with something on the image for 2/3rd of the story, and the picture jumps violently several times near the end. How do you screw something like that up on a "remastered" set?