User Reviews

This episode sees Tara kidnapped by a two men and a women who seem determined to convince her that she is actually a woman named Pandora and that the year is 1915. To this end they keep drugging her and telling her she is due to marry her beloved soon. While she is missing Steed tracks down the only clue; a piece of paper referring to 'Fierce Rabbit' found where she was snatched. It turns out Fierce Rabbit was the codename of a retired agent who worked during the First World War; Steed tracks him down and learns that he was actually the third agent to use that codename. There is still no explanation as to why an old agent would be involved in kidnapping Tara. Eventually we learn that her kidnapping isn't anything to do with her work; she merely looks like the woman an elderly man was once engaged to and his dastardly nephews think finding his Pandora will get him to say where his treasure is hidden.

Most episodes of The Avengers are rather light in tone but this one is quite dark; the idea of kidnapping somebody to the past may be the sort of story we have come to expect but Tara's constantly drugged state gives the story a much darker tone. Linda Thorson does a particularly fine job portraying Tara's confused state; she really makes the viewer believe in her predicament. Guest stars Julian Glover and James Cossins do good jobs as the kidnapping nephews and Dad's Army's John Laurie is enjoyable as the first Fierce Rabbit Steed tracks down. The final revelation regarding the treasure may not be a total surprise but it still works nicely. Overall a good episode with a darker tone than we've come to expect.

Linda Thorson regards 'Pandora' as her favourite 'Avengers' episode, and it is not hard to see why.

Visiting an antiques shop to buy a rare clock, Tara is kidnapped by the Lasindall brothers - Rupert ( Julian Glover ) and Henry ( James Cossins ). She awakens in a beautifully furnished bedroom. People address her by the name 'Pandora'. It appears to be sometime around the First World War.

Meanwhile, Steed searches for his missing partner. The only clue is a document dropped by one of her kidnappers that makes mention of 'The Fierce Rabbit', a British agent who operated in France in The Great War. Steed goes to the archives and finds that it was the codename of Gregory Lasindall ( Peter Madden ), now elderly and senile. Lasindall's crafty nephews are out to trick him into disclosing the whereabouts of his vast fortune by first making him think his beloved Pandora is still alive. Pandora is a double for Tara King...

Brian Clemens' script is a virtual remake of his 'Adam Adamant Lives!' adventure 'A Slight Case Of Reincarnation'. Adamant himself was the one hoodwinked on that occasion, though the villains' motives were entirely different. Julian Glover was a familiar face in 'The Avengers' universe, having appeared in 'Three's A Crowd', 'The Living Dead', and 'Split!', the latter from the same season. John Laurie was too, his previous outings include 'Brief For Murder' and 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station'.

Thorson gets one of her best roles as Tara attempts to maintain her identity despite the Lasindall's brothers' attempts to pump her full of drugs and persuade her she really is Pandora.

Robert Fuest, the director, started on 'The Avengers' as a designer. He said years later that he loved working on the show as it freed him from what he called 'the tyranny of common sense', meaning it allowed him to experiment with bizarre ideas and offbeat visuals.

"Pandora" is a rare dud in this final batch of episodes, the weakest of director Robert Fuest's 7 episodes. Two brothers kidnap Tara King to masquerade as their senile, elderly uncle's long lost love from World War 1, when his military tag was 'The Fierce Rabbit' (he had boasted of a hidden treasure for her to his unscrupulous nephews). Odd to believe that this would be Linda Thorson's choice for a favorite episode, as her character spends the entire running time in heavy sedation (perhaps she enjoyed the wartime fashions). Even the final twist fails to make the tedium worthwhile. Most disappointing of all is the fine cast, led by Julian Glover ("Two's a Crowd," "The Living Dead," "Split!"), John Laurie ("Death of a Great Dane," "Brief for Murder," "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station"), Geoffrey Whitehead ("Trojan Horse"), and Peter Madden ("One for the Mortuary," "Room Without a View").