More whimsy bordering on the silly but more diverting than some others. If you were filthy rich -- a deposed dictator, say, or a successful thief, or some rapscallion of a banker -- where would you go with all your loot without having to fear discovery? Why back in time, of course. Fifteen seventy would be nice. You could pat little Billy Shakespeare on the head in Stratford-upon-Avon. Of course you'd have to keep an eye open for witch hunters and the like.
The episode follows a couple of miscreants who patronize an establishment that sends them back to 1570 or 1790 or 1895 or wherever -- and they do disappear.
Steed and Mrs. Peel investigate and each of them is given a demonstration trip with the aid of mirrors and knock-out gas. But the managers discover Mrs. Peel's real identity and, though she is dressed for 1790, they send her back to 1570 where she finds herself in a torture chamber. Is she rescued at the last moment by a resourceful John Steed? Of course not. She's subjected to the bastinado, branded with red hot irons, violated repeatedly, and then dies. Steed breaks into the room. Too late! He bursts into a torrent of sobs over Mrs. Peel's ravaged body, turns to the camera, announces the end of the series, and stumbles heartbroken off the set. Maybe her poor lifeless body wasn't ravaged. Maybe it was pillaged. Possibly both. Her remains had been so rudely, so unspeakably treated, it was impossible to tell from the perfunctory post mortem I was able to perform under such unfavorable conditions. Just kidding.
I've always like the notion of time travel because it illustrates so well the error of reasoning by analogy. Time is like a river, see? And because you can travel upstream on a river, you can also travel backward in time. But then naturally there's always the Grandfather Paradox to think of.
I enjoyed this episode quite a lot. Almost an excess of stylishness.
The episode follows a couple of miscreants who patronize an establishment that sends them back to 1570 or 1790 or 1895 or wherever -- and they do disappear.
Steed and Mrs. Peel investigate and each of them is given a demonstration trip with the aid of mirrors and knock-out gas. But the managers discover Mrs. Peel's real identity and, though she is dressed for 1790, they send her back to 1570 where she finds herself in a torture chamber. Is she rescued at the last moment by a resourceful John Steed? Of course not. She's subjected to the bastinado, branded with red hot irons, violated repeatedly, and then dies. Steed breaks into the room. Too late! He bursts into a torrent of sobs over Mrs. Peel's ravaged body, turns to the camera, announces the end of the series, and stumbles heartbroken off the set. Maybe her poor lifeless body wasn't ravaged. Maybe it was pillaged. Possibly both. Her remains had been so rudely, so unspeakably treated, it was impossible to tell from the perfunctory post mortem I was able to perform under such unfavorable conditions. Just kidding.
I've always like the notion of time travel because it illustrates so well the error of reasoning by analogy. Time is like a river, see? And because you can travel upstream on a river, you can also travel backward in time. But then naturally there's always the Grandfather Paradox to think of.
I enjoyed this episode quite a lot. Almost an excess of stylishness.