The Avengers (TV Series) The Decapod (1962) User Reviews

"Is this some kind of white slavery thing?"

[profh-1 · 5/10 · 24 May 2011]

Coming after several Cathy Gale episodes, "THE DECAPOD" is a real oddball. International security meets pop music meets professional wrestling (how'd THAT get in here?). It starts off with a clearly NAKED woman taking a shower (what is this, Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO?) who, of course, is murdered by the time the story title appears on screen.

This time around, Steed is involved looking into security at a foreign embassy, where you have a very shady ambassador (Philip Madoc, who I'll always remember as the VERY mad scientist in the DOCTOR WHO story "The Brain of Morbius") and a well-known "playboy" whose job it is to negotiate a huge loan of cash (Paul Stassino, no doubt best known as the double-crossing SPECTRE pilot in THUNDERBALL). In the long run, the plot reveals itself to be very simple, but looking at it as it unravels, it SEEMS a lot more confusing than it is. It just doesn't seem to follow the normal plot structure of this show, especially when the pro wrestling angle comes into it.

Steed pulls a "Napoleon Solo" in this story, "recruiting" an innocent outsider, nightclub singer Venus Smith, to help him get information from inside the embassy. But U. N. C. L. E. Was always upfront with people when they did this-- they knew what they were getting into. Steed proves himself an absolute CAD here (in the best/worst George Sanders tradition) by CONNING Venus into thinking she's auditioning for a possible singing tour of the Balkans. Perhaps with better writing, this could have come off as genuinely funny. Instead, it's mostly awkward, as both she and the playboy diplomat keep talking at cross-purposes, neither quite sure what's going on with the other. She even briefly becomes worried that she might wind up in someone's "harem".

What makes it worth sitting thru is Julie Stevens as Venus. She's a "character"! While not an "action" girl by any means, she's got as much attitude in some scenes as Cathy Gale-- maybe more! (In this, she actually reminds me a bit of ANOTHER "Smith"-- Sarah Jane.) The playboy, Yakob Borb, manages to be SO charming, she finds herself starting to care for him rather quickly (and it appears it's mutual), but she doesn't hesitate when it comes to grilling him for details about why he set up a date and then stood her up (especially when a MURDER takes place where they were supposed to meet). I also found it funny when she says to one of Yakob's bodyguards, "HEEL, boy!"

By the end of the story, we find out the ambassador is not the obvious villain we thought he was, Steed gets involved in a brief wrestling match (with Patrick Macnee doing his own stunt-work!) and Venus is angrily telling Steed, "Well DON'T do it again!" "As if I would..." he replies... but by the look on his face, you can see, he's ALREADY considering doing just that! (It's amazing she didn't clobber him in a later episode.)

Addendum (10-20-2022): I'm thrilled to see that the 2009 Region 2 DVD has drastically-sharper picture and sound on this episode that the 2006 disc had.

A very dull episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 5/10 · 7 December 2023]

Yakob Borb President of The Balkan Republic is in The UK signing off on a trade deal, but his life is threatened, unable to get close and offer protection, Steed manages to get singer Venus Smith close to him.

What an incredibly frustrating episode this was, nowhere near as good as the first two from this series, somehow it feels really outdated, even for the early sixties.

Even the big showdown in the wrestling ring just falls flat, all too stagey and slow, the big reveal, wasn't exactly a surprise.

There's no Cathy Gale, Steed instead has to seek the help of Venus Smith.

The one thing I really did enjoy, the presence and performance of Philip Madoc, definitely a cut above, handsome and menacing, I'm always surprised he didn't make it big, he should have.

5/10.

Balkan leader is threatend with assassination

[tandlich1 · 6/10 · 8 January 2019]

Steed is put in charge of protecting a visiting Balkan leader who is trying to extort money from the West. Typical confusing and non-circuitous plot emblematic of the early episodes. No Cathy Gale in this episode. Julie Stevens was effective as Steed's assistant Venus Smith, who contributed two musical numbers. The members of the Balkan delegation were stereotypically arrogant, brutish and corrupt. Too many wrestling sequences slowed the progression of tge plot.

Julie Stevens debuts as Venus Smith

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 19 December 2010]

The eighth episode shot during the second season, "The Decapod" was the debut for Julie Stevens as nightclub singer Venus Smith, who was actually cast in her role before Honor Blackman earned the part of Cathy Gale, whose first four episodes followed Jon Rollason's brief three episode run as Dr. Martin King. Venus would alternate with Cathy for the remainder of the season, appearing in a total of six entries, of which this debut was easily the weakest. Paul Stassino ("Thunderball") headlines as Balkan president Yakob Borb, whose ambassador, Stepan (Philip Madoc), hires two bodyguards who wind up getting murdered by someone disguised as a masked wrestler known as The Decapod. We actually begin with Steed investigating the death of Yakob Borb's personal secretary, ambushed out of the shower by The Decapod, which provides the reason for bringing Venus Smith into the story, as Steed convinces her that by using her charms to get close to the Balkan president, currently negotiating a loan from Britain, he might be willing to finance a singing tour for her. We are treated to not one but two songs sung by Venus, as well as two wrestling matches, none of which are all that interesting. A welcome presence on the show, Philip Madoc later appeared in "Six Hands Across a Table," "Death of a Batman," "The Correct Way to Kill," and "My Wildest Dream." Wolfe Morris also appeared in "The Yellow Needle" and "Two's a Crowd," Raymond Adamson later did "The Grandeur That Was Rome" and "Take Me to Your Leader," Harvey Ashby did "Death at Bargain Prices" and "Requiem," Douglas Robinson did "Death on the Rocks," "Man with Two Shadows," and "Esprit De Corps," and Valentino Musetti did "Death A La Carte," "The Secrets Broker," "The Outside-In-Man," and "Lobster Quadrille." The Venus Smith episodes would improve from this lacklustre start, but would not be retained for the third season. Her second episode would be "The Removal Men."

Primitive writing

[pashli · 2/10 · 10 August 2006]

*Some spoilers*

The only interesting point about this black-and-white episode of 'The Avengers' is that it offers one of the handful of appearances by singer-actress Julie Stevens as Venus Smith.

Nightclub performer Smith was one of a rotation of partners provided for debonair secret John Steed (Patrick Macnee) during the 1963 season. Given the role's limitations, 'partner' may be an overstatement.

First the good news: despite the primitive production values of these taped episodes, this one looks crisp and clear. Director Don Leaver does what he can to keep the action moving, and makes the necessary fakery seem palatable.

And although the audio quality on the A&E sets released in the US in often poor, coping with the originals' poor microphone placement and poor sound recording, it's generally adequate here. In particular, in the limited confines of a nightclub set, Stevens' vocal numbers come across quite well. She has a lovely voice. If the very mildly jazzy Brit pop is unmemorable, it's also inoffensive.

As always, Macnee does well by his partners. The Steed of this era is still a bit untrustworthy, a bad-boy secret agent despite his social polish. He manipulates Venus Smith into helping him penetrate the embassy of the 'Balkan Republic' after a young woman is found dead in an 'accident.' Of course, this is The Avengers, where people seldom die accidentally, or naturally.

The real villain is screenwriter Eric Paice, who makes Venus seem uncommonly dense. She goes to the embassy convinced that visiting leader Yakob Borb (Paul Stassino) is an impresario who will help her career. Instead, he eventually asks her to run off to Las Vegas with him.

Stevens is a glamorous blonde of the type preferred by Avengers producers. But while pretty, she's delicately built and her character is not sharp. Stevens has none of the physical skills possessed by Honor Blackman, the more formidable blonde playing alternative partner Cathy Gale. And Stevens is only a bit more curvaceous than boyish Diana Rigg, who eventually would become Steed's foil. In brawn or brains, Venus Smith doesn't seem like she'd ever be much help to Steedin a tight spot.

But there's not really much of a mystery to unravel here, and what plot there is remains primitive in style and substance. Hard-working Welsh actor Philip Madoc, for some reason frequently cast as an Eastern European, is the 'Balkan' ambassador. He does not trust Borb's Western playboy tendencies. One might think Borb would simply have the ambassador recalled, but not in the drought-stricken mind of Eric Paice.

Instead, there's a good deal of going-on about Borb, a not-at-all-disguised Tito, seeking 'bribes' from both East and West in order to maintain the Republic's neutrality, and devoting the money to his own use. The Brits were apparently still put out about their monarchist favorites losing out in Yugoslavia during World War II _ although there were fewer complaints when Tito's Partizans were providing them with midnight landing strips and covering fire.

Of course, Tito lived high on the hog compared to the average Yugoslav, with virtual palaces and fancy cars. But the handful of openly neutral countries in the Cold War _ aside from Switzerland _ had to be very careful indeed not to swallowed or turned into cannon fodder by the ravenous competing blocs.

Post 9/11, the mid-80s plot device of brave Afghan mujahedeen battling vicious Rooskies turns the otherwise entertaining James Bond movie 'The Living Daylights' into a cringe-fest. By so tying his underpopulated, underwritten script to similarly dated political claptrap, Paice makes this episode very thin gruel.

Wrestling provides Paice's other plot point here, but there are so few suspects that the identity of the murderous masked mauler is painfully obvious. Politics aside, wrestling looks insincere enough without subjecting it to the stylized fight scenes of mid-1960s television. The only amusing thing is how quickly Macnee gets out of the way during the ultimate sequence in the ring.

Series television is a difficult form, and even a show as generally inventive as 'The Avengers' stumbled occasionally. In 'The Decapod,' it stumbles badly.

Who is the masked killer?

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 14 April 2017]

As this episode opens an attractive blonde gets out of the shower and, after a brief phone call, is attacked by a masked man. It turns out she is working for Yakob Borb the visiting leader of the 'Balkan Republic' so Steed is sent to find out what happened. It turns out that Borb has had threats against his life and is protected by two bodyguards; he also has a thing for blondes so Steed encourages his friend, singer Venus Smith, to go to the embassy; she thinks she it to be invited to tour the Balkans and Borb mistakes her for the replacement for the dead girl. Borb also has a thing for wrestling and has one of his bodyguards wrestle against a local man, the masked fighter known as 'The Decapod', who looks remarkable like the killer. The bout ends with the bodyguard dead and the Decapod fleeing the scene. Steed tracks down the Decapod but he claims he was not the man in the ring; if he wasn't the masked wrestler, who was? And is Borb in imminent danger?

This episode's opening murder had obvious elements of the surreal that the series would later be famous for but the story itself is more conventional. There is a good central mystery but I doubt many will be shocked when the killer is eventually unmasked. The biggest surprise, at least to this viewer who is less familiar with the pre-Peel era Avengers, is just how devious Steed is as he tricks Venus Smith into helping him and potentially puts her in danger with no warning. Patrick Macnee does his usual quality job as Steed and Julie Stevens impresses as Venus, it was refreshing to see Steed partnered with a woman who wasn't a martial arts expert; the danger to her felt more real. The rest of the cast were pretty solid too. The fact that 'The Balkan Republic' is obviously Yugoslavia and Borb is based on Tito may not be as obvious to modern viewers as it was to those in the sixties but it doesn't really detract from the story for modern viewers. Overall I rather enjoyed this episode.

The Decapod

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 26 March 2019]

Yakob Borb leader of a Balkan republic is in London to raise aid money. His personal secretary, a beautiful blonde is attacked and killed by a masked man.

Steed takes on the responsibility to ensure Borb is safe in his visit to London. He gets singer Venus Smith to get close to Borb.

However Borb's bodyguards keep dying and Borb has a thing for wrestling. Venus who thinks she was going to tour the Balkans also finds her life in danger.

There is a good performance from legendary television actor Philip Madoc as the Balkan ambassador who can barely hide his disgust of Borb.

This episode is very much studio based with no library shots of exotic locations. Its pacing also suffers from too much singing and wrestling. I doubt it is difficult to work out the masked man.