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crack_van2009-12-01 04:43 pm
edna-blackadder.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2009-12-01 04:43 pm
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The Avengers: Fandom Overview
The Avengers was a classic British spy series that ran from 1961-1969. Over those years, it evolved a lot, starting out as gritty and realistic and ending up as the campiest thing that ever camped, a treasure trove of absurd plots, witty banter and delightful innuendo (the latter two often went hand-in-hand). The one constant was Patrick Macnee, as John Steed.
Steed actually started out as a secondary character, but after the first season, he was promoted to leading man. Steed was charming, slightly eccentric (mostly in the later seasons), a ladies’ man (he was a ’60s’ spy, after all) and a master of the “subtle approach” to gathering information. His bowler hat, umbrella and gentlemanly demeanor masked a roguish streak and a dash of ruthlessness. Steed was unmatched when it came to strategy—he frequently revealed mid-case that he knew more of what was really going on than anyone, his various partners included, suspected was possible.
Steed’s past is somewhat sketchy—we know he served in the RAF during World War II, and that he became a Ministry of Defence agent shortly after the war ended, or perhaps even slightly before. Judging by the looks of his flat, as well as his expensive hobbies, he’s very independently wealthy. He appears to have a high social position, probably as the result of privilege.
Steed wasn’t always the iconic gentleman most fans remember. During the early, more serious seasons, he was much less charming and more ruthless, sometimes even unlikeable. He evolved as the show did. Steed had four regular partners over the course of six seasons*, and each partnership had a distinctly different flavor. The first, the Avenger for whom the series is named, is the oft-forgotten David Keel (Season 1).
Sadly, I cannot rec anything featuring Keel because of his unfortunate oft-forgotten status. The first season, in which he was the star, is mostly nonexistent thanks to the BBC reusing tapes. Keel was a medical doctor whose fiancée was murdered by drug dealers in the first episode. He met this shady character named Steed, a mysterious secret agent, who helped him solve the case and hired him as an amateur partner. Then Ian Hendry walked out during an actor’s strike, setting the stage for a show that was originally about a doctor avenging his fiancée’s murder to go down in history as “that show with the butt-kicking women in leather.” Steed’s next partner, Cathy Gale (Seasons 2 and 3), changed the game completely.
Cathy is wildly underappreciated by the fandom, partly because her seasons weren’t shown in the US until the 1990s. Debuting in 1962, she was the first truly liberated woman on television. She was a widow, although little mention is made of this. She had a DPhil in anthropology, kickass judo skills, amusing leather outfits and a sharp tongue. Steed and Cathy shared TV’s first truly equal male-female partnership, and it was a rocky one, perhaps necessarily—if Cathy could stand up to Steed, she could stand up to any man. Although some campy situations sneaked in, the show was still serious in tone, and Cathy was a serious person, equal to every peril she faced.
Cathy was not merely progressive for her time. She was, and is, progressive for ANY time, just as strong a role model now as then: brilliant, principled, brave and unafraid. But then Honor Blackman left the series, and Cathy’s much-better-known successor, Emma Peel (Seasons 4 and 5), picked up where she left off and took the world by storm.
When people think of The Avengers, they think of Steed and Emma, a man of yesterday and a woman of tomorrow who exchanged witty one-liners while saving Britain from its most ridiculous foes. The sci-fi camp was turned up to 11, and Steed and Emma embraced their absurd predicaments, far too cool to be fazed at all. Emma became an international icon because she was beautiful, intelligent and unflappable. And, like Cathy, she could throw men across rooms. Before becoming an Avenger, she headed her father’s shipbuilding company, which she inherited upon his death, when she was only 21. Her specific education level is never mentioned, but it’s safe to assume from her knowledge of science that she has had at least some advanced physics and chemistry.
Emma was more easygoing than her immediate predecessor, and her partnership with a transformed, kinder Steed was much warmer. In addition to being the iconic Avengers, Emma and Steed are also the fandom’s main OTP and with good reason. Their relationship was purposefully left ambiguous, with loads of subtext but no actual text, the kind of het that plays out almost like slash. Unfortunately for us all, the show was less progressive offscreen than on, leading Diana Rigg to leave the series, and the writers had Emma return to her presumed-dead husband, suddenly discovered alive. Enter Tara King (Season 6), a decidedly different kind of partner.
Tara gets a bad rap from a lot of fans, many of them disgruntled Steed/Emma shippers. She really doesn’t deserve it, poor girl. Most of the time, she’s as tough in a fight as anyone else, and as good a spy as the show’s silliness, which by this point was completely off the charts, allowed. Tara was Steed’s youngest partner and the only one who was also a professional spy. I personally think this was the writers’ big mistake: none of the others were ever going to beat Steed at his own game, but they were all much better educated, evening things out. Tara was smart enough, but she didn’t know anything Steed didn’t, throwing the partnership into imbalance. In any case, despite Linda Thorson’s best efforts, Tara couldn’t match Emma’s overwhelming popularity, and the show was canceled. It was revived from 1976-1977 as The New Avengers, in which Steed had two new partners, Mike Gambit and Purdey, played by Gareth Hunt and Joanna Lumley.
Confession time…I’ve never watched The New Avengers. As such, I cannot rec stories based on it, as I cannot judge their quality. TNA fans, I implore you to think of this not as a disappointment, but as an opportunity. Sign up to rec the show next! Give Gambit and Purdey the love they deserve!
*Technically seven seasons due to weird production breaks, but the six-season interpretation is the one I prefer.
Fandom Resources:
The Avengers Forever: Though it's no longer actively updated, this enormous and enormously helpful website is every Avengers fan's Bible.
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_the_avengers -- not quite active, but not quite dead, either, which is more than can be said for other Avengers LJ comms.There's also a fairly active Avengers section on FF.net, but be wary, as it is, after all, FF.net. There are definitely some gems, though!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUQzNIxGLyM#
It’s practically curtain fic, with guns and swordsticks!
Re: the Steed/Peel subtext — if I’m not mistaken, the briefly glimpsed Mr. Peel turns out to bear a striking resemblance to a mustachioed Mr. Steed.
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It's 'M Appeal', so the sexist sixties was evident despite her kick ass capabilities.
Her outfits were fashionable and often quite provocative,, eye candy for the M appeal.
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