[Avengers] "The See-Through Man". S05-E04

[Ubiquitous]

Directed by Robert Asher and Roy Rossotti

Steed makes a bomb -
Emma is put to sleep!

Government employee Wilton (David Glover), returning a dossier to
the archives, is worried about doors apparently opening and closing
by themselves, disembodied footsteps and filing cabinets being
rifled by an unseen hand - he investigates and is knocked out by an
assailant who isn't there...

Mrs Peel, working on a scientific paper is astounded when one of her
specimen slides reveals the message "Mrs. Peel - We're Needed" under
the microscope, and Steed whisks her off to the ministry archive
where they discover the assailant must have passed upwards of twenty
people without being seen at all. In the filing cabinet they find a
note reading "Ernest Quilby, submission 144, transferred to Special
Section". Moments later, that section has a visit from the unseen
visitor. This perplexes the bureaucrat in charge, Sir Andrew Ford
(John Nettleton) who charges out the door after being knocked down
by a cabinet door, just as Steed and Mrs Peel arrive. They declare
they haven't seen anyone. File 144 - Ernest Quilby's, the one
transferred - is missing but Sir Andrew only knows Quilby's a crank
inventor. He suggests they ask his predecessor, Lord Daviot, or
Quilby himself what file 144 contained. Enemy agent Ulric (Harvey
Hall) watches them leave the ministry and is told by his commander
to start plan 2.

Steed visits Quilby's lab, noticing a quaint old taxi parked
outside. Inside, Quilby (Roy Kinnear) and his assistant, Ackroyd
(Jonathan Elsom) are conducting some explosive experiments. Quilby
is an absent-minded inventor of useless items - the self-thrusting
bayonet, jet-propelled army boot, rain-activated explosive, and 144
- an invisibility formula, which he had sold to the Eastern Drug
Company - to the astonishment of Steed and the devious Ackroyd - for
Ł100,000. Ulric reports Steed leaving Quilby's house and is ordered
back to the embassy.
Meanwhile, Emma arrives at Daviot Hall, passing a Jaguar saloon in
the driveway. A shot rings out and the assailant escapes in the
Jaguar, leaving Lord Daviot dead, face down in the ornamental pond.

Emma tells Steed about Daviot, and he reveals the buyer of Quilby's
formula is a front for Ambassador Brodny and his cohorts at an
Eastern Bloc embassy, which is being visited by Major Vazin and his
wife Elena, two of their top spies - she's being watched but the
Major hasn't been seen since he arrived. Emma quips he may have
taken some of Quilby's formula, and they both do a double take.

Brodny (Warren Mitchell) enters the guest apartments, looking for
the Major and finds the shower running while having no-one visible
inside it. He's about to check the cubicle when Elena (Moira
Redmond) stops him, telling him the major is taking a shower. Brodny
is worried about the withdrawal of Ł250,000 from the embassy account
("Guests are allocated 12 units a day, now you've been here a week
so that's...") - Elena says it was at the order of the Supreme
Central Committee and produces the authority from her stocking
garter, saying the funds were for a secret weapon. Brodny rechecks
the shower cubicle and finds it definitely empty, and returns to the
office to see the major's in his office chair - and faints when
Vazin turns to him and he see a headless man in a dressing gown!

Brodny comes to and astoundedly accepts a drink from the seemingly
invisible major - who swivels his chair around, opens and closes
drawers and windows and so on. The major explains they've bought
Quilby's formula so they can invade Britain with impunity, but Steed
is onto them. Vazin asks Brodny about Steed who blusters "great
talents, impeccable taste, a good friend-" (realises his faux pas)-
"A sworn enemy!" Ackroyd rings the embassy, seeking Ł100,000 of his
own to 'forget' what he knows about the formula and Elena arranges a
meeting. Brodny is aghast at another Ł100,000 being spent, but Elena
takes a gun from the drawer instead, grimly observing, "We will pay
him".

Elena leaves, followed by Emma in her Lotus, while the guard allows
Steed to slip into the embassy to see Brodny, who is just taking
leave of the major. He opens the door to find Steed and panics and
slams the door shut. the major reassures him - he won't be seen! -
and Steed is let in. They banter, and Steed notices cigars and vodka
which Brodny hates, and Elena's photo. He mentions Quilby's formula
has been offered to them - "A fraud, of course", and Brodny lets
slip how much he thinks Vazin has paid for it. Steed further
incommodes him with insinuations about an affair between Brodny and
Elena, and plants a bug on her photo. Outside, he hears the major
reprimand Brodny and order the destruction of the bug.

Elena arrives at the rendezvous and is about to shoot Ackroyd when
Mrs Peel turns up, scaring him off. Elena contacts Vazin, who chases
Emma in his Jaguar, trying to run her off the road. They skid to a
halt after narrowly avoiding crashing into a truck and she sees the
headless driver take off, leaving his hat - inscribed 'Major A.
Vazin' - behind.
At her flat, Steed and Emma discuss the scientific basis of the
formula. She says she didn't see who Elena was talking to, but
describes the old taxi which Steed remembers from Quilby's house. He
revisits Quilby - another explosion - and learns it was Elena who
bought the formula ("a veritable Martha Barry" says the muddled
inventor), and that Ackroyd had taken the car out earlier, and had
gone for a stroll in a nearby park. Quilby gets back to trying to
rediscover his formula while Steed goes to the park, where Ackroyd
has arranged another meeting with Elena. Steed offers a rival bid
for his information when the park gate and swings start moving by
themselves. Steed goes to investigate and finds a cigar stub, and a
dead Ackroyd on his return.

Steed receives a call from Quilby - he's rediscovered the formula -
(or so he says at gunpoint) and Steed leaves Emma to her chemistry
experiments. When he arrives he finds Bertha the hamster apparently
invisible and Quilby knocked out (or dead?), but is struck down by
the headless major before he can learn anything more. Mrs Peel is
then chloroformed and abducted by the major and she comes to in the
embassy, where Elena gives Brodny a gun to guard her with. Steed
escapes from the lab and breaks into the embassy while Mrs Peel is
introduced to the seemingly invisible major and learns of their
plans for world domination. Elena orders Brodny to take her outside
and kill her, and the Vazins plan to return home, fully expecting
Mrs Peel will escape and warn the MoD of the formula's efficacy.
Sure enough, she does escape, but is suspicious and heads back
toward the Vazins' apartment. Steed, too, enters the apartment and
discovers a control room full of relays and monitors. Mrs Peel
knocks out Ulric and confronts Elena with the gun she'd given Brodny
- she pulls the trigger, knowing it to be empty and she was supposed
to escape. They fight and Elena is finally knocked out by a cabinet
drawer that opens spontaneously. Steed demonstrates a few of the
remotely controlled doors and windows, and directs Emma to the
control room from which the fraud was perpetrated. The headless
Vazin enters but Steed knocks him out, a much smaller man wearing a
built up torso disguise. Steed playfully squirts Brodny with a soda
siphon when he come in, begging not to be sent back East ("it's so
cold!")

Back at Emma's apartment, she pretends her chemistry apparatus has
become invisible, proving it with a slide that reads "I'M HUNGRY" -
Steed proposes lunch, and gets his 1909 Rolls Royce out of mothballs
for the occasion. He has trouble crank starting it, and it takes off
on its own when they give it a push start.


--
Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.