[Avengers] "Never, Never Say Die". S05-E10

[Ubiquitous]

Directed by Robert Day

Steed meets a dead man
Emma fights the corpse

An imposing man (Christopher Lee) marches down a country lane, and
is struck down by a driver, distracted by his radio playing up. He's
taken to the hosiptal and pronounced dead on arrival by Dr Betty
James (Patricia English). She tells the driver, Whittle (Christopher
Benjamin), and the nurse (Karen Ford) is calling the morgue when the
corpse gets up and leaves.

Mrs Peel is watching a rerun of The Cybernauts when Steed interrupts
the broadcast, saying "Mrs Peel, we're needed".
They visit the hospital where Dr James confirms the man was dead.
Whittle takes his leave, happy that the man's up and about again,
but unfortunately promptly runs him down again. He rushes back to
the ward, shouting "I've killed him, I've killed him again!" An
ambulance arrives, it's not Dr James' but contains a group of
white-coated men led by Dr Penrose (Jeremy Young). they lock the man
in the back and take off, seconds before the hospital ambulance
arrives. Emma finds a piece of paper marked 'MOT-NRU' and goes to
London to investigate while Steed remains in the village. The 'dead'
man goes on a rampage after escaping from the ambulance, smashing
radios and attacking their owners - a young picnicker (David
Gregory), an elderly gent playing with a radio-controlled boat
(Arnold Ridley) and a sergeant and private on manœveurs (John Junkin
and Peter Dennis). The sergeant tells Steed he emptied an entire
magazine into the man's chest without affect, and he had gone into
the forest. Steed heads for the forest at the same time as the
mysterious ablunace leaves the Ministry of Technology - Neoterric
Research Unit (MOT-NRU!) and they converge on a cottage in the
woods. Steed arrives first and finds a note in the diary of a
Professor Frank N. Stone, regarding radio interference from George
Eccles of Aerial Cottage. He's attacked by the 'dead' man and saved
from certain death by the arrival of the scientists; he slips away
as they truss him up and follows the ambulance to the research unit,
where Penrose stops Selby (Alan Chuntz)from entering the
experimental section, saying Professor Stone will look after things.

Steed tells Emma the NRU is a mile away, and Dr James chips in that
it's a research facility run by Professor Stone. Steed gives the
diary note to Emma to investigate while he visits the NRU, where
he's brought to Penrose by Carter (Geoffrey Reed). They discuss the
unit, Penrose refusing to discuss his research with Steed when the
Professor walks in - he's the man who's been causing all the
trouble!
Emma visits Eccles (David Kernan), a harmless shortwave radio
enthusiast, who tells her Stone had complained about him using high
frequencies - they tune in to see what's there and the professor
immediately suffers a migraine. Penrose terminates the interview
with Steed, rushing the professor out to the experimental section.
Steed notices the radio equipment in the office registering
activity, and a sign forbidding transistor radios outside.
Stone smashes his way out of the unit, pursued by Penrose and his
men. Eccles is explaining that tuning in to high frequencies can
interfere with scientific instruments when there's a crash outside.
Emma investigates but when she returns Eccles is dead and his radios
destroyed. She decides to visit Stone's cottage while Steed revisits
the NRU, forcing Stone to reveal his research and admit to the
problems. Stone shows him a 'duplicate' of himself - a plastic-
skinned replica which is self-repairing and self creating, infused
with all his thoughs and memories via a brain transfusion process -
great minds need never die! He says the duplicate has had its memory
wiped following the problems, but the Mk 2, currently under wraps,
will be perfect. When they leave, the duplicate slowly opens its
eyes...

Penrose and Stone discuss their problems with radio interference,
and Stone suggests the answer may lie in their earlier papers, which
Emma has just unearthed at the cottage. She rings the hospital,
looking for Steed but Dr James is cut off when some NRU staff turn
up - with her duplicate! Penrose appears at the cottage and holds
Emma at gun point, taking the plans and locking her in the NRU
experimental section's cage. In the cage, Emma notices Stone's
duplicate has stubble on his chin, and Penrose and Dr James are also
the real thing. Steed meanwhile arrives at the hospital looking for
Mrs Peel and is told she returned to towm. He sees a smashed radio
and locks James' duplicate in a cupboard before rushing over to the
NRU, where he confronts Stone about Dr James. Stone tells him
Penrose models the faces and Steed deduces Penrose has been replaced
by his duplicate. Stone calls Penrose in, strapping him to the brain
transfuser, and drains his memory and they go to release Mrs Peel -
but Penrose isn't fully drained, and manages to reverse the process.
Stone lets Emma and Dr James out of the cell when Mrs Peel reveals
that Stone is a duplicate as well, and they make a break for the
door. Penrose traps them and Steed whips out a small radio to jam
the duplicates' circuits but drops it when they attack. Dr James
finally manages to reach it and tune it in, stopping the robots in
their tracks.
A door opens, revealing a duplicate Emma and Steed, which they
appraise. "Do you find her attractive?" "Not a patch on you; how
about him?" - Mrs Peel removes the duplicate's bowler and reveals
the word 'REJECT' written across its forehead.

At her flat that night, Steed and Emma watch TV - a pop programme, a
cop show. Steed turns off in disgust, lamenting the lack of anything
of any depth, warmth, humanity - with a touch of humour. Emma
switches on a political broadcast and they realise with horror that
no-one would ever notice the difference between a politician and a
plastic duplicate.


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