The Outside-In Man: Avengers (TV Episode)

Plot

Unable to assassinate a British traitor, the government is forced to deal with the man in an upcoming round of arms negotiations. Though he despises the assignment, Steed must protect the traitor from harm. He has his work cut out for him. The man originally assigned to kill the turncoat, long thought dead, is alive and well, and he intends to fulfill his deadly mission. Written by Philip Chambers, "The Outside-In Man" originally aired in England on February 22, 1964; the episode made its American cable TV debut on April 2, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Review

"The Outside-In Man" is an example of the kind of character-driven story that The Avengers abandoned when they retooled the series in the wake of Honor Blackman's exit -- a side of the series very different from the outsized, witty fantasy series that Americans saw with Diana Rigg as co-star. John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) are assigned to protect a minister from a less than entirely friendly emerging Third World nation who is on an official visit. It is a routine enough mission, except that the minister in question is a former British agent who turned traitor five years earlier, in the middle of the war that spawned the nation -- and that two British agents were lost trying to kill him at the time. Making matters more difficult, Steed's effectiveness will be limited, as his identity and face are known to the members of the diplomatic delegation, making it necessary for Mrs. Gale to deal with the unpleasant task principally on her own. Suddenly, on the eve of the visit, Mark Charter (James Maxwell), one of the agents believed dead, turns up in London alive, freed without explanation after five years in prison. He's rattled and unsteady, but truthful in his bewilderment. Believing his re-appearance to be too much of a coincidence, Steed and Mrs. Gale begin to suspect that Charter intends to carry out his last mission and kill his original target when he arrives in London. The above-average script focuses as much on the sad, doom-laden Charter as it does on the chase and the various machinations or Steed's and Mrs. Gale's jousting with their opponents. And, in a way that the Rigg series would never allow, with its lighter-hearted approach and its focus on the stars, Maxwell turns in a touching performance as a tragic man who seems trapped in a seemingly brainwashed behavior pattern. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi