This week being what it’s been, I somehow forgot to write a stand-alone promotion of this evening’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. At least I did mention it at the end of my Monday post, in which I linked our Sunday discussion of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”
Tonight, Roy and I will be at our stylish best, though a mite confused as to which side of the road to drive, during our conversation about “The Avengers” (1961-9). Not Iron Man, Captain America, and the gang, mind you, but the snazzy UK spy-fi series, widely regarded to have achieved its apex when Diana Rigg as Emma Peel bantered with Patrick Macnee’s John Steed. Week after week, the duo managed to defend Britain against a seemingly endless procession of nefarious plots, a surprising number of them with the aim of world domination.
To narrow our focus and keep it seasonal, the conversation will center on the surreal holiday episode, “Too Many Christmas Trees” (1965), in which Mrs. Peel and Mr. Steed find themselves at a fancy dress at a manor house overseen by Charles Dickens fanatics. Great fun for admirers of the series, with plenty of wry smiles for Dickens lovers – and some wonderfully bizarre dream sequences.
We have Great Expectations for this Droodless mystery, in which Oliver Twist (Mrs. Peel) and Sidney Carton (Steed) experience Hard Times in a Bleak House. It will the best of the times and the worst of times when you join us in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:30 EST!