Variety, exact date unknown - but sometime towards the end of October, 1967

THE AVENGERS
                    (Return of the Cybernauts)
                    With Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Peter Cushing, Frederick Jaeger, Charles Tingwell, Fulton Mackay, others.
                    Producers: Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens.
                    Director: Robert Day.
                    Writer: Philip Levene
                    60 mins., Thurs., 9 p.m.
                    ABC-TV, from Manchester, England

As its last whirl for the current "Avengers" team of Macnee and Rigg (Miss Rigg's replacement is now being hunted), this new set of filmed hours resumed its place in the schedules with the added interest of whether the formula can survive the girl-change.  there seems to be no reason to doubt it, for the relationship between Steed and Emma is deliberately unemotional and flippant and hangs entirely on the blend of cool traits, rather than any attachment of the heart.

This segment, in fact, was more concerned with plot than their own intrepid defeating of the villains, and the pair were somewhat diminished by being fooled part of the time and not having much chance to show their mental or gymnastic superiority.  And that was an error, for the couple should have the heedless daring of a cartoon team.

The plot latched onto an idea from a previous series, and Philip Levene developed it with dash.  The cybernaters(sic), computerized robots, trained to take over the world, were now being used against Steed and Emma in revenge for their having destroyed the earlier mad master.  They were now under control of Paul Beresford (Peter Cushing), and had kidnapped three scientists who were collaborating to produce a device that would turn any human being into a robot.  So Beresford, who had chummed up with The Avengers on the social level, managed to get Emma to wear a watch that immediately turned her into a zombie.  The affair came to a predictable end, and the sci-fi improbability of the plot was maintained with the familiar sense of tongue-in-cheek.

The segment was given above-average direction by Robert Day, and the production values were as slick as ever.  So long as the dapper and faultless Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg grab some more of the limelight in the future, the skein should maintain its verve and is ratings.

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