6.06 - Have Guns – Will Haggle

[peabody]

Discuss, review and rate Have Guns – Will Haggle.

Written by Donald James
Directed by Ray Austin

[Charlie Parker]

Tricky one, as itself its not a bad script and a good indication of how Bryce wanted the season to go had he stayed on, but the disjointed production lets it down ad the blonde wig is just frankly insulting to poor Linda. They'd have been better off reshooting the whole thing in my view.

[Rodders]

quite unsettling and disturbing. I like it.

[Rhonda]

6 from me. Like the break-in.

[Brigadier Q]

I had memories of this episode from some time in the past - The trampoline and music, the break in, but nothing else.

So I had resigned myself to it being a lesser episode, given all the stories of trouble on the production side.

But, I rather liked it.

True, no fantastical elements, no pantomime, no Mother, no oddballness (Is that even a word?). But a rather good story, some great cast - as usual. Two of Miss Thorson's most fabulous looks (The Tartan Kit and the baggy trousers in the tag scene). I thought the tension when trying to stop the fuse was excellent as well.

My biggest problem with it was that it so easily been from any other of the action/adventure shows at the time - easily see this as an episode of 'The Champions", "Department S", "Man in a suitcase" etc etc.

So a good episode, but not the best "Avengers" episode.

7 out of 10.

[MikeR]

This episode was written by Donald James (the only epiosode he ever wrote for The Avengers), who also wrote exstensively on The Champions and Department S, which explains why it looks so much like an episode of an ITC show.

[Brigadier Q]

I just looked him up - quite a good and prolific writer.

I am very impressed by his tally of good "Space:1999" episodes - many amongst my favourites (Mission of the Darians, Dragon's Domain, Voyager's Return, Earthbound, Bringers of Wonder etc etc).

Did anybody else think that Tara's accent was a bit more posh than usual in this ep?

[Ian Wegg]

5/10. A pretty average episode. Some good parts but too many bad ones.

For instance, why would they stage a demonstration with Tara to show that the gun could be handled by anyone untrained when they expected the result to be exactly the opposite? And if Steed and Tara had time enough to escape the hut when there was only an inch of fuse left on the dynamite, why didn't Steed just use an inch in the first place instead of 500 yards?!

I can overlook minor plot holes in the more wacky episodes like "Stop me..." but the more serious storylines need to be tighter.

Average!

[Allard]

An episode that feels out of tune with the rest of the Tara King episodes. Yet it is one of the better ones of those early Tara episodes that suffered from the change in management. This episode has an atmosphere that is way closer to ITC series (Champions / Department S), but it still is The Avengers and thus kinda hangs in between both. I don't think it deserves its sometimes bad reputation, it is entertaining enough for fifty minutes. Compared to fellow salvaged episodes Homicide and Old Lace it can stand out as masterpiece by comparison.

[Frankymole]

It's one that I struggle to remember. I think it had elements similar to parts of The Master Minds. Of course it's unusual in the filmed series for having people of African heritage in it (rather than people of colour generally since some episodes have Asian actors or characters, but Clemens famously didn't want "black" characters in Avengerland, seeing them as a reminder of urban reality rather than being "exotic"). But other Tara episodes had much more imagery or scenes that stuck in my memory back in the 1980s, even early ones like Invasion of the Earthmen. Mostly what I remember from this is Tara's tartan outfit.

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