6.04 - Split!

[peabody]

Discuss, review and rate Split!.

Written by Brian Clemens
Directed by Roy Baker

[peabody]

A good episode, and one that some people claim to be the first of the Tara classics. You figure out the entire plot within the first ten minutes. Steven Scott (previously seen in several early Avengers episodes) does the role of his life as Boris Kartovski. Christopher Benjamin does his usual role as a slightly mad professor type person. Here he reminds me of his performance in The Prisoner from a year earlier. Just read that Nigel Davenport passed away a few months ago. RIP.

6/10

[Spaceship Dispatcher]

Not sure what to make of this one. The cast is amazing, even by the standards of a show that always had many familiar faces in most episodes. We have Nigel Davenport, Bernard Archard, Julian Glover and Christopher Benjamin; and they're all on top form too! But there was something about it that made the episode seem to be less than the sum of its parts. Maybe the cast was so good that the episode was over-crowded? Perhaps its because the story changes scenes quite quickly and often, without settling down? Was it because the episode deals with the effects of the problem for too long and, when we finally get to the cause, everything is over too soon? Whatever the reason, this didn't quite equal the standards of other episodes for me. But the wonderful performances of the regulars and guest cast alike paper over any other problems rather well, and Julian Glover inparticular has some great scenes! His fight with 'himself' is effective and comes across as genuine madness and a man turned against himself. Also notable is the Tara abduction sequence, where Linda Thorson has a substantial amount of cotton wool thrust quite deeply into her mouth - enough to make most people retch - and manages to perform the scene! Overall - 7/10

[darren]

I think it's a competent script from Clemens but it's definitely a hasty filler on the producers panic return to the show.

I can't work out if it's supposed to be funnier than it actually is. It's played very straight, in a season 4 way. The guest cast are all very accomplished actors.

Roy Ward Baker returns for his only colour episode and it's all rather dry. There's the clever bit with the lift at the ministry office where it's all done in one take - entering on one floor and exiting on another purely done by removing the extras. Johnson's score is quite melancholy in places which adds to the dry feel.

Roy comments in the DVD commentary that Linda was quite girly in the episode and I thought it was just yet another nasty comment for something who didn't like her but that was an overreaction. I get the feeling that she's feeling quite insecure during this episode. With the producers changed, she was under anew regime who don't appreciate her, I think that explains her off performance.

6/10 - competent but lacking.

[Frankymole]

This episode was included in the Lumière "Firsts" attaché case set. I think the rationale was that it was the first Tara episode actually completed - hence the different title sequence (and had been an unmade Emma Peel script, or did I get that wrong? It's been some decades since I read the set's booklet!).

[mousemeat]

A good episode, and one that some people claim to be the first of the Tara classics. You figure out the entire plot within the first ten minutes. Steven Scott (previously seen in several early Avengers episodes) does the role of his life as Boris Kartovski. Christopher Benjamin does his usual role as a slightly mad professor type person. Here he reminds me of his performance in The Prisoner from a year earlier. Just read that Nigel Davenport passed away a few months ago. RIP.

6/10

classic...perhaps...darn close...

[darren]

(and had been an unmade Emma Peel script, or did I get that wrong? It's been some decades since I read the set's booklet!).

Jaz brings this up in the commentary about it also being a Dennis Spooner script, Clemens says that he wrote it for this season. It wasn't a recycle job.

[Lhbizness]

I'd agree that it's a very dry episode for the most part - very little humor, very little repartee. But I do like the edge of seriousness, and it's a bit deeper in terms of plot than most from the same era.

Of course, I agree with the criticism that Tara is a bit girly - or rather, a bit useless and non-descript. There are moments in the season where she has far more heat and chemistry with Steed, but this one she's very much a blank slate. She's not helped by the script, which gives her very little to do, but she also delivers her lines with a slow, vacuous lilt to her voice that seems to indicate she really is not very bright.

It does give Steed the opportunity to play the dashing hero, and there's a beautiful moment at the end when he refuses to kill the Major. I'll admit that as someone who primarily watches the Tara era for Steed, I enjoy those moments when he gets to be a hero.

[Frankymole]

I'd agree that it's a very dry episode for the most part - very little humor, very little repartee. But I do like the edge of seriousness, and it's a bit deeper in terms of plot than most from the same era.

Of course, I agree with the criticism that Tara is a bit girly - or rather, a bit useless and non-descript. There are moments in the season where she has far more heat and chemistry with Steed, but this one she's very much a blank slate. She's not helped by the script, which gives her very little to do, but she also delivers her lines with a slow, vacuous lilt to her voice that seems to indicate she really is not very bright.

Aka "flirty"?

[Lhbizness]

I'd agree that it's a very dry episode for the most part - very little humor, very little repartee. But I do like the edge of seriousness, and it's a bit deeper in terms of plot than most from the same era.

Of course, I agree with the criticism that Tara is a bit girly - or rather, a bit useless and non-descript. There are moments in the season where she has far more heat and chemistry with Steed, but this one she's very much a blank slate. She's not helped by the script, which gives her very little to do, but she also delivers her lines with a slow, vacuous lilt to her voice that seems to indicate she really is not very bright.

Aka "flirty"?

Flirty? No, stupid. It's not something that's ongoing in the season, but it pops up every once awhile ("words of one syllable, please.")