Series 4 — Episode 3
The Cybernauts

Production

Production dates: 2-25/03/65

Filming started for this episode on 2^nd March 1965 under Sidney Hayers. In a departure from the previous two episodes this is almost entirely studio-bound, except for a single shot in the studio car park, and the tag scene which is a short location sequence - although the final shot is a different location to the rest! Shooting finished some time on or after 19^th March, possibly within the week following that date, as reported in The Daily Cinema.

The production office were very happy with Philip Levene’s script even though Brian Tesler noted it was more science fiction in December 1964. This episode also saw the first appearance of Emma’s white Lotus Elan S2, with the Lotus company approaching Telemen to use the car for some free publicity.

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

This episode appears to have never been broadcast in the Netherlands. There is an episode that was supposed to be broadcast on 14^th November, 1967 entitled “De robot” but the episode synopsis given in the television listing is for Return of the Cybernauts. The episode was pre-empted by the broadcast of a football match between Feijenoord and Arsenal, and it was finally shown on 2^nd December, 1967. It’s possible the listings were wrong, however, as Return of the Cybernauts was broadcast on 17^th May, 1969 under the title “De terugkeer van de robots”.

Italy did not show this episode in the 1960s, the Italian titles are from the Tele Torino International broadcast in the 1980s, and DVD releases.

This was the first episode shown in Germany, which showed a haphazard first series of 13 episodes, generally two but sometimes three weeks apart, from October 1966 to April 1967.

This episode was not shown in France on ORTF2 in 1967 but was finally shown as part of a series of eight previously unbroadcast episodes, shown on TF1 after a run of repeats from series 6 on Sunday afternoons in 1973.

Episode Rating

A science-fiction flavour pulls this episode away from its stablemates, and creates a new television genre along the way. Michael Gough plays the diabolical mastermind perfectly.

The Fashions

The Cars

Who’s Killing Whom?

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Continuity and trivia

1. The script reveals that viewers in the USA had to sit through four extra commercial breaks compared to British viewers, who only had the breaks between the acts. Viewers in the USA had the additional commercial breaks:
   • After the prologue
   • After Steed leaves Tusamo's office and the huge shadow looms over the door
   • After Armstrong lets Steed go and tells Benson they have to take care of someone else first
   • After the epilogue, before the end credit titles
2. 2:23 — the cut back to close-up is out of sequence, showing Hammond snapping the breech of his shotgun closed but in the mid shot just beforehand he had finished doing this and had moved away from the desk.
3. 4:30 — Mrs. Peel says Denham was head of Automatic Industries but Tusamo’s appointment list has Automatic Industrials at 2.30pm (17:40).
4. 5:14 — The sign behind the security guard reads “Industrial Developments”, but whenever the company is mentioned by characters, it’s a somewhat obvious overdub of Industrial Deployments — must have been a legal issue, similar to the redubs in A Sense of History.
5. 12:40 — there’s a thread stuck to the centre top of the camera lens in Oyuka’s CU. It returns at 12:52 when Oyuka goes for Mrs. Peel’s knee, and again as Mrs. Peel bows to Sensei at 13:11. When it’s not there, from about 12:00 onwards, there are two small threads and one minute one to the extreme top left which move around in the gate.
6. 15:14 — Tusamo says, “This heralds a new age Mr. Steed; computers no bigger than a cigarette box.” Prophetic words indeed!
7. 15:46 — the cultural confusion: Steed asks if Tusamo has just quoted Confuscius but Hirachi is clearly meant to be a Japanese company, not Chinese. Emma makes the same mistake at 17:17.
8. 16:31 — Rather obvious product placement for Herbert Johnson & Sons, with Patrick Macnee manoeuvring his bowler so their mark is visible.
9. 17:40 — Tusamo’s appointments:
   

   2.15. p.m. CONVERCIAL IMPORTS
   2.30. p.m. AUTOMATIC INDUSTRIALS
   2.45. p.m. ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES
   3.00. p.m. INDUSTRIAL DEPLOYMENTS
   3.15. p.m. UNITED AUTOMATION
   3.30. p.m. JEPHCOTT PRODUCTS LTD.

   But Benson had gone in before Steed and it was clearly Jephcott arriving after him! The original script has then in the correct order, so I assume the switch from Industrial Developments to Industrial Deployments required the prop be reproduced and they got it wrong — in fact you can just see the original underneath the new one, with Auto Engineering at 3.30pm.

10. 18:55 — Mrs. Peel’s cover when investigating Jephcott is that she represents a firm called “Winnell and Fentle’s chain stores”, a Spoonerist reference to series producers (Julian) Wintle and (Albert) Fennell.
11. 27:38 — the cameraman is slow to get focus on the change of shot back to Armstrong.
12. 28:35 — Surely Steed can hear Dr. Armstrong’s side of his conversation with Benson — I’d prick up my ears if Armstrong said “But Lambert’s dead”.
13. 28:52 — the surround Benson’s CCTV monitor is actually a 1958 Vistavu 200mm slide viewer with the image of Armstrong matted into the screen area. The Vistavu was designed by Harold R. Stapleton (engineer) assisted by Howard Upjohn for Rank Precision Industries Ltd.
14. 30:00 — weird smudge appears at top left — it looks like someone has scribbled on the film after the USA-only commercial break.
15. 30:00 — Jephcott seems to be working out a console cheat code: L-R-L-L-T-B.
16. 30:34 — Emma’s make-up is very pale — mod or shocked?
17. 36:39 & 38:39, etc. — A Bond reference? Steed crawls through the ducting, à la “Dr. No”. The music during this sequence is even evocative of John Barry’s score.
18. 39:00 onwards — Steed turns the thermostat up from 40°F to 82°F, making them break out in a sweat, I guess their jackets are particularly warm so 82°F (27.8°C) would be unbearable. Why it was low as a very chilly 40°F (4°C) in the first place is beyond me though.
19. 41:30 — Steed appears to dial 246 as the start of Emma’s number.
20. 43:35 — Armstrong uses the phrase “government by automation” which I’m sure is repeated in the 1967 android thriller, Never, Never Say Die.
21. 46:43 — Ray Austin stands in for Frederick Jaeger, tumbling over the desk.
22. 48:43 — It has long been held that when the cybernauts are fighting in Armstrong’s warehouse, knocking boxes about the place, you can just catch a stage hand’s hand pushing one of them over on the left of the screen. Having rewatched the restored footage, it’s clear that it’s the second cybernaut’s right hand, and not a badly-positioned stagehand at all.
23. 50:00 — Steed’s vintage car in the tag scene, the Beeston Humber 16/20hp, appeared in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) as the car belonging to the German entrant, Colonel Manfred von Holstein (Gert Fröbe). It’s from the film that I have been able to confirm the colour and number plate as when the car was recently auctioned the plate was no longer in place. The car is painted post office red with brass metalwork and burgundy leather upholstery.
24. This and the next episode sit strangely together, as they both have a wheelchair-bound diabolical masterminds, although their motives are diametrically opposed.
25. running time: 52′00″