The Protectors – Set Two
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B
The Protectors second season was
unfortunately, its last. The writers
and producers figured out how to make the show better by not imitating The
Avengers as much and letting the show get more serious and to the
point. This was just too late and that
cost the series its life. It tried to
move into a new direction of realism that The New Avengers and Return
Of The Saint also would try later.
Ironically, they would also only last two seasons each.
To repeat, Robert Vaughn is Harry Rule, joined by Tony
Anholt as Paul Bouchet and Nyree Dawn Porter as Contessa di Contini (which felt
like as much of a reference to Diana Rigg in the 1969 Bond film On Her
Majesty’s Secret Service as it did to Rigg, Honor Blackman and Linda
Thorson on The Avengers) to form the private troubleshooting
organization in the show, the series is off to a good start in the pilot. Porter does not have any extraordinary
chemistry with either of her male co-stars, but when the show is not
trying to be The Avengers, it has some good ideas going for it. The episodes for this second and final
season are:
Disc One:
1) Quin (with
guest star Peter Vaughan)
2)
Bagman
3)
Fighting Fund (with guest star David
Suchet)
4)
The Last Frontier
5)
Baubles, Bangles & Beads (with
guest star Frederick Jaeger)
6)
Petard (with guest stars Iain
Cuthbertson and Ralph Bates)
Disc Two:
7)
Goodbye George (with guest star David
Suchet)
8)
Wam (2 episodes)
9)
Implicado (with guest star Peter Firth)
10)
Dragon Chase
11)
Decoy (with
guest star Mark Damon)
Disc Three:
12) Border Line (with guest star Oskar
Homolka)
13) Zeke’s Blues (with
guest star Shane Rimmer)
14) Lena (with guest star John Thaw)
15) The Bridge
16) Sugar & Spice
17) Burning Bush
18) The Tiger & The Goat
Disc Four:
19) Route 27
20) Trial (with guest star Joss Ackland)
21) Shadbolt (with guest star Tom
Bell)
22) A Pocketful Of Posies (with
guest star Eartha Kitt and Kate O’Mara)
23) Wheels
24) The Insider (with guest star Stuart
Wilson)
25) Blockbuster (with guest star Peter
Jeffrey)
Too bad these shows did not start out as seriously. From the early shows, you can tell the
attempts as wittiness were not panning out, so this should have happened to the
series much sooner. With that said, the
series makes for very good viewing today because it is consistent on some
levels in delivering what the action genre is supposed to, and it is nice to
see Vaughn on another show doing as well as he did here. U.N.C.L.E. fans can enjoy this until
that show finally rolls out on DVD.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 looks good again, with the 16mm
stocks (as opposed to 35mm) having less of a problem with varying color quality
than the last set. This means the
stocks were improving, they were learning things by trial and error, and these
were being stored well over the last three decades. Rank did the processing and more color richness and range can be
seen. Veteran cinematographer Brendan
J. Stafford, B.S.C., stayed on board and the results are some very good-looking
shows. Some 16mm limits can be seen
here and there, but it is not as often as the last set.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is again nice boost-up from
the original monophonic sound that the shows first were broadcast in. It offers no surrounds, but is not bad. The theme song is Avenues & Alleyways,
the Tom Jones sound-a-like theme song that is an instrumental in the opening
and with vocal by Tony Christie in all the end credits. Extras include a brief stills gallery on DVD
4 only and text biographies on the cast, making this aspect not as good as the
last set. Director John Hough did a
terrific audio commentary on the 2,000 Ft. To Die pilot for the first
set that could have went on for hours, but could not be asked back due to not
being in this set. Robert Vaughn could
have been asked, as well as any of the creative people still with us. A few left in between the release of the two
sets, so those are opportunities missed.
- Nicholas Sheffo
