The Cybernauts

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The Cybernauts is the third episode of Season Four of The Avengers. It featured Patrick Macnee as John Steed, Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, and guest stars Michael Gough, Frederick Jaeger, Bernard Horsfall, Burt Kwouk, John Hollis.

[edit] Plot

(Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.)

An unseen, black-gloved, bullet-proof menace breaks into the home of three men - Walter Carlson, Andrew Denham, and Samuel Hammond - and kills them. At each of the crime scenes, a pen can be seen, broken into pieces. Interestingly, Carlson is the chairman of Commerical Imports, Denham is the head of Automatic Industries, and Hammond is on the board of Electrical Industries. As Steed and Peel investigate the murder of Hammond, and discover the only appointment he had was at the Harachi Corporation at 2:30, the killer finds a fourth victim - Bob Lambert, CEO of Industrial Deployments - who also has a broken pen at the scene. Steed and Peel go to Lambert's office, and receive witnesses' accounts. Some say he was over six feet tall, with spectacles, gloves... and was followed by a strange whip-like sound. Steed discovers Lambert also had an appointment at the Harachi Corporation, at 3:00. Harachi has just developed a new circuit to replace the transistor, which could revolutionise the electronics industry. Peel, searching the body, discovers Hammond has a broken neck, but no bruising on his face. She determines it is a karate blow, delivered by a master. Thus, Peel goes to visit a nearby karate school, run by the sinister Sensei (or The Knowledgeable One). He claims that some of his students can shatter tiles with a fist, and one student (Oyama, The Tall Mountain) can even break through doors with a single blow. Peel, who disables 'The Unmovable One', is accepted into the school, as Steed arrives at the Harachi Corporation's headquarters. Claiming to be filling in for Lambert, Steed visits the chairman of Harachi, Mr Tusamo, who claims the new circuit is a revolution, allowing the construction of portable televisions, and radios the sizes of wristwatches. Steed stealthily takes photographs of a folder on Tusamo's desk using a camera concealed in his umbrella. Tusamo's next appointment arrives, and Steed exits - only problem is, Tusamo's next appointment is the bullet-proof assassin... At Peel's apartment, Peel reveals she cannot identify every student at the school, due to their pseudonyms, but is looking forward to meeting Oyama. Steed checks the photos, and learns Oyama's first four appointments that day were Carlson, Denham, Hammond, and Lambert. There are two left, from United Automation and Jephcott Products Ltd. They realise if each chairman is murdered, the rearrangement of the office would result in them being kicked out of the bidding war for the circuit. Steed and Peel decide to visit each electronics company by themselves. Peel visits Jephcott Products, and discovers several electronic toys, such as a dog that comes when you whistle. The CEO meets with Peel, but must leave due to an appointment... At the karate club, Peel watches Oyama, introduced for the first time, break a thick tile with his bare hand. At Steel's apartment, old friend Gilbert comes round. Gilbert informs Steed that United Automation is run by a man named Dr Robert Armstrong, a former Ministry operative. Armstrong wanted to build robots to remove debris from radioactive areas. Without permission, he began designing the robots, which ended with a building being destroyed and himself being disabled, now confined to a wheelchair. Gilbert will try to get Steed an appointment with the elusive Armstrong. Meanwhile, an operative reveals to his evil boss that he has been trying to secure the names of the companies willing to buy the circuit, but that Tusamo keeps the names secret. Steed goes into United Automation as a journalist, reporting on the company. Steed meets Dr Armstrong in his office, who claims his factory is entirely automated. Armstrong receives a phone call - from the operative - who reveals Steed was also the man from Electrical Industries. Armstrong gives Steed a 'solid ink' pen, which he hopes will be marketed shortly. Meanwhile, the CEO of Jephcott Products is attacked by the assassin. Steed and Peel, waiting outside, get suspicious. Steed goes inside, and finds Mr Jephcott dead. He theorises that Armstrong is eliminating his competition for the circuit. Peel wonders who could possibly break through a solid wall, but a nearby toy gives Steed his answer: a robot. Steed goes off to sneak into United Automation, leaving Peel with the special pen. Steed searches Armstrong's office, and finds a metal mannequin - fitting the descriptions of the assassin - resting on a couch. Steed stows away in the heater as Armstrong enters, telling his aide the robot is harmless until programmed. Then only Armstrong can stop him. Steed overhears Armstrong reveal that the robots are led to their targets... by a pen. Everytime the robot kills, he crushes the pen, destroying the transmitter inside. The robot assassin gets up and heads off to find the pen, which Peel - at Steed's apartment - is using to write down the time of an appointment Steed has with Tusamo the next morning. Steed tries to escape through a metal grate, but cannot, so he drops down into the boiler room. He turns the temperature up, and Armstrong calls maintenance - another robot! The maintenance robot reveals to Armstrong the thermostat was altered manually, and there is an intruder. Steed tries to call Peel at his apartment, but the robot assassin arrives at the same time. Steed's phone call is interrupted as another robot appears, and strikes him in the neck! Meanwhile, Peel drives to United Automation, with Armstrong's pen in her pocket. As Steed wakes up, Armstrong brags that the answer to solving man's fallibility is an electronic brain, for which he has drawn up the blueprints - a small, complex computer, requiring the revolutionary new circuit. Peel arrives at the building and enters the elevator, which Armstrong sends to a construction room. Steed opens a panel and mashes all the buttons, allowing him to escape. In the construction room, however, the robot assassin appears and approaches Peel. Steed takes the pen and plants it on a second robot. The two robots attack each other, killing Armstrong in the process.

[edit] The Cybernauts

The robot assassins were so popular that they returned twice more, in Return of the Cybernauts and the New Avengers episode, The Last of the Cybernauts?.