MAILING TOOB - THE MYSTERY OF THE CHRISTMAS CARD

'THE AVENGERS'
"TOO MANY CHRISTMAS TREES"

For televisiologists such as myself, this episode is probably most famous for mention of John Steed's former partner Cathy Gale.  She sent him a Christmas card and he wondered why she was sending it from Fort Knox.  This was an in-joke, what David Bianculli calls an "Extra", that referenced the involvement of actress Honor Blackman (who played Cathy) in the James Bond movie "Goldfinger" in which she played Pussy Galore*.

But as Emma Peel brought in Steed's mail, she let one Christmas card drop to the floor and she never bothered to pick it up.  Perhaps in the real world, it was an unforeseen glitch and Diana Rigg chose to continue instead of going against the pre-arranged stage blocking to pick it up.

But within the scene's "reality"?

I think she saw who the Christmas card was from and she didn't want Steed to get it.  Although we didn't see her do so, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that she kicked it under the sofa so that she could retrieve it later and destroy it.

I want to know who sent the Christmas card that Emma dropped and then left on the floor. Yes, I am that O'Bsessed by TV trivia!

Fellow crossoverist Matt Hickman came up with a great splainin, speaking of James Bond.  The Christmas card was from none other than 007 his own self!

Although it's outside the purview of the Toobworld Dynamic, James Bond appeared in the fictional shared universe built by Alan Moore for "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen".  In that world, Bond was a sexist chauvinist pig who killed Emma Peel's father and godfather and used his "charms" to have his way with Emma.

I don't want to steal from Mr. Moore, but I think it could be that Emma Knight (her maiden name) did have an affair with the televersion of James Bond.  It just didn't play out the way Moore envisioned it.

However it did go wrong at some point and she broke it off, eventually marrying Peter Peel.  

But her resentment of Bond was so strong that years later she still harbored a desire for revenge.  And she probably didn't care for the idea that Steed still had a friendship with him.  (She probably never told him about her relationship with Bond.  Had she done so, I'm sure he would have sided with her.)

I wrote this up back in January, stuck at work during that so-called blizzard.  But I'm posting it now because of the Christmas card connection.  Today is just about the deadline for mailing your Christmas cards by first class in order to ensure they reach their destinations in time for Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

* Unlike some others, I do not conflate the characters of Cathy Gale and Pussy Galore into one character.  For the Toobworld Dynamic, the James Bond movies are just that - movies.  They may have a reality rooted in the Cineverse, but for Earth Prime-Time, they are cinematic portrayals of the "real" James Bond - financed by UNREEL - to serve as plausible deniability for the secret agent's activities.