Avengers in top form
This Pre Emma Peel Avengers is in many ways superior although the Emma Peel set gets more attention,. The is more understated with and Honor Blackman is really a better actress than Diana Rigg

No real standouts
Not that much different from the other Blackman DVD sets, though the ending of the last episode contains a few too many references to "Goldfinger". The biggest surprise is that Steed calls up an unnamed female replacement for Cathy immediately after she departs. Don't be fooled into thinking that any Diana Rigg outtakes exist from this time though; she hadn't even been cast yet.

OJ prosecutors should have seen this
One wonders if the prosecutors in the OJ Simpson trial had seen the Avengers episode, 'Brief for Murder' they woould have asked OJ to try on the gloves. Uncanny how the premeditated ploy used by the Steed's lawyers in this, 40+ years old episode, bring the OJ trial to mind. Worth checking out for this alone.

Before Steed met Mrs Peel.......
there was Mrs Gale and Venus Smith.

These seven episodes of pre-Mrs Peel Avengers episodes. The series was originally meant to be a more serious spy adventure series about two agents Dr. Keel and a much less debonair John Steed. The second series (season to Americans) focused more on Steed, eliminating the Dr. and teaming him with Venus Smith and Cathy Gale among others. Cathy Gale, an accomplished, educated, self confident woman with considerable martial arts training is very much Steed's equal despite being an 'amateur' agent. She has very much in common with Emma Peel although her relationship with Steed, at least in the earliest episodes, is quite antagonistic and quite lacking the playful banter that would characterize the Steed/Peel exchanges. Venus Smith is a very young (perhaps 20) nightclub singer who has no apparent secret agent skills or qualifications other than her admiration for Steed. In many ways, her youth, inexperience, enthusiasm and adoration of Steed, she is a forerunner of Tara King.

The stories include: "White Dwarf" - an sci-fi sort of tale about the possible end of the world; "Man in the Mirror" - suspicious suicide and the living dead; "Conspiracy of Silence" - undercover at the circus to stop a Mafia drug ring;"A Chorus of Frogs" - deep sea murder and foreign agents; "Six Hands Across A Table" - corrupt businessmen attempt to control British shipbuilding; "Killerwhale" - smuggling in the boxing world; "Brief for Murder" - corrupt lawyers use every means to free their clients.

"Man in the Mirror" and "A Chorus of Frogs" feature Venus Smith, (and 'showcase' her singing), the rest pair Steed with Cathy Gale. These are very low budget productions, completely lacking in the polish that appears in later years. The stories are all in black and white, with rather sparse sets. Camera work is jerky, sound quality uneven giving the whole thing a feeling of being shot live (which it was not) even to the point of leaving in obvious errors, like forgotten or wrong lines.

So why get these dvds? For Avenger fans it is interesting to see the beginnings of their favorite secret agent, John Steed, to see him before he developed his lighthearted, polished sophistication. Cathy and Venus are the forerunners of Emma Peel and Tara King and paired with Steed face not the campy eccentrics of the later series but instead more gritty serious villians. In the later series the emphasis was on the flashy visuals, the campy comedy punctuated by adventure here the reverse is the case, the spy adventure is at times sprinkled with bits of comic relief.

Almost unwatchable
As a serious fan of the Emma Peel era I was excited to find these "Cathy Gale" era videos on sale. Unfortunately, the production values of the episodes I've tried to watch (from Set 4) are just awful. Shaky hand-held camera work, unintelligible sound, dreadful sets, terrible acting by all but Macnee and Blackman. Save your money!