Dead on Course

The second episode for Jon Rollason's Dr. Martin King, "Dead on Course" was the last of the three to be broadcast, set mainly at an isolated convent on the Irish coast, where a suspicious plane crash reveals the pilot to have been strangled to death, but the air hostess still alive. Steed calls in Dr. King to look after things at the convent while he investigates the missing money that disappeared from the plane. Steed and King spend most of the episode working separately, and third billed John McLaren is hardly on screen in a small role as the airport official who grants Steed complete freedom. Played with deadly seriousness by a mostly dull cast, Donal Donnelly easily stands out as an informer from the local pub, with Liam Gaffney (1966's "Island of Terror") behind the bar as the suspicious owner, whose public telephone has a secret connection to the convent. Donnelly went on to bigger and better things, nominated for a 1966 Tony Award for his Broadway work, and among his rare film ventures were features directed by John Ford and Francis Ford Coppola (1990's "The Godfather Part 3"). "The Sell-Out" would be Rollason's farewell appearance, although televised before this one (Honor Blackman would debut in the season's fourth episode, "Death Dispatch").

A plane bound for Canada crashes in a remote area of Ireland, near a convent.

Steed rushes down as there was a similar crash few months earlier in the vicinity.

Suspicions are aroused because despite the dead bodies, the co-pilot is missing and the pilot was strangled. The air hostess is barely arrive and is taken to the convent where she is later murdered.

To make matters complicated the plane was carrying a lot of money that has disappeared.

There is some dodgy goings on at the convent, all the nuns apart from the Mother Superior has taken a vow of silence. Steed spends time in a pub to get some local knowledge, he gets a lot of blarney from a pub worker.

The whole episode was filmed in the studio. There was a lot of chatter and not much tension. I thought there would be more drama after the Mother Superior told Dr King to meet Steed outside the convent and then the air hostess dies. It was all rather nonchalant, even half baked and dull.

A Canadian flight crashes down in Ireland, due to thick fog, Doctor King attends a local convent, where the bodies have been sent for him to examine, one of those found, is prematurely classed as deceased.

We've had an episode set in Wales, now we get one set in Ireland, a strong storyline, but I'm not too sure of the authenticity of it, it does feel very studio bound. Not the cleanest tape perhaps, several skips and a few flaws.

I liked The Convent setting, and the silence of The Order made things interesting. I really liked Doctor King's presence here, I haven't always been his biggest fan, but he was excellent here.

Such an interesting twist, I didn't see it coming, the art of surprise was well used here.

Good to see a young Bruce Boa, a few years from here, and he'd be tormenting Basil Fawlty, a small role for him here.

8/10.