Too Many Christmas Trees

John Steed begins to be the victim of frightening nightmares that are constantly repeated, everything turns out to be the product of an organization that uses the telepathic powers of its members to enter his psyche and manipulate his behavior. The nightmares that incorporate a sinister Santa Claus, divergent mirrors and guillotines, the old castle with a costume party themed on the characters of Charles Dickens and the table of spiritualism make this episode one of the darkest and scariest of the entire series serie.

"Too Many Christmas Trees," a personal favorite of Patrick Macnee, was of course the 1965 Christmas broadcast for British audiences, while in the US, it ended up being shown the following August! One concession to the Americans is having the bearded one referred to as 'Santa Claus' rather than 'Father Christmas,' and it has to rank as a most unlikely holiday theme, a dark, brooding tale of terror more suited to the 80s than the 60s. Steed is suffering sleepless nights consumed by sinister images of Santa Claus, while the sympathetic Mrs. Peel tries to lighten the holiday festivities by inviting him to a Charles Dickens-themed house party at the estate of publisher Brandon Storey (Mervyn Johns, 1945's "Dead of Night"). Steed instantly realizes something's wrong as he knows exactly which turns to make on the way, and recognizes the house as one he saw in his dreams. Psychic warfare expertly conceived and executed, with such fine actors as Edwin Richfield, weasel-faced series veteran making his fourth appearance (the next would be "Dead Man's Treasure"), Alex Scott ("Square Root of Evil"), who returned for "Game," and Robert James, in the fourth of his five episodes (the next would be "Look (stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers..."). Barry Warren, Hammer veteran of titles such as 1962's "The Kiss of the Vampire" and 1966's "Frankenstein Created Woman" (and who later appeared in "False Witness"), plays Jeremy Wade, an apparently close friend of Mrs. Peel, as he becomes the first character to call her 'Emma' (Steed only mentioned her first name when making introductions), and his reluctance to push through to the end results in one of the more horrifying images in the show's history. Mrs. Peel almost loses her good humor as she reads some of Steed's Christmas cards from a vast array of female admirers (Amy, Carlotta, Irma, 'Boofums?'), with special mention to one ("best wishes for the future") coming from 'Cathy': "Mrs. Gale, how nice of her to remember me! What can she be doing at Fort Knox?" The final scene presents our duo sharing some special time under the mistletoe, most appropriate. An episode that understandably tops the favorites list of many devoted fans.

'Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.'

Stead is having bad dreams, and when he accompanies Mrs Peel to a Christmas party hosted by Publisher Brandon Storey, his dreams come to life.

What an absolute joy this episode is, you can only imagine what viewers back in 1965 made of this, talk about hitting the jackpot, fast forward almost sixty years, and today's Christmas offerings are nowhere near this good.

It's creepy, it's full of sinister ideas and concepts, it's one of the best I've seen. It doesn't just feel like an episode with seasonal bits bolted on, it's actually a well constructed Christmas plot.

Some cracking scenes throughout, I loved the humour of the Christmas card scene, I also loved the visuals of a gun wielding Father Christmas.

A Christmas class act, 9/10.

This is one among the most unforgettable stories in this terrific TV show. I won't add much to what have already said the other Imdb users. Except that the dream, or may I sy nightmare, sequences remind me an Alfred Hitchcock's feature: SPELLBOUND, when Gregory Peck has also dreams. The way to present them looks like this episode, at least the first scene. But the settings are just not the same.

Steed has a nightmare about a fellow agent dying and it comes true. Mrs Peel decides he needs a break and whisks him away to a Dickensian Christmas Party in the country but they discover they have both been hypnotised by some sort of telepathic control into coming to the party, and someone is after Steed's secrets.

A mysterious psychic tries to break Steed's resolve but Emma's intervention, and some very loud Christmas carols, keep their minds clear.

Steed is a little vulnerable as someone is drugging him. He gets off nightmares. The mystery is quite good - the rapport between Mrs Peel is quite tender here. There's the usual bizarreness but the story is quite strong. A shoot-out in a hall of mirrors is quite exciting. There's a little nod to Cathy Gale ( Honor Blackman) when Steed says "What can she be doing in Fort Knox?" It refers to Honor starring in Goldfinger.