Video ID not provided: Please check your shortcode.{"id":921,"date":"2012-05-27T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T04:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hypnosisinmedia.com\/blog\/?p=921"},"modified":"2024-04-24T20:14:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T00:14:48","slug":"reply-box-666-the-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hypnosisinmedia.com\/blog\/921\/reply-box-666-the-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Reply Box No 666\u2019 \u2014 \u201cThe Champions\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCraig Ster\u00adling, Shar\u00adron Macready and Richard Bar\u00adrett These are the Champions. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEndowed with the qual\u00adi\u00adties and skills of super\u00adhu\u00admans \u2014 qual\u00adi\u00adties and skills, both\u00c2 phys\u00adi\u00adcal and men\u00adtal, to the peak of human per\u00adfor\u00admance. Gifts giv\u00aden to them by an unknown race of peo\u00adple, when their \u2018plane crashed near a lost civil\u00adi\u00adsa\u00adtion in Tibet. Now, with their secrets known only to them, they are able to use their fan\u00adtas\u00adtic pow\u00aders to their best advan\u00adtage as the Cham\u00adpi\u00adons of law, order and jus\u00adtice. Oper\u00ada\u00adtors of the inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal agency, Nemesis!\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe Cham\u00adpi\u00adons\u201d<\/em><\/a> was a British tele\u00advi\u00adsion (ITC<\/a>) pro\u00adduc\u00adtion, star\u00adring three indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals, Craig Stir\u00adling (Stu\u00adart Damon<\/a>), Shar\u00adron Macready (Alexan\u00addra Baste\u00addo<\/a>) and Richard Bar\u00adrett (William Gaunt<\/a>), all of whom work for a NATO law enforce\u00adment orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtion named Neme\u00adsis (this being the Cold War era) and its head, Tremayne (Antho\u00adny Nicholls<\/a>). who was not aware of the pecu\u00adliar abil\u00adi\u00adties of his three best agents. On their first mis\u00adsion in Com\u00admu\u00adnist Chi\u00adna, their plane was shot down over Tibet, where they were res\u00adcued by mem\u00adbers of an advanced, hid\u00adden civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion and returned to full health and beyond. Their treat\u00adment gave them extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary phys\u00adi\u00adcal and men\u00adtal abil\u00adi\u00adties: enhanced sens\u00ades, strength and reflex\u00ades, supe\u00adri\u00ador intel\u00adlect, a lim\u00adit\u00aded pre\u00adcog\u00adni\u00adtive abil\u00adi\u00adty and a psy\u00adchic link between them, among oth\u00ader things they were then unaware of.<\/p>\n

Some of the episodes involved ele\u00adments of hyp\u00adno\u00adsis and mind con\u00adtrol, but episode \u2018Reply Box No 666\u2019<\/em> stands out because of the hyp\u00adno\u00adsis scene involv\u00ading Macready as the seduc\u00adtive (appro\u00adpri\u00adate\u00adly enough, as she did<\/em> seduce her sub\u00adject back to her room pri\u00ador to the induc\u00adtion) hypnotist. <\/p>\n

Cap\u00adsule Descrip\u00adtion:<\/em> In \u2018Reply Box No 666\u2019<\/em>, the plot involves a dead Russ\u00adian agent and a mys\u00adte\u00adri\u00adous mes\u00adsage that Tremayne believes is a cod\u00aded sig\u00adnal, and so he sends his best agents to the Caribbean to inves\u00adti\u00adgate. Stir\u00adling imper\u00adson\u00adates the agent while Macready and Bar\u00adrett inves\u00adti\u00adgate under\u00adcov\u00ader, but noth\u00ading goes quite as planned. Stir\u00adling\u2019s cov\u00ader is blown and he is shot and thrown out of an air\u00adplane, sur\u00adviv\u00ading sev\u00ader\u00adal hours in the Caribbean waters only (appar\u00adent\u00adly) because of his enhanced sta\u00admi\u00adna. Macready and Bar\u00adrett have to com\u00adplete the mis\u00adsion them\u00adselves and <\/em>res\u00adcue Stir\u00adling, but at the end, they find Stir\u00adling does\u00adn\u2019t need the rescue.<\/p>\n

Descrip\u00adtion:<\/em> Neme\u00adsis tracks down the loca\u00adtion of the store that placed the mes\u00adsage and Stir\u00adling makes con\u00adtact. There he meets the oth\u00aders. They leave in a plane, search\u00ading areas around Jamaica from the air for what Stir\u00adling is not told. At the same time, Macready and Bar\u00adrett are inves\u00adti\u00adgat\u00ading the store and mak\u00ading sure the real replace\u00adment does\u00adn\u2019t show up, respec\u00adtive\u00adly, only to have the real replace\u00adment show up at the store while Macready is present: her psy\u00adchic abil\u00adi\u00adties enable her to rec\u00adog\u00adnize him.<\/p>\n

Unable to warn Stir\u00adling, the store own\u00ader alerts the peo\u00adple on the plane and, after try\u00ading to sub\u00addue the oth\u00aders and forced to sta\u00adbi\u00adlize the plane, Stir\u00adling is shot and thrown out of the plane, land\u00ading in the ocean.\u00c2  Its now all up to Macready and Bar\u00adrett to com\u00adplete the mis\u00adsion and res\u00adcue Stir\u00adling. Macready uses her psy\u00adchic con\u00adnec\u00adtion with Stir\u00adling, one of her indi\u00advid\u00adual abil\u00adi\u00adties, to under\u00adstand Stir\u00adling is still alive and in trou\u00adble, and tri\u00adan\u00adgu\u00adlates his position.<\/p>\n

Lat\u00ader, Bar\u00adrett notices anoth\u00ader of the for\u00adeign agents, some\u00adone he rec\u00adog\u00adnized from when he was watch\u00ading Stir\u00adling at the store. Macready and Bar\u00adrett then split up, Macready to see what she can learn from the agent while Bar\u00adrett returns to search the store. While Macready lures the agent up to her room, Bar\u00adrett begins to search the store, only to have the own\u00ader return and force Bar\u00adrett into hid\u00ading. Mean\u00adwhile, Macready is hyp\u00adno\u00adtiz\u00ading the agent.<\/p>\n\n

Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, she gets lit\u00adtle out of the agent. For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, Bar\u00adrett had much bet\u00adter luck, get\u00adting a look at agents\u2019 map of their search pat\u00adtern. The next day, they hire an air\u00adcraft to search the same areas, seek\u00ading out what the oth\u00ader agents are search\u00ading for and hunt\u00ading for Stir\u00adling. Stir\u00adling, on the oth\u00ader hand, has dis\u00adcov\u00adered what every\u00adone in search\u00ading for: the wreck of an advanced air\u00adcraft that a for\u00adeign pow\u00ader want\u00aded destroyed so it would\u00adn\u2019t fall into NATO hands. Except that both par\u00adties arrived at the crash site at the same time, and three Cham\u00adpi\u00adons were more than what two ordi\u00adnary agents could handle.<\/p>\n

Com\u00admen\u00adtary:<\/em> Yes, the hyp\u00adno\u00adsis scene is very stereo\u00adtyp\u00adi\u00adcal, but stereo\u00adtyp\u00adi\u00adcal is the norm for this series.<\/p>\n

Giv\u00aden the series premise and his\u00adto\u00adry, it appears that each of the three Cham\u00adpi\u00adons have their own indi\u00advid\u00adual spe\u00adcial\u00adties: one has to won\u00adder whether Macready\u2019s includes a form of tele\u00adpath\u00adic hyp\u00adno\u00adsis? She dis\u00adplays a psy\u00adchic sense that allows her to locate Stir\u00adling when he was strand\u00aded, and she does share the tri\u00ado\u2019s tele\u00adpath\u00adic com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion abil\u00adi\u00adty, so maybe there are oth\u00ader skills there wait\u00ading to be shown? As this was only the third episode shown, and hav\u00ading not seen all of the episodes, fur\u00adther skills might be indicated.<\/p>\n

The series was also remark\u00adable for using three leads, as opposed to the sin\u00adgle lead or the two \u2018bud\u00addy\u2019 lead series. (There is some\u00adthing Freudi\u00adan about the three lead trope, espe\u00adcial\u00adly here: Bar\u00adrett is the Ego, ana\u00adlyt\u00adi\u00adcal and care\u00adful; Stir\u00adling is the Super\u00adego, active and force\u00adful and Macready is the Id, the instinc\u00adtive seat of sex\u00adu\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty. Well, sort of.) This was one of the first appear\u00adances of this arrange\u00adment in a tele\u00advi\u00adsion series and it set such a suc\u00adcess\u00adful pat\u00adtern that is still in use today.<\/p>\n

His\u00adto\u00adry:<\/em> \u201cThe Cham\u00adpi\u00adons\u201d<\/em> was cre\u00adat\u00aded by Den\u00adnis Spoon\u00ader<\/a>, who was also involved with sev\u00ader\u00adal oth\u00ader ITC pro\u00adduc\u00adtions. A script writer and sto\u00adry edi\u00adtor, he was a main\u00adstay in many mem\u00ado\u00adrable BBC and ITC pro\u00adduc\u00adtions. He also worked exten\u00adsive\u00adly with Ger\u00adry and Sylvia Ander\u00adson, writ\u00ading for \u201cFire\u00adball XL5\u201d<\/a><\/em>, \u201cStingray\u201d<\/a><\/em>, \u201cThun\u00adder\u00adbirds\u201d<\/a><\/em> and \u201cUFO\u201d<\/a><\/em>. How\u00adev\u00ader, his most sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant writ\u00ading accom\u00adplish\u00adment would be when he wrote for \u201cDoc\u00adtor Who\u201d<\/em> in the Hart\u00adnell era, when he wrote \u2018The Time Med\u00addler\u2019<\/a><\/em>: this was the first episode with anoth\u00ader Time Lord (oth\u00ader than Susan, although the Time Lords were not iden\u00adti\u00adfied as such by title until lat\u00ader) and was the first episode to involve a \u2018shad\u00adow sto\u00adry\u2019 behind the real his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal events, where the Doc\u00adtor was pit\u00adted against an alien foe attempt\u00ading to alter his\u00adto\u00adry. That trope would become a con\u00adstant plot for the rest of the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cham\u00adpi\u00adons\u201d<\/em>, like many ITC series, was prone to a num\u00adber of fail\u00adings, most notably the pri\u00adma\u00adry use of stock footage and the Elstree Stu\u00addios<\/a> (a gener\u00adic name for a com\u00adplex of dif\u00adfer\u00adent stu\u00addios) back\u00adlots for many of the sets. There\u00adfore, there were three episodes set aboard sub\u00admarines and three were set in the Arc\u00adtic or Antarc\u00adtic. The sto\u00adries and the writ\u00ading, too, were of vary\u00ading qual\u00adi\u00adty, most\u00adly strict\u00adly aver\u00adage and pedes\u00adtri\u00adan in nature. The plots also ranged from espi\u00adonage to mys\u00adter\u00adies to the super\u00adnat\u00adur\u00adal, a rather con\u00adflict\u00ading com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtion. How\u00adev\u00ader, oth\u00aders see it differently:<\/p>\n

THE CHAMPIONS<\/em> is bright, cheer\u00adful, rarely dull, often excit\u00ading and occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly excep\u00adtion\u00adal (\u2018The Inter\u00adro\u00adga\u00adtion\u2019<\/a><\/em>) which is more than you can say for many of its con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adraries. It also set the tem\u00adplate for lat\u00ader shows such as THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN<\/em>.<\/span> \u2014 Sci Fi Freak Site<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rec\u00adom\u00admen\u00adda\u00adtion:<\/em> The hyp\u00adno\u00adsis scene is worth watch\u00ading, and the episode is inter\u00adest\u00ading, but only diehard fans of the genre would be real\u00adly inter\u00adest\u00aded in the series as a whole.<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/em><\/p>\n