In the wake of 'The Spy Who Loved Me', a number of television pilots unsuccessfully tried to revive the moribund spy genre, of which this was one. Written by Jimmy Sangster ( co-writer of the 1966 Bulldog Drummond caper 'Deadlier Than The Male' and the 'Touchfeather' novels ), it starred Dale Robinette as Robert Sands, a C.I.A. agent assigned to investigate the mysterious death of a fellow agent, who had claimed to have seen 'flying saucers'. The 'saucers' are not interplanetary space vehicles, but dome-like structures designed to shield the arch-villain Horatio Black from ultra-violet rays. Black intends to destroy the ozone layer unless his extortionate demands are met. Whilst hardly in the same class as the Bond films, 'Threat' boasts a few decent action sequences and gadgets, plus the marvellous Patrick Macnee in a role very different to Steed. Dale Robinette, however, is miscast as Sands, and lets the whole thing down. Despite being superior to 'Death Ray 2000', there was no spin-off series.
Review of The Billion Dollar Threat
