The Champions (TV Series) Reply Box No. 666 (1968) User Reviews

Not nearly as bad as I feared

[bensonmum2 · 5/10 · 2 September 2015]

After reading the other reviews for Reply Box No. 666, I feared the worst. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Maybe I went into it expecting a disaster, but despite a couple of serious flaws, I enjoyed it.

In this episode, Craig Stirling heads to Jamaica to impersonate a dead explosives expert. Nemesis wants Stirling to find out who wanted something blown-up, what they wanted blown-up, and why they wanted it blown-up. For his trouble, Stirling gets thrown out of a plane. Fortunately, he has Sharron and Richard are on hand to search for him.

A couple of things I liked: 1. Unlike the previous episode, Reply Box No. 666 doesn't focus almost exclusively on Stirling. The other two Champions are given more to do. 2. Sharron's hypnosis scene was pretty cool. I enjoy these scenes where we learn about new powers.

A couple of things I didn't like: 1. Sharron's come-on to Jules was very unrealistic. Given his purpose for being in Jamaica, he should have seen right through her. 2. George Murcell as Nikko - I don't think I need to elaborate.

Overall, a fairly average episode that I'm rating a 5/10.

A high wind in Jamaica

[ShadeGrenade · 7/10 · 9 July 2012]

'Reply Box No.666' opens at a hotel in Jamaica. 'Semenkin' ( George Roubicek ) is ( ahem! ) entertaining a lovely young lady by the name of 'Cleo' ( Imogen Hassall ) when her boyfriend walks in. A fight develops. Just as Semenkin is on the point of shooting the other man, he is killed by a knife. Semenkin, a top explosives expert for the G.R.U., was in the country on a special mission. A 'Daily Gleaner' clipping in his wallet provides a clue. It is a classified advertisement that reads:

Wanted A Parrot That Speaks Greek.

A box number - 666 - is given, but these have been inked to resemble eights. Craig meets the man who placed the ad - gift shop owner 'Nikko' ( George Murcell ) - who has a radio receiver in a back room. A Frenchman named 'Jules' ( Anton Rodgers ) and a lovely young woman named 'Corinne' ( Nike Arrighi ) arrive, and suddenly Craig is flying over tropical islands. The others appear to be searching for something, but what?

Philip Broadley's script feels like a left-over from his 'Danger Man' days. No bad thing, of course, but the series was always best when at its most outrageous, such as 'Project Zero' and 'The Experiment'. The villains are searching for an aircraft that crashed into a mountain. Aboard is an experimental device to enable it to be invisible to radar. Jules wants it back before it can fall into enemy hands, and to blow up the plane. The explosives expert Craig is impersonating - 'Bourges' ( Brian Worth ) - shows up. Jules overpowers Craig long enough to throw him out of the plane. By a stunning coincidence, he gets washed up on a beach not far from where the plane came down.

Sharron gets a nice scene in which she hypnotises Jules simply by talking to him. Always good to see Rodgers, even if his moustache gives him a startling resemblance to 'Inspector Clouseau'! George Murcell was also in 'The Iron Man' as 'El Gaudillo'. Nike Arrighi and Brian Worth both appeared in the classic 'Prisoner' episode 'Many Happy Returns' ( thought they did not share any scenes ).

Another reviewer has mentioned the dead pilot's failure to decompose. Perhaps he was superhuman too?

Watchable, but like 'A Case Of Lenmmings' rather ordinary. The villains pose no serious threat to the Champions, hence there's no real suspense.

Hardly great

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 20 August 2021]

Hardly a great episode but there's just about enough intrigue to see it through. Imogen Hassall contributes an early cameo in the episode and she's the perfect Bond girl. Some dodgy brownface makeup throughout thanks to the Jamaican backdrop but otherwise it's all fairly innocuous.

A woeful episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 3/10 · 22 February 2023]

At The Montego Bay Hotel, a French businessman is stabbed, he's later identified as an undercover agent, who specialises in explosives.

After being wowed by the previous episode, it was back down to Earth with a huge thud here, I saw the relatively low score, and wanted to be proven wrong, but this third episode has to be one of the most incomprehensible and boring things I've sat through for quite some time.

This genuinely looked like a student project, horribly produced, with some awful special effects, it was incredibly slow moving. Some of the camera work was so slow, and was done in such a way that the sets were made to look cheap. The voiceover didn't help matters either.

I just couldn't get into it, and was glad when the credits rolled.

3/10.

Every series has to have a duff episode

[grunsel · 2/10 · 17 June 2007]

Every series has to have a lousy episode or two and Reply Box 666 does not fail to disappoint in that respect, and must rate perhaps the worst episode of the series? Sometimes the Broadley/Frankel combination can be very good, but when its bad its really bad, producing dull episodes with tatty production values, also in this case the credibility of the plot is stretched to such a point that even 1960s viewers must have felt they had been short changed?. There is however the saving grace of 'the look',style and characters of this series as well as overlooking the fact that this is over 40 years old !. So you can easily forgive the odd cheap slapped together episode.

Body Doesn't Decompose? And Those River Branches?

[richard.fuller1 · 3/10 · 31 July 2006]

Cheap effects in programs are one thing, but branches striking the windscreens on both sides of a boat like they are cleaning brushes in a carwash is just too much.

And the branches didn't match the actual shrubbery we would see on the actual riverbank.

And the body in the plane never decomposed? Rigor Mortis never set in? Still it was a fun episode.

While the viewer is trying to figure out how the demonic 666 fits into the plot with the Greek-speaking parrot and the agent killed at the beginning, we learn it was all nothing more than a strange set of circumstances. The parrot and 666 meant nothing.

The episode would progress with more revelations about the Champions powers, as Stuart Damon makes his way to shore from way out in the middle of the ocean.

The lowest of low budget unfortunately gives one shot of Damon standing and walking away from the camera with dirt dead center on the seat of his pants, then later on we see his pants are clean.

Ah well.

Delightful ally as well. You could almost hope that this little fellow who aided Craig would go on to appear in future episodes, and the same could be thought about the unfortunate lad who was killed in the first episode as well.

Twasnt to be.

As to the blue-eyed fellow in the gift shop and the lady pilot, ah, less said about them, the better.