Review of Champions, The: Volume 3

Introduction

Endowed with the qualities and skills of superhumans, Craig Sterling (Stuart Damon), Sharron Macready (Alexandra Bastedo) and Richard Barrett (William Gaunt) are ‘The Champions’.
With these gifts given to them by a lost civilisation in Tibet, they are able to use their fantastic powers to their best advantage as the champions of Law, Order and Justice while working for W.I Tremayne (Anthony Nicholls) at the secret international agency, Nemesis.

Episodes include:

Episode 7: The Survivors
Three students are murdered in the Austrian Alps. The champions are sent to investigate and chance upon a secret map that may lead them to a mine where it is thought lay the remains of a secret Nazi base specially constructed for use by the SS.

Episode 8: To Trap a Rat
A lethal tainted drug is being distributed throughout London which is claiming many victims. Scotland yard have no leads to who the dealers are and so the Nemesis organisation is asked to help.

Episode 9: The Iron Man
When asked to protect the life of a former dictator the Nemesis agents take on very unusual roles to fulfil there duties. However these duties take on a more domestic role than their used but inevitably they are never far from danger.

Episode 10: The Ghost Plane
When asked to investigate a man whose plans for a revolutionary aircraft have been shelved, the Champions find themselves on the trail of a broker.

Four more great episodes see the Champions
Standout episodes are ‘The Survivors’ which concerns itself with the mythology built up after the war of small surviving pockets of fanatical Nazi’s who had sealed themselves inside secret underground bunkers where they had oxygen and supplies to last out the end days of the war and far into the future.
These are very much like the stories of the long lost Japanese soldiers who one day appear from out of the jungle still thinking that the war is on. These of course had some element of truth whereas the Nazi stories were probably fuelled by the quest to find hidden Nazi gold and the extensive bunkers the Nazi regime built throughout their time. A very good story worth thinking about.
The ‘ Iron Man’ is also very good, amusing and features the worse wire in the frame sequence I’ve seen in recent times during the clay pigeon shoot. They almost look like someone unsuccessfully trying to fake a UFO. Fantastic stuff. The story itself remains intelligent and fun and gives plenty of opportunities for the Nemesis gang to use their superhuman powers.
The ‘Ghost Plane’ episode also has its share of mishaps. Just look at the stock footage of the exploding planes. It must be footage from WWII as the planes don’t match and the film looks like its been shot through an iris with the black surrounding the picture. Its such a bad matchup it unbelievable but also very funny. Apart from that it’s a decent story although not as interesting as ‘The Survivors’.
The one weak episode here is ‘To Trap a Rat’ which has only the highlight of an extra high dog hearing scene.
Good stuff and well worth watching.

Video

This is a fairly decent print which like the other champion DVD`s only really show there age during the title sequences, stock footage and the occasional location shot. Otherwise the print is fairly clean considering it’s age with only the occasional bit of dust or dirt. Detail remains average as some of the shots tend to be a little soft and the colours, although sometimes seeming a little subdued are rendered well reflecting the style of when it was first made. A small amount of grain is evident throughout but I didn’t notice any compression problems. A surprisingly good all-round picture which reveals only a small number of flaws that never really detract your attention away from the on screen action.

Audio

The audio is presented in standard mono and does its job well. Dialogue remains clear and undistorted with no real problems.

Features

Extras include 2 rare promotional trailers that give a unique insight into how the series was first marketed.
A small original memorabilia section is also on offer featuring the Champions dot to dot book and such like together with a behind the scenes photo gallery of the episode ‘To Trap a Rat’.
The menus are themed with music and suitable background pictures as well as a small animated scene selection section. A small fold out booklet which includes production and cast information along with chapter details is also included.
There are 8 chapters per episode.

Conclusion

The Champions have returned with another good DVD featuring more great stories and a small but decent set of extras. This classic series has aged suprisingly well and offers far more than you may initially think.
Again another decent job from Carlton who seem to have gotten to grips with bringing many old classic series to the digital format and giving them a new lease of life.