While it remains to be seen how it will turn out, the wisdom of producing a big-screen version of The Avengers in the '90s is questionable. While something like, say, Star Trek can easily be updated for future decades, it's difficult to think of a TV series more of its time than The Avengers, except maybe The Mod Squad or Amos 'N' Andy. Beginning as a somewhat traditional, lighthearted spy series, the show slowly evolved into something more self-aware, arriving on American TV in 1967 with tongue clearly planted in cheek. This box set makes the first six episodes of that season officially available for the first time since they were last shown on cable in 1990. Throughout its run, The Avengers starred Patrick Macnee as dapper and cunning super-spy John Steed. The image of privileged English authority, Macnee was paired with a handful of partners (including the future Pussy Galore, Honor Blackman) both before and after being joined by Diana Rigg for two seasons. But it's the episodes with Rigg, during which The Avengers most clearly played with the contrasts between traditional England and the generation of English that came of age in the '60s, that remain the most fondly remembered. In outfits that ranged from the fashionably mod to the ridiculous, Rigg played the young Mrs. Emma Peel—a "talented amateur" spy, scientist, artist, and whatever else was convenient for the week's episode—with charming inscrutability and without a hint of reluctance to kick ass. Together, Rigg and Macnee displayed a questionably platonic chemistry which, along with the show's overall style, led to its status as a cult classic. Except for the occasional sharp installment like the clever whodunit "The Winged Avenger," the '67 season's stories were considerably weaker than the black-and-white shows that immediately preceded them. The confrontations with master villains and crazed scientists usually take a backseat to the comedic elements, costumes, and colorful backdrops. It was formulaic, but it was the right formula at the right time, stylized so exaggeratedly that everyone involved must have known they were making time-capsule fodder. If anything, that only makes it more entertaining now, providing further reason to check out these episodes before the show slips back into semi-obscurity once the movie hype dies down.