The Champions "Project Zero" #1.24 (1969) (TV)

The Champions Go Undercover, 23 March 2017

When a very prominent scientist is found dead in the streets of London, Nemesis is called in to investigate. Richard goes undercover as an electronics expert and is hired by a secret research project known only as Project Zero. He boards a plane, gets knocked unconscious by a gas, and arrives at an underground laboratory in an undisclosed location. Richard discovers a group of scientists working on a weapon capable of destroying nuclear devices from a considerable distance. After his cover is blown, Craig and Sharon are forced to also go in undercover to find him. Can they escape, catch the baddies, and destroy the weapon?

Project Zero is one of my favorite episodes from The Champions. It does most everything right. To start with, Project Zero lets The Champions use more of their powers than most episodes. And, all three members of the team get an equal chance to shine. Sharon actually gets an opportunity to do more than play the all too frequent damsel in distress. Here, she saves the day. The episode is packed with all the goodness you could ask for – action, intrigue, fight scenes, and some real spy-type stuff. The writing in Project Zero is as good as I've seen in the series. I've gone back and checked it out and Tony Williamson seems to have been responsible for some of the better episodes in the series. Direction is also as good as I've seen in the series. Don Sharp, director of some really nice Hammer films, does fantastic work on Project Zero. And the supporting cast is top notch, with Rupert Davies and Jan Holden making particularly good villains. I also got a real kick out of seeing Nicholas Smith, albeit in a small role, playing a killer. Overall, it's a fantastic episode.

In writing about recent episodes of The Champions, I've highlighted new powers that each episode presented. In Project Zero, we learn in the pre-credit sequence that Sharon has the ability to distinguish between vintages of wine. While it's impressive, I'm not sure how handy that would prove in a fight against a super- villain.

9/10