Notes for Chapters 40, 41 & 42 of The Siren · 2:03am Jul 6th, 2023
These are the notes for Chapters 40, 41 & 42 of my fanfic The Siren. Don’t read until after you’ve read the chapter.
Chapter 40
The core of this and the next two chapters is a very condensed version of “The Town of No Return” written by Brian Clemens, an episode from the 4th Series of The Avengers, which just to remind you was a British television series started in the 1960’s. (As opposed to The Avengers, which is an American comic-based franchise started in the 1960’s.) Some stuff was also taken from the 5th Series episode “Murdersville”, also written by Brian Clemens.
Peel’s Nightie
The tuba
This was a fun prop from the show—a tuba used as a flowerpot:
(This is from John Steed’s Flat, a website devoted to all things John Steed.)
It was found in Steed’s flats across the years, despite the fact that he can’t play it. But Peel can.
Moozart’s Rondo for Horn
Yes, I know that’s a euphonium instead of a tuba. Find me a YouTube clip of somebody playing something as jolly (and short) as that on a tuba and I’ll switch out.
Ragamuffin’s pajamas and dressing gown
Mrs. Peel’s teacher outfit
(I have another screenshot I can produce on demand if you need proof that the stockings do indeed have a diamond pattern stitched into them.)
Mind Garden
The world of 1960’s television is a different place than what you see in today’s entertainment. People hadn’t been trained by birth in how to watch these kinds of shows, and so the plots were much simpler. (Also there basically never was more than one plot going on at the same time.) It’s for this reason that the two main characters of The Avengers never used fake names for their aliases—the writers thought that the viewers would lose track of who was who if Mrs. Peel suddenly started calling herself Miss Cartwright, and they were probably right.
Anyway, this is the Twenty-First Century, and so Mrs. Peel is absolutely going to change her name when she goes undercover.
Outer Equestria Development Corporation
Head back to Chapter 4 if you forgot who they were.
Price/Cook
I’m simultaneously evoking PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (known as Price Waterhouse before 1998), one of the biggest accounting firms in the world, and the names of IDW comics artist Andy Price and writer Katie Cook.
The Inebriated Imp
The equivalent pub in the Avengers episode “The Town of No Return” was called The Inebriated Gremlin.
Spicy tomatoes
Fanfiction authors have a habit of taking a one-time thing and making it permanent—case in point: Lyra sitting funny in one episode. And so since the watering hole in “Over a Barrel” was called The Salt Block, I have made it a rule in most of my fanfics that ponies get drunk off of salt instead of alcohol. And so Pierce ordering extra salt for the drink intended for “Miss Garden” means that he’s up to no good.
Miss Stone Mason
Original character, based on “The Town of No Return” character Jill Manson.
Peel’s Dangerous Mission Outfit
This of course is the one outfit the Emma Peel fans were waiting for me to deploy since her first appearance:
(The Avengers and black catsuits are practically synonymous in the eyes of the public, although Diana Rigg didn’t actually put on the suit nearly as often as people think.)
The karate chop
The late 60’s was when the British and Americans really got interested in East Asian martial arts. See the James Bond movies of the period, for example.
“All for the greater good.”
I challenge the reader to think of any other reference than Hot Fuzz for that line.
Chapter 41
The Staff of Memory
This universe’s version of the Staff of Sameness. In this universe it’s legit, because Starlight already has Disguise as her cutie mark-given talent. (And also because I already dropped some notes of suspicion regarding Mage Meadowbrook.)
Chapter42
“Rearing Steed”s outfit
As a contrast to Mrs Peel’s outfits, which represented the contemporary world of the Swinging Sixties, the outfits of John Steed looked to the Edwardian past.
“Wanna see something really scary?”
You can click the link…if you wanna.
