She looks great, but alas she didn't have the charisma of Ms Rigg and Ms B. She wasn't helped by the fact that, the scripts she had to work with were lack lustre. And the series had run out of steam by the time she joined.
"CG is good. CG works" Gordon Gekko
She had one hell of an act to follow when stepping into Emma's shoes and also came into the series as a 20 year old! I think there were plenty really good episodes in her time, and she helped make them good episodes.
If it wasn't for the series losing such an unreplaceable character in Emma Peel, and the strength that Diana Rigg gave to the series, then Linda Thorson would have been given more plaudits than she's received for her efforts in The Avengers.
IMO she grew into her character, and gave more mature acting performances towards the latter episodes, which were plain to see. She was 21 by then!
There's no doubt that she was proper eye candy - stylish, athletic and a beautiful young woman. But I'd say that she was also more than that. It's just a matter of having a series with some wonderful female talent in it, and the likes of us can compare their talents. Lucky us.
I disagree totally. And I repeat that I don't blame her entirely - an actor is only as good as the material they are given. Most of the time she had to work with poor scripts. Her best episode IMO was Pandora, where she showed some fine acting chops. But on the whole even her fights scenes were not that great. I do like the way that, she would grab a chair or anything in reach to just bash an attacker with though. Much more realistic than Emma's pseudo Karate fight.
When you compare her career with Diana Rigg's, there is also an obvious difference: Rigg made a Bond film. Rigg won an award for the TV movie This House of Brede. Rigg has done lots of theatre since Avengers, etc etc....
"CG is good. CG works" Gordon Ghekko
Linda was great! She did have some huge shoes to fill, but considering this was her first time acting in a series, not to mention costaring in an established international hit, she held her own quite well.
The problem was that she was mishandled both behind the scenes and on the show. I think there was a panic to create this new sensational character, but to make her as drastically different from Emma as possible. In doing so the took an attractive brunette and turned her into a Harpo Marx looking blonde and dressed her in hideous clothes! Ontop of that they wanted her to be the damsel in distress hitting bad guys with a brick in her purse. The key to the Avengers has always been an ass kicking female who can hold her own.
I feel that Brian Clemens resented Thorson and felt stuck with her when he came back to take over. Tara was undefined as a character, but eventually she was fleshed out and really excellent. Her ass kicking abilities are top notch in All Done With Mirrors and she finally came into her own. If only she was this strong from the beginning! But I love Tara.