"The Fear Merchants" is an example of a story whose predictability is part of the fun. Patrick Cargill, back from "The Murder Market," again makes a marvelous villain, Pemberton, running an outfit designed to eliminate your competition for 50% of your increased profits, using both physical and psychological methods. Learning the strengths and weaknesses of their victims, they are able to reduce them to imbeciles (but not kill them), a truly sadistic scheme. Even Steed cannot fool them because their lie detecting chair reveals him to be a spy that must be eliminated. Appearing briefly as Crawley, the victim who fears great speeds, was Hammer stalwart Andrew Keir, making the first of two episodes (the other being "Get-A-Way!"). Keir had lent his distinguished presence to such titles as "The Pirates of Blood River" (1961), "The Devil-Ship Pirates" (1963), "Dracula-Prince of Darkness" (1965, all three with Christopher Lee), "The Viking Queen" (1967), "Quatermass and the Pit" (also 1967), "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb" (1971), and even Hammer's last, 1978's "The Lady Vanishes" (plus 1966's "Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D." with Peter Cushing, and 1970's "The Night Visitor" with Trevor Howard and Rupert Davies). Other AVENGERS veterans present include Garfield Morgan ("Game" and "Take-Over"), Jeremy Burnham ("The Town of No Return" and "The Forget-Me-Knot"), Bernard Horsfall ("The Cybernauts" and "They Keep Killing Steed"), and Edward Burnham ("Thingumajig").