Manhunt (Captain Scarlet)

"Manhunt" is the fourth episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company Century 21 Productions. Written by Tony Barwick and directed by Alan Perry, it was first broadcast on 20 October 1967 on ATV Midlands.

"Manhunt"
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
Episode no.	Episode 4
Directed by	Alan Perry
Written by	Tony Barwick
Cinematography by	Paddy Seale
Editing by	Harry MacDonald
Production code	SCA 4[1]
Original air date	20 October 1967
Guest character voices
David Healy (uncredited) as Spectrum Geiger Counter Operator 3rd Security Guard Martin King (uncredited) as Security Chief Richards Mechanic Paul Maxwell as 1st Security Guard Charles Tingwell as Security Guard Harris Jeremy Wilkin as 2nd Security Guard

In this episode, Spectrum launch a manhunt for Captain Black after a failed break-in at an atomic centre turns him into a radioactive source.

Plot

Captain Black (voiced by Donald Gray) breaks into the Culver Atomic Centre but is discovered by security guards. While making his escape he is forced to enter a radioactive area, where he is exposed to an isotope that renders him detectable on long-range Geiger counters for the next 48 hours. In a bid to capture the Mysteron agent, Spectrum search the surrounding area using a fleet of Detector Trucks aided by the Angel fighter squadron.

Trapped inside the search area, Black murders a filling station mechanic to steal the hidden Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle that he is guarding. When Captains Scarlet and Blue (voiced by Francis Matthews and Ed Bishop) arrive to requisition the SPV, they encounter the Mysteron reconstruction of the mechanic, who pulls a gun on them but is shot dead by Scarlet. The Detector Trucks pick up Black's trace as he speeds down a highway in the SPV. Captain Ochre (voiced by Jeremy Wilkin) sets up a roadblock to stop him. However, the Mysterons (voiced by Donald Gray) warn Black and order him to return to the atomic centre, where the background radiation will make him undetectable to Spectrum. Sighting the SPV from the air, Symphony Angel (voiced by Janna Hill) lands her fighter. She is captured by Black, who uses the SPV to crash the atomic centre's gates and takes Symphony deep into the complex.

The Spectrum forces converge on the atomic centre. Black attempts to kill Symphony by exposing her to increasing levels of radiation, but ultimately chooses to spare her life. He instead forces the Angel, who is now radioactive herself, to drive out of the complex alone in the SPV. Thinking that Black is the driver, the Spectrum forces begin a pursuit. The entrance to the complex is left unguarded, and Black decontaminates himself and slips away. Symphony crashes the SPV and Spectrum discover too late that they have been tricked. After Colonel White's (voiced by Donald Gray) debriefing, Lieutenant Green (voiced by Cy Grant) discreetly asks Symphony why she did not alert the Captains of her presence during Black's escape; she admits that she had never driven an SPV before and did not want to bypass such an opportunity.

Production

"Manhunt" marks the first contributions of voice actor David Healy to the series, here providing the voices of a Spectrum geiger counter operator and one of the Culver Atomic Centre security guards.

The mechanic's radio plays the theme music for Gerry Anderson's film Crossroads to Crime (1960).[2] The episode's original incidental music was recorded during a four-hour studio session held on 16 April 1967 with a group of 14 instrumentalists.[3] This music runs for four minutes and seven seconds.[4] Music for "Big Ben Strikes Again" was recorded during the same session.[3]

Spectrum makes a second attempt to capture Black in "Treble Cross", which re-uses footage originally recorded for this episode.[5] This footage includes scale model shots of the Spectrum Detector Trucks, which were designed by special effects assistant Mike Trim.[6] The puppet-scale interior of the trucks was adapted from the Zero-X Martian Exploration Vehicle cockpit that was originally built for the film Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and last seen in "The Mysterons".[7]

Reception

Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, authors of The Guinness Book of Classic British TV, consider "Manhunt" to be one of several Captain Scarlet episodes that "seem little more than left-over Thunderbirds scripts".[8]

Andrew Pixley and Julie Rogers of Starburst magazine regard Black's murder of the mechanic as one of the series' more violent moments, noting that Black kills another filling station worker in "Special Assignment".[9]

Footnotes

1. Bentley 2017, p. 30.
2. Bentley 2001, p. 62.
3. de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete Studio-Recording List of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
4. Eder, Bruce. "Captain Scarlet (Original TV Soundtrack) Review". AllMusic. San Francisco, California: All Media Network. Archived from the original on 29 May 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
5. Bentley 2001, p. 82.
6. Bentley 2017, p. 84.
7. Brown, Stephen; Jones, Mike (2017). Jones, Mike (ed.). Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: Close-Up. Fanderson. p. 17.
8. Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1996) [1996]. Marshall, Anne (ed.). The Guinness Book of Classic British TV (2nd ed.). Middlesex, UK: Guinness Publishing. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-851126-28-9.
9. Pixley, Andrew; Rogers, Julie (December 2001). Gillatt, Gary (ed.). "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: By Numbers". Starburst. No. 280. London, UK: Visual Imagination (published November 2001). p. 48. ISSN 0955-114X. OCLC 79615651.

Works cited

• Bentley, Chris (2001). The Complete Book of Captain Scarlet. London, UK: Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84222-405-2.
• Bentley, Chris (2017). Hearn, Marcus (ed.). Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Vault. Cambridge, UK: Signum Books. ISBN 978-0-995519-12-1.

External links

• "Manhunt" on IMDb
• "Manhunt" at TV.com
• "Manhunt" at TheVervoid.com