Noose of Ice

"Noose of Ice" is the 23rd 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 Peter Curran and David Williams and directed by Ken Turner, it was first broadcast on 12 March 1968 on ATV Midlands.

"Noose of Ice"
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
Episode no.Episode 23
Directed byKen Turner
Written byPeter Curran and David Williams[1]
Cinematography byJulien Lugrin
Editing byBob Dearberg
Production codeSCA 26[1]
Original air date12 March 1968 (1968-03-12)
Guest character voices
Neilson
General Rebus
Hotspot Tower Controller
Hotspot Tower Guard
Commander Rhodes

In this episode, the Mysterons target a mine extracting a rare metal vital to the construction of a new Earth space fleet.

Plot

A new space fleet is being built to enable Earth to take the "war of nerves" directly to the Mysterons. To shorten the journey time to Mars, the Space Administration is fortifying the ships with tritonium metal, enabling them to travel faster while tolerating the proportionately higher stresses. Tritonium is found only at the North Pole, where it is being extracted from the ocean floor by the Hotspot Tower mining facility.

When the Mysterons (voiced by Donald Gray) threaten to sabotage the space fleet, Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray) sends Captains Scarlet and Blue (voiced by Francis Matthews and Ed Bishop) to the Space Administration Headquarters in New York City to be briefed by the head of the Administration, General Rebus. Scarlet and Blue then travel to the Arctic to assess the security at Hotspot Tower. The controller, Rhodes, tells them that the lake around the tower and its undersea mine is prevented from freezing by giant heating elements powered the by electricity from Eskimo Booster Station.

Unknown to Scarlet, Blue and Rhodes, a maintenance technician, Neilson, has been killed in a blizzard and replaced with a double under Mysteron control. On the orders of Captain Black (voiced by Donald Gray), the double travels to Eskimo and cuts the power to the heating elements. The rapidly-freezing lake forms a "noose of ice" that threatens to crush the mining facility.

With Hotspot Tower's lifts inoperative, Scarlet puts on a diving suit and leaves the mine via an airlock, avoiding decompression sickness as he ascends to the surface of the lake. He then proceeds to Eskimo, where Neilson holds him at gunpoint. As Neilson shoots him, Scarlet throws a loose high-voltage cable at the metal staircase on which Neilson is standing, fatally electrocuting the Mysteron agent. Though wounded, he manages to restore the power to the heating elements, melting the ice and saving Hotspot Tower. However, the Mysterons have had a partial success: the facility is severely damaged and will be out of operation for at least six months.

Production

The end credits incorrectly name Tony Barwick as writer.[1] "Noose of Ice" follows on directly from Barwick's episode "Flight 104", in which the nature of Earth's return to Mars has yet to be decided. Although "Noose of Ice" was filmed and originally broadcast after "Flight 104", distributor ITC's official running order places it before that episode, disrupting this continuity.[2]

Parts of the Hotspot Tower filming model, which was designed by effects assistant Mike Trim,[3] were built to a scale larger than normal for Century 21, which enabled the creation of more realistic special effects.[4] The miniature model representing the Space Administration building was a re-use of the SHEF Headquarters from "Point 783".[5] Elements of the Hotspot Tower control room first appeared in the film Thunderbirds Are Go (1966), while the interior of Eskimo Booster Station was partly based on the Skyship One Gravity Compensation Room from Thunderbird 6 (1968).[1]

Some of the incidental music was originally composed for Stingray and Thunderbirds.[1] Scenes re-using music from these series include Neilson's death in the blizzard and shots of ice forming around Hotspot Tower.[5][6]

The puppet playing Neilson was first seen as Captain Brown in "The Mysterons".[6] "Noose of Ice" marks the third occasion in the series where this puppet's character is killed and reconstructed by the Mysterons: it previously appeared as Mysteron agents Major Reeves in "Renegade Rocket" and Professor Carney in "Codename Europa".[5][6] The puppet also appears as Charlie Hansen in "Fire at Rig 15", Dr Conrad in "Flight 104" and a bartender in "Special Assignment".[5] The puppet playing General Rebus also appears as the Base Concord Commander in "Renegade Rocket" as well as in non-speaking background roles in "Special Assignment" and "Seek and Destroy".[5][6] The Hotspot Tower guard was previously Jason Smith in "Fire at Rig 15", while the puppet that plays Commander Rhodes would later appear as the regular character Sam Loover in Joe 90.[5][6]

Reception

Andrew Thomas of Dreamwatch magazine considers "Noose of Ice" to be one of the best episodes of Captain Scarlet. He praises the episode for highlighting the vulnerability of Scarlet, as a former Mysteron agent, to electricity: "there is a very real danger that Scarlet may be electrocuted when re-connecting the power supply."[7]

Geoff Willmetts of the website Sfcrowsnest describes the episode, with its "freezing water", as "one of the cleverest from a special effects point of view".[8] Shane M. Dallmann of Video Watchdog magazine calls the episode "superlative in the miniatures department".[9]

Andrew Pixley and Julie Rogers of Starburst magazine regard the electrocution of Neilson as one of the series' more violent moments.[10]

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References
  1. Bentley 2017, pp. 154-155.
  2. Bentley 2017, p. 171.
  3. Bentley 2017, p. 92.
  4. Bentley 2001, p. 38.
  5. Bentley, Chris (2003). The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide. London, UK: Reynolds & Hearn. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-903111-97-0.
  6. Bentley 2001, p. 81.
  7. Thomas, Andrew (1994). Leigh, Gary (ed.). "Captain Indestructible!". Dreamwatch. Vol. 1 no. 4 (Winter Special). Brighton, UK: Dreamwatch Publishing. pp. 24, 26. ISSN 1356-482X. OCLC 225907941.
  8. Willmetts, Geoff (9 October 2018). "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray Series Review)". Sfcrowsnest. Archived from the original on 10 October 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  9. Dallmann, Shane M. (June 2003). Lucas, Tim (ed.). "DVD Spotlight: Captain Scarlet". Video Watchdog. No. 96. Cincinnati, Ohio: Tim and Donna Lucas. p. 42. ISSN 1070-9991. OCLC 646838004.
  10. 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.
Bibliography
  • Bentley, Chris (2001). The Complete Book of Captain Scarlet. London, UK: Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-842224-05-2.
  • Bentley, Chris (2017). Hearn, Marcus (ed.). Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Vault. Cambridge, UK: Signum Books. ISBN 978-0-995519-12-1.
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