Spectrum Strikes Back

"Spectrum Strikes Back" is the tenth 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 Ken Turner, it was first broadcast on 24 November 1967 on ATV Midlands. The plot follows on from the events of "Operation Time".

"Spectrum Strikes Back"
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
Episode no.Episode 10
Directed byKen Turner
Written byTony Barwick
Cinematography byJulien Lugrin
Editing byBob Dearberg
Production codeSCA 9[1]
Original air date24 November 1967
Guest character voices
Captain Indigo
1st Game Warden
3rd Game Warden
2nd Game Warden
World President
  • Charles Tingwell as
Space General Peterson
Dr Giadello

In the episode, Spectrum organises a secret conference where it unveils two weapons that it has developed for use against the Mysterons. However, a Mysteron agent sets a trap that leaves the conference delegates in mortal danger.

Plot

Colonel White, Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue (voiced by Donald Gray, Francis Matthews and Ed Bishop) travel to an African game reserve to attend a secret conference that is being held underground in a room beneath a hunting lodge. The conference host, Spectrum Intelligence scientist Dr Giadello, unveils two anti-Mysteron devices inspired by the discoveries that Spectrum made when the Mysterons tried to assassinate General Tiempo.[2] The "Mysteron Gun" fires an electron beam that permanently destroys Mysteron reconstructions by exploiting their vulnerability to electricity, while the "Mysteron Detector" is a radiographic device that identifies reconstructions through their resistance to X-rays.

Unknown to the delegates, Captain Indigo, a Spectrum officer working undercover as the lodge's waiter, is murdered by Captain Black and reconstructed in the service of the Mysterons. When the Mysteron Detector reveals his true nature, Indigo's reconstruction sabotages the conference by activating the controls that cause the lodge to descend into the ground. He then escapes in a car with the key to the controls, leaving the delegates to be crushed by the building above them.

Scarlet arms himself with the Mysteron Gun and escapes the conference room in a lift to confront Indigo. The lift is rendered inoperable when the lodge begins to descend, eliminating the other delegates' only means of escape and forcing Scarlet to pursue Indigo in a second car to recover the key. In the conference room, Blue slows the lodge's descent by firing his gun into the ceiling at the point where the controls are located, damaging them.

Indigo is intercepted by Scarlet and shot by one of the reserve's game wardens. However, the wound is not fatal, and Scarlet dispatches him using the Mysteron Gun. Speeding back to the lodge with the key, Scarlet reverses the building's descent moments before the delegates are killed. Later, all present agree that the Mysteron Gun and Detector have proven their worth in the field.

Production

The working title for this episode was "Spectrum Strike Back".[3] The Mysteron Gun was designed by the series' special effects director, Derek Meddings.[4] Filming of the episode began on 13 March 1967.[5] The incidental music for both this episode and "Avalanche" was recorded in a four-hour studio session held on 11 June 1967 with a 15-member orchestra.[6]

Dialogue in this episode states that only high-voltage electricity can kill Mysteron agents, yet in both earlier and later episodes (including "Winged Assassin", "Manhunt", "White As Snow" and "Shadow of Fear") they are shot dead with conventional handguns.[7][8] While the Mysteron Detector makes several re-appearances in subsequent episodes, the Mysteron Gun is never seen or referenced again in the series, although it does appear in the audio play Captain Scarlet versus Captain Black, where it is called the "Electro-Ray Rifle".[7]

"Spectrum Strikes Back" features the second appearance of the World President, who was targeted by the Mysterons in the first episode. The puppet playing Captain Indigo previously appeared as Macey in "Big Ben Strikes Again".[2]

Reception

James Stansfield of the entertainment website Den of Geek ranks "Spectrum Strikes Back" the tenth-best episode of Captain Scarlet, deeming it memorable for introducing the Mysteron Gun and Detector ("though both were seldom seen again") as well as "some unintentional hilarity with the nicknames used by the Spectrum agents" (Scarlet, Blue and White use the undercover aliases "Mr Panther", "Mr Bear" and "Mr Tiger"). He questions the game reserve's lack of security as well as the purpose of Indigo, noting that despite being a Spectrum captain the character is given the "humiliating task of being a waiter to those gathered at the base".[9]

In a review for the publication Andersonic, Vincent Law names this episode "one of the most convoluted and inconsistent" of Captain Scarlet, criticising aspects such as the nature of the hunting lodge: "... the whole lodge descending underground for reasons of secrecy is bizarre, as surely any passer-by would become immediately suspicious when a non-descript building started sinking into the ground!" Law also questions why the delegates fail to use the lift, which the reconstructed Indigo used moments earlier, in order to escape the conference room. However, he praises the script's moments of "light relief" as well as Barry Gray's musical score. Law regrets the absence of the Mysteron Gun from later episodes, also noting that after this episode even the Mysteron Detector appears only occasionally.[10]

Andrew Pixley and Julie Rogers of Starburst magazine note that the Mysteron Gun, "although fantastically useful, is never seen again". They liken the Mysteron Detector to a car's radiator grille.[11] Shane M. Dallmann of Video Watchdog magazine describes the descending lodge as a "Bondian deathtrap".[12]

Footnotes
  1. Bentley 2017, p. 76.
  2. Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4th ed.). London, UK: Reynolds & Hearn. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.
  3. Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4th ed.). London, UK: Reynolds & Hearn. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.
  4. Bentley 2017, p. 67.
  5. Bentley 2017, p. 53.
  6. de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete Studio-Recording List of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  7. Bentley 2017, p. 77.
  8. Bentley 2017, p. 95.
  9. Stansfield, James (6 September 2012). "Top 10 Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons Episodes". Den of Geek. London, UK: Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  10. Law, Vincent. "Going Down: 'Spectrum Strikes Back'". andersonic.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 April 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  11. Pixley, Andrew; Rogers, Julie (December 2001). "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: By Numbers". Starburst. London, UK: Visual Imagination (published November 2001). 26 (3): 47. ISSN 0955-114X. OCLC 79615651.
  12. Dallmann, Shane M. (June 2003). Lucas, Tim (ed.). "DVD Spotlight: Captain Scarlet". Video Watchdog. No. 96. Cincinnati, Ohio: Tim and Donna Lucas. p. 39. ISSN 1070-9991. OCLC 646838004.

Works cited
  • 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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