Manhunt (''Captain Scarlet'')

"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 5
Original air date 20 October 1967
Guest appearance(s)

Voices of:
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

"Manhunt" is the fourth episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, a 1960s 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.

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 squadron.

Trapped inside the search area, Black murders a filling station mechanic to steal the 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 radioactive trace as he speeds down a highway in the SPV. Captain Ochre (voiced by Jeremy Wilkin) sets up a roadblock to stop him, but the Mysterons warn Black and order him to return to the atomic centre, where the ambient radiation will make him undetectable to Spectrum. Sighting the SPV from the air, Symphony Angel (voiced by Janna Hill) lands her fighter. She is taken hostage by Black, who crashes the atomic centre's gates with the SPV and takes Symphony deep into the complex.

The Spectrum ground forces converge on the atomic centre. Black attempts to kill Symphony by exposing her to increasing levels of radiation, but at the last moment spares her life and forces the Angel, who is now radioactive herself, to drive out of the complex alone in the SPV. As Scarlet, Blue and the others pursue the vehicle, believing its radioactive driver to be Black, the entrance to the complex is left unguarded; Black decontaminates himself and slips away. Symphony crashes the SPV and Spectrum realise that they have been tricked.

Production

"Manhunt" introduces David Healy as a voice actor for Captain Scarlet, here providing the voices of a Spectrum geiger counter operator and one of the Culver Atomic Centre security guards. Spectrum makes a second attempt to capture Black in "Treble Cross", which re-uses footage from "Manhunt".

The music playing on the mechanic's radio is the title music for the 1960 film Crossroads to Crime, directed by Gerry Anderson.[1] The episode's other incidental music was recorded during a four-hour studio session held on 16 April 1967, when it was performed by an ensemble of 14 instrumentalists conducted by series composer Barry Gray.[2] This music runs for four minutes and seven seconds.[3] The incidental music for "Big Ben Strikes Again" was recorded during the same session.[2]

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".[4]

References

  1. ↑ Bentley, Chris (2001). The Complete Book of Captain Scarlet. London, UK: Carlton Books. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-84222-405-2.
  2. 1 2 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.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ 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.
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