Spectrum Strikes Back

"Spectrum Strikes Back"
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
Episode no. Episode 9
Directed by Ken Turner
Written by Tony Barwick
Cinematography by Julien Lugrin
Editing by Bob Dearberg
Production code SCA 9[1]
Original air date 24 November 1967 (1967-11-24)
Guest appearance(s)

Voices of:
Gary Files (uncredited) as
Captain Indigo
Game Warden 1
Game Warden 3
Martin King (uncredited) as
Game Warden 2
Paul Maxwell as
World President
Charles Tingwell as
Space General Peterson
Jeremy Wilkin as
Dr Giadello

"Spectrum Strikes Back" is the ninth episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, a British 1960s Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Written by Tony Barwick and directed by Ken Turner, it was first broadcast on 24 November 1967 on ATV Midlands.

Following the events of "Operation Time", a secret conference is held in which Spectrum unveils two weapons that it has developed for use against the Mysterons. However, the actions of a Mysteron agent leave 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 a game reserve in Africa to attend a secret conference that is being held in an underground room beneath a hunting lodge. The conference is hosted by Spectrum Intelligence scientist Dr Giadello, who unveils two anti-Mysteron devices inspired by the discoveries that Spectrum made when the Mysterons attempted to assassinate General Tiempo. The "Mysteron Gun" fires concentrated electron beams that are capable of permanently destroying Mysteron reconstructions by exploiting their vulnerability to electricity; the "Mysteron Detector" is a radiographic device that can identify Mysteron agents by their resistance to X-rays.

Unknown to the conference delegates, Captain Indigo, a Spectrum officer working undercover as the lodge's waiter, has been murdered by Captain Black and reconstructed in the service of the Mysterons. When the Mysteron Detector reveals his true nature, the reconstruction of Indigo sabotages the conference by locking the lodge in descent mode. He then escapes in a car with the key to the control mechanism, leaving the delegates to be crushed by the building above.

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

Indigo is intercepted by Scarlet and shot by one of the reserve's game wardens. However, the wound is not fatal and Scarlet is forced to dispatch the Mysteron agent with the aid of 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".[2] Filming commenced on 13 March 1967.[3] 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.[4]

It is stated in "Spectrum Strikes Back" that Mysteron agents can be killed only by high-voltage electricity, yet in both earlier and later episodes of Captain Scarlet (including "Winged Assassin", "Manhunt", "White As Snow" and "Shadow of Fear") they are shot dead with conventional handguns.[5][6] Following its debut in this episode the Mysteron Gun makes no further appearances in the series.[5]

"Spectrum Strikes Back" features the second appearance of the World President, who is threatened with assassination in "The Mysterons". The character of Captain Indigo is a re-use of the puppet that appears as Macey in "Big Ben Strikes Again".

Reception

In a review written for the Gerry Anderson-centric publication Andersonic, Vincent Law names this episode "one of the most convoluted and inconsistent" of Captain Scarlet, criticising aspects such as 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, to escape the conference room. However, he praises the moments of "light relief" in Tony Barwick's script as well as Barry Gray's score. Law regrets the absence of the Mysteron Gun from later episodes and notes that even the Detector appears only occasionally after its introduction in "Spectrum Strikes Back".[7]

James Stansfield of the entertainment website Den of Geek ranks "Spectrum Strikes Back" the tenth-best episode of Captain Scarlet, considering it to be memorable for the introduction of 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 criticises the security of the game reserve as well as the character of Indigo, noting that despite being a Spectrum captain "he is assigned the humiliating task of being a waiter to those gathered at the base".[8]

Writing for Starburst magazine, Andrew Pixley and Julie Rogers state that the Mysteron Gun, "although fantastically useful, is never seen again"; they also compare the Detector to a car's radiator grille.[9]

References

  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 2017, p. 53.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. 1 2 Bentley 2017, p. 77.
  6. ↑ Bentley 2017, p. 95.
  7. ↑ Law, Vincent. "Going Down: 'Spectrum Strikes Back'". andersonic.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 April 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ 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.
Bibliography
  • Bentley, Chris (2017). Hearn, Marcus, ed. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Vault. Cambridge, UK: Signum Books/Flashpoint Media. ISBN 978-0-995519-12-1.
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