The Launching

"The Launching" is the 26th 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 Peter Curran and David Williams and directed by Brian Burgess, it was first broadcast on 2 April 1968 on ATV Midlands.

In this episode, Spectrum is mobilised to protect Roberts, the President of the United States, from assassination by the Mysterons. However, as the Mysterons' self-imposed deadline looms, Captain Scarlet begins to suspect that their threat has been misinterpreted.

Plot

The Mysterons vow to "destroy President Roberts" within the next 12 hours. Spectrum interprets this as a threat against President Roberts of the United States. On Cloudbase, Spectrum commander-in-chief Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray) dispatches Captains Scarlet, Blue and Ochre (voiced by Francis Matthews, Ed Bishop and Jeremy Wilkin) to the presidential residence to protect Roberts. Meanwhile, the Angel squadron, led by Symphony Angel, are launched to patrol the surrounding airspace.

Elsewhere, reporter Mervin Brand of the Tribune newspaper is flying to the residence to attend the President's regular news conference. He is killed en route when his jet is caught in a thunderstorm and crashes after being struck by lightning. Mysteron reconstructions of Brand and the jet are intercepted by the Angels, who force Brand to land and complete his journey by road.

At the residence, Roberts agrees to security measures imposed by Scarlet but insists that the news conference go ahead as planned. One hour before the Mysteron deadline, Brand pulls up outside the residence in a car. However, rather than crash Blue and Ochre's security checkpoint, the Mysteron agent speeds away, almost running over the officers in the process.

The news conference ends without further incident and Roberts, believing himself to be out of danger, asks Scarlet if he can attend the launching of the Trans-Pacific Shipping Corporation's new atomic-powered ocean liner. When the President explains that the ship will be christened "President Roberts", Scarlet realises that Spectrum is protecting the wrong target and races to the shipyard in a Spectrum Patrol Car.

At the shipyard, Brand infiltrates the private box from which President Roberts will be launched and uses the Mysteron influence to transform the sacrificial bottle of champagne into a bomb. Just before the bottle is released, Scarlet arrives and warns the spectators of the sabotage. Brand pulls a gun on Scarlet but the officer shoots him first. The shipyard is evacuated, but Brand has survived and releases the bottle. However, it falls short of the ship's bow and swings back into the private box, exploding on contact and obliterating the box with Brand and Scarlet inside.

One week later, Roberts believes Scarlet to be dead, but is amazed when the resurrected officer appears next to Blue in his office.

Production

"The Launching" was originally filmed on Century 21's Stage 3 between May and June 1967. The episode re-entered production that October after it was discovered that the "Chicago Tribune", the newspaper for which Mervin Brand worked, actually exists and that Century 21 was therefore potentially violating its trademark. This meant that all visual and verbal references to the newspaper's title had to be shortened to "Tribune", which necessitated re-filming all the effects shots featuring Brand's plane, a scene in which Brand's Mysteron reconstruction identifies himself to the Angel squadron and a shot in which the reconstruction, having been forced to land, shows his press pass. Most of the scenes set inside the presidential residence were also re-shot, possibly to replace a faithful reproduction of the presidential seal that appears in the background with a more stylised version. The extensive re-shoots, which were conducted on Stage 3 opposite the filming of "Expo 2068" on Stage 4, made the production of "The Launching" one of the most complex of all Captain Scarlet episodes.^[2]

Following its appearance in the re-shoots, the puppet that plays President Roberts – number 19 – was removed from Century 21's pool of guest puppets so that it could be prepared for its regular role as Sam Loover in the company's next Supermarionation series, Joe 90.^[2] A duplicate of puppet 19 was created to play Colgan in the final episode of Captain Scarlet, "The Inquisition".^[3]

Footage cut from the finished episode includes a short scene in which it is stated that Roberts hails from same town as Symphony Angel.^[4] The Tribune Building is an altered version of a model that first appeared on the London streets in "Big Ben Strikes Again",^[5] while the presidential residence was adapted from the Creighton-Ward Mansion model that was originally built for Thunderbirds.^[2]

"The Launching" features the little-used Harmony Angel in a major role, for which she was voiced for the only time in the series by Chinese actress Lian-Shin Yang. Although Lian-Shin (billed as "Lian Shin") is a credited member of the voice cast on 20 episodes of the series, for all other episodes in which Harmony has a speaking role the character was voiced by Liz Morgan, who also provided the voices of Destiny and Rhapsody Angels.^[4][6]

Incidental music for "The Launching" was recorded at series composer Barry Gray's private studio on 23 July 1967 with an ensemble of four instrumentalists.^[2][7] Music for "Lunarville 7" was recorded on the same day.^[7]

Broadcast

"The Launching" was first broadcast (in black and white) on 2 April 1968 on ATV Midlands. It had its colour premiere on 28 November 1969 on Granada Television.^[8]

References

Bibliography

• 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

• "The Launching" on IMDb
• "The Launching" at TV.com
• "The Launching" at TheVervoid.com