Big Ben Strikes Again

The Mysterons (voiced by Donald Gray) announce that they intend to destroy London. Aided by Captain Black, they use their powers to seize control of a transporter truck carrying an atomic device through the city. The transporter and its driver, Macey, are sealed inside Park View, an underground car park. Macey, who was knocked out during the hi-jacking, wakes up not knowing where he is. Turning on his radio to hear Big Ben strike midnight, he is surprised to hear 13 chimes instead of 12. The Mysterons start the device's 12-hour detonation countdown, knock out Macey for a second time and then dump him in a side street.

Following the disappearance of the device, Spectrum is put on red alert. Macey is found by Captain Scarlet (voiced by Francis Matthews) and taken to Cloudbase to describe his ordeal to Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray). More than 2,000 London car parks match Macey's description of Park View. Remembering the driver's claim that Big Ben struck 13, Captain Blue (voiced by Ed Bishop) narrows the field down to two candidates – one of them Park View – by calculating that Macey's car park cannot be more than a mile from Big Ben.

Less than an hour before detonation, Scarlet and Blue fly to London, speed to Park View in a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle and locate the transporter. With too little time left to defuse the device, White orders the officers to take the transporter to a construction site – its intended destination – and leave the device to detonate in a specially prepared excavation below ground. Scarlet and Blue reach the site with just minutes to spare. With Scarlet driving the transporter, Blue lowers it into the excavation in a lift. Scarlet abandons the transporter and starts back up, but moments later the device explodes, destroying the lift shaft. Scarlet is fatally injured but recovers thanks to his retro-metabolic powers.

Some time later, while dining at a restaurant with Scarlet, Destiny Angel (voiced by Liz Morgan) and Melody Angel, Blue explains how he was able to work out the car park's approximate location and why Macey heard Big Ben seemingly strike 13. Macey was hearing two sets of chimes: one over the air, the other on his radio. However, the airborne chimes were delayed by the speed of sound, so the "thirteenth" chime was actually a repeat of the twelfth that had already sounded on the radio. Following this explanation, Scarlet decides to make 13 his "lucky number".

A number of short scenes were scripted but unfilmed. Set immediately after Colonel White orders the red alert, these would have introduced Spectrum captains codenamed Yellow and Purple and shown Captain Scarlet resting in Cloudbase's "Room of Sleep", which is mentioned but unseen in later episodes.[1][3] The script describes the Room of Sleep as containing "special couches" that enable users to condense a full night's sleep into one hour.[1]

This episode's scale model work included the construction of entire miniature streets, a task that could not have been accomplished without the larger budget that episodes of Captain Scarlet enjoyed compared to those of earlier Supermarionation series.[4] It was on the street sets that the transporter hi-jacking was filmed – a scene that Derek Meddings, the series' special effects director, remembered for its atmosphere.[4] The sets were redecorated and reorganised several times to make it appear that Macey's transporter covers more ground.[1] The transporter model, which re-appears in "Expo 2068", was designed by Meddings' assistant, Mike Trim.[5]

The incidental music for "Big Ben Strikes Again" was recorded on 16 April 1967 in a four-hour session held at series composer Barry Gray's private studio, where it was performed by an ensemble of 14 instrumentalists.[6] It includes a light jazz track, "Until Midnight", which can be heard playing on the transporter radio in the scene leading up to Big Ben's midnight chimes.[7][8] Music for the following episode, "Manhunt", was recorded on the same day.[6]

When BBC Two started to repeat Captain Scarlet in September 2001, "Big Ben Strikes Again" was originally due to be broadcast as the third episode to match the order of production. However, it was postponed due to similarities between the plot, which focuses on a missing atomic device, and the September 11 attacks that had occurred earlier that month. This coincided with distributor Carlton briefly taking down the Captain Scarlet pages on its website. The episode was ultimately broadcast several weeks after its intended transmission date.[9]

Mike Fillis of Cult Times magazine considers "Big Ben Strikes Again" a highlight of Captain Scarlet, describing the episode's scale model work as "superb".[10] Gary Russell, writing for What DVD magazine, cites the episode's first act (which he describes as being devoted to Macey's "paranoia") as an example of Captain Scarlet's relative maturity for a children's TV series, as well as the series' "sense of darkness ... and real drama".[11] Chris Bentley, author of Captain Scarlet: The Vault, describes the scenes of Captains Scarlet and Blue rushing to the construction site as "fostering unbearable tension", which he argues is heightened by Spectrum's defeat in the previous episode, "Winged Assassin".[1]

Media historian Nicholas J. Cull argues that "Big Ben Strikes Again", along with the later episodes "Treble Cross" and "Expo 2068", demonstrates scriptwriter Tony Barwick's partiality to storylines highlighting the dangers of nuclear technology. He views the plot involving a missing piece of nuclear technology as an example of Barwick employing his "favourite device".[12]

Footage from "Big Ben Strikes Again" appears as a flashback in the series' clip show final episode, "The Inquisition".

• "Big Ben Strikes Again" on IMDb
• "Big Ben Strikes Again" at TV.com
• "Big Ben Strikes Again" at TheVervoid.com