Inferno (Captain Scarlet)

"Inferno"
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
Episode no. Episode 28
Directed by Alan Perry
Written by Tony Barwick
Shane Rimmer
Cinematography by Ted Catford
Editing by Bob Dearberg
Production code 32
Original air date 16 April 1968 (1968-04-16)
Guest appearance(s)

Voices of:
Gary Files as
Euro Tracker Sergeant
David Healy as
Major Moran
Martin King as
SKR4 Navigator
Shane Rimmer as
SKR4 Pilot (uncredited)[1]

Episode chronology

"Inferno" is the 28th episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, a British 1960s Supermarionation television series co-created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Written by Tony Barwick and Shane Rimmer and directed by Alan Perry, it was first broadcast on 16 April 1968 on ATV Midlands. In this episode, the Mysterons destroy and reconstruct a spacecraft to attack the Najama desalinisation plant in the Andes mountains.

Plot

In Earth orbit, the pilot and navigator of the SKR4 recovery vehicle are preparing to rendezvous with a malfunctioning space rocket when their vessel is destroyed by a meteoroid impact. The mission aborted on the pretence of a technical fault, a Mysteron reconstruction of the SKR4 reverses course for Earth. On Cloudbase, Spectrum learns the target of the Mysterons' next threat: the Najama automated desalinisation facility in the foothills of the Andes, which processes seawater for irrigation and land restoration of the South American continent. Colonel White (Donald Gray) dispatches a team, led by Captains Scarlet (Francis Matthews) and Blue (Ed Bishop), to establish surveillance outposts in the Najama Valley. Shortly after the Spectrum group's arrival, Captain Black slips into the ancient Aztec temple where Scarlet and Blue have set up base, concealing a homing device in the mouth of a statue of the Sun God.

Meanwhile, Euro Tracker station is monitoring SKR4's return to Earth. When attempts to communicate with the spacecraft fail, a concerned Major Moran alerts Cloudbase. Transmissions between SKR4 and Euro Tracker are jammed by an external radio signal, which alters the spacecraft's projected landing site. Lieutenant Green (Cy Grant) determines that the signal originates from the Najama area. Informed by Moran that SKR4 is carrying heavy explosives, White deduces that the spacecraft is being drawn off-course into a crash landing in the Najama Valley. As SKR4 re-enters Earth's atmosphere, the Spectrum field agents attempt to find Black's transmitter, whose approximate location within the temple is triangulated by Blue. However, with no time to pinpoint the device's position, Scarlet instructs the Angel squadron to launch an aerial assault on the temple itself. The Sun God's statue is ultimately destroyed, but too late to prevent SKR4 from crashing into the ruins. The blast triggers a landslide, which strikes the Najama facility's exposed liquid oxygen tanks and destroys the complex a series of explosions. Having escaped from the temple in their Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, Scarlet and Blue acknowledge the Mysterons' victory.

Production

"Inferno" recycles several incidental music tracks from Thunderbirds and Supercar. The episodes marks the third time that the Mysterons' vanishing power is seen; it also features in "The Heart of New York" and "Model Spy".

Reception

"Inferno" is judged to be the best episode of Captain Scarlet by TV Zone magazine, which praises the instalment's "dark direction and straightforwardly effective plot".[2] "Little touches" – such as the realism of Black's cautious ascent of the statue, and of the depiction of Scarlet and Blue as being on first-name terms (making them "real people, with real names and lives behind their codenames") – are also positively received.[2] What is most to the episode's credit, comments the magazine, is the harshness of the conclusion, aggravated by the fact that "Spectrum's efforts actually make it worse".[2]

James Stansfield of the website Den of Geek ranks "Inferno" sixth in his "Top 10" list of Captain Scarlet episodes, praising the "horror movie style elements" and comparing Scarlet and Blue's "[creeping] about the temple looking for clues" to a "Scooby-Doo cartoon".[3] He describes the episode in general as "tremendously fun", commends the use of point of view shots and "echoey footsteps", and notes that the Aztec temple setting "lends a new scenario to the show and the comradeship between Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue".[3] Stansfield also comments that Spectrum's defeat adds to the episode's excitement, creating an "'anything can happen'-type feeling".[3]

Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett interpret the existence of a Europe-based space agency as suggestive a hypothetical future sharing of responsibilities with NASA.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4th ed.). London: Reynolds & Hearn. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.
  2. 1 2 3 Payne, Stephen, ed. (Summer 2004). "TV Zone Special" (57). London: Visual Imagination: 41. ISSN 0960-8230. OCLC 438949600.
  3. 1 2 3 Stansfield, James (6 September 2012). "Top 10 Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons Episodes". Den of Geek. London: Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  4. ↑ Drake, Chris; Bassett, Graeme (1993). Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. London: Boxtree. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-852834-03-6.
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