"Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" Treble Cross (TV Episode 1968) Poster

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8/10
A lot packed into this episode.
joegarbled-794824 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
In this episode of "Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons" we get The Mysterons threatening to destroy the world capital, Futura City. Captain Scarlet predicts a world wide panic and the government collapsing.

Meanwhile, a World Airforce Test Pilot, Major Gravener and his driver Harris are driving along a lakeside road at night, cue Captain Black in a truck. He forces the Major's car off the road into the lake, both men die. We see the Major get re-constructed and told he must destroy Futura. As ever, The Mysterons don't clean up after themselves and a couple of doctors discover the Major's body floating in the lake. They rush him to the local Slaton Hospital and manage to bring him back to life. No need to worry about brain death as puppets don't have them!

Meanwhile, at the very same time, the Mysteron reconstruction turns up at Slaton Air Base and orders up a jet bomber with a live nuclear warhead, with which, The Mysterons will raze Futura to the ground, as promised. Unfortunately, the doctors phone Slaton Air Base to inform them that the Major is in hospital. Base security block the plane's takeoff and the reconstruction is "killed" in the resulting plane crash.

Cue Captains Scarlet & Blue to turn up at the Major's bedside with a cunning plan: try to fool The Mysterons that the real Gravener is THEIR man and hope they'll tell him how they plan to destroy Futura. Captain Black falls for the ruse and the plan is to land the bomber at a disused airfield, transfer the nuclear bomb to a truck and use the plane as a decoy whilst Captain Black drives the bomb into Futura.

With The Angels and Spectrum ground forces, the airfield is secured and "there is no possible means of escape".... Capt Blue says "This time, we'll GET HIM!" When the truck crashes, they find the driver is NOT Captain Black, but Harris, the Major's driver. Though Captain Black has escaped once again, Futura is safe and Spectrum have discovered that The Mysterons couldn't distinguish between their reconstruction and the real Major, meaning they didn't have anything like Spectrum's Mysteron Detector.

A lot was crammed into the limited running time, yet managed to keep up the excitement. As a later episode, puppet faces that would end up in "Joe 90" and "The Secret Service" appear. I wish they'd given Rhapsody more screen time....far more beautiful than Jean Shrimpton and that fabulous copper coloured hair and Sloane Ranger accent!!

8/10.
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6/10
Sometimes they just don't stay dead
Mr-Fusion14 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Spectrum catches a break this week, but that's only because of blind luck. When Captain Black's target is revived at the hospital, Spectrum uses him to uncover the major Mysteron strategy, which all ends up being rather convoluted. The moments of tension during the reviving scene make up the real novelty of this episode, which feels very formulaic otherwise.

Black gets away in what feels like a cheap deception, but we do learn that the Mysterons can't distinguish their own copy from the original (and I'm trying to remember, but I don't recall that ever being put to use in future episodes).

Aside from that, this is a fairly lackluster episode.

6/10.
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