White as Snow

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“White as Snow”
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 6
Written by Peter Curran, David Williams
Directed by Robert Lynn
Production no. 8
Original airdate 3 November 1967
Episode chronology
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"Avalanche" "The Trap"
List of Captain Scarlet episodes

"White as Snow" is the 6th episode of the Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was the eighth episode to be produced. Its original UK air date was 3 November 1967 on ATV Midlands. It was written by Peter Curran and David Williams and directed by Robert Lynn.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Threatening to kill Colonel White, the Mysterons destroy a communications satellite and lock their reconstruction on a collision course with Cloudbase. After the first assassination attempt fails, White decides to go into hiding so as not to endanger other base personnel. However, lying low onboard a Navy submarine, he is unaware that his steward has been taken over by the Mysterons…

[edit] Plot

Beaming a music programme to Earth, DJ Bob Lynn, captain of the orbiting TVR-17 satellite, makes arrangements with ground control to re-enter the atmosphere. However, Captain Black infiltrates the building, binds and gags the controller and coordinates the craft to descend too early. Lynn is helpless as the satellite overheats and explodes.

As the Mysteron rings pan over the hull of another TVR-17, the Cloudbase personnel listen to the music with interest. Colonel White is unimpressed with their idleness but allows Lieutenant Green to keep the radio channel open. However, the noise level reaches an unbearable level and Green detects the TVR-17 on radar on a collision course with the base.

Transmitting to Earth, the Mysterons threaten to kill Colonel White. In Cloudbase control, Captain Scarlet is unconvinced that the satellite is in the hands of the Mysterons. Nevertheless, White orders for Symphony Angel to be launched to destroy it. Symphony succeeds with one shot and returns to the carrier.

In the Cloudbase botanic room, Scarlet is adamant to Captain Blue that the satellite’s destruction was too hasty. White reveals that he is the next Mysteron target and announces that he will leave Cloudbase for the safety of its personnel. However, Scarlet refuses to act as interim commander and White accepts Blue as his replacement. As the Colonel departs for a secret destination, Green discloses that Scarlet’s doubts about the TVR-17 were misguided and that the original satellite was destroyed three hours before its Mysteron reconstruction attacked Cloudbase. Scarlet is curious to know whether the Lieutenant has been informed of White’s plans. Green implies that it is true, but will not give anything away.

Posing as an deep sea fisherman under the pseudonym of Robert Snow, Colonel White is lowered from a helijet onto the deck of the USS Panther II submarine and met by the crew. Later, the captain orders his assistant, Lieutenant Belmont, to submerge the vessel. However, a chain closes around the leg of Ensign Soames as he works outside and the crewmember drowns while frantically trying to open the hatch to the lower decks. As Belmont halts the descent at a depth of ten fathoms, the Mysteron rings track Soames’s body and the captain orders his reconstruction to act as White’s steward.

Meanwhile, on Cloudbase, personnel are beginning to resent Captain Blue’s leadership. As their colleagues return from exhaustive target practice, Destiny and Rhapsody Angels are informed that they must attend a lecture from Dr Fawn on the physiology of the lower primates. Destiny yearns for Colonel White to return.

On the Panther II, the reconstructed Soames approaches White’s cabin with a gun. Opening the door, he takes aim at the inhabitant, but White opens fire with a pistol of his own. As Belmont and the captain hear shooting in the control room, a gas pipe is hit in the gunfight and Soames tries to find his target in the mist. The rest of the crew start to burn their way through the bulkhead door that Soames has sealed but the Mysteron agent finally manages to gun down his victim. However, with his last strength, the figure returns fire and Soames is killed. The crew push over the bulkhead door.

With the gas cleared, Robert Snow is nowhere to be seen and the captain orders for an immediate search of the vessel. However, hearing muffled grunts, he opens the door to a store cupboard - and finds a bound and gagged White inside.

It transpires that Captain Scarlet stowed away onboard the Panther II, knocked White unconscious and then sat in his cabin wearing his clothes. Belmont is puzzled why the Colonel, whose true identity may now be revealed, threatens to punish his impostor even though Soames shot Scarlet dead.

Back on Cloudbase, a revived Scarlet tells an impatient Colonel White that he used his Spectrum ID to pass through Navy security and gained access to the Panther II just before it left its dock. White is appalled to discover that Scarlet pulled rank on Lieutenant Green to force him to reveal his secret location. In view of the charges made against Scarlet, the Colonel sentences him to death, but then humorously remembers that the Captain is indestructible. Dismissing Scarlet, ordering the Angels to prepare for target practice and demanding reports from Green, White and the rest of the Cloudbase personnel are glad that things are back to normal.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Regular Voice Cast

[edit] Guest Voice Cast

[edit] Goofs

  • Soames holds different guns between shots as he prepares to kill Colonel White.

[edit] External links

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