| "The Mysterons" | |||
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| Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode | |||
Scarlet holds the World President hostage. |
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| Episode no. | Episode 01 | ||
| Directed by | Desmond Saunders | ||
| Written by | Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson |
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| Cinematography by | Julien Lugrin | ||
| Editing by | Len Walter | ||
| Production code | 01 | ||
| Original air date | Test: 29 April 1967 Official: 29 September 1967 |
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| Guest stars | |||
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Voices of: |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes | |||
"The Mysterons" (or, rarely,[1] "Mars — 2068 A.D.")[2] is the first episode of the 1960s Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was first officially broadcast in the UK on ATV Midlands on 29 September 1967, although it had been granted an unscheduled test transmission for the London area on 29 April 1967. It was written by series creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and directed by Desmond Saunders. In this first episode, after their Martian complex is attacked by Captain Black, a race of extraterrestrials known as the "Mysterons" declare a "war of nerves" on Earth, with their first threat being to assassinate the World President.
Filmed in January 1967,[3] the final edit of the episode differs from a pilot script that the Andersons submitted in August 1966,[4] particularly regarding the nature of Captain Scarlet's biology as a Mysteron agent.[5] "The Mysterons" was enthusiastically received by members of the cast in 1967[6][7] while critics including British journalists James Rampton and Allison Pearson also recommended the episode when it was repeated on BBC Two in 1993.[8][9] In addition to flashbacks in the later Captain Scarlet episodes "Winged Assassin", "Dangerous Rendezvous" and "Traitor", footage from "The Mysterons" was re-edited to introduce Captain Scarlet vs the Mysterons, a Captain Scarlet compilation film, in 1980.
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In 2068, astronauts are investigating the surface of Mars in the Zero-X Martian Exploration Vehicle to find the source of unidentified radio signals. The point of origin is revealed to be a complex inhabited by the Mysterons, who rotate surveillance monitors to inspect the MEV. Mistaking these for weapons, Zero-X commander Captain Black orders Lieutenant Dean to obliterate the complex with the MEV missile gun. However, in a process that the Mysterons call "reversing matter", a turret projects a light onto the wreckage and restores the complex to an undamaged state. Declaring war on Earth and seizing control of Black's mind,[10] the Mysterons announce that their first act of retaliation for the unprovoked attack will be to assassinate the World President. When the Zero-X returns to Earth, Black disappears without a trace.
Captains Scarlet and Brown are assigned to escort the President to the Spectrum Maximum Security Building in New York. However, the officers are killed when the Mysterons engineer the crash of their Spectrum Saloon Car.[11] The dead bodies form biological templates for the creation of Mysteron reconstructions, programmed to execute the threat against the World President. As a first assassination attempt, the Brown duplicate physically detonates after arriving with the President at the Maximum Security Building, but an emergency door saves the target's life.
On Cloudbase, Spectrum's airborne headquarters, Spectrum commander-in-chief Colonel White rules that Brown was a traitor to Spectrum and had a bomb concealed on his person. He orders the reconstruction of Scarlet to fly the President to a second Maximum Security Building in London. However, when the remains of the original Brown are found at the scene of the car crash, it dawns on White that the President is in the hands of an impostor, who is not human. Ignoring orders to return to Cloudbase, the Scarlet reconstruction ejects itself and the President from its Spectrum Jet, landing in southern England and setting off for London in a stolen car.
Spectrum officer Captain Blue starts a ground pursuit in a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle. Meanwhile, the Angels interceptor squadron destroy a bridge to force the Scarlet reconstruction to a dead end at the top of the London Car-Vu, a car parking structure 800 feet (240 m) high. As Captain Black looks on from a derelict building, the Scarlet reconstruction awaits the arrival of Spectrum Helicopter A42, which has been hijacked by the Mysterons. When the helicopter shoots at Blue, Destiny Angel returns fire and the Car-Vu is crippled when the aircraft crashes just beneath the top level. Blue then shoots the Scarlet reconstruction, which falls from the Car-Vu to its death. Wearing a jet pack, Blue lifts the President to safety just before the structure collapses.
The Mysteron plot thwarted, an epilogue reveals that the reconstruction has returned to life, but is no longer under Mysteron control and instead appears to contain the consciousness of the original, human Scarlet. Addressing his officers, White suggests that this healing factor makes the reconstruction "indestructible", and that it is destined to become Spectrum's greatest asset as Earth prepares to defend itself against future attacks from Mars.
The first episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was written by the husband-and-wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who devised the format and characters of each Supermarionation series developed and generally produced the pilot teleplay.[12] Captain Scarlet script editor Tony Barwick provided additional input.[13] The script from which the first episode was filmed differed significantly from a pilot treatment written by the Andersons in August 1966.[4] It was originally conceived that the character of Captain Scarlet would be revived by artificial means (an advanced computer)[5] rather than returning to life naturally and with no on-screen explanation.[14] The original script also offered greater insight into the precise nature of Scarlet's biology, specifying that after his resurrection he would no longer be truly human but a "mechanical man".[5][14] In the series as broadcast, Scarlet's abilities are never explored in as much detail.[14]
The finger is on the trigger. About to unleash a force with terrible powers, beyond the comprehension of man. This force we shall know as "The Mysterons" ... This man will be our hero, for fate will make him indestructible. His name: Captain Scarlet.
Another aspect that changed between pre-production and filming was the production team's position on casting.[15] Originally, each episode was to feature a guest star that would be voiced by a well-known 1960s actor.[15] In the case of the series opener, the character of the World President was initially due to be voiced by American-born actor Patrick McGoohan, on whom the design of the puppet's face was based, but the idea was abandoned due to budgetary constraints.[15] In his one production contribution to Captain Scarlet, filming was directed by Desmond Saunders, one of the Andersons' long-serving collaborators, from 2 January 1967 after two months of pre-production.[3] Incidental music for "The Mysterons" was recorded by Barry Gray on 16 March, with an orchestra of 16 members, in one four-hour studio session.[16]
An opening sequence caption reads "Mars — 2068 A.D."[1] Although the title "The Mysterons" does not appear on-screen, the episode has been referred to under this name from the pre-production stage and is therefore accepted as the official title for the episode.[1] Making a reappearance is the Martian Exploration Vehicle, which had featured in the 1966 Thunderbirds film, Thunderbirds Are Go. Its presence at the start of the episode was intended to mark the transition between Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, which are set in a common fictional universe.[1]
The first transmission of "The Mysterons" was an unscheduled test, held late at night on 29 April 1967, in the London area alone and without linking advertisement.[17][18] Viewing figures for the official ATV Midlands premiere of "The Mysterons", transmitted at 5.25 pm on 29 September 1967, were a promising 0.45 million.[17] On its first network broadcast on BBC Two in 1993, it achieved an audience of four million, proving to be the third most-watched programme on that channel in the week of transmission.[19] The episode was most recently screened in the UK as part of a Gerry Anderson-themed night of programming on BBC Four on 2 January 2008, for which it attracted an audience of 0.35 million (a share of 1.54 per cent).[20]
In the 1960s, footage from "The Mysterons" had reappeared in the form of flashbacks in the subsequent Captain Scarlet episodes "Winged Assassin", "Dangerous Rendezvous" and "Traitor", but in 1980 the episode as a whole was re-edited to introduce a compilation film of Captain Scarlet stories, titled Captain Scarlet vs the Mysterons. When the series was repeated on British Central Television later in the 1980s, alterations were made to the opening sequence of "The Mysterons" to cut out dialogue in which the Mysteron voice states that it is a surveillance device that is being turned on the Martian Exploration Vehicle.[21] Since the device has the appearance of a weapon (as the Zero X astronauts mistake it for), the Mysterons appear to be more hostile in this re-edited version of the first episode.[21]
In 1967, the episode was positively received by members of the voice cast and their families, who had attended a preview screening at the Century 21 Studios.[6] Francis Matthews, who provided the voice of Captain Scarlet, recalls, "the moment we heard, 'This is the voice of the Mysterons,' my eldest son ran screaming from the room, but my other son just sat there riveted,"[6] and adds, "Reg [Hill, producer] said, 'Oh my God, what have we done? We've made a series that no children are going to watch!'"[21] The episode was also given a cinematic presentation at the Columbia Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, in London,[22] which voice actor Gary Files fondly remembers: "I looked at [the episode] with total and utter amazement ... Boy, you should have seen it on the wide screen! They had laid in an incredible soundtrack to go with it ... We all tottered out into the night, convinced that we were on to a winner."[7][21]
Reviewers in 1993 were satisfied, if slightly bemused, by the first episode of the 25-year-old series.[8][9] In a preview published on 1 October, the date of the episode's transmission on BBC Two, James Rampton of The Independent wrote, "The best thing about the programme is that it's just as ludicrous as you remembered: the lips bizarrely out of synch with the words, the strange uniformity of features (isn't that security guard Alan from Thunderbirds?), and the totally preposterous dialogue ('Despite his fatal injuries, he's returning to life'). Highly recommended."[8] In her review dated 3 October and printed in the same newspaper, Allison Pearson was comically critical of some of the design aspects, such as the surface of Mars and the exterior of the Mysteron complex in the opening sequence, and described the London Car-Vu model as a "Philippe Starck cake-stand".[9] However, she also referred to the episode as being part of a "classic Sixties puppet show."[9]
Supermarionation historian Stephen La Rivière notes the violence of a few scenes in this episode, citing as examples the deaths of Captains Scarlet and Brown, the murdered Scarlet's bleeding body, the explosion of Brown's Mysteron double and the shooting of the reconstructed Scarlet and its fall from the Car-Vu.[14] The British Board of Film Classification, in its assessment dated 11 September 2001, records one "very mild" instance of violence, passing the episode with a "U" certificate.[2]
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