| "Traitor" | |||
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| Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode | |||
| Episode no. | Episode 29 | ||
| Directed by | Alan Perry | ||
| Written by | Tony Barwick | ||
| Cinematography by | Ted Catford | ||
| Editing by | Bob Dearberg | ||
| Production code | 24 | ||
| Original air date | 23 April 1968 | ||
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| List of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes | |||
"Traitor" is the 29th episode of the Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was first broadcast in the UK on 23 April 1968 on ATV Midlands, was written by Tony Barwick and directed by Alan Perry. In this episode, following a series of Spectrum hovercraft crashes in the Australian outback, the Mysterons announce that there is a traitor in the organisation.
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The Mysterons announce that there is a traitor in Spectrum. In light of a number of unexplained Spectrum Hovercraft crashes in the Australian Outback, Captains Scarlet and Blue are dispatched by Colonel White to investigate Koala Base, where White believes that the vehicles are being sabotaged by a double agent. Scarlet and Blue arrive ostensibly to deliver a series of lectures to the cadets. One cadet, Machin, is suspected by his patrol partner, Johnson, and the commander, Major Stone, to be the double agent, but Machin questions Scarlet's loyalty to Spectrum after Blue describes how the officer was under the control of the Mysterons when the Martians in the attempted assassination of the World President. A fire in Scarlet and Blue's room, apparently deliberate, seems to leave Machin's guilt even more obvious.
The next day, while Scarlet and Blue are accompanying Johnson and Machin in a hovercraft, the vehicle again goes out of control. Machin declares Scarlet the traitor and briefly threatens him, but is disarmed when a jolt throws his gun out of his hand. All four men, including Scarlet with the hovercraft control unit, jump to safety before the vehicle crashes and explodes. From the unit, it is discovered that a valve in the hovercraft's mechanics caused all the accidents. Although presumably being placed by the Mysterons, in a figurative sense it was the "traitor" within Spectrum.
A five-minute[1][2] flashback sequence to the pilot episode, "The Mysterons", serves as a plot device to add credibility to Machin's suspicion of Captain Scarlet,[1] and also aids viewers by reminding them of the origins of Scarlet's indestructibility.[2][3] However, from a production point of view, the sequence provides filler material to pad out the episode,[1] which was at first running under the standard length of 25 minutes.[1]
Writer Tony Barwick, who had included a flashback to the same episode in the earlier produced "Dangerous Rendezvous", noted in his script that for the final episode of the series, the clip show "The Inquisition", segments from other episodes would be used.[2] The episodes chosen to be featured in this last instalment were "Big Ben Strikes Again", "Crater 101" and "The Trap".
Barwick's script also included more detailed explanation of the mysteries that pervade the plot of this episode:[1] it is made clear that the Mysterons' sole involvement in events has been create unrest within Spectrum by hinting at the existence of a traitor who is completely fictional,[1] that the valve recovered by Scarlet malfunctioned due to the extreme conditions in the Australian Outback,[1] and that the fire in Scarlet and Blue's room at Koala base was not the result of arson but an accident.[1]
"Traitor" was originally scheduled to be broadcast as the sixteenth episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons[1] on 12 January 1968[1][2] in the ATV Midlands region, but was instead broadcast as the twenty-ninth episode[1] three months later,[1][2] by which time it had already been screened in the London, Granda and Anglia regions in the United Kingdom.[2]
Critics Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett praise the design of the Spectrum Hovercraft,[3] which appears in this episode alone, describing it as "an impressive addition to the Spectrum fleet"[3] even though its exact function within the Spectrum Organisation is not explained.[3]
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