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 | ||
| Guest actors | |||
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Voices of: | |||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes | |||
"Inferno" is the 28th episode of the Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was the 32nd and final episode to be produced. It was first broadcast in the UK on 16 April 1968 on ATV Midlands, was written by Tony Barwick and Shane Rimmer and directed by Alan Perry. 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 an SKR4 recovery vehicle are preparing to rendezvous with a malfunctioning rocket when a space rock collides with their vessel. Aborting the mission on the pretence of a mechanical fault, a Mysteron reconstruction of the SKR4 changes course and resets its coordinates for Earth. Meanwhile, the Mysterons have revealed the target of their next threat: the Najama desalinisation plant in the foothills of the Andes mountains, responsible for processing seawater for irrigating the interior of South America. Colonel White dispatches a team led by Captains Scarlet and Blue to set up observation points in the Najama Valley while the service personnel are evacuated. Setting up a base in an old Aztec temple, Scarlet and Blue alternate the night watch, but Blue is rudely awoken by a curious scraping sound. The officers are unaware that Captain Black has infiltrated the temple and placed a strange device in a giant statue of the Aztec Sun God.
Elsewhere, Euro Tracker station is monitoring the SKR4's return to Earth. When the spacecraft fails to respond to transmissions, Major Moran contacts Spectrum. A radio signal interferes with the SKR4's re-entry systems, altering its projected landing area. Learning from Lieutenant Green that the signal is transmitting from Najama and that the SKR4 is carrying several explosive packs, Colonel White deduces that the spacecraft will be guided to crash into the Najama Valley. As the SKR4 begins re-entry, the Spectrum team frantically try to pinpoint the exact location of the transmitter — the device planted by Black. With only minutes remaining until impact, Blue discovers that it is somewhere inside the temple and Scarlet orders the Spectrum Angels to attack. Eventually even the statue is destroyed in the bombardment, but it is too late to stop the SKR4 crashing into the wreckage. The explosion triggers a landslide which surges into the valley, hitting vulnerable liquid oxygen tanks and annihilating Najama complex in a series of massive explosions. Thousands of square miles of South America are now set to revert to arid wasteland.
Production
A number of incidental music tracks from Thunderbirds and Supercar are used in this episode. This is the third time that the Mysteron's vanishing power is seen. It is also seen in "The Heart of New York" and "Model Spy".
Reception
Critics Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett view the presence of a European-based "Euro-Space" organisation in "Inferno" as the writers' intention to demonstrate a hypothetical future sharing of space operations with the American Space Agency.[2]
References
External links
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