Treble Cross

"Treble Cross" is the 21st episode of the British Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Written by Tony Barwick and directed by Alan Perry, it was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1968 (1968-02-23) on ATV Midlands.

In this episode, Captain Black engineers the death of a test pilot as part of a plot to obliterate the world capital, Futura City, only for his victim to be revived in hospital.

Plot

World Air Force test pilot Major Gravener is en route to Slaton Airbase when Captain Black, at the wheel of a truck, extends a beam with false headlamps in front of the oncoming vehicle to dazzle Gravener's driver, Harris. Fearing a collision, Harris is forced to swerve into a lake and it is apparent that both men drown. Doctors Mitchell and Baxter pass the accident scene in their vehicle and discover the clinically dead Gravener in the water, transporting him to Slaton Hospital and eventually reviving him with the assistance of a stasis and recovery unit. Meanwhile, a Mysteron reconstruction of Gravener commandeers an XK-107 bomber, armed with a nuclear warhead, out of Slaton Airbase. When it is reported that this version of the Major is an impostor of the man at Slaton Hospital, the runway is blocked and the reconstruction killed when the XK-107 crashes and explodes. On Cloudbase, a connection is made between the attempted lift-off of the XK-107 and the latest Mysteron threat to destroy Earth's capital, Futura City.

Briefed by Captains Scarlet and Blue, the human Gravener departs Slaton Airbase in another XK-107 to impersonate his Mysteron double. As hoped, Captain Black telepathically contacts the aircraft, ordering Gravener to rendezvous with him at the disused Weston Airstrip, 30 miles outside Futura City. While Spectrum ground forces and the Angel squadron converge on the location, Scarlet speculates that Gravener's reconstruction was to fly the XK-107 as a decoy, while the nuclear warhead was to be transported into Futura City by road and detonated. When the Spectrum forces, including Scarlet and Blue in their Spectrum Patrol Car, arrive at Weston Airstrip, all of Black's attempts to escape in his vehicle are thwarted; with Gravener's plane bearing down on him, he leaves the road and crashes into a bunker. However, Scarlet, Blue and Gravener are shocked to find that the body of the driver is a Mysteron reconstruction of Harris. While it is evident that the Mysterons could not distinguish between the two Graveners, Black's "sixth sense" has enabled him to evade Spectrum once again.

Production

"Treble Cross" marks the second occasion in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons when Spectrum just fail to capture Captain Black. A flashback to the episode "Manhunt" plays to represent the Spectrum ground forces converging on Weston Airstrip.^[1][2] Tony Barwick includes a reference to July 10,^[1][2] his birthday,^[3] as with the episodes "Winged Assassin", "Crater 101" and "Flight to Atlantica".

Reception

Historian Nicholas J. Cull notes that other Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons scripts by Tony Barwick, such as "Big Ben Strikes Again" and "Expo 2068",^[4] showcase the dangers of nuclear technology,^[4] concluding that "Treble Cross" includes one of several examples of Barwick's "favourite device".^[4]

References

External links

• "Treble Cross" at TV.com
• "Treble Cross" at Fanderson.org.uk
• "Treble Cross" at TheVervoid.com