"Operation Time" is the sixth episode of ''
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', a British
Supermarionation
Supermarionation (a portmanteau of the words "super", "marionette" and " animation")La Rivière 2009, p. 67. is a style of television and film production employed by British company AP Films (later Century 21 Productions) in its puppet T ...
television series created by
Gerry
Gerry is both a surname and a masculine or feminine given name. As a given name, it is often a short form (hypocorism) of Gerard, Gerald or Geraldine. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
*Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), fifth US vice presi ...
and
Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company
Century 21 Productions. Written by Richard Conway and Stephen J. Mattick and directed by
Ken Turner, it was first broadcast on 17 November 1967 on
ATV Midlands.
Set in 2068, the series depicts a "
war of nerves
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
" between Earth and the
Mysterons: a race of
Martians with the power to create functioning copies of destroyed people or objects and use them to carry out acts of aggression against humanity. Earth is defended by a military organisation called Spectrum, whose top agent,
Captain Scarlet, was killed by the Mysterons and replaced by a reconstruction that subsequently broke free of their control. Scarlet's double has a self-healing power that enables him to recover from injuries that would be fatal to anyone else, making him Spectrum's best asset in its fight against the Mysterons.
The plot of "Operation Time" sees the Mysterons threaten to "kill time", confusing Spectrum until the target is found to be a military general who is about to undergo experimental
neurosurgery
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...
. The episode uncovers two weaknesses in the Mysterons that are explored further in "
Spectrum Strikes Back
"Spectrum Strikes Back" is the tenth episode of ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions. Written by Ton ...
".
Plot
When the
Mysterons (voiced by
Donald Gray) bizarrely threaten to "kill time",
Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray) sends the Spectrum captains to major cities to watch for potential targets. No promising intelligence surfaces until
Captain Magenta (voiced by
Gary Files) discovers that the Commander of Western Region World Defence, General J.F. Tiempo – whose surname means "time" in
Spanish – is at a clinic in England to undergo neurosurgery. Believing that Tiempo's life is in danger, White has him flown to
Cloudbase
Spectrum Cloudbase, often shortened to Cloudbase, is the fictional skyborne headquarters of the international security organisation Spectrum from Gerry Anderson's science-fiction television series ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' (1967–68). ...
with his surgeon, Dr Magnus, who insists that the operation – to be carried out with the aid of a pioneering medical device called the "cerebral pulsator" – go ahead as planned. White reluctantly agrees and allows him to use their
sickbay
A sick bay is a compartment in a ship, or a section of another organisation, such as a school or college, used for medical purposes.
The sick bay contains the ship's medicine chest, which may be divided into separate cabinets, such as a refriger ...
as an operating theatre, with Cloudbase's medical officer Dr Fawn (voiced by
Charles Tingwell) assisting Magnus and his subordinates.
Unknown to Spectrum, Magnus is a Mysteron reconstruction of the original doctor, who has been killed in a road accident engineered by
Captain Black (voiced by Donald Gray). During the operation, the reconstruction deliberately overruns the pulsator, inducing a
seizure
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...
that kills his masked patient. Fawn removes the mask to reveal the face of
Captain Scarlet (voiced by
Francis Matthews), who unknown to Magnus had substituted for Tiempo. Exposed as a Mysteron agent, Magnus breaks out of the sickbay and flees to Cloudbase's
generator room. He is cornered by
Captain Blue
Captain Blue (born Adam Svenson) is a character in the British Supermarionation television series ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' (1967–68) and its computer-animated remake, ''Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet'' (2005). He is a senior of ...
(voiced by
Ed Bishop
George Victor Bishop (11 June 1932 – 8 June 2005), known professionally as Ed Bishop or sometimes Edward Bishop, was an American actor. He was known for playing Commander Ed Straker in ''UFO'', Captain Blue in ''Captain Scarlet and the Myste ...
) and killed when he is knocked against a bare cable.
During this time, an abnormality has appeared on one of pre-operative
radiographs taken of Tiempo's head: Magnus' hand, which was accidentally caught in the image, has blocked the
X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
s and is registering as solid flesh. With Tiempo saved and Scarlet revived thanks to his retro-metabolic powers, White announces that Spectrum will develop technology to exploit the Mysterons' imperviousness to X-rays and vulnerability to electricity.
Production
Writers Richard Conway and Stephen J. Mattick named Magnus's colleague, Dr Turner, after the episode's director,
Ken Turner. In the script, Conway and Mattick suggested that
Wexham Park Hospital
Wexham Park Hospital is a large NHS hospital in Slough, Berkshire. It has been managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust since 2014. Sir Andrew Morris is the chief executive of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.
History
The hospital was ...
could be used as a location to shoot footage showing the development of Tiempo's radiographs. In the end, however, the episode was filmed entirely at Century 21's studios on the
Slough Trading Estate.
Filming began on 20 February 1967 and was completed in two weeks. One of the medical students that appear in the opening scene was played by a puppet that was originally sculpted as the prototype of
Captain Scarlet. The episode's
incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...
was recorded in a four-and-a-half-hour studio session held on 14 May 1967, where it was performed by a group of 12 instrumentalists conducted by series composer
Barry Gray. The music for "
Renegade Rocket
"Renegade Rocket" is the seventh episode of ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions. Written by Ralph H ...
" was recorded during the same session.
"Operation Time" features voice actor
Gary Files' first contributions to ''Captain Scarlet''. Files was unavailable during the production of the series' earlier episodes because he was voicing characters in the film ''
Thunderbird 6
''Thunderbird 6'' is a 1968 British Science fiction film, science fiction puppet film based on ''Thunderbirds (TV series), Thunderbirds'', a Supermarionation television series created by Gerry Anderson, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by ...
'', for which he had been cast as a "try-out" for ''Captain Scarlet''.
Reception
Andrew Pixley and Julie Rogers of ''
Starburst
MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers.
History Founding and early su ...
'' magazine note the "cryptic" nature of the Mysterons' threat to "kill time", humorously remarking that it could "
uggestthey'll be passing a few hours playing cards or watching ''
Oprah''." They also consider the "rather graphic" electrocution of the reconstructed Magnus to be one of the series' more violent moments.
Noting that the episode "expands on the mythology of the Mysterons", writer Fred McNamara credits "Operation Time" for its "precise delivery
..pushing the world of ''Captain Scarlet'' to new levels whilst also acting as a confident episode in its own right, with a clear beginning and end." He criticises some elements of the story, calling Captain Magenta's solving of the Mysteron riddle "as frustrating as it is hilarious" given that while other Spectrum captains have been posted to major cities to scout for threats, Magenta makes the connection to Tiempo from a mere newspaper on
Cloudbase
Spectrum Cloudbase, often shortened to Cloudbase, is the fictional skyborne headquarters of the international security organisation Spectrum from Gerry Anderson's science-fiction television series ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' (1967–68). ...
. McNamara also expresses dissatisfaction with the fact that nothing of the other captains' assignments is shown, a move he states was "probably due to the limited running time" and the constraints of the "TV format". In the episode's favour, McNamara praises the characterisation of
Captain Black and Dr Magnus, describing the former as "deliciously evil" while hunting down the original Magnus and believing the latter to be unusually well developed for a Mysteron victim. He also commends Ken Turner's direction, calling the car chase "fantastically executed in terms of pace and its visuals" and noting that the regular use of close-ups gives the episode a "claustrophic" feel.
References
Works cited
*
External links
*
"Operation Time"at TheVervoid.com
{{Captain Scarlet
1967 British television episodes
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes
Experimental medical treatments in fiction
Television episodes about assassinations
Television episodes set in hospitals
Television episodes set in London