"Treble Cross" is the 24th episode of ''

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', often shortened to ''Captain Scarlet'', is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions for distributor I ...

'', 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 Sylvia Beatrice Anderson (; 25 March 1927 – 15 March 2016) was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981. In a ...

and produced by their company

Century 21 Productions AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s until the early 1970s. The company became internationally known for its imaginative children's action-adventure marionette tel ...

. Written by

Tony Barwick Anthony Clive "Tony" Barwick (10 July 1934 – 18 August 1993)https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10182/biographical-summaries-of-notable-people?itemId=447240&action=showRecord was a British television scriptwriter who worked ex ...

and directed by Alan Perry, it was first broadcast on 23 February 1968 on

ATV Midlands Associated Television was the original name of the British broadcaster ATV, part of the Independent Television (ITV) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and ...

. 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

Mysteron The Mysterons are a fictional race of extraterrestrials and the antagonists in the 1960s British Supermarionation science-fiction television series ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' (1967–68) and its 2005 computer-animated remake, ''Ge ...

s: a hostile race of

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pred ...

s 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 murdered by the Mysterons and replaced by a reconstruction that later 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. In "Treble Cross", the Mysterons' primary agent on Earth, Captain Black, engineers the death and reconstruction of a

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

as part of a plot to destroy the world capital, Futura City. However, his victim is revived and with Spectrum's help impersonates his Mysteron replacement in an attempt to capture Black.

Plot

World Air Force

Major Gravener is being driven to Slaton Airbase by car when Captain Black (voiced by

Donald Gray Donald Gray (born Eldred Owermann Tidbury, 3 March 1914 – 7 April 1978) was a South African actor, well known for his starring role in the British TV series '' Mark Saber'', for providing the voices of Colonel White, Captain Black and the M ...

), driving a truck from the opposite direction, deploys a beam with false headlamps into the road to dazzle Gravener's chauffeur, Harris. To avoid a collision, Harris swerves the car into a lake and both men drown. The

clinically-dead Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a conditio ...

Gravener is discovered by two passing doctors and taken to Slaton Hospital, where he is revived with the aid of a stasis and recovery unit.Bentley 2001, p. 82. The next day, a

reconstruction of Gravener travels to Slaton Airbase and commandeers an XK-107 bomber armed with a

nuclear warhead A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

. When word arrives of Gravener's accident, the base personnel realise that the pilot is an impostor and block the runway just as he is taking off. The XK-107 crashes and explodes, killing the reconstructed Gravener. Spectrum connects the attempted theft of the XK-107 to a Mysteron threat to destroy the world capital, Futura City. Briefed by Captains Scarlet and

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

(voiced by Francis Matthews and

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 ...

), the original Gravener takes off in a second XK-107 in an attempt to trick the Mysterons into thinking that he is their reconstruction. As hoped, Captain Black telepathically contacts the aircraft: he instructs Gravener to land at the disused Weston Airstrip, 30 miles outside Futura City. Scarlet deduces that the purpose of this rendezvous is to transfer the warhead to a ground vehicle, after which Gravener will depart in the XK-107 and fly it as a decoy while the warhead is driven into Futura City and detonated. Black's truck is shown to be standing by at the airstrip. As Gravener comes in to land, Spectrum ground forces, led by Scarlet and Blue in a

Spectrum Patrol Car The Spectrum Patrol Car (SPC) or Spectrum Saloon Car (SSC) is a fictional vehicle that appears in Gerry Anderson's science-fiction television series ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' (1967) and in revamped form in the remake ''Gerry Anderson's ...

, converge on the airstrip to capture Black. The truck attempts to escape but in veering out of Gravener's path ends up crashing into a bunker. However, Scarlet, Blue and Gravener are shocked to find that the vehicle's dead driver is not Black, but a Mysteron reconstruction of Harris. Blue concludes that although the Mysterons were unable to distinguish the two Graveners, Black possesses a " sixth sense" that warns him of danger and has enabled him to evade Spectrum once again.

Production

"Treble Cross" is one of several ''Captain Scarlet'' scripts by

that include a mention of 10 July. Barwick liked to insert references to this date as it was his birthday. The episode was filmed over two weeks in September 1967, during which time Century 21 began

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content starts ...

of its next Supermarionation series, ''

Joe 90 ''Joe 90'' is a 1968–1969 British science-fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company, Century 21, for ITC Entertainment. It follows the exploits of nine-year-old schoolboy Joe McC ...

''. The

scale model A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototypes ...

representing Slaton Hospital previously appeared as a laboratory in " Place of Angels". To increase the realism of Major Gravener's resuscitation, the puppet's torso was fitted with a bag into which air was pumped to make it appear that the character's chest is rising and falling. The shots showing the Spectrum forces converging on Weston Airstrip were originally filmed for "

Manhunt Manhunt may refer to: Search processes * Manhunt (law enforcement), a search for a dangerous fugitive * Manhunt (military), a search for a high-value target by special operations forces or intelligence agencies Social organisations * Manhun ...

", another episode in which Spectrum attempts to apprehend Captain Black.

Reception

Anthony Clark of ''sci-fi-online.com'' considers the premise "more interesting" than that of "

Fire at Rig 15 "Fire at Rig 15" is the 19th episode of ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Written by Bryan Cooper and directed by Ken Turner, it was first broadcast on 16 F ...

" but believes the overall episode to be "a little slow". Shane M. Dallmann of ''

Video Watchdog ''Video Watchdog'' was a bimonthly, digest size film magazine published from 1990 to 2017 by publisher/editor Tim Lucas and his wife, art director and co-publisher Donna Lucas. Although devoted chiefly to the horror, science fiction, and fantas ...

'' magazine calls the episode "less amusing but far more intelligent" than " Flight to Atlantica". Fred McNamara praises the episode, commending its "confident, propulsive" narrative and "disarmingly simple" execution. He comments that although "Treble Cross" takes the series outside its "comfort zone", the episode " eepsits feet firmly on the ground, with plenty of mystery, intrigue and action along the way." He also remarks that "a particular joy to watch is seeing the Mysterons fall, and in their place, Spectrum rise." McNamara's review is not without criticisms: he states that while the crash of the XK-107 presumably destroys the bomber's nuclear warhead, this is unclear from the "fairly compact" explosion seen on screen; he questions the revived Gravener's lack of "crisis of personality" in response to being duplicated by the Mysterons; and he considers the discovery of the reconstructed Harris as the truck driver to be an anticlimax. Media historian

Nicholas J. Cull Nicholas J. Cull (born 1964) is a historian and professor in the Master's in Public Diplomacy program at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He was the founding director of this pro ...

regards "Treble Cross" as one of several ''Captain Scarlet'' episodes that highlight scriptwriter Tony Barwick's interest in the dangers of nuclear technology. He regards the plot involving the attempted theft of a nuclear warhead as an example of Barwick re-using his "favourite

lot Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to: Common meanings Areas * Land lot, an area of land * Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *Lot number, in batch production *Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...

device".

References

Works cited *

External links

*
"Treble Cross"
at TheVervoid.com {{Captain Scarlet 1968 British television episodes Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes Television episodes about nuclear war and weapons