View source for Inferno (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons)

{{Use British English|date=October 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series       = [[Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons]]
| episode      = 25
| airdate      = {{Start date|1968|4|16|df=y}}
| production   = SCA 31<ref>Bentley 2017, p.&nbsp;166.</ref>
| writer       = [[Tony Barwick]]<br />[[Shane Rimmer]]
| director     = Alan Perry
| photographer = Ted Catford
| editor       = Bob Dearberg
| guests_title = Guest character voices
| guests       =
*[[Gary Files]] as Euro Tracker Sergeant
*[[David Healy (actor)|David Healy]] as Major Moran
*[[Martin King (actor)|Martin King]] as SKR4 Navigator
*[[Shane Rimmer]] ''(uncredited)'' as SKR4 Pilot<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bentley|first1=Chris|title=The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide|edition=4th|year=2008|orig-year=2001|publisher=Reynolds & Hearn|location=London, UK|isbn=978-1-905287-74-1|page=136}}</ref>
| episode_list = List of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes
| prev         = [[Treble Cross]]
| next         = [[Flight 104]]
}}
"'''Inferno'''" is the 25th episode of ''[[Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons]]'', a British [[Supermarionation]] television series created by [[Gerry Anderson|Gerry]] and [[Sylvia Anderson]] and filmed by their production company [[Century 21 Productions]]. Written by [[Tony Barwick]] and [[Shane Rimmer]] and directed by Alan Perry, it was first broadcast on 16 April 1968 on [[ATV Midlands]].
Set in 2068, the series depicts a "[[Wikt:war of nerves|war of nerves]]" between Earth and the [[Mysteron]]s: a race of [[Martian]]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 (character)|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.
In "Inferno", the Mysterons destroy and reconstruct a spacecraft to attack a [[desalination]] facility in the [[Andes mountains]].
==Plot==
While tracking down [[space debris]], the Euro-Space recovery vehicle SKR4 is destroyed by a [[meteoroid]] impact. Informing ground control that the crew are abandoning their mission due to a technical fault, a [[Mysteron]] reconstruction of SKR4 reverses course for Earth.
On [[Cloudbase]], Spectrum learns the target of the Mysterons' latest threat: the Najama complex, an automated facility in the [[Andes]] that [[desalinate]]s seawater to [[irrigate]] the interior of South America. [[Colonel White]] dispatches a team of field agents, led by Captains [[Captain Scarlet (character)|Scarlet]] and [[Captain Blue (Captain Scarlet)|Blue]] and accompanied by the Angel squadron, to the Najama Valley to set up surveillance posts around the complex. Shortly after Spectrum's arrival, [[Captain Black (Captain Scarlet)|Captain Black]] slips into the ancient [[Aztec]] temple where Scarlet and Blue are based and conceals a radio transmitter in the mouth of a statue of the [[Sun God]].
Meanwhile, Euro Tracker station is monitoring SKR4's return journey to Earth. When attempts to contact the spacecraft fail, a concerned Major Moran alerts Cloudbase. Transmissions between Euro Tracker and SKR4 are jammed by an external radio signal that is drawing the spacecraft off-course to a new landing site in the Najama area. White deduces that SKR4, which is carrying several explosives packs, is being used as a missile to strike the Najama Valley.
As SKR4 [[Atmospheric entry|enters Earth's atmosphere]], Scarlet and Blue discover that the source of the signal – the transmitter hidden by Black – is somewhere within the temple. Realising that they cannot locate and destroy the transmitter in the time remaining, they evacuate the temple in their [[Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle]] and order the Angels to launch an aerial assault on the building. Although the statue of the Sun God is destroyed in the bombardment, Spectrum are too late to prevent SKR4 from crashing into the ruins. The impact triggers a [[landslide]] that hits the Najama complex's exposed [[liquid oxygen]] tanks and destroys the facility in a series of explosions. Scarlet and Blue acknowledge the Mysteron victory.
==Regular voice cast==
*[[Francis Matthews (actor)|Francis Matthews]] as [[Captain Scarlet (character)|Captain Scarlet]]
*[[Ed Bishop]] as [[Captain Blue]]
*[[Donald Gray]] as [[Colonel White]] and the [[Mysteron]]s
*[[Cy Grant]] as [[Lieutenant Green]]
*[[Gary Files]] as Captain Magenta
*[[Liz Morgan]] as Destiny Angel and Rhapsody Angel
==Production==
"Inferno" was filmed in late 1967.<ref>Bentley 2017, p.&nbsp;183.</ref> The SKR4 miniature model was based on the design of the TVR-17 satellite from the episode "[[White as Snow (Captain Scarlet)|White as Snow]]".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: Close-Up|last1=Brown|first1=Stephen|last2=Jones|first2=Mike|editor1-last=Jones|editor1-first=Mike|year=2017|publisher=[[Fanderson]]|page=23}}</ref> The puppet playing the SKR4 navigator does not appear in any other episodes of ''Captain Scarlet''.<ref name="Bentley 2017, p. 167">Bentley 2017, p.&nbsp;167.</ref> Most of the episode's [[incidental music]] consists of cues recycled from older [[Supermarionation]] productions: seven earlier episodes of ''Captain Scarlet'' as well as six episodes of ''[[Thunderbirds (TV series)|Thunderbirds]]'' and three of ''[[Supercar (TV series)|Supercar]]''.<ref name="Bentley 2017, p. 167"/>
"Inferno" features the third appearance of the [[Mysteron]]s' vanishing power, previously seen in "[[The Heart of New York (Captain Scarlet)|The Heart of New York]]" and "[[Model Spy]]".
==Reception==
"Inferno" is regarded as the best episode of ''Captain Scarlet'' by ''[[TV Zone]]'' magazine, which praises the episode's "dark direction and straightforwardly effective plot". "Little touches" – such as the realism of Black's cautious ascent of the Sun God statue, and Scarlet and Blue being on first-name terms (making them "real people, with real names and lives behind their codenames") – are also positively received. What is most to the episode's credit, argues the magazine, is its downbeat ending, which is aggravated by the fact that "Spectrum's efforts actually make it worse".<ref>{{Cite magazine|magazine=[[TV Zone]] Special|title=The Anderson Files|issue=57|date=Summer 2004|editor=Payne, Stephen|publisher=[[Visual Imagination]]|location=London, UK|issn=0960-8230|oclc=438949600|page=41}}</ref>
James Stansfield of website [[Den of Geek]] ranks "Inferno" sixth in his "Top 10" list of ''Captain Scarlet'' episodes, praising its "horror movie-style elements" and describing the episode overall as "tremendously fun". Comparing Scarlet and Blue's "[creeping] about the temple looking for clues" to an episode of ''[[Scooby-Doo]]'', he also commends the episode's use of [[point of view shot]]s and "echoey footstep" sound effects, as well as its depiction of Scarlet and Blue's "comradeship". He argues that as in other episodes where the Mysterons prevail, Spectrum's defeat adds to the tension by creating an "'anything can happen'-type feeling".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/captain-scarlet-and-the-mysterons/22569/top-10-captain-scarlet-and-the-mysterons-episodes|title=Top 10 ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' Episodes|author=Stansfield, James|date=6 September 2012|work=[[Den of Geek]]|publisher=[[Dennis Publishing]]|location=London, UK|access-date=28 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025172434/http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/captain-scarlet-and-the-mysterons/22569/top-10-captain-scarlet-and-the-mysterons-episodes|archive-date=25 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>
In a mostly negative review, writer Fred McNamara criticises the story's "two-dimensional execution", arguing that its descent into a "waiting game" as the SKR4 draws closer to Earth makes the episode an "unfulfilling watch". Noting that "Inferno" was one of the last ''Captain Scarlet'' episodes to be made, he suggests that its unexciting plot demonstrates how, "as a story-telling vehicle," the series had "flown as high as it could fly." He adds that Spectrum's powerlessness against the SKR4 makes them tantamount to "hapless bystanders", calling this portrayal "oddly compelling". He regards the ending as allegorical, stating that the destruction of the ancient temple triggering a landslide that obliterates the desalination plant represents "humanity's spiritual past crashing down on humanity's technological visions".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Spectrum is Indestructible: An Unofficial Captain Scarlet Celebration|first1=Fred|last1=McNamara|editor1-first=Paul|editor1-last=Simpson|year=2020|publisher=Chinbeard Books|isbn=978-1-913256-05-0|pages=86–89}}</ref>
Commentators Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett suggest that SKR4 being under the control of an agency called Euro-Space shows that the episode's writers were "keen to establish the existence of a European space operation in addition to the obvious American space programme".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Drake|first1=Chris|last2=Bassett|first2=Graeme|title=Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons|year=1993|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Boxtree]]|location=London, UK|isbn=978-1-852834-03-6|page=69}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
===Works cited===
*{{Cite book|last1=Bentley|first1=Chris|editor1-last=Hearn|editor1-first=Marcus|title=Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Vault|year=2017|publisher=Signum Books|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=978-0-995519-12-1}}
==External links==
*{{IMDb episode|0827554|Inferno}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120224063928/http://www.thevervoid.com/media/scarlet_29.htm "Inferno"] at TheVervoid.com
{{Captain Scarlet}}
[[Category:1968 British television episodes]]
[[Category:Aztecs in fiction]]
[[Category:Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes]]
[[Category:Television episodes set in South America]]
[[Category:Television episodes set in outer space]]
[[Category:Works set on spacecraft]]