Normally, with a plot like this, the audience would not be informed until the end that, yes, the good guy is still the good guy. Here, with a title like "Special Assignment" and Col. White bringing Scarlet back to a private discussion of said assignment, it was utterly obvious what was going on.
The matter of knowing when to send an undercover agent in, and to whom, could have been dealt with by tucking in a few lines about Spectrum Intelligence. They could have discovered the wrecked car and the dead men, found that they were questionable characters to begin with, and learned that their dopplegangers had been sighted. That would have given Col. White an excuse to throw in an agent to see how they would react--but it shouldn't have been Scarlet. Making the agent Scarlet made both Spectrum AND the Mysterons look like fools. Would Spectrum really be silly enough to throw aside its "most valuable asset" because he dropped a little more cash than he could comfortably afford? And the Mysterons were willing to believe this? Powerful beings they may be, but rather lacking in brains.
This would have been a nice opportunity to make use of one of the other captains. Captain Magenta, whose "official biography" gives him a criminal background, would have been ideal. Scarlet could have been involved--just from behind the scenes. If it had to be the star of the show, then it would have been much more plausible if they'd shown Scarlet, faced with disciplinary action--a demotion, perhaps--choosing to quit, instead.
There were other flaws. Col. White claimed that he didn't tell Captain Blue and the others about the assignment because he wanted their reactions to be "natural". For the most part, their reactions took place up on Cloudbase, where there were no Mysterons to see. (At least, let's hope so.) It's insulting to think that Captain Blue and the others could not play a role as well as Scarlet, and the result was that Blue nearly got himself killed. What if the other Mysteron agents had opted to shoot Blue themselves, rather than testing Scarlet?
Col. White also makes the statement that gambling is strictly forbidden to Spectrum agents. This makes no sense. If it were so, Blue would have steered Scarlet clear of the casino in the first place, rather than simply protesting when Scarlet continued betting after he was cleaned out. And at the end of the episode, Lt. Green asks Scarlet to assist him with a betting system he worked out on the computer--with Col. White right there!
This show has a lot of nits, which are fun to point out without detracting from the enjoyment of the program, but in this case the flaws pretty much overwhelm the episode.moreless
Episode Summary
EDIT
Spectrum Intelligence imparts Captain Scarlet with a "special assignment" in which he is to consciously lose at a casino, and to place himself on their debt owners list for 5,000 credits. When this is reported to Spectrum Headquarters, Colonel White fires Scarlet on the spot, for improper use of the organisation's code of conduct.
Living in a shabby hotel room temporarily, a pair of Mysteron agents, posing businessmen, formulate a deal with the now Paul Metcalfe, with his I.O.U. for 5,000 credits, in return for a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle which will be used to brake into the Nevada Nuclear City Complex and, with an atomic incendiary device onboard, obliterate the whole of North America.moreless
Living in a shabby hotel room temporarily, a pair of Mysteron agents, posing businessmen, formulate a deal with the now Paul Metcalfe, with his I.O.U. for 5,000 credits, in return for a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle which will be used to brake into the Nevada Nuclear City Complex and, with an atomic incendiary device onboard, obliterate the whole of North America.moreless
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GUEST STAR
Shane RimmerMason
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Francis Matthews
Captain Scarlet (Paul Metcalfe)
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Jeremy Wilkin
Captain Ochre (Richard Fraser)/Barman
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Ed Bishop
Captain Blue (Adam Svenson)
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Donald Gray
Colonel White (Charles Grey) / Captain Black (Conrad Turner) / Voice Of The Mysterons
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Cy Grant
Lieutenant Green (Seymour Griffiths)
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Sylvia Anderson
Melody Angel
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
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TRIVIA (12)
ADD TRIVIA-
The Score: Nuclear City is saved. Spectrum: 8 Mysterons: 2.
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Mysteron Reconstructions: Garage Mechanic (run over by Black/still at large), Kramer and Steele (killed in car crash/blown up in SPV).
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Spectrum Losses: 1 SPV. Scarlet is killed but recovers.
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Collateral Damage: 1 civilian car.
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When Captain Blue pulls up in front of the ranch house, he is driving what looks like a station wagon. It is two-toned, either blue or gray. In the close-up of Blue at the driver's window, the visible part of the car under the window is bright red, suggesting a Spectrum Saloon.
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As the Mysteron eyes pass over the bodies of Steele and Kramer, the studio wall can be seen behind them.
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The Mysteron mechanic that sabotaged the two men's car is apparently still working at the garage as Spectrum never discovered what had happened there.
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Lieutenent Green says that in the present emergency, only two Spectrum agents can leave Cloudbase and says that those two are Scarlet and Blue. Given that emergency then, it's unlikely that Blue would willingly go along to a casino with Scarlet when they should be working.
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The Mysterons managed to crash Captain Scarlet's car in the first episode remotely via some unseen force, yet here they need a mechanic to physically remove the brake fluid from a car to make it crash.
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How did Colonel White know that Mysteron agents would be in the casino on the night he sent Scarlet there, and how did he know they would want to recruit a washed up Spectrum agent? He never mentioned the car crash that killed the two men and he didn't know how they wanted to destroy Muclear City.
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As Scarlet didn't use his ID to get the SPV, Captain Black could have done the same. He showed in "Manhunt" that he knew where SPVs were hidden so he could have got this one himself without the need to kill the mechanic and the other two men.
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Why did the Mysterons go to all the trouble of recreating the mechanic, then recreating the other two men just to recruit Scarlet to get them an SPV? The Mysterons could have got their SPV much more easily just by recreating an active Spectrum agent; they've done it before with Captains Black, Brown, Scarlet and Indigo.
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QUOTES (1)
ADD QUOTES-
Mysterons: This is the voice of the Mysterons. We know that you can hear us Earthmen. We will deal another crushing blow. We told you we intend to obliterate the subcontinent of North America. We will be avenged.
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NOTES (6)
ADD NOTES-
The music playing in the garage when Black kills the mechanic is "White As Snow", composed for the episode of the same name.
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At the casino, Scarlet looses everything when the roulette wheel comes up "13 Black". This is the same number that the Duchess of Royston insisted on using in the Thunderbirds episode "The Duchess Assignment". She didn't have much luck with it either.
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The deserted ranch house, where Captain Scarlet shoots Captain Blue with a stun-gun, to fool Mysteron agents Steele, Kramer and Captain Black into thinking he is working for them, is made from the model of the hunting lodge from "Spectrum Strikes Back".
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According to Chris Bentley's 2001 Carlton Books Limited publication, The Complete Book of Captain Scarlet, the original draft script for this episode starts with Scarlet losing all of his money at the casino, however in the final shooting script, additional scenes were inserted, showing Steel and Kramer's motorcar accident down the hillside, their Mysteronised reconstruction, and Colonel White's briefing to the Spectrum officers, following the broadcast of the Mysterons' latest threat. The scenes showing Captain Black murdering the Mason's Auto Garage attendant and the Mysteronised attendant sabotaging Steele's car, were added during the later stages of the development of this episode's script.
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Official ITC Recommended Broadcast-Order Number: 10
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First U.K. (BBC 2) Network Airdate: Friday 14 January, 1994 - 6:00 PM
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ALLUSIONS (0)
ADD ALLUSIONS- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.
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The Inquisition
S 1 : Ep 32
Aired 5/14/68 (25:00)
-
Attack On Cloudbase
S 1 : Ep 31
Aired 5/7/68 (25:00)
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Flight To Atlantica
S 1 : Ep 30
Aired 4/30/68 (25:00)
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Traitor
S 1 : Ep 29
Aired 4/23/68 (25:00)
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