Avalanche (Captain Scarlet)
| "Avalanche" | |||
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| Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode | |||
| Episode no. | Episode 05 | ||
| Directed by | Brian Burgess | ||
| Written by | Shane Rimmer | ||
| Cinematography by | Paddy Seale | ||
| Editing by | Harry MacDonald | ||
| Production code | 11 | ||
| Original air date | 27 October 1967 | ||
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| List of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes | |||
"Avalanche" is the fifth episode of the Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was first broadcast in the UK on 27 October 1967 on ATV Midlands. It was written by Shane Rimmer and directed by Brian Burgess. In this episode, the Mysterons kill and reconstruct a maintenance engineer to cripple the Frost Line Outer Space Defence System.
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[edit] Plot
The Frost Line Outer Space Defence System is a network of missile complexes stretching 3,000 miles[1] across Northern Canada,[1] dedicated to protecting Earth against extraterrestrial threats. When the Mysterons announce their intention to destroy major Frost Line bases, Eddie, a maintenance engineer, is killed by the Mysteron influence, which causes his truck to crash, and reconstructed in their service. The Mysteron agent evades security at both Red Deer and Cariboo Bases and plants devices inside their ventilation systems, rendering the air unbreathable and killing 250 personnel at Red Deer and 70 at Cariboo. On Cloudbase, Colonel White orders Captain Scarlet and Lieutenant Green to investigate Red Deer and uncover the method of attack. General Ward, the bad-tempered Frost Line commander, states that missiles will be launched at Mars if further bases are knocked out: White fears the Mysteron response. At Red Deer, Scarlet and Green discover that the personnel have suffocated not due to the introduction of toxic gas, but the removal of all the oxygen in Red Deer's artificial atmosphere.
Requisitioning a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle from a local hunter, Scarlet and Green rush to the next base, Big Bear, only to discover that "Eddie" has already passed through and is now heading towards the Frost Line Command Centre. Knocking out a sentry who bars the Spectrum officers' entry, Green extracts "Eddie's" depletion device from the ventilation system before it can affect the air. Meanwhile, Scarlet pursues "Eddie" in the SPV. The truck is carrying a load of liquid oxygen, some of which "Eddie" empties onto Scarlet's path to force his enemy off the road. Realising that "Eddie" will deliberately crash his vehicle into the Command Centre to ignite the combustible substance, causing a massive explosion, Scarlet shoots bullets into a snow-lined slope on one side of "Eddie". This causes an "avalanche" which throws "Eddie's" truck over a sheer ridge on the other side. Crashing down the rock face, "Eddie" is killed when the vehicle explodes and the Command Centre is saved.
[edit] Production
Shane Rimmer was initially contacted by Sylvia Anderson, by telephone, to write a script for Captain Scarlet. Rimmer agreed and received a second call from script editor Tony Barwick the following morning. Barwick told him "[that] a biker will drop the storyline over to you in about an hour. Take today and tomorrow and see how you'd go about filling it in."[2]
Rimmer's script for "Avalanche" opens with a detailed description of the Frost Line Command Centre,[3] which is made up of a number of domed structures: "Deep snow surrounds the plexiglass domes ... From the large central dome acting as a hub, avenues run off in eight directions. At the end of each spoke at varying distances from the centre are smaller domes. Each dome is airtight and serviced by an artificial atmosphere from an air-conditioning dome."[3]
An orchestra of 15 musicians[4] recorded incidental music for "Avalanche" under the direction of Barry Gray on 11 June 1967[4] in a four-hour[4] studio session. In the same session, music for another episode, "Spectrum Strikes Back", was recorded.[4] The principal tracks for "Avalanche" are titled "Mountain Pass"[5] (which can be heard as the human Eddie drives his truck through the snow) and "Deadly Mist and Mountain Chase"[5] (which accompanies Scarlet's pursuit of the reconstructed Eddie towards the episode's conclusion).
[edit] Reception
"Avalanche" represents one of a limited number of occasions in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons when Lieutenant Green leaves Cloudbase to perform a major part in an operation, a fact that is praised by critics Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett.[6] Chris Bentley, in The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide, suggests that not all of Rimmer's opening description survived to the final cut of the episode with complete success.[3]
Writing for FAB magazine in 1993, Ian Fryer states that the number of deaths "must surely be a record for an Anderson series",[7] since 321 people are said to have died in the episode. He notes that the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) "bears a 'U' certificate on its DVD release."[7] Fryer also praises Rimmer for cleverly introducing "a second layer of military as a repository for misgivings about the armed services."[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b The size and location of the Frost Line Outer Space Defence System are revealed in the initial description in Shane Rimmer's script: "[The Frost Line Outer Space Defence System] stretches in a number of similar bases three thousand miles across Northern Canada." (Bentley, 126.)
- ^ Rimmer, Shane (2010). Shane Rimmer: My Autobiography from Thunderbirds to Pterodactyls (1 ed.). Cambridge: Signum Books. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-9566534-0-6.
- ^ a b c Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4 ed.). Richmond, London: Reynolds and Hearn. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.
- ^ a b c d de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete studio-recording list of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. http://www.tvcentury21.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67:complete-studio-recording-list-of-barry-gray&catid=116:barry-gray&Itemid=182. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- ^ a b "Captain Scarlet Music CD Release Information". soundtrack-express.com. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006. http://www.soundtrack-express.com/osts/captainscarlet.htm. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- ^ Drake, Chris; Bassett, Graeme (1993). Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. London: Boxtree. p. 55. ISBN 1-85283-403-X.
- ^ a b c Fryer, Ian (1993). FAB (Fanderson) (66): 28.
[edit] External links
- "Avalanche" at TV.com
- "Avalanche" at Fanderson.org.uk
- "Avalanche" at CliveBanks.co.uk
- "Avalanche" at TheVervoid.com
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