Renegade Rocket

"Renegade Rocket"
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
The VGR makes its final approach to Base Concord.
Episode no.	Episode 16
Directed by	Brian Burgess
Written by	Ralph Hart
Cinematography by	Paddy Seale
Editing by	Bob Dearberg
Production code	07
Original air date	19 January 1968 (1968-01-19)
Guest stars
Voices of: Gary Files as Major Reeves Jeremy Wilkin as Yacht Captain Security Guard Charles Tingwell as Launch Controller Paul Maxwell as Base Concord Commander Martin King as Sergeant Airstrip Controller
Episode chronology
← Previous "Seek and Destroy" Next → "Crater 101"
List of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes

"Renegade Rocket" is the 16th episode of the Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was first broadcast in the UK on 19 January 1968 (1968-01-19) on ATV Midlands, was written by Ralph Hart and directed by Brian Burgess. In this episode, Spectrum fights to stop a rocket from destroying its target.

Plot

Major Reeves, a rocket expert and friend to Colonel White, has been touring Cloudbase. As Reeves returns to Base Concord by ship, Captain Black uses the Mysteron influence to nauseate him and the Major falls into the sea and drowns when a side rail collapses. A Mysteron reconstruction of Reeves arrives at Base Concord and takes over the launch control room, shooting the officer on duty, priming an incendiary Variable Geometry Rocket and launching it under the code "ZERO". Reeves escapes from Base Concord in a J17 interceptor with the Flight Program Unit, with the result that personnel do not know where the VGR will strike, nor which code out of the 10,000 listed in the Base Concord manual is required to remote-activate its self-destruct mechanism. Curiously, the VGR is also not registering on ground radar. The Base Concord Commander contacts Cloudbase and Captains Scarlet and Blue are dispatched, while the Angels are launched to start a search for the J17. Reeves is soon located but refuses to surrender the Flight Program Unit, crippling Melody Angel with the J17's machine gun and forcing her to eject before her aircraft crashes into the ocean.

At Base Concord, it is realised that the VGR would be invisible to radar only if it were moving on a vertical ascent and descent flightpath, leaving Base Concord itself as the only possible target. With a replacement Flight Program Unit, personnel start to test self-destruct codes in alphabetical order despite the impossible odds. Elsewhere, Rhapsody Angel orders Reeves to surrender, but the Mysteron agent deliberately crashes the J17, sending the original Flight Program Unit to the ocean floor. With three minutes to impact, and all the Base Concord personnel evacuated, White commands Scarlet and Blue to leave. However, the officers ignore orders in a daredevil bid to hit on the correct self-destruct code. The apt "AMEN" proves unsuccessful, but on the seabed, the Flight Program Unit is dislodged from a rock and the self-destruct is activated. By a stroke of fate, the VGR detonates and Base Concord is saved. White is furious with his officers' conduct, but rules out a court-martial because valour is essential in Earth's war with the Mysterons.

Music

Incidental music for "Renegade Rocket" was recorded with music for the episode "Operation Time" in a four-and-a-half-hour studio session held on 14 May 1967 (1967-05-14), with a 12-member orchestra conducted by Barry Gray.

Reception

Reviewing the episode in the Anderson fan publication Andersonic, Vincent Law identifies "Renegade Rocket" as just one example of a Gerry Anderson production that uses a theme of the dangers of advanced technology, or "runaway machinery". He also notes that the Reeves duplicate effectively pulls rank to launch the rocket, drawing a connection between this episode and perceptions of double agents during the Cold War, and also relating it to the 1964 Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove. He comments negatively, however, on the dialogue and characterisation, questioning, for example, Colonel White's lack of an emotional response on realising that Reeves, supposedly a friend of his, has been killed and reconstructed by the Mysterons. Despite praise of the episode's visuals, he sums up "Renegade Rocket" as "a forerunner of effects-led films like Independence Day and its ilk — flashy, nice to look at but insubstantial and ultimately unfulfilling."

External links

• "Renegade Rocket" at TV.com
• "Renegade Rocket" at Fanderson.org.uk
• "Renegade Rocket" at CliveBanks.co.uk
• "Renegade Rocket" at TheVervoid.com