Spectrum Online Duel Mission Logs Season Two

Starring:

Colonel White, Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, Captain Ochre, Captain Black, Lieutenant Green & Destiny Angel.


With appearances from:

Captain Magenta.




A sting operation to intercept a canister of nerve agent goes wrong, and Spectrum end up chasing two targets across New York, not able to simply destroy either for fear of releasing the agent that could wipe out the entire city. Scarlet pursues the helijet the buyer is fleeing in, whilst Blue and Ochre follow the seller, who is on a motorbike. Eventually, both are apprehended, and the nerve agent is found to be with the buyer. However, following testing on Skybase, it transpires that the canister contains nothing but Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas), and that neither the buyer nor seller is a replicant. White instructs Scarlet to check his source, Zuca.

Scarlet tracks down Zuca in Egypt. At gunpoint, he pleads his innocence, telling Scarlet that he didn’t know the information was bad at the time, but he now knows that the real exchange of the nerve agent took place elsewhere, and the Mysterons’ target is Tranquillity, the holiday resort on the Moon where Lieutenant Green and Destiny Angel are currently vacationing. After Scarlet has left, Zuca is transported away by his Mysteron masters.

Colonel White contacts Destiny Angel, and she and Green approach the resort administrator, Eva Gordon, who insists that they don’t have the facilities to evacuate all 200 holiday-makers, and that they can’t simply confine everyone to their villas as there would be panic. Green and Destiny hatch a plan; they lay on complimentary tours to the Apollo landing sites whilst the dome is undergoing ‘essential maintenance’, allowing the Spectrum shuttles to arrive unseen and giving the staff time to search the complex.

Almost as soon as Spectrum arrive, one of the lunar excursion vehicles develops a malfunction and are unable to contact the main base for assistance. Ochre and Magenta take their Bison to offer assistance whilst Scarlet and Blue press on towards the base. As they arrive at Tranquillity, however, they lose contact with Ochre and Magenta, and it doesn’t take them long to discover that none of the base’s excursion vehicles are in the area Ochre and Magenta went to. One of the vehicles, however, is missing from the base. Scarlet goes back out to find out what is going on, whilst Blue remains to continue searching the base with Green and Destiny.

Scarlet discovers that Black is responsible for the theft of the excursion vehicle and he has left Ochre and Magenta in it, stealing their Bison. That had been the Mysterons’ aim all along: nerve agent is a limited weapon on the moon, and had never existed; they wanted a Bison to destroy all of the complexes, and Spectrum surpassed their expectations by sending two. This gives Black an idea; he wants to settle the score between him and Scarlet. There is a fire-fight, which knocks out Scarlet’s weapons system. Scarlet tries to lead Black away from the base, but Black doesn’t fall for it and heads back to destroy Tranquillity. Scarlet uses the only weapon left available to him: the Bison itself. He arms the self-destruct and ejects to safety, allowing the Bison to ram Black’s one and explode.

Back on Tranquillity, Blue reveals to Green that there is no trace of Black’s remains in the second Bison. She tells him not to tell Scarlet yet.


Quotable Scarlet

Gordon: Why would anyone attack Tranquillity? These people aren't human!
Green: That's about right...



Did you spot...?


  • These road signs in New York, which are set up for countries where one drives on the left rather than the right. The traffic itself, however, is moving in an orderly, right-laned manner.



Episode Rating: 4 stars
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Reviewer's Rating: 3/5

It's a shame in a way, because this episode could have been brilliant: the bluff by the Mysterons is a really good idea, and a far cry from the Mysterons of old; the idea of a holiday complex on the Moon being targeted is creepy in the extreme; and the Bison duel could have been fantastic. And I just love Green's whimper when the call from White comes through - that touch almost gives this a 4 in its own right. But there's far too much of the chase at the beginning and not enough of the rest. This could have possibly done with being a double episode to give it enough time to work properly.




Written by Phil Ford

Directed by Dominic Lavery

Animated by White team

Transmission date: 5 November 2005

Appears on DVD 3