White as Snow (Captain Scarlet)

For the U2 song, see White as Snow (song).
"White as Snow"
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode
Episode no. Episode 06
Directed by Robert Lynn
Written by Peter Curran
David Williams
Cinematography by Julien Lugrin
Editing by Harry MacDonald
Production code 08
Original air date 3 November 1967 (1967-11-03)
Guest actors

Voices of:
Gary Files as
DJ Bob Lynn
Ensign Soames
Martin King as
TVR-17 Controller
Jeremy Wilkin as
Helijet Pilot
Paul Maxwell as
USS Panther II Captain
Charles Tingwell as
Lieutenant Belmont

"White as Snow" is the sixth episode of the Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 3 November 1967 on ATV Midlands, was written by Peter Curran and David Williams and directed by Robert Lynn.

In this episode, announcing that they intend to kill Colonel White, the Mysterons almost succeed in crashing a reconstructed satellite into Cloudbase. They plan a second assassination attempt when the colonel goes into hiding on board a navy submarine.

Plot

Communications satellite TVR-17 burns up and explodes after Captain Black infiltrates ground control and programs the satellite into a premature re-entry. Reconstructing the satellite and its crew, the Mysterons lock TVR-17 onto a collision course with Cloudbase, but the spacecraft is destroyed by Symphony Angel. When a Mysteron threat to kill Colonel White is received, White realises that the satellite was in fact targeting him personally, and decides to leave Cloudbase for the safety of other Spectrum personnel. He puts Captain Blue in charge of the base after Captain Scarlet refuses the role, angry that TVR-17 was destroyed when White had no definite proof that it was a Mysteron reconstruction. However, when the wreckage of the original satellite is discovered, Scarlet regrets his attitude. He asks Lieutenant Green if he knows White's destination, but Green has orders to remain silent.

Posing as Robert Snow, a deep-sea fisherman, Colonel White is taken on board the World Navy submarine USS Panther II as a guest. However, as the submarine prepares to dive, Ensign Soames traps his foot in a chain on the open deck and drowns as the vessel submerges. The Panther II captain appoints the Mysteron reconstruction of Soames as White's steward. Entering White's quarters with a gun, Soames shoots the occupant, but with a last effort his victim returns fire and Soames is also killed. However, the man in the cabin is not White, who is eventually found bound and gagged in a storage compartment – left there by Scarlet, who was killed in White's disguise. Back on Cloudbase, a revived Scarlet tells White that he pulled rank on Green to learn his whereabouts, used his Spectrum ID to be cleared by World Navy Security and hid away on board the Panther II before it left its base. Although White sentences Scarlet to death for misconduct, he concedes that it would be pointless since Scarlet is indestructible.

Production

The sequences involving Captain Black and the premature re-entry were not part of the original script,[1] which simply had the Mysterons using their powers to take control of the TVR-17 satellite.[1][2] The astronaut DJ Bob Lynn, a victim of TVR-17's destruction, is named as an in-joke after the director of this episode, Robert Lynn.[1][2] A shooting discrepancy in this episode has Soames holding different models of gun between shots as he prepares to kill Colonel White.

A tune played by the TVR-17 satellite, composed by Barry Gray, is actually titled "White as Snow",[1] and was recorded along with the rest of the incidental music for this episode in a four-hour[3] studio session on 28 May 1967,[3] using a 14-member orchestra.[3] The Hammond organ notes evident in the piece were played by Gray himself.[3] The tune would reappear in a later Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode, "Special Assignment",[1] and also in various episodes of Joe 90 and The Secret Service.[1] A commercial version of the tune is included on the CD release of the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons soundtrack.[4]

Reception

Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett praise "White as Snow" for its portrayal of Captain Blue,[5] who makes the most of his stint as Cloudbase acting commander by ordering the personnel to attend unpopular lectures, and the Angels in particular to carry out repeated target practice. Drake and Bassett argue that such characterisation adds humour to the instalment.[5] In The Guinness Book of Classic British TV, writers Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping credit the episode for its depiction of "Scarlet [losing] faith in Colonel White", summming it up as one of "the finest pieces in the Anderson canon".[6]

James Stansfield of the website Den of Geek ranks "White as Snow" third in his list of the "Top 10" Captain Scarlet instalments, arguing that Blue's "humorous tenure" as White's replacement helps to make it "probably the funniest episode" of the series.[7] He applauds the tension between Scarlet and White, noting that as the episode is "one of the earliest of the series, [this is] one of the first times we see the different personalities in Spectrum come out".[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4 ed.). Richmond, London: Reynolds and Hearn. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.
  2. 1 2 Bentley, Chris (2001). The Complete Book of Captain Scarlet. Carlton Books. p. 66. ISBN 1-84222-405-0.
  3. 1 2 3 4 de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete studio-recording list of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
  4. ↑ "Captain Scarlet Music CD Release Information". soundtrack-express.com. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  5. 1 2 Drake, Chris; Bassett, Graeme (1993). Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. London, UK: Boxtree. p. 56. ISBN 1-85283-403-X.
  6. ↑ Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1996). The Guinness Book of Classic British TV. Middlesex, UK: Guinness Publishing. p. 332. ISBN 0-85112-628-6.
  7. 1 2 Stansfield, James (6 September 2012). "Top 10 Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons Episodes". Den of Geek. London: Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2015.

External links

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