Spectrum Online Syrtis Major Mission Logs Season Two

Starring:

Colonel White, Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, Captain Ochre, Doctor Gold & Destiny Angel.


With appearances from:

Captain Magenta, Captain Grey, Captain Brown & Captain Indigo.


And a special guest appearance from:

Captain Black.




Spectrum carries out a UN-sanctioned raid on Vulcan Industries and seizes control of all their operations. Despite every human being ordered to abandon Mars eight months ago, it appears they have returned to their darinium mine at Syrtis Major; a shuttle was launched there from the moon. Colonel White instructs them to order their men back to Earth, but the head of operations, Griggs, admits they lost contact with the three-man team a day ago. A Spectrum rescue mission is launched immediately.

At the mining complex, the Spectrum team feel distinctly uneasy. Griggs tells them this was common amongst the miners: some of them even went so far as to claim it was haunted. He tries to bait the Spectrum team into revealling that the real reason they kicked all the civilians off Mars was that they discovered life, but they don't admit anything to him.

They break off into teams of two to search the place. Ochre and Blue appear very unsettled, seeing and hearing things that their partners cannot. Eventually they reconvene and Scarlet decides they need to search the mine itself. The four colour-coded officers and Griggs descend into the mine, leaving Destiny to keep watch in the surface complex.

In the mine, the team notice a white gas everywhere. Griggs tells them it seeps out of the rock, and is completely harmless. The air filtration systems used to extract it, but they have been offline for the last eight months. It doesn't take them long to find one of the technicians, Roberts. However, once conscious, Roberts appears extremely agitated and flees from them. Scarlet pursues him into a cavern, where the other two are waiting, and attack them with laser rock blasters. Roberts is killed, and only a timely intervention from the rest of the team saves Scarlet from the same fate. Gold confirms that, contrary to expectations, the two men are not Mysteron replicants, but entirely human. Something else is going on here.

Scarlet and Blue set out to find Griggs, who somehow disappeared in the confusion. Blue is clearly not happy about this, though, and suggests they should leave him there. Scarlet is horrified, but things get even stranger when Blue accuses him of being under Mysteron control and attacks him! After a scuffle, Scarlet is forced to knock Blue out.

Meanwhile, Ochre is having similar feelings about Doctor Gold, who is still working on the two unconscious technicians, and demands that he step away from a bomb that only she can see. Gold calmly explains to her that his tests show that the white gas is not harmless at all; it has psychotropic effects including hallucinations and paranioa. Ochre isn't convinced, and Gold is only saved by the timely arrival of Captain Scarlet. They determine that they need to get out of the complex: with the concentration of the gas, even the surface complex will not be safe.

In the meantime, Destiny has been taken prisoner by Captain Black, who appears to have arrived from Earth with the technician crew. He builds a bomb to destroy Syrtis Major whilst she watches helplessly. However, as the rest of the team return to the surface, it is Destiny with her hand on the trigger, not Black! She has been alone all along.

Just as they sort Destiny out, Griggs reappears wealding a laser blaster. Gold speculates that he has also been affected by the gas, but Scarlet realises the truth: Vulcan Industries have known all along that the gas isn't harmless, and Griggs is trying to cover it up.

Griggs admits the truth, and tells them that some people have more of a resistance than others. He can't let them leave Mars, because Vulcan will lose everything. Just as he is about to fire, Destiny starts to stir, sees Griggs as Black, and fires, stunning him.

Back on the shuttle, the team starts to recover, and Scarlet muses that he thinks he prefers fighting Mysterons to humans like Griggs.


Quotable Scarlet


Just after Blue stuns the two technicians

Ochre: Stunning.



Did you spot...?


  • Just how unsafe is the lift into the mine? It's completely open, and doesn't even have a barrier at the entrance to stop Destiny falling. And damn her for not doing so.



Episode Rating: 4.5 stars
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Reviewer's Rating: 5/5

For me, this just totally rocks as an episode. It could quite easily have been extended to a double, or even a movie in its own right. The plot is extremely good, and it's sadly very believable that corporations would allow this kind of thing.

Also, I am sure by now you have all picked up on my dislike of Destiny and Blue ('No, really?' I hear you all gasp). That said, their characters actually manage to add to this script rather than detracting from it. Thumbs up all round!




Written by Phil Ford

Directed by Dominic Lavery

Animated by Scarlet team

Transmission date: 15 October 2005

Appears on DVD 2