Fire at Rig 15

Plot

The nearby Bensheba refinery is the sole fuel source for Spectrum vehicles. After the Mysterons threaten to "immobilise" Spectrum, Colonel White sends Captains Scarlet and Blue to investigate. At the rig, controller Kinley and assistant Hansen explain that explosives expert Jason Smith will detonate a charge to extinguish the fire. Captain Black, observing from a distance, uses Mysteron powers to hypnotise Smith.

The charge detonates, killing Smith, who is replaced by a Mysteron double. Black orders the reconstructed Smith to destroy the Bensheba refinery with his explosives. Discovering the original Smith's body, Scarlet and Blue realise the takeover. Scarlet pursues Smith in a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, forcing him off the road before the refinery.

Smith's truck crashes and explodes, while Scarlet's SPV collides with oil tanks, fatally injuring him. His body is flown to Cloudbase for revival.

Production

Writer Bryan Cooper, who co-authored a book on North Sea oil, based the plot on the "Devil's Cigarette Lighter," an Algerian gas well fire that burned from 1961 to 1962 and was extinguished by a nitroglycerin charge. The character Jason Smith was inspired by Texan firefighter Red Adair, and Smith's tractor adapted Adair's modified bulldozer. Guest characters were named after Adair's colleagues: Kinley after Myron M. Kinley, and Hansen after Charlie Tolar and Asger "Boots" Hansen.

The original script used "Bethsheba" instead of "Bensheba." Filmed in May 1967, Smith's tractor was designed by special effects assistant Mike Trim, and the Bensheba refinery model incorporated parts from a Thunderbirds episode miniature. The incidental music, titled "Rig 15," was recorded on 22 July 1967 by 15 instrumentalists alongside music for "Shadow of Fear." This episode was the last to use the original instrumental closing theme; later episodes used a lyrical version by The Spectrum.

Reception

Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping described the episode as one of several that "seem little more than left-over Thunderbirds scripts." Anthony Clark of sci-fi-online.com called it a "typical, and rather dull, 'Mysterons destroy something and Spectrums runs about' story," noting the setting could be any installation. Fred McNamara deemed it "competent and uncomplicated" yet a "routine, sub-plotless affair," comparing it unfavourably to "Avalanche." He found the climax impressive but the build-up an "extended chase sequence" lacking menace, though he saw the "return to basic charms" as a "tonic."