Flight 104

Plot

A top-secret conference at Lake Toma, Switzerland, is planned to discuss a return mission to Mars. Astrophysicist Dr Conrad travels to Geneva Airport with bodyguards Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue. The Mysterons have threatened to sabotage the conference. At the Adelphi Hotel, journalists Harry and Joe, seeking a story, follow the Spectrum party to Novena Airport and attempt to book seats on Flight 104, which will carry Conrad, Scarlet, and Blue.

Spectrum had booked all seats to ensure privacy, but Scarlet and Blue ask airport authorities to admit the journalists to avoid publicising Conrad's movements. After takeoff, the crew are found drugged in a storage room; Captain Black is responsible, and the airliner is under Mysteron control. Colonel White orders the Angel squadron to intercept Flight 104 over the Alps. Seeing the empty cockpit, the Angels emit warning smoke.

Scarlet and Blue shoot out the cockpit door and discover the plane is nosediving into the Alps. Electricity from a power station breaks the Mysterons' hold, and they pull out of the dive. Scarlet orders everyone to the back and crash-lands, dying when the plane hits a bunker. Blue assures the journalists that Scarlet's retro-metabolic powers will restore him.

Production

The subplot of a planned return to Mars continues in "Noose of Ice", though ITC Entertainment's official running order places that episode before "Flight 104", disrupting continuity. The on-screen title reads "Flight I04", using a letter "I" instead of the numeral "1" because the Microgramma font's "1" resembled a "7". The miniature model of Geneva Airport previously appeared as New York Central Airport in the Thunderbirds episode "The Duchess Assignment". Stock footage of airport crash tenders came from the Thunderbirds episode "Trapped in the Sky". Incidental music for the near-miss scene was originally composed for Stingray, and the episode also recycles music from Supercar and Thunderbirds.

Reception

Anthony Clark of sci-fi-online.com criticises the episode's pace as "torpid". Writer Fred McNamara describes a "subdued, almost casual tone" blending humour with spy themes, creating a "warm, approachable atmosphere" for its intimate story. He finds scenes of Joe secretly photographing Scarlet, who appears as a black silhouette, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.esque" in absurdity. However, McNamara considers the "languid" flavour both a strength and a weakness, arguing the set-up "really feels as though it should gain more focus" and that aerial tension relies on close-ups of "sweat-laden faces". He expresses disappointment that the secret conference plot is not developed further, though "Noose of Ice" may indirectly continue it. He concludes the episode "doesn't rely on death-defying action" but instead builds an uneasy atmosphere of speculative horror.