The Launching

Plot

The Mysterons announced they would destroy President Roberts within twelve hours. Spectrum assumed the target was the United States President Roberts. Colonel White, aboard Cloudbase, sent Captains Scarlet, Blue, and Ochre to guard the presidential residence. Symphony Angel led the Angel squadron on patrol in the air above.

Reporter Mervin Brand, flying to the residence for a news conference, died when lightning struck his jet during a thunderstorm, causing a crash. The Mysterons rebuilt Brand and his jet. The Angels intercepted them and forced Brand to land, unaware he was a reconstruction, and let him continue by road. At the residence, President Roberts accepted Scarlet’s security measures but insisted the conference proceed.

An hour before the Mysteron deadline, Brand drove up to the residence, then sped away, nearly hitting Blue and Ochre. The conference ended without trouble. Roberts then asked Scarlet if he could attend the launching of a new atomic-powered liner named “President Roberts.” Scarlet realized Spectrum had been guarding the wrong person and rushed to the docks in a patrol car.

Brand entered a private box and used Mysteron power to turn the ceremonial champagne bottle into a bomb. Scarlet arrived and warned the crowd. Brand drew a gun, but Scarlet shot him. The docks were cleared, but Brand, still alive, released the bottle.

It missed the ship’s bow, swung back into the box, and exploded, killing both Brand and Scarlet. A week later, Roberts thought Scarlet was dead, but the revived captain appeared in his office with Blue.

Production

The filming of "The Launching" initially took place on Century 21 Studios' Stage 3 from May to June 1967. That October, a reshoot was necessary on the same stage after the studio discovered that the Chicago Tribune, the newspaper employing character Mervin Brand, was a real publication. To sidestep trademark issues, every mention and depiction of the paper was reduced to simply "Tribune." This meant reshooting all miniature model shots of Brand's aircraft, a radio exchange between Brand and the Angels, and a ground-level conversation between Brand and Harmony Angel.

Additional reshoots occurred inside President Roberts' residence, likely to incorporate a more elaborate presidential seal. Because this reshoot happened while "Expo 2068" was being filmed on Stage 4, it made "The Launching" one of the most challenging Captain Scarlet episodes to produce. A brief scene where Roberts is mentioned as hailing from the same town as Symphony Angel was cut from the final version. After the reshoot, the puppet used for Roberts (revamp puppet number 19) was taken out of the guest marionette pool and readied for its recurring role as Sam Loover in the next Supermarionation series, Joe 90.

A duplicate of this puppet was later made to portray Colgan in the series finale "The Inquisition." The presidential residence studio model was built from the central section of the Creighton-Ward Mansion model used in Thunderbirds. The Tribune Building was an altered version of a model first seen in "Big Ben Strikes Again." Some of the episode's incidental music was recycled from Thunderbirds, Stingray, and Fireball XL5.

New incidental music was recorded on 23 July 1967 at composer Barry Gray's private studio, performed by a four-piece band. The music for "Lunarville 7" was recorded on the same day. "The Launching" is the sole Captain Scarlet episode where Chinese actress Lian-Shin Yang voiced Harmony Angel; previously, Liz Morgan had performed the role. Lian-Shin was credited in the voice cast for the final twenty episodes but voiced no characters after this one, which also marks the last time Harmony Angel speaks in the series.

Broadcast and reception

The episode debuted on ATV Midlands on 2 April 1968. It later aired in colour on Granada Television on 28 November 1969, not long after regular colour broadcasts began in the UK. Video Watchdog’s Shane M. Dallmann found it “particularly entertaining,” praising its “most satisfying last-second cliffhanger resolution.” Critic Fred McNamara offered a mixed view, calling the pacing good but the story “anticlimactic” and lacking a genuine plot.

He felt the twist revealing the Mysterons’ real target was delivered flatly, aiming for impact but falling short, and that Spectrum guarding the wrong objective weakened the tension. McNamara also noted that the brief appearance of President Roberts did not “convey the majesty of the craft,” and questioned why the Mervin Brand doppelganger lingered outside the presidential residence when his goal was an ocean liner. However, he commended the death and reconstruction of the original Brand as “evocative” and “Gothic,” and appreciated how the fictional US president added “welcome world-building” to the series.