Attack on Cloudbase

"Attack on Cloudbase"

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode

The scale model of an object that resembles an aircraft carrier hovering at high altitude emits fire and smoke. It is under missile attack from rotating, circular alien spacecraft surrounding it. The setting is night.

Mysteron spacecraft fire on Cloudbase. The appearance of the "flying saucers" was inspired by contemporary UFO sightings, and the size of the attacking force increased, artificially and in a cost-effective manner, through the use of background light bulbs.

Episode no.

Episode 31

Directed by

Ken Turner

Written by

Tony Barwick

Cinematography by

Ted Catford

Editing by

Bob Dearberg

Production code

Original air date

7 May 1968

Episode chronology

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"Flight to Atlantica"

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"The Inquisition"

List of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes

"Attack on Cloudbase" is the 31st episode of the 1960s Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. The penultimate episode of the series, it first aired in the United Kingdom on ATV Midlands on 7 May 1968. In this episode, Symphony Angel ejects from her damaged interceptor into the Sahara Desert; before she is located, Mysteron spacecraft enter Earth's atmosphere and launch a devastating assault on Cloudbase. Executive producer Gerry Anderson selected Ken Turner to direct Tony Barwick's script on account of the episode's "bizarre" quality.

Filmed in October 1967, "Attack on Cloudbase" underwent several scripting changes prior to shooting. Challenges facing the Century 21 production team's special effects department included a complex shot of an Angel aircraft scale model overflying the Symphony Angel puppet, and the extended sequence presenting the attack on Cloudbase itself. The department built only a limited number of saucer-shaped spacecraft models, opting to increase the apparent size of the Mysteron attack force at low cost by attaching flashing light bulbs to the backdrop of the model set.

Composer Barry Gray devised a unique score at the request of Anderson, who judged the series' archived incidental music unsuited to the episode's tone. Voice actress Liz Morgan remembers the emotion of the script, while Anderson praises Barwick for his "humanised" writing of the series' regular characters, considering the nature of the plot to be mainly "dark humour". In 1980, the New York offices of Century 21's distributor, ITC Entertainment, re-edited "Attack on Cloudbase" into a segment of the Captain Scarlet compilation film Captain Scarlet vs the Mysterons.

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