User Reviews

Easily the show's darkest episode, 'Attack on Cloudbase' is taken literally when the Mysterons show up on Earth and open fire. Apparently, they've tired of their war of nerves and decided to just have it out. It's just a grim situation across the board; characters being killed off, nerves fraying; what happens here you'd never expected from watching this series; completely unprecedented. It's exciting stuff and would've made for a wickedly bleak finale if they'd stopped the show here (instead of the clip show finale we get with 'The Inquisition').

SPOILERS

But it's important to remember this is children's TV when the episode ends with "it was all a dream!" It's probably worse now in our post-"Dallas" TV culture, but what this does illustrate is the writers' willingness to burn everything to the ground - if only until the last few minutes.

I loved the smoking sets as Cloudbase is on fire (and falling). Great effects on this one.

9/10

"Attack On Cloudbase" has Symphony out on a routine flight over a stretch of unidentified desert when her aircraft is attacked from behind. She has to eject. For some reason, the heat perhaps, she leaves her landing point and worse still, ditches her helmet, thus contact with Cloudbase is lost. The Colonel sends another Angel to find Symphony.

We then get the Mysteron threat for this episode: they plan to destroy Cloudbase. Captain Scarlet says that "It had to come Colonel, this base is an obvious target." completely forgetting that Cloudbase had been the target in the episode "Dangerous Rendezvous" and that the diamond pulsator used to send the Colonel's apology direct to the Mysterons on Mars was the means.

Colonel White orders strict security and a 24hr watch on radar...the junior Captain, Captain Magenta draws this important, but tedious duty. The more senior Captains Scarlet and Blue go and check on him and Blue is annoyed to find that the aerial search for Symphony has been called off. Highly annoyed he sees Colonel White and demands to know why Symphony has been left in the desert. Here, we get confirmation of an unspoken love affair between Captain Blue and Symphony Angel.

The hours have ticked by, it is now dark, and in his usual, exciteable manner (think of the Mysteron threat to kill General Tiempo in the episode "Operation Time"), Captain Magenta blares out to the Colonel that a large, fast object has shown up on radar. A passenger transport or off course military jet are discounted, so Rhapsody is sent to investigate: she finds a flying disc and is shot out of the sky. Lieutenant Green is beside himself with grief....hang on pal, I adore her too!!

Very soon, Magenta is getting more and more excited as other blips appear on the radar screen. Colonel White announces that, at last, the Mysterons themselves have come to the Earth "to annihilate us." He is about to order Destiny to go and attack but Scarlet takes her place, cue more annoying behaviour from Destiny. The mass of flying discs attack and Cloudbase is sent plummeting, with only Colonel White and Captain Blue left alive. Yes, even Captain Scarlet is killed, finally dead, dead, dead. It's an hilarious scene with Captain Blue looking through smoke at "Dr Fawn's Assistant" who happens to be Captain Black!

The episode payoff is that it was all a nightmare that Symphony had, thanks to the desert sun. We never get an explanation as to who or what downed her aircraft. I rate the episode as a solid 9/10 thanks to the Mysteron "flying saucers" and the characterisations in Symphony's dream, especially that of Captain Magenta. Voice actor, Gary Files didn't get that much to do, as Captain Magenta, but he voiced many visiting characters, and in my opinion, voiced the best Mysteron reconstructions with his snarling "Come and GET me...EARTH MAN!"