| "Traitor" | |
|---|---|
| Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode | |
| Episode no. | Episode 17 |
| Directed by | Alan Perry |
| Written by | Tony Barwick |
| Cinematography by | Ted Catford |
| Editing by | Bob Dearberg |
| Production code | SCA 21[1] |
| Original air date | 14 January 1968 |
| Guest character voices | |
| |
"Traitor" is the 17th episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions. Written by series script editor Tony Barwick and directed by Alan Perry, it was first broadcast on 14 January 1968 on ATV London.
Set in 2068, the series depicts a "war of nerves" between Earth and the Mysterons: a race of Martians with the power to create functioning copies of destroyed people or objects and use them to carry out acts of aggression against humanity. Earth is defended by a military organisation called Spectrum, whose top agent, Captain Scarlet, was killed by the Mysterons and replaced by a reconstruction that subsequently broke free of their control. Scarlet's double has a self-healing power that enables him to recover from injuries that would be fatal to anyone else, making him Spectrum's best asset in its fight against the Mysterons.
The plot of "Traitor" concerns a series of hovercraft crashes involving Spectrum cadets, which the organisation believes to be the work of a saboteur working for the Mysterons.