| "Winged Assassin" | |
|---|---|
| Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode | |
| Episode no. | Episode 2 |
| Directed by | David Lane |
| Written by | Tony Barwick |
| Cinematography by | Paddy Seale |
| Editing by | Harry MacDonald |
| Production code | SCA 2[1] |
| Original air date | 6 October 1967 |
| Guest character voices | |
| |
"Winged Assassin" is the second 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 Tony Barwick and directed by David Lane, it was first broadcast on 6 October 1967 on ATV Midlands.
Set in 2068, the series depicts a "war of nerves" between Earth and the Mysterons: a hostile race of Martians with the ability to create functioning copies of destroyed people or objects and use these reconstructions to carry out specific acts of aggression against humanity. Earth is defended by a military organisation called Spectrum, whose top agent, Captain Scarlet, was murdered by the Mysterons and replaced with a reconstruction that later broke free of their control. The Scarlet double has inherited the Mysterons’ power of retro-metabolism, that enables him to recover from injuries that would be fatal to any other person, effectively making him "indestructible" as well as Spectrum's foremost asset in its fight against the Mysterons. In a direct continuation from pilot episode “The Mysterons”, "Winged Assassin" sees Scarlet establish his indestructibility while Spectrum attempts to prevent the Mysterons from assassinating the Director General of the United Asian Republic.
In 1980, "Winged Assassin" was re-edited to form a segment of the Captain Scarlet compilation film Captain Scarlet vs. the Mysterons, produced by the New York office of ITC Entertainment. During the BBC's 2001-2002 re-run of the series, the episode was postponed from its intended transmission date due to perceived similarities between the story and the attacks of September 11, 2001.[2] "Winged Assassin" has been positively received by commentators and is frequently cited as one of the best episodes of the series.