| "Shadow of Fear" | |
|---|---|
| Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode | |
| Episode no. | Episode 12 |
| Directed by | Robert Lynn |
| Written by | Tony Barwick |
| Cinematography by | Julien Lugrin |
| Editing by | John Beaton |
| Production code | SCA 13[1] |
| Original air date | 2 February 1968 |
| Guest character voices | |
| |
"Shadow of Fear" is the 12th 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 Robert Lynn, it was first broadcast on 2 February 1968 on ATV Midlands.
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.
In "Shadow of Fear", a Spectrum operation to obtain orbital reconnaissance of Mars is threatened when an astronomer is killed and reconstructed by the Mysterons. The episode is one of four that were subsequently re-edited and combined to make Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars (1981), a Captain Scarlet compilation film produced by the New York office of distributor ITC Entertainment.