"Model Spy" is the 18th 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 Bill Hedley and directed by Ken Turner, it was first broadcast on 29 December 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 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 murdered by the Mysterons and replaced by a reconstruction that later 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 "Model Spy", after the Mysterons threaten to assassinate a French intelligence agent, Captains Scarlet and Blue and Destiny and Symphony Angels go undercover to protect the target.
Plot
Transmitting to Earth, the Mysterons (voiced by Donald Gray) warn Spectrum that they intend to assassinate André Verdain, the secret head of the European Area Intelligence Service. Publicly, Verdain is a celebrated fashion designer, who runs the House of Verdain as a front for his spy network. Believing that Verdain's death would be disastrous for the Service, Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray) predicts that the Mysterons will make an attempt on the spymaster's life at an upcoming fashion show in Monte Carlo, and assigns a team of four – Captains Scarlet and Blue and Destiny and Symphony Angels (voiced by Francis Matthews, Ed Bishop, Liz Morgan and Janna Hill) – to protect him. The agents go undercover as employees of Verdain, with Scarlet and Blue (going by their real names Paul Metcalfe and Adam Svenson) posing as a public relations officer and a photographer, and Destiny and Symphony as fashion models. With the Paris airports closed due to fog, the agents are forced to fly to Monte Carlo direct.
Unknown to Verdain and Spectrum, two of Verdain's models, Helga and Gabrielle, have been killed in a monotrain derailment and replaced with Mysteron reconstructions. When Verdain takes his guests on a tour of Monte Carlo Bay in his luxury yacht, Gabrielle starts a fire in the engine room that quickly consumes the vessel. All on board jump to safety only seconds before the yacht explodes.
Despite Scarlet's warnings, Verdain refuses to cancel his press reception at a nearby hotel. A man resembling Captain Black (voiced by Donald Gray) has been sighted in Europe and Verdain is sure that he will make an appearance at the event. During the pre-reception cocktail party, Gabrielle inadvertently reveals herself to be a Mysteron agent when she tells Scarlet that she flew in from Paris while it was fog-bound. Before Scarlet can challenge her, Black, who is waiting outside the hotel armed with a sniper rifle, shoots Verdain through an open window with a tranquiliser dart. Gabrielle turns off the lights, and in the resulting confusion, Helga and Black bundle the unconscious Verdain into Black's car and speed away, bound for an unknown location.
With the aid of a homing drug that Scarlet put in Verdain's drink, the Spectrum team pursue the Mysteron agents by car, SPV (obtained from a casino) and helicopter. Caught between the Spectrum forces and a police roadblock, Black and Helga push Verdain out of their car and come to a halt. As Verdain regains consciousness, the Mysterons use their powers to teleport the car and its occupants away. Back at the hotel, Verdain thanks his protectors and presents Destiny and Symphony with splendid gowns courtesy of the House of Verdain.
Production
André Verdain was named after real-life fashion designers André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin. "Model Spy" was the first episode in the production order to state that Scarlet and Blue's full real names are Paul Metcalfe and Adam Svenson.
The miniature monotrain was designed by special effects assistant Mike Trim. Remembering that the suspended monotrain from the Thunderbirds episode "Brink of Disaster" had been difficult to film, Trim designed the new train to run on a OO gauge model railway track, which proved much easier to shoot. The model shots of Verdain's yacht feature a background painting of Monte Carlo Bay, which was also produced by Trim and had previously appeared in the Thunderbirds episodes "The Man from MI.5" and "The Duchess Assignment". It was later seen in the Joe 90s "The Race".