[1] 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.
While flying a military bomber in this intoxicated state, Captains Blue and Ochre launch an attack on the World Navy base Atlantica.
Not realising the consequences of their new flight plan, the intoxicated Blue and Ochre take the V17 into Atlantica's airspace and bomb the base's defence control tower.
He expresses surprise that Scarlet is "treated as a hero" in the final scene given that it was he who organised the unauthorised champagne party (an "unbelievably bone-headed blunder" on his part) and could therefore be considered indirectly responsible for the near-total destruction of Atlantica.
[5] Noting its "offbeat" tone and praising its humour, writer Fred McNamara comments that the episode "rarely outstays its welcome" and sums it up as a "valiantly joyful excursion into unforeseen territory" for the series.