"Seek and Destroy" is the ninth episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, a 1960s British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company Century 21 Productions.
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 and Blue find Destiny at a café and all three leave for the airport in a Spectrum Patrol Car, only to be ambushed on a country road by the unpiloted Mysteron reconstructions of the destroyed Angel fighters.
[7] Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, authors of The Guinness Book of Classic British TV, consider "Seek and Destroy" to be a very well remembered episode of Captain Scarlet.
[8] Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett praise the aerial sequences, describing the episode as an "excellent showcase for the Angel aircraft, as well as providing the small 'Flying Unit' of Century 21 with an opportunity to express themselves in full.
[9] Chris Bentley, author of Captain Scarlet: The Vault, criticises several aspects of the set design, noting that some of the buildings and street furniture seen in the Paris driving scenes are flats rather than three-dimensional models.
He argues that it devotes too much time to underwhelming vehicle action, describing the battle between the Angels and the Mysteronised fighters as a "plotless showcase" whose use of stock footage and "stiff, two-dimensional" photography greatly reduces its dramatic impact.