to see White "[going] down like the captain of a big ship." "Attack on Cloudbase" is one of only a few Captain Scarlet episodes to have its own score instead of using incidental music recycled from a track library. Series composer Barry Gray devised the score after Anderson decided that nothing in Century 21's musical archive suited the dark nature of the plot. Performed by a 14-member band, it was the penultimate score to be produced for Captain Scarlet and was recorded on 3 December 1967 in a four-hour studio session. The CD of the series soundtrack includes pieces from "Attack on Cloudbase" titled "Desert Symphony" and "The Mysterons Attack!" Reception In a DVD audio commentary that he recorded for the episode, Anderson stated that although "Attack on Cloudbase" was intended to be humorous, he believed that the finished episode was more of a "black comedy". He praised the script, noting Blue's feelings for Symphony and his conflict with White as examples of Tony Barwick's "humanisation" of the puppet characters. He also described Captain Magenta's comical commentary on the attack, which ends only with the character's death, as another "wonderful example of 'Barwickism'". Though acknowledging that dream sequences might seem clichéd, he defended the episode's use of a nightmare plot mechanism for its power to frighten, and then re-assure, the audience. He argued that the dark tone is lightened by the closing scene, which he said was written as there had to be "a sequence where everyone was happy together, and clearly no one had come to any grief", thus forming the "inevitable happy ending" to a tragic story. James Stansfield of the website Den of Geek considers "Attack on Cloudbase" to be the best episode of Captain Scarlet. Describing the episode as highly entertaining even if "shocking and surprisingly bleak", he praises the writing and characterisation – in particular, the death of Rhapsody Angel and the conflict between Blue and White. However, he comments negatively on the dream plot twist as well as what he regards as a minor plot hole: for reasons that are unclear, the stranded Symphony throws away her helmet, thus making it impossible for Spectrum to contact her. Stansfield suggests that the nightmarish nature of the plot is implied long before it is confirmed in dialogue, suggesting that moments such as the death of the "indestructible" Scarlet, and Blue's lack of astonishment at the sudden