"The Mysterons" (or, rarely, "Mars – 2068 A.D.") is the first episode of the 1960s Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was first officially broadcast in the UK on ATV Midlands on 29 September 1967, although it had been given an unscheduled test screening in the London area five months earlier on 29 April 1967. It was written by series creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and directed by Desmond Saunders. In the first episode, following an unwarranted human attack on their Martian colony, a collective extraterrestrial intelligence calling themselves the "Mysterons" initiate a war of retribution against Earth; the Spectrum security organisation is mobilised to counter the Mysterons' first threat, which is to assassinate the World President.