While developing the series in 1966, creator Anderson remembered that in the Battle of Britain the RAF had found it difficult to counter the Luftwaffe because of the delays caused by launching fighters from the ground: in his biography, he recalled that "it took about 20 minutes to climb high enough to intercept the bombers that were already at 16,000 feet." He therefore decided to make Spectrum's headquarters a hovering airborne aircraft carrier: "This could launch aircraft that would then climb to 100,000 feet and intercept extraterrestrial invaders within minutes." In a separate interview, he pointed out that Captain Scarlet was produced during the Cold War, "when world leaders held conferences on aircraft carriers, and bomber pilots were constantly in the air waiting for attack orders. So I was thinking along the lines of a wartime setting, and had the idea for Cloudbase, a giant flying aircraft carrier, and the Angels, fighter pilots ready for take-off at any time. Special effects director Derek Meddings created the Cloudbase studio prop as a scale model over long. It was the easiest Captain Scarlet vehicle to make and typically appeared in a stocklong shot filmed against a sky backdrop consisting of a background painting, cotton wool clouds and dry ice effects. Too heavy to be hung on wires, the model was sometimes fixed to a metal pole concealed by the camera angle. Larger sections of the flight deck were built for scenes showing aircraft taking off and landing.
Specifications
Resembling an aircraft carrier, complete with flight deck and powered by jet engines, Cloudbase hovers at a fixed altitude of. Though usually geostationary, it is equipped with horizontal jet thrusters that enable it to be moved to any point above the Earth's surface. It was constructed in Earth orbit and has a crew of 600. The whole structure is pressurised; pilots entering or exiting aircraft on the flight deck do so via airtight shafts and docking ports. Cloudbase's main defence is its squadron of three Angel Interceptor fighter aircraft, flown by five female pilots. One fighter is manned around the clock, with the others on continuous standby. Auxiliary aircraft include Spectrum Passenger Jets and Magnocopters, which are launched from a separate part of the flight deck. Areas onboard Cloudbase include:
The Control Room, containing Colonel White's desk and Lieutenant Green's computer, which is used to operate the base's public address and other systems
The Amber Room, the standby post for the Angel pilots
The Spectrum Information Centre, containing "seventh-generation" supercomputers
The Observation Room, containing atmospheric and space-monitoring equipment
The Room of Sleep, where hypnosis and gimbal-mounted beds minimise the time required for personnel to rest
The Conference Room, Generator Room, Radar Room and Lounge
Skybase
In the computer-animated remake series Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, Cloudbase is re-imagined as Skybase. The updated headquarters, now situated at, resembles the original Cloudbase both in appearance and function. Robotic deckhands are stationed on Skybase's flight deck to assist in the take-off and landing of aircraft. Skybase is protected by a fleet of Falcon Interceptors and, in addition to the facilities featured previously, is now also equipped with squash courts. The CGI Skybase was created using LightWave 3D software under the supervision of Ron Thornton, co-founder of animation studioFoundation Imaging. The computer model, which at three million polygons was originally three times the size of the Enterprise NX-01 model for , was too large to be rendered in a single step.
Reception
Commentator Ian Fryer praises the Cloudbase interior sets designed by Keith Wilson, describing them as "both stylish and highly detailed with ground-breaking use of see-through coloured Perspex". Cloudbase has also been viewed as part of a possible religious allegory in the series' premise. Actor Cy Grant, who voiced the original Lieutenant Green, believed that Christian symbolism was heavily implied, with Colonel White representing God and Cloudbase serving as a Heaven analogue. In a discussion of the series' alleged "Biblical theme", Wales Online noted that the God-like Colonel White is shown to be stationed "in his heavenly Cloudbase, surrounded by his angel protectors". Anderson denied that any of this symbolism was intentional. The Valiant, an airborne aircraft carrier seen in the Doctor Who universe, has been compared to Cloudbase. Also similar are the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier from the Marvel Universe and the mobile airstrip from the 2004 science-fiction film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. A toy version of Cloudbase was released by Vivid Imaginations in the 1990s. The Toy Retailers Association later ranked it among the top 50 toys for 2001. A secret project in the expansion pack for the 1999 video game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is titled Cloudbase Academy.
