Spectrum designation:

Captain Grey

Rank and attributions:

Senior staff officer, colour-coded Captain.

Real name :

Bradley Holden

Place of birth :

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Date of birth:

4 March 2033

Height:

5 Ft. 11 Ins.

Weight:

173 lbs

Eyes:

Brown

Hair:

Black

Puppet specifications:

The facial features of Captain Grey were based on actor Sean Connery (in the early James Bond era). Voice was provided by Paul Maxwell.

Personal history

Born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 4, 2033, Bradley ‘Brad’ Holden was educated at the World Navy Academy in San Diego, California, where he gained degrees in navigation, aqua-technology and computer control.

Graduating at 21, Brad lost no time in enlisting in the World Navy submarine service. Stationed in Sydney, Australia, he trained to become an officer and was eventually given command of an unnamed World Navy submarine.  In the following years, Holden demonstrated courage, alertness and coolness on many occasions during assignments, and saved his crew and craft from death or capture by the enemy.

In 2062, he was transferred to the newly founded World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), and promoted to security chief with a rank of lieutenant commander.  He was assigned to the prototype combat submarine which would later be known as Stingray (2062-2064). While in command of this new vessel, Holden became a real credit to the service, and gained a formidable reputation because of his heroic encounters with enemies of the World Government, pirates and spies. This reputation compares to that of his more famous successor, Troy Tempest, who would subsequently become Stingray’s captain.

Unfortunately, in late 2064, some unspecified back injury cut short Holden’s glorious career, and forced him to leave command of the Stingray prototype for a desk job, which he hated.

Two years later, the Spectrum organisation’s selection committee approached Brad Holden, impressed by his reputation in active service and his superb handling of security measures.  His back problems were obviously not an issue anymore at this point, and Brad Holden accepted Spectrum’s offer of becoming a field agent, with the rank of captain and the colour codename ‘Grey’.

Personality profile:

On duty, Brad Holden has all the distinct qualities associated with the agents of Spectrum: a cool handling of situations, quick thinking, alertness, with fast reactions and an uncanny ability to anticipate impending dangers.

Off duty, Grey is a cool, logical thinker; his calm acceptance in the face of danger can make him appear emotionless.  Perhaps because he is the oldest of the Spectrum officers, he often seems something of a loner, and in the TV series is seen reading in the Officers’ Lounge on two occasions; this impression is reinforced by the fact that, unlike the other colour captains, Captain Grey has no known regular partner to work alongside.  Fan fiction stories sometimes depict him as closer to Colonel White, than to his colleagues, partly due to the fact that they share a similar background in the Navy and, ironically enough, because Bradley Holden holds the codename ‘Grey’, which is the real name of Colonel White (as stated in Chris Bishop's “A Question of Trust” and Mary J. Rudy's "War of Nerve").

His love of water has never left him and ,even while stationed on Cloudbase, 40 000 feet above sea level,  Captain Grey is dedicated to his passion of swimming.  He spends long hours in the Cloudbase swimming pool. 

Currently, Grey is carrying out research into the miniaturisation of SCUBA aqualung diving gear, which could eventually be used by Spectrum personnel, and other security and military services.

Extended fanfic history

Captain Grey was one of the less used characters of the TV series (he appeared in 13 episodes), and consequently in fan fiction, he sometimes goes unnoticed.  However, some authors have written about him, and made him as interesting a character as his colleagues in Spectrum.  Sue Stanhope, who gave wonderful backgrounds to both Captain Magenta and Captain Ochre, did the same for Grey in the story ‘So beautifully framed’, in which she created a wife for Bradley Holden, by the name of Elsa Foley Barnes, who died during a freak diving accident,  some years before he became Captain Grey.  

Chris Bishop used the Marineville background to draw a connection between the respective backgrounds of Bradley Holden and Seymour Griffiths (Lieutenant Green), stipulating that Holden had been involved in an incident in which Griffiths' brother died (In 'A Question of Trust').  It was during the same incident that Holden received the back injury that confined him behind a desk for so long.

 ‘A White Christmas Carol’ – a collaboration between Chris Bishop, Sue Stanhope and Mary J. Rudy - created a large family for Bradley Holden, in which he is the second of five siblings – a sister, Nicole, being five years senior and with three children of her own.  He has two younger sisters and a brother.

As far as romantic relationships go, in fanfic writing, Captain Grey has been rather overlooked, and, unlike the other captains, he isn't generally portrayed as the partner of any specific Angel.  On TV, the only time Grey is shown in the company of an Angel is in the episode, ‘Flight to Atlantica’, where the officers host a secret party on Cloudbase, and he is shown in conversation with Rhapsody Angel and Doctor Fawn.

However, in the imaginary multiverse story “Chan Kwan, Bounty Hunter”, by Ono, his character seems to share a romantic interest with the eponymous heroine (of what turns out to be a novel written by the real Chan Kwan – a.k.a. Harmony Angel).  In her story ‘Valediction’, set in 2100, Marion Woods has the retired Captain Grey married to Destiny Angel, and they have one daughter.  Hints can be also be found in other stories (such as “A White Christmas Carol”) of some affection between Grey and Destiny Angel.  This is a rather interesting speculation, considering that the puppets for both characters were modelled on Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, the actors who starred in the James Bond movie “Doctor No”.

In the story “The Concordian Legacy”, Clya Brown takes Captain Grey back to Marineville and gives an interesting twist to his persona by transforming him into a ladies' man – much in the image of the James Bond character played by Sean Connery – and revealing a very interesting love story between him and Atlanta Shore. While Nigel Preece, in a completely different story, gives his own take on the character with a back story of Grey’s ‘origins’ – postulating that his, so-called, back injury was only a cover-up, to hide the fact that Grey had killed the man who had murdered his father (“Shades of Grey”).

  In the CGI series “Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet”, Captain Grey has been created as a new character, who doesn’t even share the same name or background as the original.  All that is known about him is that Ian Taggart was born in Scotland and he is seen playing the bagpipes at Captain Black’s funeral.  However, he is given a more prominent role in some episodes than his Supermarionation counterpart.