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ESSAY
Previously presented on the RED ALERT! website
Published on the Spectrum Headquarters website with the gracious permission of Mike Adamson |
CONTINUITY AND MIXED UNIVERSES
With the much-discussed CS revamp, the issue of continuity needs some
consideration.
In the short promo film the new material is seen as sequelling the
original, not replacing it — I believe a statement is made giving a space
of some years since Mysteron activity curtailed, leaving Spectrum perhaps
none the wiser. (I have not had the opportunity to see the film.)
One might expect, in the context of the original series, that such
a situation would have tempted humankind back to the Red Planet rather
quickly. It would be entirely reasonable to expect a second Spectrum
Zero-X sortie, probably with our heroes on board, to find out what's
happened — ie., return to the Mysteron complex... And for this to take
place within months, certainly the first year, of the cessation of
Mysteron activity. If this has not occurred, one must ask why?
This also raises the issue of mixed universes. It has been mooted in the
past that Zero-X was used in Captain Scarlet simply as a marketing
ploy, to perpetuate interest in a sub-category of Thunderbirds
merchandising, and that no other cross-connection exists, or should be
implied. This is a fair assumption, yet the ship is there on screen and
played a pivotal role in the foundation of the series, and — let's face it
— it constitutes a really meaty piece of hardware and brings with it a
whole associated thematic universe. It cross-connects Thunderbirds
and Captain Scarlet in a very convincing way — they are
technologically and conceptually close enough to easily inhabit the same
"real life" world, and Zero-X was a creation inside that world.
So we have three distinct Anderson subjects cohabiting comfortably, with
very little in the way of jarring, certainly nothing that can't be patched
up with minimal creative input.
What about other crossovers? In TV-21, Alan Fennell crossed CS with
Fireball,
and this is surely out of the question. Fireball was a starship, and would
be the technological descendant of one or even two centuries more
development over Zero-X, even assuming Zero-X to be up-engined and fitted
with some embryonic warp/spacefold system such as would rationalise the
TV-21
adventures in which she was seen encountering alien races amongst the
stars. In a classic Ron Embleton adventure we saw the "Mysteron Agent at
Marineville," and this was quite logical. The WASPs seem able to inhabit
the same world as Spectrum and International Rescue without much
difficulty, certainly none at a conceptual level. Only when the Space
Patrol again appeared in the same story was there a jar.
So, if the new CS is to follow directly, by implication it
includes the reality and existence of Zero-X, and by that virtue opens the
door to connection with Thunderbirds. The WASPs are an easy
background factor too. In this way the new show "almost" breathes life
back into half the classic Anderson series in one stroke!
I hope Gerry is keenly aware of these elements, and sees the potential
that Alan Fennell discovered and mined for all it was worth so long ago,
in a form that has remained accessible to the fans and well-loved ever
since.
READ OTHER TEXTS FROM THUNDERBIRD 9
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