A ‘Captain
Scarlet and the Mysterons’ multi-parts story
By Chris Bishop
AUTHOR’S
NOTES TO READERS
(who are not obligated to read them – but hey, you
might find them interesting!)
When I started this story, at the
end of March 2005, for the Multiverse Challenge,
I never intended for it to be this long. At the beginning, it was supposed to be a
five-part story. But as it is often the
case when writing – especially a multi-levelled, multi-part story like this one
– you find out that you need more room to explain the situation in which your
characters find themselves in.
Not only that, by [but] these characters often have the tendency
to take over your story and develop it their own way! They are very difficult to control, these characters, especially
when they are as stubborn as those inhabiting the Captain Scarlet universe!
That said, the story mainly went the
way I had originally envisaged it – albeit with more details and few minor
changes to it. I’ve always been
interested in mythology, for nearly as long as I can remember. Greek/Roman, Arthurian, Norse… even going as far as including modern
‘super-hero’ mythology in that list – after all, comic books stories are but
the modern extension of those fantasy stories of the past, where powerful gods
ruled the universe, and mighty heroes
fought unimaginable threats to Humanity, facing villains and monsters
alike… Not that different than any
super-hero in any comic strip!
Captain Scarlet &
the Mysterons, created for
television, and polished through time with details added by various media
(press releases, magazines, annuals, comic strip stories, articles, various
books, audio-adventures… and even fan fiction to some extent…) certainly has
its own mythology, with its own ‘demi-god-like’ invincible hero and his loyal
companions, its warrior-like women, riding their ‘white steeds’ to battle, its
god-like figure – all of them fighting the ‘invisible forces of evil’,
themselves embodied by their most malevolent agent – who once been on the side
of good. Classic mythology, straight
out of the History’s traditional tales.
While over the years we have often
heard talk of similarity between the world of Captain Scarlet and the Christian
religion (Cloudbase/Heaven, White/God, Scarlet/Jesus Christ, Black/Lucifer, the Angels, etc.), and
although I do not deny such comparison – which fully demonstrates once again
the relationship between the series and traditional folklore anyway – I myself
found there was also some aspects of the series which bore some surprising
similarities with the Norse myths.
So was born the idea for this
story. It took a number of years to
actually overcome the many difficulties presented by the task of writing
it - to find a proper plot that will
take our favourite heroes in the Land of the Vikings, to explain their often
out-of-characters behaviour – to make it believable, they had to act like
warlike barbarians, in a fantasy world which was not their own, and at the same
time, it was essential that these characters would still remain the same
characters we all knew from the series – that their own personalities would
show themselves through these ‘roles’ they were forced to play – and that they
will eventually come back to their senses and their own world.
It was when the idea that they would
all be brought into a 3D-Game – which came through a chat with friends,
although I don’t remember it what circumstances it came up exactly – that finally overcome the last problem of
putting the characters into the needed settings.
As for the rest… the Mysterons have
powers no-one of us can hope to comprehend…
The
‘Network’ and ‘Dream Spinner’ ideas are my own, and first made their appearance
in the story Spectrum is White, some events of which are referred in
the last chapter of this story. It’s
also in Spectrum is White that it is revealed to the readers
that Doctor Fawn has known for a long time that Captain Scarlet and Rhapsody
Angel are a couple – a ‘secret’ that Colonel White also knows, but has taken
very good care not to reveal so far.
This story is therefore set after the events in Spectrum
is White and those in A Symphony in Blue,
in which Captain Blue and Symphony Angel are officially engaged. The Network will make a reappearance in
future stories.
The relationship between Captain
Blue and Symphony is, of course, canon, being hinted at in some episodes, while
the relationship between Captain Scarlet and Rhapsody Angel is semi-canon,
inspired by hints in stories from Century 21 books (Captain Scarlet and the
Mysterons, by John Teydon, and the graphic novel, The Angels. Mary J. Rudy developed the relationship in many of her stories, and other fan fiction
authors – including myself – followed.
The stormy relationship between Captain Ochre and Melody Angel is not
canon, and had been suggested before in my short story Master of the Night. The relationship
appears to take a further step in this story.
But who knows? With Ochre and
Melody, there is really nothing that definite…
Time will tell.
The story of Captain Scarlet’s
past relationship with another woman – which ended badly… is still in the
work. It will be for another time,
promised!
My thanks to Marion Woods, who acted
as ‘test reader’ throughout the writing of
this story, and whose comments have been useful, and to my beta-reader, Hazel Köhler, without whom this story will only be a
jumble of words without sense. You
performed an invaluable task, Hazel, and I will be eternally grateful.
Also thanks to Gerry Anderson and
Sylvia Anderson, and all those who worked with them, for the creation of the
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons series.
Finally, thanks to you, the readers,
for reading this – with or without the author’s notes!
CHAPTER 1 – CHAPTER 2 – CHAPTER 3 – CHAPTER 4 – CHAPTER 5 – CHAPTER 6 -
MULTIVERSE CHALLENGE PAGE
“FAN FICTION ARCHIVES” PAGE
“Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” ©, is the creation of Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, and the rights of the classic series, once owned by
Century 21, ITC/Polygram and now by Carlton International.