Captain Black's dilemma

[Clya Brown]

TV21 announced on the front page of their Universe Edition 137, published on Wednesday 2nd September 2067 to a stunned world that Captain Black's expedition to Mars had been lost, with the following words:

CAPT. BLACK'S MARS EXPEDITION LOST!

Glenn Field today sadly reported the loss of their expedition to Mars led by Captain Black. The expedition set out for the Rock Snake Hills of Mars in June this year. Their purpose was to investigate strange radio signals received from that area overthe past year. It seems that whatever was causing the signals has accounted for the expedition.

SECRET ORGANISATION?

What is not being explained by Glenn Field is what organisation Captain Black belongs to. The only information the public has been given is that dug out by newspapers. Why is this new organisation so secret? What threat to the World is so deadly that the public can not be informed?

MYSTERY MARKINGS

The strange badge shown on Captain Black's hat. The markiongs on the aircraft which attacked a target plane over Cornwall, England, the markings on the new air station spotted over Nice, France, are all identical. Something big is afoot. Something with World Government backing. Something with power enough to order World Air Force into the air as a defensive screen. We want to know what that something is - speak loud, Unity City, the world is listening.

The above suggests roughly a three-month trip to Mars, which I seem to remember fits in with the timescale referred to in "Thunderbirds Are Go!". Interestingly, TV21, displaying all the casual disregard for accuracy normally associated with the more down-market tabloids, put a photograph of Captain Grey - NOT Captain Black - alongside a stock-shot of an MEV on the front cover. Now obviously they must have got that photograph from somewhere, implying some form of collusion with Spectrum for the leaking of information to the general public even at that time. Getting back to the point however, the fact that the expedition was considered lost indicates that all contact with the MEV had been severed for reason or reasons unknown. Presumably therefore the expedition returned to Earth while maintaining a complete radio silence. Probably the first the Earth knew of the threat would have come from discovering the video recording of the attack and the Mysterons' response to it in the MEV's cameras upon its return.

Captain Black himself disappeared from Glenn Field in the confusion following an aerial collision between the returning Zero-X and a light aircraft belonging to TV21's own reporters, which was catalogued in the "Front Page" strip in Universe Edition 140 on September 23rd 2067. From the events recorded in that strip, it is clear that at that time Colonel White still had no idea what had happened to Black - but no mention is made of the remaining crew members.

Assuming the other two had been killed on Mars (or perhaps taken captive by the Mysterons?), this raises the question of what happened to the fourth member of the crew, who would have remained aboard the mother ship in orbit. I'd guess that Black killed him after the MEV rejoined the ship in orbit, and piloted the ship back to Earth on his own with a little help from his new masters - after all, as Chris has pointed out above, it would have been a rather frosty trip back for them all otherwise. After all, there's a limit to the number of times you can tell somebody that he's looking a bit off-colour and that he really ought to go and have a lie down!

[mb2000]

Thats quite a good article, but I don't like the idea Spectrum beign totally secret, especially when they usually make no effort to hide themselves or equipment (red saloon cars, driving through streets, vehicles with the Specttum logo everywhere).

I also don't buy the story that the Zero-X crashed into a TV21 plane on its descent and still managed to land, especially when we have seen that a boot or a small electrical fault can cripple a Zero-X.

There is one part of it though I hadn't considered - the fouth crewmember. It seems so obvious now thinking back to Thunderbirds Are Go.

[gojohnniegogo]

My Turn, but where to start? Firstly, I'm with agreement that Black is infact the original, contradictory to other suggestions. This is because in one comic I saw a small portion of (though I havent the faintest idea where) I think there's a face-off between Black & Scarlet, Scarlet shoots Black who retorts "fool" then something about having the same powers of retromotabolism. As for the references to him being dead, could be reffered to as "Dead as we knew him" . Black and the dissapearance from the MEV still a humdinger along with the three crewmen. Sureley Spectrum would be throwing a huge "welcome home party" so there'd be several people there to meet the returning Zero - X craft. As for Black, and protecting him, my theory on this is the worry of him being captured, not supposedly attacked and killed.

[shaqui]

The launch of the Zero X mission to Mars was actually reported in issue 125 of 'TV21', twelve weeks prior to its 'disappearance'. There is nothing to suggest that the flight time to and from Mars was other than the usual six weeks (which is maintained through a lot of 'TV21' stories), except that it seemed that the mission returned within about three - in issue 140, in the strip 'Front Page'.

The MEV could have been on Mars for a few weeks before finding the Mysterons.

While most fans don't give credence to the 'TV21' events in 'Front Page', they do when it comes to the biographies - which were written by pretty much one and the same team!

Spectrum was always conceived, if 'TV21' is believed, as a secret organisation (yeh I know that wearing colourful uniforms hardly ties in with this!), and it was the crash of the Zero X at Glenn Field that was the turning point to the organisation having a more public stance. It was argued that if Spectrum had been more open about events leading up to it, the TV21 plane might not have crashed into the Zero X, and Black apprehended...

Captain Scarlet - TV21, Part One

[Maltray]

ah, yes...I've wondered about this before...so here's the quick cut and paste asking the question again:

****

I’ve also wondered exactly WHEN the War of Nerves was actually ‘engaged’. How long did it take for the MEV to return to Earth? Did the Mysterons pick it up and drop it back into Earth orbit by whatever mysterious means of teleporting things they have, or did they allow the MEV to make its own way back (which would likely be several months, space travel time) giving Black/the crew time to report the error of their ways and for the Earth to prepare for the consequences? No real time lapse is actually shown in the series (and wasn’t necessary, storyline-wise) but there must have been some sort of a ‘delay’ before the Mysterons actually announced their very first threat and carried it out.

****

And a Big Thanks to Marion for finding out that the crew of the MEV (I presume, with Captain Black) were returned to Glenn Field! I knew I hadn't imagined that bit! As to poor Conrad looking pale - I'd be pretty surprised if he hadn't! The rest of the crew might have realized he wasn't quite himself, but I'd be pale too if I'd thought I'd just started an interplanetary war. and it's not like they'd seen him die, and of course, had no real idea what the Mysterons were capable of, either. The point here being that Conrad does manage to move and function among human beings here on Earth, so I don't think it would have been too hard for the Mysterons to have kept his crew guessing as to Conrad's own 'state of occupation' for the return trip to Earth - however long that took. Perhaps the Mysterons even learned something about how to 'operate' their new agent during the return trip.

I would also have to presume that the news reached Earth well ahead of the MEV, especially if the crew were alive and able to do so - and therefore the planet/Spectrum and whomever else, would have had some (at that point) undetermined amount of time to make appropriate preparations for defence.

Would love to have some thoughts back on the timeline question.....

Doc Denim

Isn't it possible that the MEV returned to Glen Feild Spaceport with only Captain Black aboard. It was show in 'Winged Assasin" that the airliner DT19 was able to conact airtraffic control and talk to them with no one aboard!

I've always thought Black did return to Glen Field and then vanished. Colonel White reports that there was visual evidence withing the MEV and it's recorders.

[shaqui]

On another point - yes, I suspect a crew of THREE men wasn't enough to man the Zero X Mission - to Mars and back from it

The film 'Thunderbirds Are Go!' and the subsequent 'Zero X' strips made it quite clear that the crew of this class of ship was usually three, with specialists like Doctors Ray Pierce and Tony Grant as passengers.

[DartBrat701]

Love your new avatar, Shaqui!!

Real cool!

[Matt Crowther]

This whole Black thing was something I tried to tackle or at least address when writing my fan fic "Black as Night" (and as it IS on the site this is not shameless promoting).

I felt that perhaps Black was simply taken over thus allowing him to be brought back. No doubt I will re-write "Black as Night" when I have the time and well, patience.

[Mary]

Spectrum was always conceived, if 'TV21' is believed, as a secret organisation (yeh I know that wearing colourful uniforms hardly ties in with this!)

Just noticed this sentence while reading the rest of this thread to refresh my memory due to the long time between posts. I had actually tried to explain this in a story I'd written some time ago but not completed. In it I said that Spectrum's operations won't be completely covert. It's hoped that the high-profile security Spectrum will provide will discourage terrorism merely by its presence.

Naturally there will BE many secret aspects of Spectrum operations, but I thought it was a good way to explain the officers' uniforms.

[Matt Crowther]

Indeed. I once read in a childrens novelisation of The Mysterons that came out in 1993 or 1994 that Spectrum had been created as a crime-fighting organisation.

Maybe it was just a novelisation and meaningless. Although, this is now probably a message for another thread.

[MMK]

I think he's just mind controlled as we haven't seen (on-screen) any sign of a retrometabolism... I think... so he must be just a mind controlled replicant.

Plus i just remember him heal himself in Syrtis Major... but then i remember it was the gas affecting Destiny's mind.

[Matt Crowther]

Is Syrtis Major a New Scarlet thing? I was thinking more of old Black rather than 'new' one

[chrisbishop]

Syrtis Major is indeed a New Captain Scarlet episode. And yes, this board has been created more for discussion on original Scarlet. But comparaison is allowed, of course - which makes it interesting.

Aside from the New Black's witty sarcarsm, I think both characters are actually very similar. But in regard of the retrometabolism, it would seem to me that the hints provided by the new series might indicate that New Black indeed was mysteronised, and that he might be capable of retrometabolism (Mercury Falling comes to mind - he did fall a rather high distance, no?). And - he was dead, and buried at the start of episode 1. But I might be mistaken. It might all be a trick from the Mysterons after all.

In original Scarlet, there isn't much information given as to original Black's fate. We never see him being killed; we don't see him receive any injury from which he could heal 'easily' (Still talking about the TV series here. It might be different in other medias - like the comics). As a matter of fact, when it seems it could be dangerous for him to either be captured or killed, the Mysterons will teleport him away. And he doesn't look like the other agents - the replicants. So, it might be possible to consider that the way the Mysterons use to control him - could also be different from the other
Mysterons' agents.

[captain purple]

I personally believe that the whole MSV was destroyed and replicated, with Black aboard.

[Marion]

I recently had cause to peruse my 1968 CS annual - and I know many people dispute the annuals being 'canon' -however it does say this about Captain Black:

...After he and the M.E.V. crew had witnessed the rematerialisation of the destroyed (Mysteron) city, the Mysterons killed Captain Black, Spectrum agent, and took control of his body.
The Mysterons had employed their first agent - Earth's top security man!
The Zero X expedition returned to Earth to report the threat of the Mysterons. At Glenn Field Spaceport, where the gigantic craft landed, Black vanished.
...Certain facts about him have been assessed. It is known that he receives his orders from Mars, and that he executes them with the precision, skill and swiftness he developed in Earth's service. He is elusive....
He does not need food or sleep and he is not susceptible to the elements - therefore he can move around to any place any time, so long as it suits the purpose of his masters.

That suggests that
Black is a standard Mysteron agent - retrometabolised after death.
The other men on the mission might not have been killed - and they transported the - possibly comatose? - body of Black to Earth.

I think it is rather a shame - as I prefer the idea of a human under mind control. Someone with an inkling of the horrors he's committed. Not that I am some sort of sadist - at least I hope not - but from the point of view of there being more to work with in any fiction. A cold, ruthless agent, with no emotion or pity, isn't very interesting. That's why they changed their mind about making Scarlet a cyborg, after all.