A Unified World

[Clya Brown]

I thought I'd try to restart a discussion we were having just before the Mysterons struck the original forum, on the subject of just how credible a unified world actually is, and the form that such a world might take. The existence of a World Government was obviously always at the back of GA's mind, at least between Stingray and Captain Scarlet, and the concept was used explicitly in TV21 throughout those years to create a common thread between the Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Scarlet strips. There was a rogue state - Bereznik - which refused to join the World Government umbrella, and which provided the necessary opponent in a number of the adventures of the various organisations, though the subject of how such a state might manage to survive as a virtual global pariah was never really tackled. The same way that Iraq did in the last decade of the 20th century, I imagine - by just making do.

The form that such a World Government might have taken by Scarlet's time was pretty well defined. It would probably have arisen from the ashes of a devastating war, in much the same way that the UN was heralded as a purveyor of global peace in the aftermath of WWII. It would probably have to come into being as a result of intense diplomatic activity on the part of every country around the globe, unless it was foisted on them by an immensely powerful planetary-wide dictatorship which was subsequently overthrown. I've pasted in a few thoughts from the archives on the subject below, which were originally included in a discussion in the original forum:

<<The formation of the EU is probably a good analogy of the way a World Government might come into being. If so we can look forward to endless squabbles over butter mountains, wine lakes and cod quotas; Bereznian refugee centres at the European end of the transatlantic rail tunnel; investigations into MWP expense accounts; American lobbying for the CIA to be regarded as an autonomous intelligence-gathering organisation outside the Spectrum umbrella and directives from Futura to the fast-food industry to the effect that hamburgers can no longer be called hamburgers because they don’t come from Hamburg.

Ironically, it seems to me that some of the most obvious anomalies in a World Government would be the very organisations that Gerry Anderson created. Without a credible established security threat from the sea, the World Aquanaut Security Patrol would never have been voted into existence by a budget-sensitive World Congress. Titan would have had to show himself to be a menace to the Terranians to justify it: we wouldn’t be interested in stopping him from kicking other races like the natives of Pacifica (Marina's folks) around. The World Navy ditto: navies get built to transport troops around the world, so unless there’s somewhere you want to send troops to, you don’t need a navy. It would fall victim to defence cuts in the same way that the armed services were left trying to find a role for themselves in the aftermath of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

International Rescue might actually make sense, precisely because of the sort of budgetary cutbacks you’d expect to see from a world at peace: when you do get a serious disaster, the authorities would be too ill-equipped to handle it. Whether one philanthropic multi-millionaire and his five sons could successfully step into the gap is questionable, however. I think we've got to leave the World Space Patrol out of the equation on account of many inconsistencies with the Anderson universe of Stingray, Thunderbirds and Scarlet, but the Zero-X missions can be considered – and again I suspect they’d have fallen victim to budget cuts unless there were convincing economic reasons for initiating them.

Actually, the Mysterons probably constitute the best single reason for the creation of a World Government imaginable. There’s nothing like a demonstrably committed common enemy – particularly one that’s poorly understood - to induce a well-funded high-profile comprehensive military and intelligence-gathering response, and the Mysterons fit that bill perfectly.>>

On that last point, I'm wondering if the existence of an external threat like the Mysterons constitutes a prerequisite for the creation of a World Government. Humans tend to band together in groups primarily for self-protection and to advance their common interests; if someone reckons they can do better for themselves outside that structure, they oppose it from within or they leave. Bereznik couldn't really be seen as a threat to the World Government - merely an inconvenient blot on the landscape. So... without the Mysterons to act as a catalyst, could there ever be world peace? I doubt it. It would collapse in a morass of bureaucracy, officialdom and corruption, and fall foul of increasingly powerful pressure groups who could see more gain for themselves to be made by attacking it than defending it. Could democracy survive in such an institution? Again, I rather doubt it - because nobody would bother to vote. The idea of conflict is built into the concept of democracy - but it's done in such a way that the overall power structure survives intact. Real talent for leadership emerges when there's a genuine conflict to be won - and without such a conflict to harness the fears of the voting public, what incentive would there be for electing a genuinely talented ruling elite?

How's that for a depressing view of the future?

[Carrie]

Depressing..but probably entirely realistic Doc. Gerry's vision of the future is a wonderful idea and I'm sure we all wish it would come about..but goodness..we have about 64 years to reach this state of Nirvana in real time..Can't really see it happening myself.

But your post does raise so many interesting questions. (I love the reference to EU quotas BTW)
Sad but true...it's human nature for people to split into camps..no matter what the situation..(probably harks back to when we lived in caves). It was presumably a catastrophe that precipitated a coming together of the world's nations into a global government.., but I'm sure it would only be a matter of time before entropy and self-interest would undoubtably start to erode the fine ideals...

Even an outside threat such as the Mysterons..would no doubt, after the first frantic interest from the world's medias, become old hat for the jaded 21st century TV audience : (I can just see it: "Inside the Mysteron Complex : The Reality Show to beat ALL reality shows)
(As an aside...How much did average Joe Public know about our Martian Friends anyway??)

And the idea of a World President..is so very interesting..how many checks and balances would there have to be to make sure he didn't behave like a raving megalomaniac??

Interesting to speculate on whether Gerry has abandoned the rose-tinted specs and created a more realistic state of the World Politic for the CGI series?

[Marion]

Yes indeed, now if he had wanted to tinker with things -the framework for the whole setting would have been the place to start.
I don't see it as likely that there will be a World Government by the 2060's either - at least not one by mutual consent. Something might call itself a 'World Government' and act like one (pretty much as now) - but maybe they need these supra-military forces to make other people think of them as a World Government?
In his book - The Complete Book of Captain Scarlet - Chris Bentley explains that :
...political stability has been achieved by the formation of a World Government, based at the World Government Senate building in Unity City, Bermuda (so handy for those hurricanes - it'll give International Rescue something to do, I guess ) This body advises and supervises politcal administration on a global scale, yet still offers a large measure of autonomy to its member countries. (That would explain President Roberts & the three Presidents of Europe, then. Also confirms the WG is a bureaucratic talking shop - banana mountains and coffee quotas, anyone?) He goes on to say: the threat of war persists from a small member of hostile nations not aligned to the World Government, as well as from under-sea communities and outer space.
Chris Drake & Graeme Bassett in their Captain Scarlet book say: To the east of Europe lies Bereznik, a small but predatory state whose battalions of robot tanks present a constant menace to its neighbours. They also speak of hostile underwater races.
I don't know where the above authors got their idea from - but I'm sure they have done more research than me, and their ideas must be based on something.
BTW - Drake and Bisset say that Unity City - which 'spans the coral reefs of bermuda' (another ecological disaster!) 'is a fusion powered zone of such complexity that it is dubbed 'Futura City' by the locals. ' (so that explains that anomaly too! )

I seem to be having trouble with my italics - apologies!
Whatever political organisation creates Spectrum - and for whatever reason - given their draconian remit they could well have become like the KGB in the hands of a less-scrupluous Pesident - we ought to be grateful they were up and ready before the Mysterons turned nasty. Lucky that, wasn't it?

[chrisbishop]

The reason behind the creation of Spectrum... Well, I don't know where the idea comes from originally, but wasn't it said in one of the books that Spectrum would have been created mainly as an international anti-terrorist organisation? Which would be logical, comes to think of it, especially in view of what is going on presently. I don't think it was an idea that popped up MAINLY in the written fan fiction - I'm sure it had been said somewhere else...

Obviously, the organisation's main purpose wasn't originally to fight Mysterons - considering that no-one had any idea of the Mysteron's existence to begin with when the Zero-X mission was launched and the first men landed on Mars. There ALREADY were a Spectrum officer amongst them at the time (why was he there to begin with, to provide security?) Fighting Mysterons became the main battle for Spectrum AFTERWARD.

It seems more than probable that a few angry parties around the world would not be pleased with living in a unified world - even taken Bereznik apart, mind you. There's bound to be some kind of conflicts and actions taken by those parties. Actions that would have called for the World Government to create a force to counter them. An international group seems the most likely respond to that menace, as responding only to the World Government, it would be less likely to cause political uprising.

[Marion]

Both of my source books agree that Spectrum was formed to circumvent the 'diplomatic and legal red-tape' that hampered the other World Security Organisations. It has 'intelligence gathering and full police powers on Earth and in space' and it is answerable only to the World President.
Therefore, it is the World President's private security force. That is fine, so long as the World President is a good-guy....
Now we know Spectrum agents are noble, brave and incorruptable. My comment was really only meant to point out that - in the wrong hands - Spectrum could become a tool of oppression, whatever laudable reasons lay behind it's formation.
After all one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. (And - No - I do not condone terrorism of any kind, anywhere, for whatever reason - it is merely an observation as to the nature of humankind.)
Given the current low esteem for many of the World Leaders we have at present - of every persuasion, everywhere - I just hope that by 2068 - the guys at the top are worthy of controlling such a powerful organisation.
After all - we are never told what checks and balances there are in the World Government to limit the power of the executive branch....

[Matt Crowther]

The future does seem brighter in Anderson's world, I would say like Star Trek but there's a Third World War in the 2050's.
However, I hate to be awkward but I'm not keen on a United States of Europe or whatever it will be called. Maybe one day we'll all be unifed but retain some recognition.
Also, I also hate again to be perhaps stupid by saying, wouldn't the increased situation of global warming affect this future of Gerry Anderson's?

[Marion]

The ecological effects of global warming, exhausted fossil fuel supplies, water shortages and so forth - might be the one thing that does result in a World Government - if only as an organisation with authority to arbitrate over who gets what share of every resource....
That way, the individual countries - or power blocks like Europe and Asia - would still have their own legislatures and bureaucracies to adminster the quotas and monitor the effects etc etc.
Obviously when Gerry Anderson was creating his vision of the future in the 1960's these concerns were not so apparant - at least not to the the man in the street. And let's not forget - he was making a children's show, so he wasn't really expecting to have people pick over his broad brush strokes treating every word like Gospel truth and weighing it against the concerns and sensibilities of almost 40 years later.

[Carrie]

Of course he wasn't Marion!
But that is perhaps one of the enduring elements of the series, that it contained such marvelous concepts for us to mull over and discuss in such philosophical detail so many years hence!
Sometimes, I believe that Gerry and Gene Roddenberry were two of a kind...I wonder if the two of them ever got together for a chat???

[Captain Indigo]

I always thought it interesting that they both included a third World War in the early 21st century before unifying Earth...

[Carrie]

Let's just hope that it isn't a REAL premonition!!!!

[Clya Brown]

Might as well face it - we've been fighting wars ever since we came out of the trees - and we were probably fighting them in the treetops before that. I can't see it stopping now - and a world war is only a little war but bigger. It seems highly likely to me that as fossil fuels begin to run out, the superpowers will find themselves increasingly in conflict for what remains - simply because whoever owns the last few barrels of oil could end up running the planet. By that time we'll need to have found an alternative plentiful source of energy - because if we haven't, we'll be beating our missiles into ploughshares... which we'll need to hitch up to horses to replace all the tractors. It seems to me that if there's a future for the planet it's got to lie in space exploration, whether we like spending billions on it or not. Mars, here we come... but perhaps we ought to find out a bit more about any mysterious radio signals before we set out this time!

[Marion]

Shopping on e-bay the other day - one of my little hobbies - I saw for sale a copy of 'Gerry Anderson's Project SWORD annual 1968'. The sales blurb said - featuring futuristic stories centering around the need to find new worlds for colonisation. (SWORD - Space World Organisation for Research and Development).
I know Colonel White mentions Project Sword in the TV episode Shadow of Evil - the one where Scarlet and Blue visit a Himalayan observatory - which then gets blown up. ( Congratulations on another successful misision, Gentlemen.... )
I wonder if Gerry Anderson had given some thought to the need to colonise other worlds, after all?

BTW - how did they get that SPV up the observatory? After all it appeared to be built on a sheer cliff face. I know SPVs are versatile and sturdy machines - but come on, there is a limit....

[Clya Brown]

Yes... An interesting question, that, bearing in mind that there's precisely one planet (Mars) that's potentially colonizable within four light years of us - and even that's only a maybe. I imagine SWORD would have to be actively involved in wormhole research - 'cos that's the only way we're going to find any more, unless we start demolishing the solar system to build some new ones close to the Earth's orbit. Either that or find a way to give Venus something approximating to a breathable atmosphere. I think the viewers became a lot more sophisticated after Fireball XL5, in which the universe is littered with strange planets all within a stone's throw of Earth, though UFO represented a bit of a throwback on that score, and as to Space 1999, well, just thinking about that series makes me feel quite ill.

Of course, we were never actually told why the World Government thought it necessary to send a Zero-X mission all the way to Mars just to investigate some anomolous radio signals. In fact, why have a Zero-X space programme in operation at all? Isn't it obvious that the Zero-X missions were really the first tentative steps towards launching a full-scale colonization of Mars? You know, I suspect that the World Government knew about the Mysterons already. I also suspect that Captain Black's real mission was to verify their existence, and if confirmed to wipe them out - an action for which he alone was ordered to shoulder the full responsibility, and which would then be recorded in the history books as a tragic mistake. A true patroit, charged with the terrible responsibility of ensuring the future of the human race by annihilating the only perceived obstacle to its survival. Except that the plan went wrong...

(It's been done before, by the way - check out Robert Silverberg's "Invaders from Earth" at http://www.foxacre.com/bookpage/invaders.htm)

[chrisbishop]

Doc, I think you've made a terrible mistake: Mars is at promimately 35 million miles from Earth. At a little more than 4 light years from us, you will find Proxima Centuri, the closest star to the sun... If the distance from Earth to Mars was counted in term of light years, I doubht Beagle - or any other man-made craft would have reached it by now...

[Clya Brown]

We're talking at crossed purposes, Chris: I meant that with the exception of the planets in our own solar system, there's nothing between us and Proxima Centuri - which is four light-years away. So if we want to find anywhere else capable of supporting life, Proxima Centuri is the next stop! And that's a long, long way to go...