Mistakes, Inconsistensies, and stuff

[Captain Yellow]

Hi. Someone else may already have done this in the past, but I saw something similar on another Captain Scarlet fan site (The Mysteron Complex, to be exact), and I thought I might start a thread.

Here's one I found:

In the episode "Point 783", the first Mysteron officer (forgot his name!) attempts to kill the Supreme Commander Earth Force. As you may recall, the Mysteron blows up in the same way Captain Brown did. Captain Scarlet brought the shield down just in time, and the Commander's life was saved.

Later on, the Supreme Commander asks Captain Bluee "How did Scarlet know?" But who wouldn't notice if someone started to emit smoke from his body?

[Gun-wielding Lombax]

In the same sequence, Captain Blue is shielded BEFORE the Supreme Commander. Which he obviously shouldn't be.

Personally I think the series biggest problem (production-wise, not plot-wise) is the constant re-use of guest puppets. I can't fail to see the irony of a series that revolves around the concept of duplicate human beings (and how terrifying that supposedly is) is also expecting us not to notice that almost every single guest character is themselves a duplicate of a previous one. The Supreme Commander is a very busy man indeed: he's also apparently commander of a Lunar colony, President of the US, a shifty Spectrum agent and a Doctor. And through all that he still finds the time to hang out with Joe 90!

Not a 'mistake', per se, but still somewhat grating.

[DartBrat701]

Another problem of continuity I think, is the repeated use of "stock footage".

Case in point; Harmony & Rhapsody Angel are always seen being raised into Angels 2 & 3.....even though they're not both necessarily in that particular episode.

On the other hand, re-use of stock footage was quite commonplace in all the Supermarionation series', it does save money and it cuts down on filming time.

[James. C]

Yeh I fast forward through the Thunderbirds launch sequences, though I love the Thunderbirds Are Go launches!

[Captain Yellow]

One of the most obvious mistakes should be the shot on the moon. Do you remember when the three agents were on the moon mobile? Well, in the first shot Scarlet has the red belt and Green has the white one. In the next one, it's the opposite. And the color keeps switching.

[Shade]

In the first episode, the Mysterons threaten to kill the World President. Why then does Captain Black say "We need him alive" later?

[Shade]

Also, how can people tell a Spectrum officer's rank by thier uniform? Lt. Green's uniform looks no different - except for the colour, obviously - from, say, Captain Blue's or Scarlet's, so how would someone outside of Spectrum know his rank without being told previously?

[Winged Assassin]

When they don a jetpack they always seem to have the helmet in their own matching colour - do all SPVs contain a coloured helmet for every officer?
Winged Assassin begins with Spectrum preventing a shooting - before the Mysteron threat is made?

[Skybase Girl]

I know what you mean, Winged Assassin! It's a little twee, although I bet our present armed forces wish they were so personally well-equipped !

In the CGI series, we've all noticed litle things where they appear to be using each other's clothes, weapons, vehicles, etc. Although they are probably production bloopers, I prefer to think the characters were just using whatever they had to hand in an emergency. Makes it more realistic!

[Captain Indigo]

Also, how can people tell a Spectrum officer's rank by thier uniform? Lt. Green's uniform looks no different - except for the colour, obviously - from, say, Captain Blue's or Scarlet's, so how would someone outside of Spectrum know his rank without being told previously?

This is a security measure, similar to those employed by current-day special ops teams, so that no-one outside the organisation knows the true seniority of any one member.

[Gun-wielding Lombax]

I was about to give this a topic of it's own before I realised it fits here...

But basically, I've noticed that in OCS, as well as "Thunderbirds Are Go", the surface of Mars isn't red. Why? The very first shot of the series (barring the opening title sequence) is of Mars from orbit...and it's red. It appears as such in "Shadow of Fear", and in that same episode I think there's even dialogue describing it as "the red planet". So it's not as if the production crew didn't know Mars is red (who doesn't?). Granted in those days probes had not yet landed on Mars and sent back pictures, but even without that evidence people surely still knew the surface of Mars must look red...because how else would it look like that to the naked eye!?

Unless there was some technical or budgetary limitation that prevented Mars from looking more realistic, I'm at a loss for an explanation. It seems a pretty big blooper for a series that's all about Martians.

[James. C]

I read (no pun intended) somewhere that it was either too expensive or didn't look good on camera to make it red. Not sure where I read that though, but I remember reading it!

[tinderbox]

I read (no pun intended) somewhere that it was either too expensive or didn't look good on camera to make it red. Not sure where I read that though, but I remember reading it!

Either that or NASA has been lying to us all of these years!

[Sage]

Well there might be areas of it that aren't red. After all the earth looks blue & green from a distance but we know the deserts are yellow, cities are grey and so on.

[Intensity Angel]

Ther is one thing that bothers me,

In the episode Shadow Of Fear, Captains Scarlet and Blue have a gun fight with a Mysteron. When the Mysteron fire at them, Scarlet ducks out of the way and Blue just topples over.

Another thing I noticed was that in the first episode when Captain Scarlet and Captain Brown are driving down the road, the steering wheel was on the wrong side. In England, cars are right hand drives but the SSC is left hand drive.