Mysterons - Good or Evil?

[Parker Gabriel]

In Mysteron Reversal Of Matter, I made it evident that I am convinced the Mysterons are NOT evil or malicious. What they are, instead, reads in the installments as though everything in them seems to add up to a dying race. That leads to fear on their part, and it in turn triggers the survival instinct that is present in all living things. If your people are fighting for their very survival and one of those you're fighting against, Captain Black in this instance, is to blame for having left you in such an untenable situation because he acted in violation of orders in the first place, you tend to have no ears to listen to reason.

Captain Black had been ordered to make peaceful contact with whoever had originated those signals--and to take NO hostile action against them. Instead, he ordered the complex bombed to Kingdom Come--and motivated the Mysterons to employ, for what all accounts is the first time any Earthman ever witnessed--their knowledge of the secret of reversing matter.

It's an entropic process, and I speculated that it's slowly, but effectively, destroying the Mysterons.

That means they're not evil; they're dying. Their vindictiveness is motivated by wishing to have Earthmen share their fate even as they themselves become extinct.

[Skybase Girl]

I'm not sure whether it's NCS or OCS you're referring to here, Parker, but certainly, in NCS, there is no suggestion that Black or Scarlet, for that matter, were ordered to make "peaceful contact" with the origin of the signals. They were on a look-see mission, that was all, without any idea of what they would find.

[Parker Gabriel]

The version I referred to was the original--namely, the premiere installment, which I've always called "One Man Fate Has Made Indestructible." In that installment, Captain Black had recruited Lieutenant Dean (Lieutenant Crimson) and "Ensign?" "Conway?" (Lieutenant Ultramarine) as members of the Zero-X Mission crew.

'Nuff said.

[Marion]

The version I referred to was the original--namely, the premiere installment, which I've always called "One Man Fate Has Made Indestructible." In that installment, Captain Black had recruited Lieutenant Dean (Lieutenant Crimson) and "Ensign?" "Conway?" (Lieutenant Ultramarine) as members of the Zero-X Mission crew.

'Nuff said.

Not really enough said, because you have extrapolated a great deal from what little we are actually told. Black and Lt. Dean - neither of the other crewmen are in Spectrum uniform, so whatever the colour of their overalls, they are not shown to be a Spectrum agents , whereas Black is in uniform - merely say that they're looking for the source of signals 'monitored by Spectrum'. They do not say what they're to do if they find it.
When they reach the cliff overlooking the Mysteron City, Black says: We've been spotted. They're getting ready to attack.
Dean: They're obviously hostile
Black: Okay, Lieutenant, let them have it.
They have not had the same benefit as the TV viewer in hearing the Mysterons talking amongst themselves and saying they want to welcome the Earthmen.
We know that the Mysterons then vow a revenge that will mean 'the ultimate destruction of life on Earth' and 'take control' of Captain Black.
I believe that either in a subsequent episode or, more likely, in a comic strip, we learn that the other crew members are dead on the ship's return to Earth.
Presumably, Spectrum must've wished they had made peaceful contact, given the result of their actions, but nowhere in the opening episode is it expressed that they were expecting to find aliens and hoping to make peaceful contact with them - in fact, I'd go so far as to say the fact that they discovered a city came as a complete surprise to the crew of the MEV.

[Parker Gabriel]

Maybe I did extrapolate too much.