Grey Skulls

[Serena Lewis]

This episode is AMAZING!!! I still adore it as much, if not more, than I did when I first saw it.

Pros (And boy, are there a lot...)

1. Colt. Wow. Wow, wow. I like him. I can see why Ochre started to fall for him. The hints of a potential relationship were so good! I can see him appealing to her rebel side, which is fantastic. I've picked up on that a lot in my stories. Elaine's no saint (Not that she's broken the law, she wouldn't be allowed in Spectrum, but you know what I mean...). Did anyone else notice that she kept smiling to herself when Colt was near? She does it twice in the war bunker.
2. Biker guys. 'How you doing, Baby?' They certainly looked rough enough as well, and one had underarm hair!
3. Ending. Aww...now, the big question I ask myself...Should they have kissed or not?
I love the little hints scattered throughout the episode, and love this ending. But I can just imagine them sharing a kiss...plus, I could pause the shot, and try to draw it! Then, I could put any characters in it...the possibilities are endless...
4. OCHRE!! Come on, how can anyone not love her? I've decided that...so, so sorry, Lieutenant Green...Ochre is probably my fave character. There's just so much...spice about her.
5. Argument between Blue and Ochre. Bit of character development. They do seem to annoy each other. They're mates, but annoy each other.
6. Fight. Go Ochre!! The power behind those kicks...

Cons (What Cons?? This episodes flawless!! Well, if you insist…)

1. Colonel was very OTT at Ochre. Almost all the things he had a go at her for weren't her fault anyway...poor Elaine...

Bloopers

1. At the end, when Ochre is in the Rhino and Colt is on the Raid Bike, some long shots show Ochre on the Raid Bike. You can even see the helmet.
2. When Ochre is walking over to Blue and Scarlet, you can see White's chair, and he's disappeared.

Little Things

1. Colt must have excellent eye sight.
'He's there!'
Erm...where? Oh, right...in the place the rest of us with mortal eyes can only see when it's zoomed in...
2. There is very subtle 'advertising' in this. There is a guy in Stellar City hanging around the ferris wheel, and he has the New Captain Scarlet logo printed on the back of his shirt.
3. 'I like you in that colour. Let's keep it that way.'
Erm, okay. Does anyone understand what he actually means?
4. Technician Monkey Man is running Stellar City Security! Yes! He won't let a little thing like death stop him from getting wages!!
5. 'I just feel I let you boys down last night.'
Hahaha...sorry...
6. Those freaky little boys that are in the line Brock's in for the ride. They're identical and even move exactly the same.
7. The ferris wheel ride is called Supernova. The sign by it is backwards, but you can read it.

Rating: 5000 recurring/10

xx

[Serena Lewis]

How...perculiar. No replies. Not that I'm nagging anyone, I just thought this episode was liked by a lot of people...

xx

[Skybase Girl]

Yes, I know. Being somewhat tardy, I only got a chance to watch this again last night.

I liked it the first time, but I think my response then, was to feel disappointed because it so clearly should have been shown before "Dominion". Because it wasn't, there was a feeling of anti-climax about it. That is unfair, because it's very well done on all levels, and Slo-Mo Ochre was quite spectacular !

This was her episode and indicates, I think, that if there had been a third series, maybe all the characters could have had their own little showpiece episodes. That would have made the whole thing more three-dimensional, especially since the working relationship in this one, between Scarlet, Ochre and Blue was so well portrayed.

I'm not as keen on Colt as you, Serena - Ochre's "bit of rough" was maybe a tad too rough for me ! Still, he seemed to have a heart of gold underneath the leather and chains. Some things were a bit far-fetched, especially the bit where she catches the spores canister at the end. Any normal person would have dislocated a few bones at least ! This is an episode where Ochre seems to hit the ground rather a lot, all apparently without any ill-effect. All those trips to the gym must be doing her good !

For the record - I thought the ending was perfect, just that brief acknowledgement of attraction. Anything more would have been too much. I'll definitely watch this again, it is one of the best.

[Serena Lewis]

I love slo-mo Ochre! One of the top bits in the entire series!
The spores canister bit was far-fetched, but it sure looked good! I take the point about Ochre 'hitting the floor' a lot. She does seem to leap around in front of explosions etc. all the time this episode.
I actually wrote a small 'sketch', involving Ochre, Magenta and Silver in the gym (That sounds...so wrong...), and in that I had Ochre as an extremely energetic person (I'm making this sound worse, aren't I?), who worked out quite a lot, preferably when Magenta wasn't lurking around. It was stupid, but a spur of the moment thing...
I'll see if I can find it...

[Father Unwin]

I am afraid that I will always have a jaundiced view of this episode because the script replaced the story that I was most looking forward to, namely ‘House Of Dolls’.

Nevertheless, I have the feeling that the Team wanted to use this episode as a sort of showcase for their talents, possibly with a view to getting new commissions. It contains quite a few new and exciting features so it is a shame that the story line is relatively unoriginal.

A great deal of work must have gone into the creation of Colt. The textures of his face and clothes are perfect to the last detail and this, when combined with great mocap and voice artist work, make him superior to any other character in the series.

I don’t particularly like or dislike him but the contrast between him and Captain Ochre, for example, makes Elaine look like a cartoon character. My wife is Irish so I do like Ochre all the same.

Another interesting advance was the inclusion of quite large numbers of people, especially at the Stellar City theme park. I am sure that I spotted Brock on one of the CCTV cameras before Colt identified him. Also, when the camera zoomed in on Brock, who were those 2 crazy looking red-headed boys - Joe 90 twins or something?

No doubt I am just a killjoy but the way that Captain Ochre picked a fight with the 2 riders in the café by insulting them was not in keeping with the normal codes of conduct associated with a ‘goodie’ in a Gerry Anderson series. I might have expected it from Black but not from Ochre.

I felt that this, and also the slow motion scene, were just two of several subterfuges used to distract the viewer away from the fact that the underlying story was weak. Another was when Ochre was following the bikers and used a scanner to see their outline through the clouds of dust. I guess it may have been a nod to the opening title sequences in the Clint Eastwood film, ‘A Fistful of Dollars’.

Of course, I really enjoyed the van ride through the crowds of milling people and the work done on the theme park ride, itself, was terrific. I suppose that Elaine did get the Raid Bike back but at the expense of a Cheetah and a Rhino. I wondered why Colt destroyed the Cheetah in the first place – I much prefer the Cheetah.

[shadokp]

The Story - Certainly this is the episode that demonstrates the variety the series would have had if it had continued. This ambitious project had a little bit of everything including more emphasis on a secondary character and an epic finale with thousands of people around. The story has a little less action and more character work than usual and this is great. The ongoing discussion about whether the series would have benefitted with longer stories is supported here with a 24 minute piece that barely fit in enough to get by. An extra 20 minutes or so would have provided some more action and just a bit more interaction among characters. Still, this story is one of my favorites.

The Animation - All around excellent stuff with plenty of moody lighting and so on. More emphasis on characters and reactions was a highlight.

Other - I would have loved to see more of the Grey Skull storyline in future seasons of NCS with perhaps a reveal that the Grey aliens do indeed exist and have some connection with the Mysterons (Their enemy perhaps). The only thing I didn't like was the destruction of the Rhino - would it have been more definitive to at least leave the door open to make sure the Rhino's armor wouldn't have protected the bomb inside?

On screen deaths - We have the police officer and the other biker whose name eludes me..

KP

[Serena Lewis]

His names Brock, just so you know!

xx

[James. C]

It's Brock sir, Edward Brock Junior

[Gun-wielding Lombax]

Captain Ochre is my favourite NCS character. I just love her audacity in quite unecessarily picking a fight in a bar..presumably to let of some steam after being chewed out by Colonel White. Naturally I really like this episode, even if the virus/spores plot device was getting a bit repetitive at this point. I didn't quite get what the "Grey" head had to do with anything though. Colt didn't seem to know about The Mysterons, but did seem to think he was fighting some sort of alien menace anyway. But why? Apart from the head which Ochre dismisses as fake, had he actually seen one of these aliens? And just how did he think that his activities were protecting the earth?

I wonder if Grey and Magenta would have also gotten their own episodes had the series continued

[MMK]

3. 'I like you in that colour. Let's keep it that way.'
Erm, okay. Does anyone understand what he actually means?

It's like in 'Fallen Angels', where that woman... forgive me for not remembering her name... makes a comment to the Angels that she likes the colour of sand and that she's not a 'pink' person. (something tells me that she wouldn't get on with Magenta at first glance , poor Magenta )
It just means that Brock doesn't want to ruin her uniform by shooting her... (a kind man as the leader of a bike gang?! ... I suppose comparisons could be drawn between him and OCS Magenta...)
Does this help, Serena?


Edit:

I actually wrote a small 'sketch', involving Ochre, Magenta and Silver in the gym (That sounds...so wrong...), and in that I had Ochre as an extremely energetic person (I'm making this sound worse, aren't I?), who worked out quite a lot, preferably when Magenta wasn't lurking around. It was stupid, but a spur of the moment thing...
I'll see if I can find it...

You've just reminded me of one of the other discussions...
http://spectrum-headquarters.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=981&start=45