Best of Enemies

[Serena Lewis]

This one is very interesting, but...I've never really liked it. The script was better than usual (No sickly lines really), and flowed well. If I judged episodes on script, plot and that sort of thing, it'd get 10/10. But, I judge on how much I enjoyed them. Seeing as this one had very little Green, Blue and Ochre in it, I just didn't really like it to much. Sorry, that’s how I work.

Pros

1. Northern Lights and snow. Wow, I really, really wanna see the Northern Lights now. Snow was well done, all that powder being flung up everywhere.
2. The old 'I'm stuck here on the floor, villain leaning over me, so I'll just throw snow/sand/gravel/peanuts into their face and blind them'. Hee hee, I just liked that.
3. 'Dammit, yes!!'

'Invalid response.'

Haha!!!
4. All the technobabble between Scarlet and Black actually made sense to me! Yes!!

Cons

1. The fight. Although it was very good animation, it just went on for about 10 mins. Snore...
2. 'Good thing these babies are airtight.'
Arrgghhh!! Scarlet, I hate when men call cars and other vehicles 'baby'!! I know I'm gonna fly off the handle at Blue in 'The Storm at the End of the World' then...
3. When Scarlet points at Blacks chest ('Somewhere...inside there...'), he reminds me of E.T. I know this isn't really a con, but I just wanted to say he looked a bit dumb...
4. 'That's not a mine, it's a fish.'
Durrr...Scarlet, Black told you it was a mine that looks like a fish. Lame-brained idiot...you know it's a mine!!

Little Things

1. No one sits in a seat like Destiny. Has she got piles or something?
2. I would have laughed if Troy Tempest and Phones showed up in Stingray during the underwater scenes.
3. 'One thing I would like to know...' where did you get that stylish leather coat, Conrad?
4. Ochre is wearing yellow eye shadow. Heehee...well, at least it's code-coloured, though it does turn pink by the end of the series...

Bloopers

1. Scarlets hat goes missing a few times during the fight, then reappears.
2. When Blue and Ochre are in the Rhino, Ochre does a weird arm movement across, which looks like she’s pulling a lever, but she’s not.

Rating: 5/10

xx

[James. C]

Seeing as this one had very little Green, Blue and Ochre in it, I just didn't really like it to much. Sorry, thats how I work.

Interesting, because hardly any episodes feature Captain Magenta, and yet I enjoy them.

[shadokp]

The Story - I remember watching this one initially and putting it as one of my favorites. I still like it but not as much. I love the whole "Throw the good and bad into a situation and see what happens idea." Series do it all the time and the predictable teamwork as they work together to get out of the situation may be overdone. This time it was fascinating to see Black come out of his Mysteron control and certainly could have led to future looks into this. We could have seen an entire new priority of Spectrum to attempt to resuce Mysteronized people.

This time around I was a bit bored with this story. Perhaps because I had seen it too many times or just wasn;t in the right mood but I felt that it was too predictable. Still, a good change from all action.

The Animation - Excellent stuff all around - I love snow scenes in this series.

Other - I didn't go back to look at it but all the instruments were upside down, as the Rhino was but when they pulled the containers of diving equipment, were the names on them upside down as well? Also, why was Lefkon's still in the Rhino?

The Ongoing Tally -
On screen Death Count - 3 Russian smugglers

KP

[Skybase Girl]

I love this episode !

Great graphics, better than usual dialogue and a couple of really thought-provoking elements. What more do you want ?

Liked the attention to detail, as in Scarlet's rapidly fading scratch on his cheek - unless that was an unintentional blooper ! Ochre's eyeshadow could have been a trick of the light, and as for Destiny's sitting position, I think it was meant to convey "edge of seat" tension. I have been known to do that, and I can assure you there has been no connection to embarrassing physical ailments !

Plot quibble, though - why did Scarlet move heaven and earth to get back into the Rhino when he could see it was going to go under the ice ? He knew it was locked down, so Black was going nowhere, other than into a watery eternity. What better way to dispose of your enemy ? OK, it might have been a bit chilly for him while he waited on the surface to be picked up, but he was in communication with Skybase, and let's face it, he wasn't going to freeze to death, was he ?

Of course, then there wouldn't have been all the wonderful " we used to be friends " angst, and shifty looks on mention of Shared Destiny.

And I have to agree, it's unlikely that Black's underwater gear would still be oh-so-conveniently at hand.

Still, minor carps on what was easily in the top three episodes, as far as I'm concerned !

[Father Unwin]

Unbelievably atmospheric and relentlessly adult in nature. A masterpiece.

The initial meeting between Black and the 3 Russians was convincingly handled and highly charged with a grim, dark humour. I note that both Black and Scarlet can speak Russian. The recreation of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) was a spellbinding, almost voyeuristic experience that pulled me into the screen.

Here is a link to Wikipedia showing some lovely photos of the Northern Lights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_%28astronomy%29

The high speed pursuit of the Russian truck across the frozen wastes was inspired with exceptional camera work. I loved the way the truck swerved in between the pillars of the bridge crossing the frozen sea and enjoyed those dramatic zoom-in shots showing Black at the controls looking determined and grim.

The ‘fight to the death’ between Black and Scarlet was disturbingly realistic. I was also surprised when Black prevailed a second time after Scarlet had given himself a chance by throwing snow in his face. Black always seems to have the edge over Scarlet, perhaps because he fights ‘dirty’.

This episode includes what I consider to be X-certificate dialogue, even without swearing: “When I pull this trigger I’ll throw what’s left of you into that hole in the ice where you will freeze until the sun burns out!” Try explaining that in a ‘nice way’ to a 7 year old child!

The way that Conrad walked (rather than ran) to the Rhino when he assessed that Scarlet would suffer the same fate as the truck was ‘cool’, to say the least. I think he really would have shot Scarlet if the ice hadn’t collapsed.

There was more wonderful work by the Team to generate hyper realistic underwater effects – that water really looked cold. The way the Rhino hit the ledge and rolled over onto its back was just perfect.

I was moved by the way that Conrad began to regain control of his human side and, in particular, when he said “Paul, those thoughts seemed to be somebody else’s but now they are starting to feel like mine..”. Really quite upsetting but at least opening up the possibility that he might one day be saved.

[Marion]

Father Unwin said:

at least opening up the possibility that he might one day be saved.

NCS makes it clear that there is absolutely NO doubt that Conrad is dead, whereas OCS leaves his fate rather more uncertain.
So, if there is a possibility that Conrad 'might be saved' what would he be saved as? A corpse? A sort of 'living dead' entity?

Just a thought...

[MMK]

3. I would have laughed if Troy Tempest and Phones showed up in Stringray during the underwater scenes.

That was EXACTLY what I was thinking when I re-watched the episode recently.
On a related but slightly unrelated note... when the Thunderbirds movie (the most recent one) was on (I hadn't seen it before then ) I started to sing 'the Marina song' from Stingray {during the bit where Tintin dives under the water with the cable}...

Black always seems to have the edge over Scarlet, perhaps because he fights ‘dirty’.

It seems to me that... in general... the 'bad guys' fight dirty 99%... no make that 99.9% of the time.

5. Ochre is wearing yellow eye shadow. Heehee...well, at least it's code-coloured

Does that mean that if Captain Black was female he... sorry, I meant she... would wear black eyeshadow... she probably wouldn't be popular with the Colonel for wearing (noticeable) make-up...... I'd love to be the female Black *note to self: possible new fan fic. re: Black*

[Marion]

No - colour-coded eye-shadow has always been permissable.
Look:



Captain Scarlet having a facial in 'The Mysterons'.

[Skybase Girl]

Well done Marion, just goes to show that forty years ago, the producers were leading the way in colour-coded detail and accessorizing !

I think that the way Black seemingly "returns" is fascinating. It would seem ridiculous after being dead for - how long ?( it isn't specified ), that he could regain his "self", but perhaps he doesn't. It's made clear in "Dominion" that the Mysterons allow him to believe that he's free, but of course, this turns out not to be the case. So "Best of Enemies" may have been a similar scenario. On the face of it, the Mysterons didn't have much to gain by going down this route, except that they didn't want to lose their agent, and he needed help to get out of there in the same way Scarlet did, so there was an advantage in having them work together.

They could have ordered him to fake it, perhaps, but then maybe Scarlet would have seen through him.

Of course, if you work on the basis that the Mysterons can retrometabilise anything back to it's original state before death ( no matter when death occurred, and leaving aside the moral and theological arguments over what happens when you die ), well, the sky's the limit on what could happen. If it suited their purpose, they could resurrect Hitler, or Ghenghis Khan....

That's really silly, I suppose, but still, it makes for interesting possibilities !

[gojohnniegogo]

Hmm.. I remember when I saw the Episode list for the first time along with the plot synopsis, and this was one of the episodes I was really, really looking forward to.

I wasn't disappointed either. Going through the episodes this way, after a period of time where they have been around, makes a good chance to go back and look at things properly and analise them. When they were first broadcast, I just watched them for entertainment value, I didn't bother breaking things down.

Thought it was great where Scarlet was banging on the window of the crashed Captain Black, love the clouds of steam as he was breathing - noting that they were going to his actual breath. And we all knew what was coming at that point from the appearing out cold Black!

The fight scene was a nice bit of mo-cap although as it went on, it did seem to seem like it went through the motions a little bit.

The chase itself as already mentioned was great, loved the way the Rhino tailed the truck almost sliding into the columns of the bridge, then almost skidding into the camera itself.

We see Scarlet trying to accelerate any potential returning of Black to his previous frame of mind, willing to refer to his once best friend as "Conrad" quite openly, where as Black only refers to Scarlet as "Paul" towards the escape.

[Intensity Angel]

Is it just me or does anyone else think that one of the Russians looked indentical to Captain Blue?? It even sounded just like him except he was talking Russian.

As for the episode, it was the 4th one I'd seen. It was great to watch but those seals that appeared didn't look that realistic. Seals use their whole bodies to move through the water and certainly don't move their tails just up and down.

I was half expecting to see Stingray appear and I got shouted at by my dad (Who was also watching the episode) for humming the Stingray theme too loudly!!

As a scuba diver myself, I particularly enjoyed the ascent scenes and Black attempting to haul Scarlet out of the water. The way Scarlet and Black ascended was spot on. They took their time instead of bolting to the surface which would result in an attack of the bends.

I must admit I found the chase scene between the Rhino and truck amusing and how Black just knows that it is Scarlet chasing him!! But how was he so sure? For all he could've known, it might've been Captain Blue chasing him, not Scarlet!! I think the guy is obessed with Scarlet. I can picture it.

Black: Scarlet's onto me again!!

In the Rhino,

Captain Ochre: Alright lets get him.

Erm, not right there Black.

Sorry if I've offended anyone.
Intensity Angel