Indestructible?

[shaqui]

Several of the 'Scarlet' comic strips seem to imply that any Mysteronised object is wholly indestructible - some even suggest the Mysterons themselves cannot destroy one of their own recreations. While I'm quite aware this is far beyond anything the series suggested, I was wondering what anyone's thoughts on this concept are...

[Captain Indigo]

Well, there's plenty of evidence in the series to suggest that this is not the case at all - not least in the form of the Mysteron gun itself. If the Mysteron recreations were wholly indestructible, the Mysteron gun would not be able the have the effect that it does. Also, DT-19 could not have been damaged by Scarlet in "Winged Assassin" if this was the case.

As for the Mysterons being not being able to destroy their own creations, two words. Captain Brown.

[shaqui]

Well yes, I'm quite aware this is well beyond what was originally portraited in the series - hence my comment in my initial posting. But I was wondering what people thought of the actual concept of Mysteron reconstructions being indestructible, even to the Mysterons themselves...

[Marion]

Well, I can remember stories where the Mysteron agent had to be killed with electricity - and survived other attempts to destroy them. One of the most memorable is when a Chess Grand Master is killed by a giant electric eel - and its not every day you see that happening
I think the 'Mysteron Agents can only be killed by an electro-ray rifle or electricity' was something that the original series adopted or dropped at will - to suit themselves and the story.
I developed a theory that agents could be killed by a normal gunshot (for instance) - and if the Mysterons had no further use for them they stayed dead. But, if the Mysterons thought there was still a chance of them succeeding in their mission - they 'revived' them - so that the only SURE way of killing one, was with electricity or the Mysteron gun - as that prevented them being revived.
Don't ask me for substantive proof - 'cos I don't think I could quote any...

[Clya Brown]

This raises yet again the question of what happens to the bodies of Mysteron agents once they've performed their allocated function, or been prevented from doing so. Do they just fade away into thin air? Or do Spectrum ensure that the bodies are completely destroyed to prevent them from being used as booby-traps at any time in the future? I don't think we've ever come to a consensus on this point, and I'd be interested to see it raised once more, now we have so many new contributors to the forum with their own perspectives on the series.

I think we'd have to conclude that it is possible to destroy a construct - at least in the case of a piece of equipment - because it's been done any number of times by Spectrum blowing it up. The question of whether the Mysterons are capable of resurrecting it a second time remains open, but if they are, then presumably it would need to rematerialise out of thin air - and we've never seen that happening. Though I accept that that doesn't mean it can't physically be done, mind you.

As far as Captain Brown is concerned, I seem to remember I argued in the dim and distant past that he chose to self-destruct by voluntarily dissipating some form of energy field that held his molecules together, permitting his body to react with "normal" matter in an uncontrolled explosion. Captain Black's ability to dematerialise could be seen as a controlled version of the same process - a view that would have been supported by the apparent need for André Verdain to be thrown out of the car before he, his female accomplice and their car vanished at the end of "Model Spy". I've a feeling we were speculating about what the basic building blocks of Mysteron constructs at the subatomic level actually are at the time, with all the usual chatter about various forms of antimatter and the like, though I can't remember the details - it was a long time ago.

Having said all that, we're hopelessly off-topic, aren't we - this is the Comic Strips section. Sorry! Perhaps if anybody wants to pick up any of the above points, we ought to move somewhere else.