How indestructible is Scarlet?

[Magic Meriel]

Originally posted in the Archives, 2006
I may be just acting dumb or summat but.... when they say he's virtually indestructible.... does that mean he really is indestructible or is he just about indestructible????

i know you are going about ways he could die... but he couldn't he just dissapear in a puff of green light (like the others)

[Scarlet_Lady]

I don't think that's a stupid question at all! It's something I've often thought about. Only answer I've come back with is 'I don't know', unfortunately.

[Marion_W]

Maybe it is just a cop out - you know like in advertising? 'Probably the best lager in the world' - in case he isn't indestructible and someone tries to sue Doctor Fawn for medical negligence.

Imagine the scene:
Prosecutor: Did you, or did you not, Doctor, tell Paul Metcalfe that he was indestrictible? And did he - purely as a result of your disgnosis - go and ram the wheels of the jet heading towards the Asian Director-Generals'plane, thereby causing himself to crash his vehicle and be killed outright? And hasn't the loss of their son caused his parents so much mental anguish that they are justified in asking for punitive damages against Spectrum - and yourself?
Fawn: I said he was virtually indestructible - I cannot be held responsible for the foolish actions he chose to take after I had held my consulatation with him. I warned him he would still feel pain. This is the cutting edge of medical science; nothing is certain.

Judge: Case dismissed!

[Scarlet_Sandler]

I dont think any of us know if he is totally indestructable , but i would like to know if he has aged at all since the 60`s. Any one spotted any grey hairs apart from Colonel White , that is ? Perhaps he uses Grecian 2000 and has a jab or two of Botox now and again.

[Intensity Angel]

I dont think any of us know if he is totally indestructable , but i would like to know if he has aged at all since the 60`s. Any one spotted any grey hairs apart from Colonel White , that is ? Perhaps he uses Grecian 2000 and has a jab or two of Botox now and again.

There another question, would botox even work on Captain Scarlet?

[Marion]

I have always hoped that Scarlet would age - just very, very slowly - because I don't think he would care for immortality.
Given that - I don't think he would bother about showing signs of aging - but would welcome them as proof that his situation was not going to last for ever.
Not everyone is obsessed with the having the appearance of eternal youth, either.

[Intensity Angel]

I agree with you about Scarlet not caring about immortality. I believe that.

However, I think Scarlet would probably lose the plot if he forever looked 32!

I nearly lose the plot everytime I'm asked for ID when I'm purschasing a 15 DVD. I'm 17/18! It's annoying that I look 14, honestly!

[Marion]

I didn't say he wouldn't care about immortality, Intensity, I said he wouldn't care for it - meaning he wouldn't like to be immortal, and because of that, he'd welcome signs of aging.
I also think he would have a life span of many hundreds of years, if nothing happened to him - e.g. getting electrocuted.
Its just my opinion; someone else might assume he'd want to be immortal, so he could ensure the Mysterons are defeated, however long it took.

[Intensity Angel]

I need to get me eyes tested. Sorry Marion.

Y'know I've always wondered, if there something else other than electricity that could kill him permanently.

[Captain Indigo]

I too think that true immortality would drive anyone round the twist, which is why I actually like the idea of Scarlet being immortal (I know: I'm sick, I need help).

Chris has actually mentioned Scarlet being upset about having no apparant signs of aging at the beginning of 'A Symphony in Blue', and I'm sure I've read another story where it's discussed (I think that General Metcalfe comments upon it in that one), so our writers are considering the issue.

I nearly lose the plot everytime I'm asked for ID when I'm purschasing a 15 DVD. I'm 17/18! It's annoying that I look 14, honestly!

Without straying too far off topic, try being 24 and still being IDed...

[Captain Indigo]

I too think that true immortality would drive anyone round the twist, which is why I actually like the idea of Scarlet being immortal (I know: I'm sick, I need help).

Chris has actually mentioned Scarlet being upset about having no apparant signs of aging at the beginning of 'A Symphony in Blue', and I'm sure I've read another story where it's discussed (I think that General Metcalfe comments upon it in that one), so our writers are considering the issue.

I nearly lose the plot everytime I'm asked for ID when I'm purschasing a 15 DVD. I'm 17/18! It's annoying that I look 14, honestly!

Without straying too far off topic, try being 24 and still being IDed... I always loved being able to get half fare on the bus at 18, though.

[Marion]

Chris has actually mentioned Scarlet being upset about having no apparant signs of aging at the beginning of 'A Symphony in Blue', and I'm sure I've read another story where it's discussed (I think that General Metcalfe comments upon it in that one), so our writers are considering the issue.

Yes, there are mentions about it in fanfics. I did a little ruminating on it myself - not least in 'Valediction' http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/fanfic/valediction.htm

...he’d had to face up to many of the unpalatable truths he’d previously preferred to ignore.
His retrometabolism, whilst saving his life countless times, had only gradually made clear the full nature of the price he had to pay for it. He didn’t age; he didn’t even change with the years. Like a fly in amber, he was to be preserved as his friends, wife and children grew older and died around him. This knowledge had created a whole new set of concerns, some of which he was still struggling to come to terms with.
He was now sixty-three years old, but still looked and felt thirty. He was regularly working out with men young enough to be his sons - or even his grandsons - and leaving them exhausted. He’d suffered so many injuries and deaths in the course of his career that he now took it for granted. Yet he could see the way this exceptional ability had fostered the feeling of loneliness that had grown over the years; how his unique situation had set him aside, even from his closest friends. The splintering of the original elite brigade - and their replacement by younger, brasher agents, whose attitudes towards him were untempered by the understanding of the momentous events that had followed the Mysterons’ first strike at the Earth – had increased his feeling of isolation.

It was while I was writing that story that I decided I couldn't be mean enough to make Scarlet immortal, with no way of ever dying - permanently.
I even have a secret plot bunny, that I might write one day, about what happens right at the very end...

[Sage]

In short I don't think Scarlet is immortal in the traditional sense; not just that it would be emotionally difficult for him, but also miust surely be very taxing on his body to keep regenerating. So to that end yes he probably does age, albeit very slowly and retrometabolism may at certain points set him back.

Slightly random tangent, but this thread reminded me of what I know of Mahayana Buddhist ideas about rebirth and immortality [after a fashion].

The Mahayana practitioner's objective is to achieve advanced spiritual states (culminating after many lifetimes in Buddhahood), in order to guide, teach and ultimately rescue all unhappy sentient beings from their suffering. To do this she needs to develop a number of attributes including great compassion (bodhicitta).

http://kwelos.tripod.com/mahayana.htm

Not that I have ever thought Scarlet* is actually Buddhist, considering the religion preaches non-violence for a start, but it is a compelling metaphor. That he goes through his existence, being 'reborn' after his first death and various subsequent fatal injuries, with the ultimate goal of defeating the mysterons. Working to that end by improving himself and spectrum as a whole through experience and wisdom.
Then once that happens, I suppose it might be the equivalent of enlightenment. And then eventually he will fully cease to exist.

*As an aside; I imagine his religious upbringing was quite similiar to my own. Baptised Anglican with the odd church service here and there, but generally quite disaffected and secular. Then his experiences of mysteronisation tipping him in atheism.

[hazel]

In one of the scenes that didn't make the final version of SIQ, I had Dr Beverley Crusher determining that Paul ages by roughly one day a year, so at the time of SIQ he was physiologically about a year older than he was in the original series. I cut the scene because it added nothing to the story, and was too full of meditechnobabble - I pictured my readers dozing off and/or hitting the Back button

However, I agree with Sage. I like tormenting Poor Paulie (tm) so I like to think of him being immortal...

[RhapsodyAngel8]

I, too, wonder what sort of effect the knowledge of being ‘immortal’ must ultimately have on Scarlet. I would imagine that the full ramifications would not become apparent until quite a few years after his initial ‘death’ – thus we see him as a ‘normal’ person during the series. Only when he begins to observe those about him growing older, yet remains apparently unchanged himself, would the terrible realisation dawn. As Marion mentioned, those that he loves would grow old and die before his eyes, whereas he would not have aged - a situation very like Connor Macleod in the original ‘Highlander’ movie. Would he have to make the decision to avoid all deep personal relationships for fear of the ultimate pain they must bring? What effect would that have on him emotionally? Although I draw no direct parallels here, as the experiences faced by the two men are very different, Connor Macleod was left a very bitter and cynical man, distancing himself from close personal relationships. Would it end up testing Scarlet’s loyalty to Spectrum, or would that be one of the few unchanging things left for him to hold on to? I like Marion and Sage’s thought that Scarlet may age slowly, as the knowledge that he will ultimately lose virtually everything he holds dear, except for life itself, must surely be too great a burden to bear. Thank you for your link and quote from ‘Valediction’, Marion – I shall make sure I read it.

As goes Scarlet’s speed of retrometabolism, it is certainly an interesting point. I’ve cheated on a couple of occasions to suit my stories and had Scarlet dosed with a Mysteron-designed drug to delay his retrometabolative abilities, one occasion being in ‘A Catch at Christmas’. As Scarlet is Spectrum’s main weapon against the Mysterons, I felt that such a drug, designed to prolong the time before he is fit once more for duty, may be appropriate in the War of Nerves. However, as such a drug may prove useful against the Mysterons themselves, I decided to make certain essential components ‘unknown to man’ and ‘impossible to synthesise in the laboratory’ (well, for now, anyway! ).