Scarlet's persona - the residual cyborg?

[Marion]

Some time ago I had a discussion with other fans about the character of Captain Scarlet (Paul Metcalfe) – as shown on the TV show. Many people will know that I am not a great fan of the good captain; I consider him to be generally humourless and priggish, despite what was said about him being the life and soul of the party in the annuals and comics.
The TV show did not go into a great deal of character development, but I've continued to wonder why the show would emphasise such unattractive character traits - as much as it emphasised anything – in its eponymous hero.
It occurs to me that Scarlet’s TV persona might have been influenced by the earlier storyline that was eventually dropped: that the retrometabolic Scarlet was a cyborg – controlled by Spectrum’s computers. One audio adventure still finishes with Doctor Fawn explaining that Scarlet had revived after the Car-Vu and that he believed with the aid of computers they would be able to use him against the Mysterons. As such, Paul Metcalfe wouldn’t have had much to smile about.
So, does that go some way to explaining why the official Captain Scarlet has such an insipid persona?
Even his official background is mundane – there is none of the excitement of a life of crime, or a faked assassination, or even unsuccessful attempts against his life that colour the 'official' pasts of Magenta, Ochre and Blue, for example.
Given the understandable wish to make the show suitable for sale to America, I wonder if the original ‘heroes’ were meant to be Blue and the other Americans? However, once the decision was taken to make Scarlet ‘human’ and therefore more likely to attract the empathy of the young audience, the others weren’t needed so much but maybe it was too late to beef up the lead character?

There is anecdotal evidence that Gerry Anderson made a last minute decision to keep Captain Black in the show as the Mysterons’ premier agent after seeing how effective the make-up was in making him look scary, and so I don’t think it is too far-fetched to assume that Scarlet’s character was under-developed due to the original storyline.

[hazel]

Good points, all of them.

When I was a member of the target audience, back in the late 60s, that bit about him being "bursting with fun" when off-duty never rang true with me, either.

I really don't know what to make of the lack of interest in Paul Metcalfe's life pre-Spectrum and pre-Mysterons. What we 'know' of the other characters came, not from the series, but from the annuals and TV21, the earlier issues of which were being written at more-or-less the same time as the series was in production, perhaps a bit before. The woeful lack of character development within the episodes has cropped up in discussion many times - characterisation certainly wasn't a major element of the scripts! So it's entirely possible that Scarlet-the-cyborg was still in everyone's mind when the supporting material was being written. However, that only explains his lack of humour AFTER Mysteronisation, not before.

We see nothing of Scarlet before his encounter with the Mysterons, so perhaps he WAS the "fun, fun, fun!" guy that his biog describes. He's dour and humourless afterwards, certainly, but I can understand that. After all, being murdered, duplicated and used by hostile aliens to wage war on your home planet is guaranteed to wipe the smile off anyone's face!

It's not clear how long a time-period the series covers, but it doesn't seem to be very long. Even with all the mental resilience and psychiatric help in the world, it would take more than a couple of months to get over the trauma of what happened to him.

[Sage]

Hmm very interesting theories.

My own is far less well formulated; that by making him less endearing then the audience wouldn't feel so bad about him getting killed off all the time.
Certainly as a reader/writer I react quite diffrent to Scarlet being injured, as opposed to the other captains (even when the latters' injuries aren't life threatening).

In making Scarlet's role diffrent they did set him apart. He's the action hero who saves the day, rather than necessarily equal among the 'goodies' you're encouraged to empathise with.

His background is a bit problematic, but as a whole it probably makes him the best candidate to handle being mysteronised and leading the fight to save the world. I suppose we saw a bit of a sense of fun/humour in him organising the party in 'flight to Atlantica' but that's about it.

[Sasha Metcalfe]

I think anyone who organizes parties and hopes the colonel will somehow not notice, sits in the command chair with his feet up on the desk and has music on or everyone to listen to, is at heart a fun guy. he just didn't have much opportunity to show it when on duty and we don't see him off duty.
he has a serious job, the performance of which does not lend itself to humor, although at the end of The Trap he does make a joke in reference to himself.

admittedly i haven't read everything available about him yet, and have only gotten my hands on some of the comics. but just from watching OCS I found him to be a fun character.
the others may have interesting pasts, but they do much spontaneously in the series. perhaps they were given more interesting backgrounds to balance that out.

just my 2cents

[Marion]

I acknowledge the validity of all the comments made here.
I agree that Scarlet's fate is not one that would make anybody cheerful, and that his background does make him 'the best candidate' to cope with Mysteronisation.
It just seemed odd that in a series full of improbably 'busy' pasts - given the relative ages of the characters - he hadn't done much except rise through the ranks in a few years - he was at West Point until he was in his mid-twenties (off the top of my head...) Mind you, I suppose that isn't all that likely either - but White made Admiral by 30, so who knows?
It is indeed the case that the backgrounds and the series don't seem to have much in common at times.

[Kambei]

One thing that is probably constantly on his mind is: If the Mysterons get to one of the other Captains, especially Blue, or one of the Angels, he is the one who will be sent to take them down. Add that to the fact that Spectrum personnel are constantly putting themselves in harms way and could be killed at any minute, he may think: "Is this the last time I speak to my friend?" every time he goes on a mission with them. Plus, as Doctor Fawn said, he would feel the pain of a bullet or wound, he would bleed, but he would not die. Several times in the series, he voluntarily gets himself killed or badly injured to save the lives of his friends or important people. He must get some psychological trauma from all the major injuries he has had. He would more than likely suffer some form of 'Survivor's Guilt' as he watched all around him slowly dying.

[Intensity Angel]

That must be the worst feeling in the world.

I don't mean to annoy people here but Scarlet does have that stiff upper lip that is associated with people not like myself (who is a Wolverhamptoner and therefore is sterotyped as wild, mental and enjoys listening to Slade at x-mas because it is annoying like me). Could Scarlet's behaviour also be his way of dealing with what he has goes through?

[LadyP]

I know that the Metcalfe family have a long tradition of honourable military service, and, from my knowledge of such - generally utterly charming - men, they do not tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves. However, the dear boys are often true romantics at heart and really know how to treat a lady.
Speaking personally, there is something so appealing about making those stiff upper lips quiver - even if only just a little bit!
Ah, happy days!

[Intensity Angel]

I've never been into the military type, but that's just me.

Could it be that Scarlet's behaviour is just his way of hiding what he is really doing, trying to sort things out in his head. It is stated he can feel the pain of dying so what goes through his head when he dies for the cause or for his friends. Does the feeling of doing the right thing, knowing all we hopefully be well help ease the pain, both physically and mentally?

[Mysteronslayer]

Metcalfe had a strong military background. His ancestory had a history of being military bloodline, and so was he. He had served in the WAAF, become a Colonel and was the youngest to achieve that rank in WAAF history.

I guess what I'm saying is...
Aren't dedicated military folk usually non messing about and of a serious nature?

That's how I always called it, but I guess I never read into it either.
I always went for the simple answer when it came to his character.

[Intensity Angel]

One of my mates is from a military bloodline and while they have a no nonsense way to deal with things, they do know how to have fun and are quite compassionate. On duty they are of a serious nature but of a fun loving nature when at home relaxing. Their parents and me get along brilliantly. Watching the episodes a few times over it is clear to me that Scarlet exhibits this two way nature.

There is a saying my mate and their dad have told me a few times over, keep the war off the dinner table.

This means that an officer should try and leave their job at work and away from the family life/ social life. Of course this can get tricky is a soldier is suffering from mental trauma or is scarred in any fashion.

I believe when we don't see Scarlet as a fun character, it is because either,

1. He is working
2. We are seeing the scarring that has resulted from what he does and what the mysterons did to him.

[Mysteronslayer]

I do believe I concur with that statement Intensity!

[Scarlet Lady]

Sounds right to me, Intensity. I really like Scarlet - so serious one minute, making a joke the next. I especially like the way his characteristics compliment Blue's.

[Marion]

Could you elaborate on that, Scarlet Lady? There is so little character development in the TV shows that I am really keen to see what people make of the relationship between the characters and the evidence for it.

In my own stories, I have a close, almost intense relationship between Scarlet & Blue, which they both realise exists, but play down with (often excruciating) humourous insults. I have no real idea where that came from, except that it turned out like that when I started writing.

P.S.: Welcome back, btw!

[Scarlet Lady]

Thanks. It's great to be back!

Hmm... Let's see... Well, I suppose you need to read between the lines, somewhat. I think I always got the impression from Francis Matthews and Ed Bishop's dialogue - they always sounded like old friends when they spoke. The scene in the SPC in Manhunt, when Blue's worrying about Symphony and Scarlet's trying to snap him out of it, for example.