Is Captain Black Left-Handed ?

by **Skybase Girl** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:01 pm

For those of you in possession of the DVD of NCS Series 2, look at the cover caption. Black is holding the gun in his left hand, which would suggest that is most natural to him.

Yay, another southpaw ! I can't recall noticing this in the episodes, so I will have to check. ( not that I need an excuse for a re-run ). Maybe someone will beat me to it..... :wink:

by **MMK** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:55 pm

Skybase Girl wrote:For those of you in possession of the DVD of NCS Series 2, look at the cover caption. Black is holding the gun in his left hand, which would suggest that is most natural to him.

You mean the NCS series 2 box set?

I just had to look up the picture since i dont have the box set (i've got the series as volumes, instead).

Ok.....

He shoots with his gun in his right hand (in BOE).... twice. So.... ?

Perhaps the DVD cover designers reversed an image of Black so that his pose is 'almost' equal to/a mirror image of Destiny's?

(:roll: I've just realised.... Destiny on one side of Scarlet, Black on he other. Good/evil - an angel on one shoulder (:lol:), the devil (or, in this case, a mysteron) on the other...)

by **Intensity Angel** » Thu May 21, 2009 9:50 am

I think he might be right-handed as in the episodes he handles weapons with his right hand.

by **Intensity Angel** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:19 am

I've checked over screen caps recently. I'm near positive that he is right handed. However there are some oddballs. Obviously the people who created the series forgot that little point.

by **Kambei** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:22 am

Ambidextrous maybe?

Just wondering about that as I typed it. We saw a few times that when someone was Mysteronised they had there abilities, strength and reflexes severely enhanced. The kung-fu granny springs immediately to mind. Not really a great leap to suggest that he is now ambidextrous.

by **Intensity Angel** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:03 pm

Maybe that's something that happens to Mysteronized people, to the agent. They become ambidextrous and lose other little things like that. Like having a base model of a car. The Mysterons' process of getting agents might remove little 'imperfections' (I don't mean to sound nasty, sorry!) to create an all round perfect agent.

by **Skybase Girl** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:22 pm

Well, speaking as someone with fifty-four years of being left-handed, I can vouch for the fact that a certain degree of ambidexterity is necessary to cope in a largely right-handed world.

This is an ability for which I have been especially grateful in the last few weeks, after I badly injured my left hand in an accident !

So, if Captain Black is indeed able to fire a gun with both hands ( separately ), Mysteronisation may have little to do with it :wink:

However, I think I am inclined to go along with MMK'S suggestion that the DVD cover shot was allegorical, or done that way because it looked good. I doubt they thought anyone would notice.

by **Intensity Angel** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:28 pm

They weren't expecting children to notice such detail. Just to recongnise the characters. Us more eagle eyed fans were forgotten!

by **RhapsodyAngel8** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:14 pm

Intensity Angel wrote:Maybe that's something that happens to Mysteronized people, to the agent. They become ambidextrous and lose other little things like that. Like having a base model of a car. The Mysterons' process of getting agents might remove little 'imperfections' (I don't mean to sound nasty, sorry!) to create an all round perfect agent.

It’s certainly an idea, Intensity, but my understanding is that the Mysteron reconstructions are exact copies of the originals (except in terms of their increased strength), and so, in that respect, they would display the same ‘handedness’ as the original. I wouldn’t suggest, either, that left- or right-handedness be viewed as an ‘imperfection’. It could be that Black is basically right handed, but can do certain things left-handed as well (or vice-versa); for example, my husband is left-handed in most things (he writes left-handed), yet prefers to bat – cricket – right-handed. We don’t see that much of Black pre-mysteronisation, so cannot really say what he was like before.

Interestingly, in the ‘New Captain Scarlet Vehicle Sticker Book’ (I would like to claim that it belongs to my children, but it doesn’t :oops:

) – and I’m sure that I’ve seen it elsewhere – there is an image of Black with a laser pistol in each hand:

Based on that, it’s quite possible that Kambei’s suggestion of him being ambidexterous, as far as firing a laser pistol is concerned anyway, is correct. As you said, Skybase Girl, it is certainly useful to be able to use either hand when necessary – I hope yours is healing fast! The fact that the holster is on his right thigh, however, may suggest that he generally favours the right. Certainly, the majority of times I have seen him fire a weapon, he has been favouring the right side, thus I would suggest that he is basically right-handed.
So, I agree with you, Skybase Girl and MMK – it certainly does appear that the designers of the box set caused Black to be left-handed for the overall impact of the image.

by **chrisbishop** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 4:26 pm

If you pardon my saying, with a pistol in each hand, he does look like a gunfighter from these old western shows/movies/comic strips... who often carry two revolvers :twisted:

by **RhapsodyAngel8** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 6:38 pm

He does, indeed, doesn’t he! A regular outlaw. All he needs is the stereotypic black hat and heavy stubble – he already has the sociopathic tendency. A John Wesley Hardin, perhaps, or an ‘Angel Eyes’ from ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’...

by **Skybase Girl** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:52 pm

Oh, good lord !

I feel plot bunnies and inspiration fairies starting to awaken....

by **Intensity Angel** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:39 pm

Just want to draw interest back to the being right handed but also being left handed talk again. Sorry! I' actually right handed, and should wear my watch on the other arm, my left arm, right? Well I wear it on my right instead. Traits like what hand your write with can be both genetic and evironmentally affected. That's the science anyway. beisde Black's in, well was in, the military, using both hands strongly for the same tasks is a good thing.

by **gojohnniegogo** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:16 pm

Intensity Angel wrote:Just want to draw interest back to the being right handed but also being left handed talk again. Sorry! I' actually right handed, and should wear my watch on the other arm, my left arm, right? Well I wear it on my right instead. Traits like what hand your write with can be both genetic and evironmentally affected. That's the science anyway. beisde Black's in, well was in, the military, using both hands strongly for the same tasks is a good thing.

I believe a number of people wear a watch for example on the their other hand. I think it's a two-things-at-once thing. So for example, if you're writing, you can just quickly glance at your free hand.

I don't tend to wear watches but when I have done, I've worn them on my favoured side.

by **Clya Brown** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:10 pm

For what it's worth, I both fire a pistol left-handed and shoot a rifle from my left shoulder (indeed, I couldn't fire a rifle from my right shoulder for the life of me); but I'm right-handed for writing, swinging a golf club and playing snooker - which is actually quite an interesting point, bearing in mind the similarity between the usage of a rifle barrel and a snooker cue for taking aim at a target. I could fire a pistol right-handed if I wanted to (though it certainly doesn't come naturally), but I'd find playing snooker left-handed difficult in the extreme, and playing left-handed golf absolutely impossible. I imagine such preferences are either acquired very early in life and never subsequently modified, or are completely innate.