The Purpose and Nature of Spectrum

[Clya Brown]

I originally tagged this post onto the thread about whether fanfic needs the Mysterons, but I reckon that's the wrong place for it - so I've moved it. Whether or not the Mysterons are "necessary" in any sense is a rather wider question than just asking whether fanfic should always include them in stories (because the answer to that one is surely a resounding "No!"). Rather, it's a question that strikes right at the heart of the credibility of the whole concept.

To play Devil's advocate therefore, I'm going to say yes... I think we do need the Mysterons. Not always to be there, of course, but I think they do need to be lurking in the background somewhere a lot of the time - because it seems to me that the existence of the Mysterons actually serves to mask a key question, namely "What is the purpose of Spectrum?". It certainly isn't to fight the Mysterons - or rather, it wasn't to fight the Mysterons when it was created, because as has already been pointed out many times, in both the OCS and NCS canons Spectrum existed prior to their discovery. So what was it created for, eh?

As to NCS I haven't the faintest idea: it's a long time since I watched the episodes, but the only recollection I have is a reference to an elite military organisation - I don't recall any justification being offered for its existence. It seems to me that OCS is an easier one to tackle, as at the time of its first appearance on our TV screens Spectrum fitted fairly well into an Anderverse (Andersphere?) in which we'd already seen the World Space Patrol and the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, and would shortly afterwards be seeing the World Intelligence Network - so in that context you've got Spectrum comprising a security organisation created by the world government (which existed explicitly in the TV21 comic, and which I think it's fair to say was implied in most if not all of the television shows) to protect the world against threats. The trouble with that one is that it's not so easy to define "threats" when you've ostensibly got a unified world. (Incidentally, the same problem was apparent in the concept of the WASPs: it was established in the first episode that Troy Tempest - and by implication everyone else in Marineville - wasn't aware of the existence of the underwater races at that time. So what on earth did he think when he signed up he was going to be doing down there?)

Let's assume however for a moment that the WASPs were brought into existence to investigate strange and/or unexplained threats to world shipping, and that the World Space Patrol (obviously) was created to protect Earth's interests in deep space. If so, then it seems to me that we're going to have a far bigger problem finding a role for Spectrum than either of these, inasmuch as at least the other two did actually have external threats to deal with. As I see it, the existence of either Spectrum or the World Intelligence Network smacks of something far closer to the Stasi in pre-1989 East Germany or the Securitate in Ceausescu's Romania, i.e. a security organisation whose purpose is to counter and eliminate internal threats. If Spectrum were merely an intelligence-gathering operation it might be possible to perceive them as a kind of coordinating organisation along the lines of Interpol, but that won't do: they're armed to the teeth and equipped with cutting-edge military hardware of every description. If the World Government feels it needs something like this to safeguard itself and/or the society for which it is responsible - and it's difficult to imagine the Unity City accounts committees allocating the necessary funding under any other circumstances - perhaps a better question than whether or not we need the Mysterons might be whether or not we need the World Government. And in a funny sort of way, I think that's why we need the Mysterons. They enable us to avoid thinking too hard about why an organisaton like Spectrum would exist at all - and what sort of organisation it would really be if it did.

[Carrie]

A very interesting question, Doc B, and one which would probably never be posed by the average young person who watched the series in its heyday.

Joking apart, it really IS a good question though. One I’m not sure I can answer.

According to the 1967 CS annual, to accompany the series, the remit of Spectrum was indeed to deal with threats solely on Earth, to (quote) ‘take the burden from the specialised forces.’
Considering that the remaining threats came from a tin-pot dictator-ship like Bereznik and a couple of Asian governments that cocked a snook at the World Government, it does seem like a bit of overkill, especially since the World Government already seems overloaded with military authority in the shape of the SHEF.
Both Bentley and Basset/Drake suggest that all of these global security organisations were hampered by (quote): ‘legal and diplomatic red tape.’ Considering one of these existing organisations was the Universal Secret Service, and, assuming they were the 21st Century Anderverse equivalent of a combined CIA/MI6/Mossad etc organisation, it isn’t very likely that they would be worrying too much about a little thing like red tape anyway….so why create a new force, especially one that seems designed to be anything but clandestine? (I speak of the colourful uniforms.)
It also seems that in this unified world, individual nations are still entitled to their sovereignty, with the US retaining their president, for example. The WG seems to me a little like the EU, and I can just imagine the fracas that would ensue from both member and non-member states if the president of the EU announced that he/she was going to create a supra-military-spy organisation that was, by-the-way, answerable only to him!

Most book sources suggest that Spectrum’s operations as a security force were highly effective, justifying the vast expense. Er…so how the heck is Bereznik still causing trouble? I would have thought they would have dispensed with all those legal niceties and blown it off the map…

Okay, I’m being silly, but I have to agree with you, when you look at the whole thing too closely, the whole premise of Spectrum’s creation before the threat of the Mysterons, is frankly, rather far-fetched, unless there is another more sinister reason for it's creation.
Echoes of the Stazi, indeed, Doc.

[RhapsodyAngel8]

Very interesting points brought up about OCS Spectrum’s origins and original manifesto, Doc and Carrie. I have to admit that the thought had never occurred to me as a youngster: I had just accepted Spectrum (as I did WASP, WIN, SHEF, the World Government etc) as another organisation full of ‘goodies’ set up to tackle the ‘baddies’ (and having very nice uniforms to boot! ). Mulling it over now does make me wonder just what their original remit was supposed to be, pre-Mysteron involvement. As you say, Carrie:

Considering that the remaining threats came from a tin-pot dictator-ship like Bereznik and a couple of Asian governments that cocked a snook at the World Government, it does seem like a bit of overkill, especially since the World Government already seems overloaded with military authority in the shape of the SHEF.

With all the other security / military forces in the background, having Mysterons on the scene would certainly make it easier for Spectrum to justify its existence, should severe budget cuts suddenly become an issue!
No, I agree – looking deeper into the original purpose of Spectrum’s creation, one has to ask ‘why?’ unless, as you both suggest, there’s something they’re not telling us...

Regarding NCS, I may be able to fill a few blanks:
According to the Spectrum Agents’ Handbook:
‘Skybase was the brainchild of Sir Charles Grey, formerly a member of the United Nations Security Development Committee...’ He had ‘... a vision of a global anti-terrorist security network... now realised as the Spectrum Agency...’

According to Chris Bentley:
‘In the year 2068, peace on Earth is maintained by the Spectrum organisation, a super-efficient security organisation headquartered by ... Skybase’ . It goes on to say that Spectrum agents are recruited from various military services and that, under Colonel White, Spectrum has become the supreme peace-keeping force (so no 'excess' of military / intelligence agencies). Following the unfortunate incident on Mars, ‘...Spectrum’s personnel and facilities are now mobilised solely to combat the threat of the Mysterons.’ If this is the case, however, it makes me wonder who (or what) has taken over Spectrum’s previous vast role of universal peace-keeper (ie - regarding non-Mysteron issues), now that Spectrum’s focus has shifted somewhat. I assume that this has been re-assigned to the equivalent of whatever existed before Spectrum (if it still viable), or shared out amongst the military organisations / governments of certain countries, or maybe a new organisation (overseen by the United Nations Security Development Committee, perhaps) has been set up for that very purpose. If that is the case, Spectrum’s new remit doesn’t quite ring true; it is all very well to say that its forces and personnel will be mobilised solely to combat the threat of the Mysterons, but in the NCS world, where we don’t get any stated Mysteron threats (as we do in OCS), how would Spectrum know whether a situation had Mysteron involvement until they were actually investigating it (unless they had previously acquired intelligence)? Take ‘Rain of Terror’ for example: I’ve sometimes wondered at why Spectrum is involved at all (albeit as observer) in what is merely a scientific experiment – not a Mysteron in sight (until the obvious happens, of course).

Agencies such as SHEF, WSP and WASP don’t seem to exist in the world of NCS (at least, not that I can recall at the moment), and Spectrum is charged as the overall peace-keeper. I would imagine that, without the familiarity of other Anderson productions of the time (eg Stingray and Thunderbirds) to ‘set the scene’, the existence of these other agencies wouldn’t have such an appeal to the target audience of youngsters today; to set Spectrum up as the main world-wide security agency (with a UN ‘origin’), while keeping individual nations with their own security and intelligence forces – as in today’s world - might make the NCS world easier to identify with. In that respect, Spectrum would have a role all of its own and would not be just another world-wide security / intelligence agency.
Bearing that in mind, I would say that NCS Spectrum had a more valid reason to exist than its OCS counterpart, prior to the introduction of the Mysterons.
Gosh - I have rambled horribly, so will stop.

[Captain Alizarin]

I sort of think of spectrum as super soldier detectives with a large back up of soldiers ,personnel etc ,i also think they would have a seabase and cloudbase 2 and 3.No way should they be piloting cloudbase as lt. peach and purple did in the comic strips clearly lt green(whose cap colour i corrected in my fan pics gallery as well as indigo's full uniform ,tv hues),is a color coded officer but dealing with the highest level security info,cap magenta takes over his role for lunaville etc,i believe their are around 140 usable colours i can make into new officers,i morph old puppet faces with real famous faces,witness my lt. saffron ,cap navy rust and lt lime,i want to expand the spectrum world and believe my manips can breath new life into new fab fictions.

[Skybase Girl]

Picking up on RhapsodyAngel8's comments, I agree that Spectrum's reason to exist in the world of NCS is a little more plausible than OCS.

The timeline is the same - 2068, roughly- but the producers seem to have realised that the world has not changed in the way that Gerry & Sylvia Anderson may have imagined it would back in 1967. I think they have taken the view that the world in 50 years time may not be too drastically different from what it is now.

So, we do not have a World Government, or President, in NCS. There are conflicting views as to whose idea Spectrum and Skybase was - I have read somewhere that it was the brainchild of the United Nations and they are the major stakeholders. According to Colonel White's biography, he was approached by the UN TO work on its Security Development Committee and from there, to head Spectrum.

NCS Scarlet's bio mentions the "global terrorist wars" which killed his parents. It suggests that at the end of those wars, Spectrum was set up as an elite peace-keeping force. Our present situation with terrorism will not end any time soon, Iwould imagine, so the world tableau as presented by NCS is not at all far-fetched.

Because no information is provided as to how and why the wars ended, ( or even how conclusively ) it's difficult to determine how appropriate an organisation like Spectrum would be in dealing with the world's problems. Certainly, a giant aircraft hangar like Cloudbase/Skybase does stretch the bounds of credulity, as does the obsession with all the brightly coloured uniforms in a business where anonymity counts for a lot !

As RhapsodyAngel8 quite rightly points out, no Mysteron threats are announced at the beginning of NCS episodes, unlike OCS. It is therefore sometimes hard to see how Scarlet and his colleagues can reasonably make the leap from a reported incident to a Mysteron plot - I know they are superheroes, but there are limits

However, there are many references in the episodes ( and in "The Complete Gerry Anderson") to intelligence reports being received which alert them to possible terrorist or Mysteron activity. In the episode "Duel", Colonel White discusses information provided by an informant of Scarlet's - at this point, they are not aware of Mysteron links. This suggests to me that the Mysterons are possibly the most deadly of Spectrum's opponents, but are not by any means the only opponents.

This must make life difficult - to remain alert at all times for threats coming in from a variety of sources must be exhausting. I think that is aptly demonstrated in "Syrtis Major" where exposure to illegal substances ( ) gives way to rampant paranoia on the part of some characters.

[Marion]

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It seems to me that we’ve touched on aspects of the Spectrum concept before now – see the links above.

I do find it hard to accept that the creation of Spectrum was in any way warrented before the advent of the Mysterons’ threat. The cost of creating, maintaining and equipping the force we see on Cloudbase - never mind the global ground based network of stations and agents we're led to believe exist - can't really be justified unless they were created to deal with some exceptional problems.

There also seems to be a lot of confusion as to who first had the idea for a supra-national security organisation:

Chris Drake & Graeme Bassett in their CS book state that the idea came from the Supreme Commander Earth Forces, in 2065, whereas Chris Bentley states that ‘the World Government’ had the idea ‘two years ago’ (i.e. 2066).
Chris's website says:
January 2065: The Spectrum organisation is finally put down on paper, conceived as a force to take “pressure” off Earth’s other peace keeping organisations. Though presumably the World Government had been considering spectrum for some time, as the SPVs were under construction from 1964.
The CS annual 1967 says:
The world of today is run by the World Government. Under its control security is enforced by the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, the World Space Patrol * and the Universal Secret Service. But the call is for a security force intent on keeping peace solely on the Earth, to take the burden from the specialised forces. For this reason Spectrum was formulated.
* this seems to suggest Spectrum was intended to operate beyond a 'solely on Earth' remit.

Could this be another example of the confusion that characterises all aspects of the known Anderverse?
You pays your money and you makes your choice.

[Clya Brown]

Yes indeed, we've tackled this one before, and again I suspect it all really comes down to this basic idea that there's an absolute right and a wrong to everything - which is easy enough to believe when you're nine years old, but increasingly difficult as you get older. We've also noted that the start of the war with the Mysterons (which from their point of view would have been itself a blatant act of terrorism) was an intentional challenge to that precept - which is probably why we're still talking about it all these years later.

There's a tendency among the general public to think of "terrorism" as simply something that just happens when a bunch of ruthless malcontents get together and start making a nuisance of themselves (not least, I suspect, because that's the way today's media tend to portray such groups) but that's oversimplistic. The purpose of terrorism isn't simply to create carnage: the ultimate aim is to undermine a society to such an extent that a fundamental change comes about in the way that that society is run and/or who runs it - which is why any government that is determined to retain power takes any act of violence directed against the state very seriously indeed.

However, running an insurgency of any kind costs a phenomenal amount of money, and that money has to come from somewhere. The source of the finance is usually a rich and/or powerful group in another country (and quite possibly the government itself of that country) which is sympathetic to the cause in question but for whatever reason is unwilling and/or unable to take part in the actual fighting. So... we have to ask from where in the unified world of the 2060s would the funds come to start a war? Mmmm... tricky. At present we have some fairly rudimentary checks on the opening of new bank accounts, though once the account has been opened there isn't too much to prevent it being used to move large sums of money around - after all, no financier worth his salt is going to be too fussy about where a depositor got a million pounds to put in one of his accounts from after its creation, is he? (As was noted in one episode of "Yes, Prime Minister", it isn't a crime to be deceived... so the fewer questions you ask, the safer you are if the whole thing subsequently goes pear-shaped - provided of course that it isn't your money that's at risk.)

As to the actual motivation for instigating an insurgency, the most likely cause would be a general climate of oppression - after all, you don't find too many converts to radical groups among the rich and powerful. But then as George Orwell noted, people don't rebel just because they're oppressed: indeed, as long as they're not permitted to have standards of comparison they never even become aware that they are oppressed. So in a unified world, would it be possible to prevent anyone from recognising that they're oppressed? Probably not: Orwell was writing about an era when it was possible to control almost all of the general public's sources of information, whereas with the advent of the internet this would be a lot more difficult to arrange. It wouldn't for example be an easy matter to prevent downtrodden citizens of exceptionally poor countries viewing newscasts from far more affluent ones unless the local administrators of those countries actively collaborated in ensuring that they didn't - and it would surely be difficult to justify such an arrangement if all of them were represented at the same global parliament. But making people aware that they were being denied a level of freedom and/or prosperity enjoyed by their neighbours and allowing them to take up arms against their local masters on account of it are two different things. There would need to be the mechanism for transferring money into the hands of groups who were prepared to use force to better their lot - and that could be prevented if the world government controlled the global financial institutions.

Could that ever happen? It's tempting to say no, but bearing in mind the events of the last twelve months or so, perhaps we shouldn't be too hasty about that one...

[Mysteronslayer]

I love some of your avatars by the way.
Doc, who and what is yours?

[Marion]

Ignoring the comment about avatars, which doesn't belong in a thread like this , I was glad to be reminded of this discussion and wrote the following:
I have been listening to some of the CS audio adventures – as you do. In the story about the Salzburg Symphony Orchestra playing at Athlone, Colonel White makes the observation that leisure was now a vital part of the system for keeping people occupied, as there was so little work for them to do. (I’m paraphrasing – but that’s more or less what he meant)

If that’s the case and people are basically surplus to requirements due to mechanisation of production, outsourcing of services and global financial meltdown (I’m starting to recognise this scenario...) perhaps the World Government, formed in the aftermath of the European Atomic War, was to ensure that the populace didn’t run amok? The nation states retain independence to work on reconstruction and ‘local’ circumstances but the World Government is there to provide the ‘bread & circuses’ and to make people think that someone had a global view of the problems.

We now know more than the Anderson teams did in the 60s about the perils of pollution, global warming and the decrease in fossil fuel availability; maybe the World Government was formed from the United Nations to oversee the transfer from old methods to new, less damaging and sustainable methods of production?

Doc Brown says:

(Incidentally, the same problem was apparent in the concept of the WASPs: it was established in the first episode that Troy Tempest - and by implication everyone else in Marineville - wasn't aware of the existence of the underwater races at that time. So what on earth did he think when he signed up he was going to be doing down there?)

I seem to recall there were many fish farms and so forth in the Stingray shows; fish farming is referred to in a CS storybook too – as a vital source of food for millions of people. Perhaps the ‘terrorists’ were keen to acquire those resources and the WASPs were there to prevent that, before being distracted by silent mermaids and submarine psychos with their fishy-friends?

Given the recent Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, maybe technology for extracting fossil fuels from deep undersea locations has developed to where the wells are on the sea bed and the stuff is piped ashore? Or maybe electricity is being generated in geo-thermal power stations close to underwater volcanoes or subterranean hot spots well away from the centres of population? All of these could provide suitable targets for malcontents.

And there are other global issues that could provide flash-points for tension: water shortages, irrigation, floods and droughts. Terrorism could mean anything that interfered with the smooth running of the global state: piracy (like that we’re experiencing off the Ethiopian coast), financial scams (international banking crisis, anyone?), threats to desalination plants – all things that might be covered by Spectrum’s remit to prevent ‘terrorism’.

Come to think of it, that might go some way to explaining the inclusion in a military organisation of agents with a wide range of specialisations, some of them ‘unusual’. For example: Destiny Angel’s training as a weather girl, Magenta and Blue’s familiarity with financial matters (ok – maybe canon doesn’t support Blue being that au-fait with the whole money matters thing...) and Symphony Angel’s background in industrial espionage. Even Black’s time in the WSP and Grey’s aquanaut experience, although of a military nature, are not what you’d expect for a run-of-the-mill, largely ground-based (operating on the ground, I mean) anti-terrorism organisation.

When the Mysterons arrive with their full-blown war of nerves, these people suddenly find themselves facing more than just ‘terrorists’ and have to adapt quickly to face the new challenge.

I probably haven’t expressed this very well, but I hope it has made some sense. The ideas are very jumbled in my head at the moment, and it might take awhile for them to percolate through to a cohesive statement of possibility. I’d be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts, in the meantime.