Angel One

[Scarlet Lady]

Yes, I found Destiny annoying. I know it's hard to convey emotion in a believable way that gets the right reactions out of the viewer, but I found the characterisation on the whole to be quite aggravating. On saying that, the action was good, the animation was stunning and I can enjoy it in its own right. I just wish that it was possible to take what I like from both versions and put them together.

[Skybase Girl]

I think this might be a moment to suggest we're wandering a little off-topic. We seem to have got into a general bun-fight about all Angels, original and new generation and while it's fun to a point, I do think the iniial question about "Angel One" related to OCS. There IS no Angel One in NCS, as far as I can see, although Destiny is clearly the Squadron Leader. She is therefore probably the only NCS Angel we should strictly be discussing under the banner of this thread!

Having said that, I do appreciate how things can run on and I am as guilty of that as anyone!

Captain Canary, you are clearly a person of strong opinions, as is Marion. Those of us who have been around this forum for years know that there are not many "die-hard" OCS fans who have much of a good word to say for the CGI series - I am probably a little unusual in being of an age to grow up with the puppets, but actually to prefer ( and write about) the CGI series. Believe me, I am always trying to live that down!

However, all of us like a good debate and take a bit of good-natured jibing in the manner it's intended. I know that Marion doesn't care for NCS as a whole, but she's open-minded towards much of it and will approach NCS fanfic with the same approach she would with OCS. (Thank goodness!)

Many... ( all right, a few..) of the members of the forum are pretty long in the tooth ( forgive me, please, folks!) so we were probably about seven when the first CS episodes were aired. Fifty years later, it's not surprising that, while we still love it, we've developed a healthy disrespect for some of the more ridiculous things.

BTW - There's almost nothing Marion doesn't know about OCS and all thing related to it, as I should have realised before I replied to Intensity's post regarding Melody Angel Racing Driver. I did think that rang a bell, but I didn't check my sources carefully enough!

[Intensity Angel]

For all we know NCS Melody Angel could be a racing driver, Skybase Girl, with a bit of imagination and NCS Melody does seem to be a bit of a tomboy.

Right off topic again,

I agree that are there no mention of an Angel One in NCS, however there is still 'Angel Leader' and that's Destiny so could her interceptor technically be Angel One?

[captain canary]

In a sense, yes, but the Falcons all have the pilot's name on them, not numbers, so also no.

[Skybase Girl]

While the NCS Falcons do have the names of the pilots on them ( although if you look with a magnifying glass, most seem to say "Destiny Angel" regardless of who's doing the piloting! ), I'm not sure that the OC Interceptors were designated Angel One, Two, or whatever. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought that Angel One was just the craft always on standby that had to be permanently manned. That was done on a rotation basis among the five Angels, so any one could be the "leader", depending on shift patterns.

While I always had the feeling that Gerry had a soft spot for Destiny, ( which might be why she's the "chief Angel" in NCS ) she certainly didn't hog the limelight in the original series. If anything, that might have been Symphony, which was fine by me because she was always my favourite. In fact, the only one who was a little neglected was OCS Harmony.

It was pretty even-handed for the most part, which I admit is absent from NCS. I wonder if Gerry and the script-writers were so entranced with the idea of the "love triangle" with Scarlet, Black and Destiny, that they didn't concentrate enough on the other characters.

Having said that, it was coming, I think - you could see by the end of the second series that all concerned were hitting their stride and giving attention to other characters. It's been said before in so many other threads, but how wonderful if we could have had a third series!

[Intensity Angel]

Agreed that NCS needed a third series, especially with Capain Ochre coming into play as a main character as well as the other Angels coming into play a bit more. I reckon if Gerry Anderson had the option he would have, but projects like Captain Scarlet need funds and considering Gerry himself invested a lot of his own money into NCS and didn't have many backers, except for CITV and a couple of minor others (Nokia springs to mind), a third series wasn't financially viable. That is a great shame!

Off topic I agree,

Back on topic, I agree with the views of Captain Canary and Skybase Girl concerning the OC interceptors. Without clear numbers, there is no clear leader, admittedly it is clearer in NCS and I do agree with Skybase Girl that Destiny Angel gets more attention due to the focus on the love triangle. There's enough evidence in the NCS episodes to suggest it.

It's a shame CITV took down the official NCS site as there was a wealth of information on it. I have some screencaps kicking about, I'll have a look for them.

[captain canary]

Yeah, CITV are a pain. Thanks to them, there's not much infrmation online, now.

[Skybase Girl]

That's true. The original site has gone, unfortunately. Even the second, vastly limited site set up doesn't seem to exist anymore. There were only a few of the expected comics produced and none of the promised annuals materialised. Most of the merchandise disappeared within a few months and can now only be found on ebay.

A sad end to what might might have been a really good series and a regeneration for Gerry Anderson himself. The whole venture seems to have been blighted with really bad luck. The lack of publicity and poor broadcasting decisions by ITV were only the half of it, I believe. There were many other investment and production issues that contributed to its ultimate descent into obscurity.

I still believe the premise is excellent and have on my wish list the hope that someone, somewhere ( Stephen Moffat, Ron Moore, Glen Larsen, James Parriot and David E Kelley, are you listening?) will take it and make something wonderful of it in live action.

Wandering off topic again, I know - this has all been said before in other threads. But still.... its a nice thought.