Enigma

[Clya Brown]

I'm afraid I didn't actually care for it all that much. As Shaqui pointed out a few postings above, the Mysterons could just wipe us out with a small number of those 'ships' - bringing up yet again the question of why, with all the superior technology that is demonstrably at their command, they haven't already done so. Was the ship real? Probably not - so the Mysterons have now acquired yet another devastating weapon, namely the ability hopelessly to mix fact and fantasy in the minds of humans. Apply that capability to anyone on the Earth in command of any serious weaponry and you've got the makings of a catastrophe. Do it a few dozen times and you've got civilization in meltdown.

My other main complaint relates to the ending, about which I agree with Stevie P: it was a bit of a let-down. Given the apparent outcome, I'd have expected during the build-up to see Colonel White being forced to make decisions relating to the defence of Skybase that would be seen in hindsight to have permitted the Mysterons to achieve their objective. Instead, we have this business of the destruction of a sizeable proportion of the planet's oilfields being sprung on us completely out of the blue in the last reel. So how did the Mysterons achieve this? And what could Spectrum's top officers have been expected to do to prevent it if they weren't otherwise occupied chasing phantoms in the Australian desert? I feel these questions ought to have been addressed - because at the moment my impression is that Spectrum haven't got a snowflake's chance in hell of actually preventing the Mysterons from doing anything they want, wherever and whenever they feel like doing it.

Not for the first time, I find myself asking why Colonel White isn't desperately trying to sue for peace, as opposed to heroically attempting to fight a defensive war in the face of impossible odds. To put it another way, I'd be happier if the Mysterons weren't quite so omnipotent - because I find Spectrum's apparent successes to date in the face of that omnipotence a little less believable than I feel they should be.

[shaqui]

I know it has been discussed before on the forum that CITV are not showing the episodes in the order the production team 'intended' them to be shown - and (for what it is worth) this episode was listed as being number 19 in the schedule (as posted on TV Century 21 website).

Does anyone know the proposed running order of the new series? Neither the official site nor Fanderson have updated yet to included even episode titles...

[Marion]

No - nothing on Fanderson or the official site (no surprise that, of course...)
The only listing I have seen of the entire episodes is on the 'TV Century 21' site ( link below this...)
http://www.tvcentury21.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=314&Itemid=31
and even that's out of date as we've heard that ' House of Dolls' has been scrapped in favour of another - less scary - episode...

presspacks included a brief episode guide to the 26 episodes of season one,

That is what the site said about the provenance of the list they posted... always remembering that 'series 1' referes to the first 26 episodes, later split into 2 series of 13 episodes each...

[Chris C]

Doc Brown writes:

the Mysterons could just wipe us out with a small number of those 'ships' - bringing up yet again the question of why, with all the superior technology that is demonstrably at their command, they haven't already done so

Well assuming the ship was real, perhaps it suggests that the Mysterons themselves do not have access to unlimited power? What if it is now going to take them another year (or 10 episodes) at least before they can generate enough energy to attempt another stunt like that? Surely the war is a 'war of nerves' because neither side possess the ability to totally destroy the other(and because otherwise we would have ended up with one very short episode of Captain Scarlet)?!

[Marion]

Yes, it is noticable that Colonel White has used the description 'war of nerves' twice in the new 'series' - if I remember rightly. I don't think that phrase was used in the first 13 episodes....

I also have some questions about Mysteron technology. After all, on Mars Black initially destroys one little probe or weapon . Somehow that incident triggers the destruction of the entire Mysteron city....
It was never made clear in the opening episode what the advancing missile was, and although Scarlet says - they're scanning us - in 'Enigma' - it begs the question - how does he KNOW that? Presumably the rebel Mysteron-faction (if such a thing exists) gave him the knowledge?

[Aegis]

Either that or the whole Mysteron "Your violence disgusts us" speech from Instrument of Destruction - I thought that made it pretty clear that whatever that "probe" was, it wasn't a weapon...

[Chris C]

Hmmm, yes, the Mysterons could hardly be 'hacked' (don't want to get censored again!!) off with us for shooting back at a missile after all!!

[Clya Brown]

Picking up Chris C's earlier observation about it being a war of nerves: yes, I wondered about that. It's only recently been concluded by Spectrum (within NCS, that is) that this IS a war of nerves, in which case it might be deduced that the Mysterons choose not to follow up whatever spectacular stunt they've pulled this week, as opposed to not being able to follow it up. Chris is suggesting as an alternative that perhaps the Mysterons don't have the power to repeat such stunts, which is a possibility, but this doesn't seem quite to ring true to me. The earlier episodes made it pretty clear that the Mysterons were perfectly serious about winning the war - in which case they'd surely set about doing that in as efficient a manner as they could. Doing less than that would be rather like a bunch of people discovering a wasps' nest hanging from the roof of their garage, and then having decided to destroy it, they set about poking holes in it with sticks, chucking stones at it, squirting acid at it etc etc - anything other than actually exterminating the occupants - which they're perfectly capable of doing if they put their minds to it. And in the meantime, the occupants are getting ever more irritated and increasingly vicious, though probably not actually any better equipped to save their nest from ultimate destruction.

What sort of logic is this? It seems to me that it's the course of action that a bunch of heavily armed but not particularly intelligent children might take - and it also suggests the two courses of action that Colonel White ought to be considering instead of trying to fight a defensive war: either wave a white flag and give up at once, or launch an all-out assault on the Mysteron complex before it's too late. It's been said that diplomacy is the art of saying "good doggy" until you can lay your hands on a rock - and it seems to me that Spectrum's battle-plan ought to reflect that piece of wisdom: the difficulty would be deciding if and when Spectrum has a big enough rock in its hands. If the assessment is never, then get on the radio at once and apologise!

[Chris C]

Hi Doc!

I'm afraid I found your post a bit confusing! You said "the earlier episodes made it pretty clear that the Mysterons were perfectly serious about winning the war - in which case they'd surely set about doing that in as efficient a manner as they could" But what ARE they doing? Going back to your analogy about not 'poking holes in the wasps' nest', it seems to me this is EXACTLY what the mysterons are doing, so does that not support the theory that they don't have the capability to do more rather than they choose not to?

Chris

[Clya Brown]

Hi Chris - sorry if I've been meandering a bit - I tend to do that. Yes, stirring up a wasps' nest is exactly what I'm saying the Mysterons are doing. What I'm asking myself is why, if they're actually serious about winning the war that they've declared, are they behaving in such an apparently erratic matter? If they're actually short of sufficient power to maintain a sustained offensive, wouldn't they be rather choosy about what types of assault to launch, instead of throwing up all these spectacular displays of their own capabilities?

It seems to me that while they're clearly technologically superior, they're not taking a mature view of the situation - so the normal rules of warfare (e.g. respect your adversary's intelligence and anticipate his actions; counter each new move while attempting to advance your own position etc) don't really apply as far as Spectrum is concerned. The Mysterons are behaving like a sadistic and heavily armed but rather stupid bully whose actions can't be anticipated and whose moods change with the wind. And there are basically two ways to deal with somebody like that: either give him what he wants and hope he'll go away, or thump him so hard that he'll never bother you again. Of course, we all know what we'd want Spectrum to do, but under the circumstances that looks less than feasible. Unless Shaqui's earlier analysis of the situation is correct ("I'm intrigued more than ever that the series is hopefully deeper in concept than we can imagine now"), I'd say the future looks pretty bleak for mankind.

Having said all that, it occurs to me that there is actually one interpretation of the Mysterons' actions that would make sense, namely that they're trying to frighten Spectrum into throwing in the towel by repeated and increasingly impressive demonstrations of their own technological superiority. The question of surrender came up once before in "Circles of Doom", but was never really explored: after all, nobody even contemplates surrender unless the terms of that surrender are clearly understood - and to our knowledge, the question of terms has never been addressed by either side.

So what would surrender imply? Spectrum would agree to deactivate all weapons and cease all operations against the Mysterons in exchange for... what? The Mysterons' agreement not to exterminate the human race - something they've already announced their intention of doing and of which they're clearly capable? Sounds okay to me! Or would Earth be agreeing to be run as a province of Mars? To date the Mysterons have never shown any interest in ruling the planet, so unless there's a hidden agenda lurking in the background, that's not it. But then, what other terms might the Mysterons demand that Spectrum would find unacceptable? At the very least it would be a good idea to have a chat with them. Not the sort of thing that makes for good action-adventure TV unless there's an explosive twist at the end (witness the OCS episode "Dangerous Rendezvous"), but an interesting and to my mind credible scenario to contemplate nonetheless.

[steviep]

Howabout....

The Mysterons are benign by nature, therefore, although they could wipe us out, they don't actually want to but would like to teach us a lesson that violence is ultimately futile? Otherwise, what would really be the point of a War of Nerves <tongue-in-cheek mode on>: apart from continuing the series... <tongue-in-cheek mode off> ?

Of course, they could have just made everything on the planet stop like in that film with the spaceship and the robot (I think it was called The Day A Spaceman Came And Made Everything Stop, or something )* but that wouldn't be as exciting.

* Yeah, I know.....

[Clya Brown]

Ah, you mean "The Day the Earth Stood Still"? Marvellous film. I have a feeling that was the one with the fabulous piece of dialogue which summed up the complexities of international politics for the alien's benefit in a single line: "There are the forces of good and evil on this planet - and we are the forces of good." Perhaps if Colonel White were to explain to the Mysterons that they are the forces of evil and that Spectrum are the forces of good, they'll just give up - because good always triumphs in the end*!

[* By the simple expedient of being the side that writes the history books. And they still say that violence is futile?]

[Lieutenant Green]

The series continues to go from strength to strength and these first 3 episodes in the second season make it look like it really is a new season of the show. It's as though the whole production team disbanded after the first 13 episodes and then came back 12 months later to start work on the series again.

Enigma was another strong episode and yet complex at the same time. It took me a couple of extra viewings to fully understand it. The storyline could have been used in a live action sci-fi drama. How then do ITV expect kids to understand it if the series is scheduled in a purely kids timeslot?

In the Cult TV 2005 Awards, NCS is nominated TWICE in the category 'Hall of Shame - Worst Scheduling 2004/5'. - http://www.cult.tv/index.php?cm_id=579&cm_type=article. It is also nominated for 'Best Returning Terrestrial Series' and 'Best New Title Sequence'.

Maybe if we all vote for one or more of the nominated categories, the series could turn out to win at least one of the awards. Perhaps the info can then be brought to the attention of ITV as a damning indictment of how they have treated the show.

[shaqui]

Kim Stevens, my co-producer at GACCH, brought up a point about the episode which went over the heads of everyone here, myself included...

Ochre shoots Blue, then time seems to replay and he is still alive - but what other circumstances are there when someone is killed, then reappears unharmed?

If the Mysterons weren't playing with time... has Blue in fact been retrometabolised, as a sleeper agent?

[Chris C]

Sorry for wandering off topic here a bit, but since Captain Blue has just been mentioned, does anyone else think he's been overdoing it at the gym recently??!