Wish List for Third and Fourth Seasons of NCS

[Father Unwin]

Hello Chris,

In all sincerity, I think that your storyline would make for an astonishingly good episode - tense and spine-tingling. The idea of a serum preventing Mysteronisation is great - the Mysterons would be desperate to stop it.

In my view, there were only 2 other episodes that you couldn't take your eyes off because "you just had to see what was going to happen" and your story would make another. The others I had in mind were Rat Trap and Enigma.

[Chris C]

Father Unwin, those were kind words indeed.

Thankyou!

[steviep]

StevieP: Check out this story presently online: Parallax View (by your truly. And wait until next year's Dark Horizons - which had been announced for the past year or so and that I didn't have time to write much of.

Yeah, I know... Shameless advertising from my part

A lot of Classic Scarlet fanfic use the subject of parallel universes and such. One of the most interesting probably being the multi-parts Synchronicity, by Marion Woods. It's a very good read, and I suggest it strongly.

Ooooh - that's a spooky coincidence; I didn't pinch your story, honest!

Guess I'll have to try for something more original....

Captain Scarlet is vacationing with his brother, Alex, in Indonesia. His brother is a naturalist, monitoring a nest of Komodo Dragons. Unfortunately, Scarlet gets a little too close and one of the lizards attacks him. His brother comes to the rescue but is bitten badly on the arm. Both are airlifted to the nearest hospital but it is remote and primitive. Scarlet's injuries heal quickly to the astonishment of the medical staff but Alex has fallen into a coma, due to the infection raging through his system. A doctor tests the brothers' blood groups, finds a match and urges Scarlet to allow a transfusion between himself and his brother; he agrees. Scarlet's mysteronised blood soon helps Alex recover but things take a turn for the worse when Alex returns to the UK. While hosting a presentation on ecology in front of the UN president and other dignatories, he suddenly grabs the president and locks him in a side room. Alex's body is undergoing a change. The mysteronised blood cells, free from Scarlet's own will have reverted to Mysteron control and are turning Alex's body into a human bomb. Scarlet and a team of Spectrum agents are sent to the scene and Scarlet has to disable his brother before it's too late. Can Alex's bad blood be purged in time?

This story touches on the subject of whether Scarlet's retrometabolism can be passed to others. I've no doubt something very similar has been written already!

[shaqui]

Well, as 'Dominion' has now aired prematurely, I'll have some thoughts relating to where the 3rd season could/may go from here now...

[shaqui]

Dominion - lovely end of season closure, only marred by its brevity.

Of course, it leaves the question of whether the conflict with the Mysterons is over or not. Had the series been a success (and Gerry Anderson has revealed even if it sells in the US, production time would delay any new series for nearly two years now), and the Mysterons deemed by the audiences as a good foe, then there is opportunity to bring them back. If the series was a success, and the Mysterons given the thumbs down, then a new threat could be introduced. This certainly opens up possibilities regarding explaining how Spectrum came about, and so forth.

I agree with earlier comments about more two-parters, though don't think the series should be flooded with them. 'Dan Dare' aired as all two-parters, and didn't do that well (though whether that was a defining contribution is another matter). I quite like the pace the 22 minute format gives some episodes - cuts to the chase, and eliminates a lot of crap. Fan fic writers could learn from that...

Opening out the world of Scarlet. Obviously we're limited timewise, and I think the production did a good job of varying the scenery, but we still know little of the world of '2068' (or whenever). There's a lot of potential still...

Characterisation - lot of scope but needs to be tied to a plot. Loved the Scarlet/Black interplay in 'Best in Enemies'. Be nice if another two-hander could be done between two Spectrum characters in the context of a threat in an episode.

Arcs - mmmm, like the idea of short ones (a la 'Enterprise) but can we now (with the 'Dominion' cock-up) be assured episodes will air in the right order?

[Toropiusu]

Captain Scarlet and the Yellow Triangles from Pluto!

[nice_captainscarlet]

i don't want another series of "Paul, Adam, Conrad, Eileen" etc

i would'nt mind another series of "Captain Scarlet" though

[Kinggodzillak]

I haven't had a problem with them using each other's names...let's face it, they would do that. Calling each other "Scarlet, Blue, Ochre," etc would just get silly. I think they got the balance right.

[Clya Brown]

I think they would, too. I'd also have no difficulty believing that they wouldn't be consistent about it either: we've never actually heard the first name of an Angel being used in conversation as far as I can remember, but then when the code names are that exotic, who would bother to use their real ones? I can easily believe that you'd probably end up with one rule for the mostly male colour captains and another for the all-female aerial strike force in such circumstances.

But as a general point, let's face it - it is just stretching credibility a bit to believe that an organisation that gave all its senior operatives names that are all the colours of the rainbow could ever be taken at all seriously. I reckon I'd think twice about joining any organisation that used such daft pseudonyms on a regular basis - particularly a top-notch military one. It would be like dressing up senior officers of the paras or the SAS in an assortment of reds, yellows, greens, blues and purples, giving them names to match and then expecting them to be able to command respect both within their own ranks and among the general public, when most peoples' reaction would be to gawp at them and giggle about how the colours clash. However, I suppose that's just one of the little suspensions of disbelief that one has to impose on oneself in order to enjoy the series.

[Chris C]

But as a general point, let's face it - it is just stretching credibility a bit to believe that an organisation that gave all its senior operatives names that are all the colours of the rainbow could ever be taken at all seriously. I reckon I'd think twice about joining any organisation that used such daft pseudonyms on a regular basis - particularly a top-notch military one. It would be like dressing up senior officers of the paras or the SAS in an assortment of reds, yellows, greens, blues and purples, giving them names to match and then expecting them to be able to command respect both within their own ranks and among the general public, when most peoples' reaction would be to gawp at them and giggle about how the colours clash. However, I suppose that's just one of the little suspensions of disbelief that one has to impose on oneself in order to enjoy the series.

But Doc, that's all part of what makes the series so unique and so appealing! Captain Scarlet is (virtually!) indestructible, he works for and organisation called Spectrum, and they fight the Mysterons. I'm sorry, but if you take Spectrum away, and the Mysterons, Shaqui, then you no longer have Captain Scarlet. The whole premise of the series means you have to suspend your disbelief, it is a fantasy!!

[Clya Brown]

Oh, fear not - I've no problem suspending my disbelief occasionally! Not when for the last 40 years I've been avidly watching this guy with two hearts who changes his body every so often, then goes wandering around the universe in a police box that's bigger on the inside than the outside, righting wrongs wherever he finds them by cheerfully blowing up fleets of alien spaceships left right and centre whilst meticulously striving to avoid changing the course of history. If you can manage to fit that into your mental landscape without giving yourself a headache then finding room for another bunch of guys in pretty uniforms plus a quintet of young ladies with musical names who all live in the sky together and save the Earth every week from a civilisation of invisible bullies who amuse themselves by photocopying dead humans is childs' play!

[steviep]

But as a general point, let's face it - it is just stretching credibility a bit to believe that an organisation that gave all its senior operatives names that are all the colours of the rainbow could ever be taken at all seriously. I reckon I'd think twice about joining any organisation that used such daft pseudonyms on a regular basis - particularly a top-notch military one. It would be like dressing up senior officers of the paras or the SAS in an assortment of reds, yellows, greens, blues and purples, giving them names to match and then expecting them to be able to command respect both within their own ranks and among the general public, when most peoples' reaction would be to gawp at them and giggle about how the colours clash. However, I suppose that's just one of the little suspensions of disbelief that one has to impose on oneself in order to enjoy the series.

This why I think they'd have a job to make Captain Scarlet in a live action format. Can you imagine Captains Magenta and Blues' outfits for real? And what about Colonel White's and the Angels' laundry bills? (though if clone and stormtroopers can get away with it...) I think they'd have to change the look. After all, as Cyclops of X-Men fame said: "What do you expect us to wear - yellow spandex?"

[Clya Brown]

Just to add to my earlier reply to Chris C for a second (and joking aside) I think the point I was trying to make here was that there are really two areas in which you have to suspend your disbelief: one is the technology; the other is human nature. Suspension of disbelief with regards technology is relatively easy: the writer creates it himself; it does whatever he wants it to do, and the audience - if they're broad-minded enough - cheerfully accepts it. The propulsion system of Skybase is a case in point; the incomprehensible powers of the Mysterons are another. But humans are rather different - we know how they behave and react in situations with which we're familiar. Humans don't change their nature much: and one generation is probably as likely to giggle at an ostentatious uniform as the next one, particularly if they can't see any particular reason for it. And I have to admit that I never really saw any good reason for the system of colour-coding that Spectrum uses, much less why they apply it so comprehensively and literally to the uniforms.

I suspect we didn't think too much about it when Captain Scarlet first appeared, because it followed in the tradition of earlier sci-fi series in which the characters, by some remarkable coincidence, all had names vaguely related to their jobs: Doctor Beaker, Steve Zodiac, Professor Mat Matic (oh, I always loved that one!), Troy Tempest and Atlanta Shore, to name but a few. However, kids have matured a little in their outlook since the original series, and I feel it would have been useful for one of the characters early on in the series to outline in passing (for the benefit of the viewers) a rationale for the choice of coding. It would have helped me to suspend my disbelief just a little more comfortably, I think.

[Chris C]

I read that when Gerry first thought up the idea for Captain Scarlet, he started with Captain Scarlet thinking it sounded a cool name, then progressed to thinking why don't the Captains all have colours assigned to them, then thought Spectrum would make a good name for the organisation they worked for.

So what sort of rational explanation could anyone give for sticking dare-devil Captains in such ridiculous colours as lilac and magenta ??!!

[shaqui]

I'm sorry, but if you take Spectrum away, and the Mysterons, Shaqui, then you no longer have Captain Scarlet.

Well I would disagree on that count. TV21 did try to have a Captain Scarlet strip after the defeat of the Mysterons - I think the premise had legs but the story was... well, crap to be frank.

The original series was called 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' but the new one isn't. I was simply mooting the point that if the Mysterons were not seen as a good adversary to have on childrens' TV in this day in age (and I'm referring to the death and violence that the writers have to skirt around a fair bit), then the series could reboot with a different threat, in light of the ambiguous ending of 'Dominion'. It's up to the writers whether they make it any good or not...