Yeah, I know it’s just a kid’s show, but I figure that somebody here might be an expert on the subject anyway. I’ve always been rather fond of Gerry Anderson’s shows, evern since I saw Supercar as a kid.
A few years ago (when I still had access to such things) I would occasionally see Captain Scarlet on the Sci Fi Network. This guy was supposed to be indestructible, but it was never really spelled out, except in the title tune. Who was Captain Scarlet and just what was it he did for a living?I thought I saw one episode where he was apparently killed at the end (not ripped to shreds, just unconscious and buried under tons of rubble). Was he really indestructible?
The thing is he’s not the original Captain Scarlet, he’s an indestructible duplicate made by the Mysterons, but their control over the duplicate got broke somehow so he ended up with the original Captain Scarlet’s personality, but he’s not the original, but he has the original’s personality now. But he’s not the original.
Or that’s what a fifteen-second Google established, anyway.
Funny, I spent at least 20 minutes googling the same subject and could not find any of that information. Of course, it may have been that every site I managed to find assumed that EVERYONE knows all about Captain Scarlet and just wants to know when he’s on? Can anyone add more information?
I Googled “Why is Captain Scarlet indestructible?” Threw up a fansite then Wikipedia, then a bunch of other stuff. I only looked at the fansite. Actually Wikipedia, now that I look at it, suggests that the Scarlet wandering around on earth may or may not be the original body, but that the point is not touched on in the series, and that lots of people in the show don’t seem to know he’s indestructible. It seems fair to assume according to their info that he WAS replaced with a duplicate, cos his dead body was shown in the first episode, but I suppose they could have been controlling the original body.
Maybe that’s how come they’re in control of Captain Black. Are they? I can’t remember. But he was the bad guy.
I did find out the information about Captain Black, but the only clue that I have about Captain Scarlet’s indestructibility is the theme song. I only saw a few episodes, and the only evidence of this “indestructibility” was that even though he was killed in the episode I saw, he was back, good as new in another episode, with no references being made to his previous (apparent) demise.
I saw a few minutes of one episode, that ended with him crashing a space shuttle before it launched, and the final shot was of him lying in the rubble bleeding all over the place. From what I gathered in a short scene with a doctor, it’s not really that he’s indestructable, just that he heals from whatever wounds he receives. So, technically, he dies everytime he’s thrown off a building, mauled by a shark, or whatever other cute scenarios they draw him in in the closing credits. So although I don’t have any proof to back it up, I believe if you shoot him, he gets a hole in him and bleeds out, but then wakes up a little while later. Kinda like the immortals from Highlander. They have a tape at one of the local video stores, maybe I’ll go get it sometime and give you more info then if nothing else shows up.
Thanks! Our local video stores seem to be “Captain Scarlet-less”, as it were. Heck, they don’t even know what you’re talking about when you say “Captain Scarlet” (“Have you tried our Adult section?” ) I suspect that even in video form a lot of the Gerry Anderson stuff doesn’t get wide distribution here in the states.
Captain Scarlet (real name Paul Metcalfe) is an operative of Spectrum – a security force of the mid-21st Century World Government, answerable directly to the World President.
Spectrum is based in an aircraft carrier-sized floating aerial platform hovering 40,000 feet above the Earth and is commanded by ex-World Navy Admiral Charles Gray, code-named Colonel White. Other operatives include Captains Blue, Grey, Ochre and Magenta, Lieutenant Green and Dr Fawn. Also based at Cloubase are a fleet of high-speed Viper fighter jets and their female pilots, known as the Angels, who are code-named Harmony, Melody, Rhapsody, Symphony and Destiny.
The story begins when a Spectrum mission to investigate mysterious transmissions from Mars, led by Captain Black (Conrad Turner) discovers an alien complex on the martian surface. Believing that they are being attacked by the aliens, Captain Black orders the destruction of the alien base.
However, the aliens who constructed the base – the Mysterons – have a means of re-creating matter called “retro-metabolism” and are able to immediately rebuild their city and declare war on Earth in revenge.
They take over Captain Black who becomes their chief agent on Earth and then engineer the death of Captain Scarlet, creating a retro-metabolising double under their control in an attempt to assasinate the World President. This double is “killed” during the attempt, but comes back to life, now no longer under the control of the Mysterons, but still with the power of retro-metabolism. This means that Captain Scarlet retains his original personality but that while his body can be destroyed, it is instantly re-created each time.
Hope that helps.
Source: Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation Cross-Sections by Graham Bleathman
Have y’all seen the episode where the Angel interceptors get Mysteronized? very creepy, though it works better if you’re ten years old. It’s not quite the same once you’re past thirty
There’s also the episode where one of the Angels is wounded after being shot down and dreams of a direct attack on the Skybase by the Mysterons. Everyone dies, including Cpt. Scarlet.
Col. White: How is Captain Scarlet?
Doctor: He’s dead sir.
Col. White: Well, tell him to get up here as soon as possible.
Doctor: No sir, I mean he’s dead!
Of course, one wonders if the code names were handed out like Resevoir Dogs:
“Captain Ochre? What the hell color is Ochre? Isn’t that like being Captain Piss?”
And the structure is a tad middle heavy: One Colonel, a dozen captain, and a single Luitenant. Plus four Angels and a bunch of guys who look after the cars.
If you’re thinking of starting a fan club, it sez ’ere their real names were: Chan Kwan, Magnolia Jones, Dianne Simms, Karen Wainwright and Juliette Pontoin.
More information (though possibly not their phone numbers, since they haven’t been born yet) is available for the cost of a google.
I think it’s pretty clear that The Mysterons can destroy the earth any time they feel like it. They’re just fucking with us. First of all, they go ahead and announce what they’re up to, with a spooky light show and everything. You can almost hear their friends snickering in the background. “People of Earth, this is the voice of The Mysterons. We have planted a bomb in a green van parked right next to the Grand Canyon. It will blow up the whole planet unless somebody gets into the van and drives it off into the canyon. It’s not locked and the keys are in the ignition.”
“People of Earth, this is the Voice of the Mysterons. We have devised an earthquake generating machine that is tied to an industrial sausage press at the weiner factory in Muncie. Millions of your Earth Hoosiers will die unless somebody throws himself in the gears.”
Captain scarlet was retro-metabolised by the Mysterons (i.e. 'duplicated) when the original Scarlet was killed in a road accident. The Mysterons intended to use him to abduct the World President, but he was defeated by other Spectrum agents (I forget which) - he took a fall from some sort of futuristic aerial car park, but didn’t die; when he recovered, he was no longer controlled by the Mysterons and he was indestructible.
I get the impression that the indestructibility is not a normal side-effect of the retro-metabolism process, as that seemed to be in use nearly every episode - other duplicates of other characters appear quite mortal.
Hmm, I had never heard of Captian Scarlet and then Googled to find it’s another of those weird Thunderbird things. Those must have been much more popular in the UK. But the BBC site I found says:
Ditto. Never heard of 'im, but this thread inspired me to do some googling of my own. For some reason I’m really interested in the whole thing now despite having never liked Thunderbirds that much. Wouldn’t mind picknig up the DVDs some day just to see an ep, because I’m sure I’ll never find it anywhere else in the U.S… I’m surprised they didn’t try to bring it back when they had the Thunderbirds revival in the early 90’s.
In the earlier Supermarionation shows, the solenoid that controlled the mouth movements was kept inside the puppet heads, hence why they had such disproportionately shaped heads to their bodies. But Captain Scarlet marked a change, when they started keeping the solenoid in the bodies, and could now make the heads smaller.
So not only is it more of the same funky SciFi stuff, but it’s slightly more realistic than Troy Tempest or Joe90.
Though the Joe90 concept has been used a few times in other TV shows and movies…
) I suspect that even in video form a lot of the Gerry Anderson stuff doesn’t get wide distribution here in the states.