Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

I do wonder what this show would have been like if it had been an hour long, like "Thunderbirds". That would have given them the chance to show some personal interactions with the characters. For example, doesn't it seem strange that every member of Cloudbase immediately accepted this indestructible, alien copy of their colleague Paul Metcalfe with open arms? It's understandable that, in a state of war, they would be prepared to use this "valuable asset" from a military standpoint, but personally, you'd think they'd be a little leery of him for a while, at least. The closest they came to touching on this was the second episode, when Captain Blue was asked if Scarlet would be accompanying him. He answered, "I hardly think so," but it could have been that Blue thought Scarlet wasn't ready to leave Sickbay yet.



Longer episodes could also have given them the chance to answer a question most viewers probably had--namely, why didn't any of the other retro-metabilized copies regain their self-awareness after getting killed for a second time? They made a point of the fact that the copied Captain Scarlet died in an 800 ft fall, but in the episode "Place of Angels" the Mysteron agent also died in a spectacular fall, and she didn't come back. It seems a reasonable hypothesis that the Mysterons, having seen what happened to Captain Scarlet, and not wanting to gift the world with an army of indestructible, Earth-loyal men and women, somehow altered their technique of retro-metabilization so that what happened to Scarlet would not happen again.



Another little point--their radio caps. That was a really cool idea, and even more plausible now than it was back then. Captain Blue explained in one episode how, when Cloudbase signalled him, his epaulettes flashed and his transmitter dropped down in front of his mouth. That's fine and dandy, but how does the cap know when its owner wishes to initiate a transmission? Pretty smart cap. Kind of like the automatic doors of "Star Trek" which somehow knew when an approaching person would change his mind about going through, and obligingly remain closed.



That having been said, it was a marvelous series. The special effects are still effective decades later, and the miniatures were exquisite. There's an excellent bit that's shown in every episode during the credits. Captain Black is shown last in the credits, and then the scene bounces back and forth, with Black's face coming nearer and nearer the camera. His eyes seem to be staring right at you, with a creepy smile--or maybe it only seems like he's smiling. It's a very unnerving shot if you concentrate on it.

This episode has to be a classic not only of the Captain Scarlet series which it kicks off, but of all Supermarionation shows. It's not every show or any genre that kills off the title character in the first five minutes and things just get better when he's killed again at the end of the episode. If that wasn't enough, he's killed by another star, Captain Blue.



I really like the semi-continuity with Thunderbirds through the use of the Zero-X MEV from the Thunderbirds Are Go movie. I'd have liked to have seen a bit more on the human Captain Black though. This really is a great episode and perfect way of starting the series as it introduces nearly all the characters, equipment and what Spectrum and the Mysterons will be doing over the rest of the series.