A ‘Captain Scarlet
and the Mysterons’ multi-parts story
By Chris Bishop
AUTHOR’S
NOTES TO READERS
(who are not obligated to read them – but hey, you
might find them interesting!)
When I started this story, at the end of March 2005,
for the
Multiverse Challenge, I never intended for it to be this long. At the beginning, it was supposed to be a
five-part story. But as it is often
the case when writing – especially a multi-levelled, multi-part story like this
one – you find out that you need more room to explain the situation in which
your characters find themselves in.
Not only that, by [but] these characters often have the tendency
to take over your story and develop it their own way! They are very difficult to control, these
characters, especially when they are as stubborn as those inhabiting the Captain
Scarlet universe!
That said, the story mainly
went the way I had originally envisaged it – albeit with more details and few
minor changes to it. I’ve always
been interested in mythology, for nearly as long as I can remember. Greek/Roman, Arthurian, Norse… even going as far as including modern
‘super-hero’ mythology in that list – after all, comic books stories are but the
modern extension of those fantasy stories of the past, where powerful gods ruled
the universe, and mighty heroes
fought unimaginable threats to Humanity, facing villains and monsters alike… Not that different than any super-hero in
any comic strip!
Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons,
created for television, and polished through time with details added by various
media (press releases, magazines, annuals, comic strip stories, articles,
various books, audio-adventures… and even fan fiction to some extent…) certainly
has its own mythology, with its own ‘demi-god-like’
invincible hero and his loyal companions, its warrior-like women, riding their
‘white steeds’ to battle, its god-like figure – all of them fighting the
‘invisible forces of evil’, themselves embodied by their most malevolent agent –
who once been on the side of good. Classic mythology, straight out of the History’s traditional tales.
While over the years we have often heard talk of
similarity between the world of Captain Scarlet and the Christian religion
(Cloudbase/Heaven, White/God, Scarlet/Jesus Christ, Black/Lucifer, the Angels, etc.),
and although I do not deny such comparison – which fully demonstrates once again
the relationship between the series and traditional folklore anyway – I myself
found there was also some aspects of the series which bore some
surprising similarities with the Norse myths.
So was born the idea for this story. It took a number of years to
actually overcome the many difficulties presented by the task of writing it - to find a proper plot that will take
our favourite heroes in the Land of the Vikings, to explain their often
out-of-characters behaviour – to make it believable, they had to act like
warlike barbarians, in a fantasy world which was not their own, and at the same
time, it was essential that these characters would still remain the same
characters we all knew from the series – that their own personalities would show
themselves through these ‘roles’ they were forced to play – and that they will
eventually come back to their senses and their own world.
It was when the idea that they would all be brought
into a 3D-Game – which came through a chat with friends, although I don’t
remember it what circumstances it came up exactly – that finally overcome the last problem of
putting the characters into the needed settings.
As for the rest… the Mysterons have powers no-one of us
can hope to comprehend…
The ‘Network’ and ‘Dream
Spinner’ ideas are my own, and first made their appearance in the story Spectrum is White, some events of
which are referred in the last chapter of this story. It’s also in Spectrum is White that it is
revealed to the readers that Doctor Fawn has known for a long time that Captain
Scarlet and Rhapsody Angel are a couple – a ‘secret’ that Colonel White also
knows, but has taken very good care not to reveal so far. This story is therefore set
after the events in Spectrum is White and those in A Symphony in Blue, in which Captain
Blue and Symphony Angel are officially engaged.
The Network will make a reappearance in future
stories.
The relationship between Captain Blue and Symphony is,
of course, canon, being hinted at in some episodes, while the relationship
between Captain Scarlet and Rhapsody Angel is semi-canon, inspired by hints in
stories from Century 21 books (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, by John
Teydon, and the graphic novel, The Angels. Mary J. Rudy developed the relationship in many of her stories, and other
fan fiction authors – including myself – followed. The stormy relationship between Captain
Ochre and Melody Angel is not canon, and had been suggested before in my short story Master of the Night. The relationship appears to take a further step in this
story. But who knows? With Ochre and Melody, there is really
nothing that definite… Time will
tell.
The story
of Captain Scarlet’s past relationship with another woman – which ended badly…
is still in the work. It
will be for another time, promised!
My thanks to Marion Woods, who acted as ‘test
reader’ throughout the writing of this story, and whose comments have been
useful, and to my beta-reader, Hazel Köhler, without whom this story
will only be a jumble of words without sense.
You performed an invaluable task, Hazel, and I will be eternally
grateful.
Also thanks to Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, and
all those who worked with them, for the creation of the Captain Scarlet and the
Mysterons series.
Finally, thanks to you, the readers, for reading this –
with or without the author’s notes!
CHAPTER 1 –
CHAPTER 2 –
CHAPTER 3 –
CHAPTER 4 –
CHAPTER 5 –
CHAPTER 6 -
MULTIVERSE
CHALLENGE PAGE
“FAN FICTION ARCHIVES” PAGE
“Captain Scarlet and the
Mysterons” ©, is the creation of Gerry Anderson and Sylvia
Anderson, and the rights of the
classic series, once owned by Century 21, ITC/Polygram and now by Carlton
International.