New Characters - names and changes
Moderator: Spectrum Strike Force
...and since any Captain Scarlet is better than no Captain Scarlet, I think we'd better do our best to like it.
Gee... Does Gerry thinks us desperate enough for new Captain Scarlet stories that we would accept anything that would be thrown at us?!
I'll take an easy example of what might happen here. Remember - any of you - when you discovered fanfic of your favorite character(s) on the web. Remember how you started reading EVERYTHING that you came across. Good stories or bad stories. As you found more and more of those stories online, you started to make a selection and read only the good ones... You almost automatically discarded the rest, and probably didn't give them a second thought afterward (Or came back a couple of times, out of curiosity).
In other words:
This new series, albeit different, has better be good, if the producers want people to watch it. And more to the point: old fans are already being very critical about the changes, so it WILL HAVE to be good to keep them interested.
We're not THAT desperate for just anything.
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chrisbishop
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But I think we ought not to fool ourselves into thinking that we matter too much to the creators of the new series. For every one of us here that's muttering darkly under our breath, they'll be looking for ten thousand brand new fans who will be far more interested in the high-speed car chases and the dazzling zap-guns than in whether Rhapsody's real name is Dianne or Caroline. As I said earlier, I strongly suspect that most people - including a lot of fans of all ages - neither know nor care.
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Clya Brown
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Caption Game results.
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Captain Indigo
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...As I said earlier, I strongly suspect that most people - including a lot of fans of all ages - neither know nor care.
Wanna bet?
Captain Scarlet's real, DIE HARD fans are as numerous as Thunderbirds's fans... and some of them were pretty PEEVED by the changes in the new movie (remember that one?). And YET, the TB movie DIDN'T have as many changes as there are in the upcoming new Scarlet series. That much is obvious.
I'm not saying NOT to give the new series a chance, Doc (I'm repeating myself, I know). To the contrary. All I'm saying is DO NOT KILL AND BURY THE CLASSIC SERIES. There IS place for two CS series, and EVERYONE will find what he/she likes in any of them.
And DO TRUST people to make the difference. They're perfectly able to do it.
On another point: the classic will always be the original one. NOTHING can change that, and NOBODY should try to convince me that I should dismiss all of it.
Or they are Mysterons, and I have what it takes here to DEAL with them...
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chrisbishop
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This would be because both companies - the owners of the original and the new one - especially the new one - would be keen to protect the merchandising rights to the toys and goods that the interest in the new series will generate.
Gerry Anderson owns no rights to his former Tv productions - he is as bound by the legal limitations as any one else would be.
He may have decided to change the people, as well as the machinery, for any number of reasons (I happen to think he's made the wrong decision) but he may have had no other choice.
Ultimately - we can do nothing about it - we don't have to like it (and I don't) but we will see a new, different Captain Scarlet on our TVs.
We should be able to have the imagination to project our real favourites into the roles, if we want to... or consider it as a CS of the future or from an alternative universe - or whatever it takes.
It will (I hope) be good and exciting. It will different and that is what is hard to stomach.
Regarding fan-fiction - I have spent too many years and far too much time, getting involved with the relationship between an American from Boston and his American girlfriend (from Iowa) to change now. If any new readers wonder who Karen Wainwright is - that can't be helped - I don't see myself suddenly having her dressed in a kimono and eating sushi - unless its some spicy role playing of course... damn characters have their own ways of slipping these details in
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Marion
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And I'll be happy to take that bet of yours, Chris. If I may make a confession, I wasn't aware of Captain Grey's real name myself before I looked it up on this very site - and I think of myself as a fairly hard-bitten fan of the series - so it seems to me unlikely that such things should be regarded as common knowledge among even the die-hards. I think I'd expect almost all serious fans to know the code names of all the characters on Cloudbase, plus the two real names that were used routinely in the original series, i.e. Paul Metcalfe and Adam Svenson. Having said that, I reckon the real name of even one of the Angels would be worth at least £250,000 on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", and the real name of Ochre, Grey, Magenta or Fawn could well be worth the jackpot - roughly on a par with "From which planet did Zoonie the Lazoon originate?"
[BTW: To all Fireball XL5 fans - please don't bother to email me the name of Zoonie's home planet. I'm sad enough actually to know the answer to that question. ]
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Clya Brown
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It is certainly possible that FAB made a mistake with the Angels' nationalities - but surely if they wanted to make the point that this is not the original series using aliases - a major change of nationality between characters is the way to do it - just like poor Ochre and Green got transmogrified into females. It makes people take notice - look at all these comments
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Marion
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ROBE
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Let's face it, people... how many amongst us - and amongst all other fans - wanted to see if there REALLY was something going on between the two and were somehow hoping that the new series would answer that question - and take it a little further?
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chrisbishop
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There were a lot of issues raised by the old series that were never properly addressed - and that it would be nice to have found the answer to them in the new series but I now doubt if we will. Still, it means that our fan fictions have as much validty as any other ideas floating around.
As to Destiny standing out from the others - she had her own slot on the opening credits - but she remained a shadowy figure in the actual episodes - it was Symphony who did most of the exciting stuff...
She also got (kinda) to romance Captain Blue - for which I may never forgive her....
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Marion
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Then maybe I don't want them to make that Stingray movie after all.
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TRK
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Good heavens, no! I never wanted to know if there was anything more in it. It's much more fun to speculate. The very essence of romance is uncertainty* - which is probably what made the Troy/Atlanta/Marina thing in Stingray interesting. I very much hope that the new Scarlet thing does work out, regardless of the pig's breakfast they've made of the names - quite simply because it could pave the way for other remakes too.
Incidentally, something I'm wondering about is just how long it'll be before CGI is literally indistinguishable from live action, and whether anybody might for example use the medium to reconstruct the lost episodes from Doctor Who, using the original soundtracks and the still photographs taken at the time as a guide. The possibilities are endless - and I imagine a lot of graphical software companies will be watching this enterprise to see how it goes down with the viewing public.
[* Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest. Mind you, what he actually said was... "I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If I ever get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact." Perhaps not quite the attitude we'd expect Blue and Symphony to adopt, though it could make for some interesting fan-fiction after the event.]
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Clya Brown
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The stuff works for me though because the series is grittier, psychologically darker and way more realistic than the 'almost' camp original not too mention that the enemy is now much more complex and three-dimensional.
Of course..original Captain Scarlet was pretty dark anyway..so..if the scriptwriters are worth their pay-packets..hopefully they'll come up with some sparkling stories to keep us glued to the box or plasma viewscreen...thats assuming they dont totally pander to the 4-9 generation...
I have also noted the obvious explosion of fan-fiction for the 2003 BG version..but also, interestingly, the increase in fan-fiction and interest in the ORIGINAL BG Series.
I expect something similar will occur for the CGI series, and I think it will CREATE and maintain interest for our Original
In a way, despite my initial sadness about the changes, especially to my fave Captain.. I feel in my gut that the new series will have me riveted. I think there's room for BOTH out there in Cyberspace...
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Carrie
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I can't see a Captain Scarlet that is light and bright - the subject doesn't lend itself to that - but one that is all mechanical hardware and 'shoot-to-kill-men' will be awful : correction - even more awful - than one with a female Captain Ochre & Lt. Green - a Japanese Symphony and a Sloane Ranger Rhapsody.
Regarding more 'classic CS ' fan-fiction - all well and good - if we get stories of the calibre we've had on Chris's website recently.
There have been some marvellous stories this year!
And Christmas is coming - so even more stories to look forward to...
Now that is what I call a decent Christmas!
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Marion
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Those questions and many more have kept the old series alive for getting on for forty years, and people have been trying to write answers to all of them and many more throughout the same period. If the new series is going to last as long in its fans' hearts, it'll need to address the same sort of concerns. It's been said that you should never try to write down for children: I do hope the scriptwriters remember that.
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Clya Brown
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