New Characters - names and changes
Moderator: Spectrum Strike Force
What it also does is -apparantly - end the confusion over which characters have been 'surgically altered' for the series.
Here goes:
CS = Paul Metcalfe (phew!)
CB = Adam Svenson (son of a 3 star general )
Destiny = Simone Giraudoux
Col White = Sir Charles Grey
Lt Green = Serena Lewis
CB = Conrad Lefkon
Dr Gold = Dr Mason Frost
Harmony Angel = Rebecca Drake
Melody Angel = Esther Jackson
Rhapsody Angel = Caroline Foster-Finch (I suspect not much change there )
Symphony Angel = Yoko Inukai (looks like a swap with Harmony?)
Capt Ochre = Elaine McGee ( )
Captain Grey = Ian Taggart (Scottish not American)
Capt Magenta = Mario Moro (Italian not Irish)
Capt Indigo = John Roach
There will also be a Lt Silver (Green's deputy) Capt Brown & Capt Orange - who are yet to be named, according to FAB.
Scarlet's biog gives him an English mother (he was still born in Winchester) who was an astro-physicist and an American father - called Tom Metcalfe - who was the first man on Mars. Scarlet wanted to follow his Dad and studied astro-physics too before he joined the US airforce and the US special forces (where Black was his second in command) before Spectrum and he has 'feelings' for the girl of his best-friend - Black being the friend and Destiny being the girl.
Blue is still a Scandinavian-American - (with a history that goes back to the Vikings - which we knew already ) his family have a 'long and glorious military tradition'. He grew up in Texas. He did enter the military - and won a Purple Heart - General Svenson - a friend of Col White - wanted him to join Spectrum but intially he refused - suspecting he was only asked because of whose son he was. It says: Blue fights hard and parties harder. A first class sportsman who likes to have a good time, especially with the ladies.
There is oodles more info - but I don't have time to read and type it all now!
I wonder if we'll get to like it?
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Marion
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ROBE
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NAH!!!!! I'm not....
Well, I guess this puts the female Captain Ochre and Lt. Green situation into perspective. And I guess also we should have seen it coming...although why didn't they just go the whole hog and change Scarlet, Blue and White's alter-egos too if they really wanted to sever the ties with the original series?
I'm still reeling from the shock...
Symphony..Japanese???
Grey - Scottish? well..nice to see more ethnic variety..guess they went for the Sir Sean Connery ticket again???
I'm still very interested in watching the new series but I refuse to abandon my childhood heroes and heroines for a bunch of shiny new ones!!!
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Carrie
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Caption Game results.
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Captain Indigo
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My first reaction to the above, is : Huh? What for? Why?
This is no longer just the New Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, this seems to be the And Now For Something Completely Different Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
I just plain don't understand it: if they wanted to Change Everything, then why didn't they just create a new show altogether ? It strikes me that they've just gone about the whole thing the wrong way, as there was nothing thye matter with the original characters and names and backgrounds to begin with, and if they wanted a few new additions, it certainly could have been accomodated with a few new characters. At least when the Star Trek gang came out with Next Gereration, they didn't try to totally revamp the old characters and give us unrecognizable Kirks, Spocks and McCoys, nor did they mess with the classic relationships that we all knew and loved about them. We even had the opportunity to see the classic characters interacting with the new ones and the whole thing Worked without offending the original fans too terribly much.
So: my opinions and comments and sad lament are:
1 - it's a total FUBAR. (for those who don't know the term, it's a military acronym for: Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition, and I am being polite with the first term)
2. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
3. The only thing worse than having something you love stolen from you is in getting it back broken.
I am no longer in any hurry to see the new CGI series, but I will at least agree with Marion and observe from this distance that I Might Like it anyway. Until then I remain a firmly entrenched Classic Scarlet fan and I don't mind admitting it.....
Ho-Hum and Pretty Much Totally Indifferent now.....
Doc Denim
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Doc Denim
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zero-x
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Re-imagining it may be - change for change sake it certainly seems to be, although - in fairness - I was chatting to Hazel and she remembers Gerry talking at a Fanderson convention, some years ago, and saying that contractural obligations meant they could not slavishly follow the original set-up.
Better this than no new CS? - yes, I expect so - but I think if they were going to do it they should have changed the Big 3 as well - and not just their biographies (whatever White's turns out to be). Or they could have moved it in time and set it further in the future - so an ever youthful Paul Metcalfe could be fighting alongside a new intake of Spectrum officers. Hazel's 'SIQ' worked brilliantly whilst casting Scarlet into the future, so it can be done
The shock will wear off and the disappointment fade - eventually. Maybe 'Gerry knows best ' and he hasn't been Mysteronised after all (although he is being demonised ).
Still, Doc Denim and I can sit in our cyber-porch-swings and reminisce about the good old days of 'classic CS' - and lament on the brashness of the new Spectrum.
Drop by from time to time, with your tales of life in the big, wide, world - anyone is welcome to join us!
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Marion
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Unfortunately, it has to be admitted that the only people who are going to be really upset about this are us, i.e. the ones sufficiently motivated to contribute to discussion groups dedicated to the original series - and there are precious few of us. The new target audience will not even know that such changes have been made, and most of the older ones (i.e. their parents who still retain a dim memory of the original) will not care. I have a sinking feeling that this is going to be a question of liking it or lumping it. Sorry to have to spell it out, my friends, but that's the way I see it.
I'll wait until the new series is aired before considering whether I might need to make a few cosmetic changes to my fan-fic efforts (for which the global search-and-replace feature will for the most part make short work*). Because that's the next logical step, isn't it? If we want them to be read and understood by any of the new generation (and if the series is a success then there are going to be a lot more of them than dedicated fans of the original series), that's what's going to have to be done. Don't get me wrong, everybody - I don't like this any more than anyone else. I'm just trying to be realistic. Sorry.
[* Lieutenant Green and Captain Ochre excepted]
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Clya Brown
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Carrie
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Caption Game results.
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Captain Indigo
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I will regard this new series as a DIFFERENT series. No relation WHATSOEVER with the classic one. Note that I wrote CLASSIC, not OLD. For me, Captain Scarlet will NEVER be and 'old, run-of-the-mill, to-be-forgotten-because-it-has-been-replaced-by-a-new-one series.
There are many instances, in the story of television - and cinema - where remakes, or follow-up, whatever, didn't make any DIFFERENCE for the 'classic' stuff. Remember the Avengers (okay, the movie wasn't THAT extraordinary). Or Charlie's Angels (all new set of girls, quite different from the series). Or King Kong... A second remake is in the work for that one, by Peter Jackson - but if this one is a success, would it mean that the OLD one has to be thrown away? Never. It remains the masterpiece it was and will remain the same, probably forever.
I do think that the classic Captain Scarlet series DESERVES to live. It has live on for the past 37 years, for God'sakes... During all those years, it barely STOPS being aired around the world (naturally, more in UK than anywhere else). Merchandising of all kinds, books, CD, toys, etc. have been sold almost continuously. Tapes, and then DVDs have contributed to the show ongoing success.
That means that the Captain Scarlet's classic series generates fans of all ages, all around the world. So I think you are making a mistake by thinking that younger folks doesn't remember it, and will ONLY be interested by the new series. Lieutenant Indigo is not of our generation. Nor is Scarlet Lady. Or Captain Lilac. Or other members of this forum... And other fans that I've encountered these last years. They ALREADY were fans of the classic series, and whether they'll like the new one or not, I doubt they would STOP being fans of the classic series.
I am NOT saying that we shouldn't give the new series a chance. I'm still waiting for it, and I'm still interested to know what it will be like, even though I will admit freely that I'm rather upset by all those new changes that have been announced. It is not what I was waiting for; it will NOT be the Captain Scarlet series I thought it could have been, as it has LITTLE to do with the classic series that I loved. BUT - I'll be giving it a chance.
And I am not saying either that no fanfic should be written about the new series. It's quite possible that we will see some of them appear online at some point after the new series will be aired. But will that mean the end of the classic series? No... Certainly not. There STILL will be people WANTING to read and write stories about the old series - remember, it STILL has a lifespan of 37 years, during which, its pool of fans have kept growing and growing. From seventy to seven years old...
You might give those fans a disservice, by stopping altogether to write about the classic series. The statistics from the Spectrum Headquarters forum say it plain and loud - people likes the classic series, and want to read about it... The fanfic section is one of the most visited section of the site.
Let's watch the new series, yes - but let's keep the flame burning for OUR FAVORITE Captain Scarlet!
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chrisbishop
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I don't feel I'm abandoning the original series at all, actually, Chris - as I see it, I'm merely making a concession, albeit a reluctant one. And funnily enough, if the new series were more different from the classic (and I do like that term) I wouldn't have suggested it at all, but would have regarded it as a completely different entity, as you're proposing.
The problem as I see it is that these name changes are really going to cause problems to the fan-fic community. I suspect that most viewers of classic Scarlet - even a lot of the dedicated fans of all ages - are barely aware of the characters' real names anyway, save for the two main ones - Paul and Adam - since they're the only ones in common use in the TV series. The real names are of far greater importance in fan-fic, however, since the level of character development is so much higher. Even here there are discrepancies however: as has already been noted recently, even the original biographies contain clear discrepancies with the ones we've now adopted as the definitive ones. With yet another set of biographies about to appear, the scope for confusion among the readership is going to be phenomenal - and it's a confusion that is (at least for the most part) totally unnecessary. For example, it wouldn't make one iota of difference to any conceivable plot whether Rhapsody's real name is Dianne Simms, Caroline Foster-Finch or Lady Amarinta de Chivigney Royce-Thunderbucket, she's still the same character: a young English rose with class. But the effect on any fan-fic involving her could hardly be overstated:
"Rhapsody flopped into her chair. 'God, what a day! Would you be a real sweetie and pour me a drink please, Paul?'. Scarlet grinned as he carried over a glass of Canadian Dry. 'Would you like some ice in that, Caroline?'.
What? Who? Oh yes, of course... I'd forgotten. This one's been written for the new show, not the classic one. Must remember that. And that's the problem: the mental jarring of anyone who's thinking in terms of the wrong show - the effect of which will be to throw a perpetual steam of tiny spanners into the reader's flow of thought. And an increasing number of potential readers will be thinking in terms of the new one, not the classic. As I said, if we were talking about Captain Scarlet TNG, with a completely new cast, this wouldn't be an issue - but we aren't, and it is.
I wouldn't expect the changes to affect materially anything I write, save for minor changes to accommodate Lieutenant Green's and Captain Ochre's change of sex - and I may well make a point of avoiding references to those characters specifically to avoid that becoming an issue. Or rather, I'd probably try to ensure that there's nothing in the plot that is critically dependent upon the gender of those characters. Styling the story so that it could then be read by fans of either the classic or the new series would then be a ten-minute session with the search-and-replace facility on the WP, as I suggested in my earlier posting.
I suspect, Chris, that you may end up having to partition your fan-fic archive into two sections - one for each series, with many stories - with cosmetic changes applied as described above - appearing in both of them. How would you feel about that?
<Click here for the classic Scarlet version, or here for new Scarlet version of this story.>
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Clya Brown
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So it is really a small matter to note, at the top of the page that, "this story has been inspired by "Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet", the Indestructible Productions (c) 2005..." Let's give readers some credits, then: I think even the title is different enough for people to realise WHERE the new story is coming from.
And concerning the problem of the new names... What's a few discrepancies more, after all? Consider the problem in reverse... That could be EQUALLY confusing - and if not MORE - for fans of the original series to see new names pop in like that...
Would you be so happy if you had to change your wonderful story 'The Concordian Legacy', in view of the above problem? That wouldn't be a right move. There would be little point in doing that, as all the reasons that probably inspired you to write this story will be absent then. Stingray would be absent from it, considering that there is little to link it to the new CS series (meaning: Grey and Green's common background to Marineville, as proposed by the TV Century 21 Annuals).
I think there's place to KEEP the (eventual) two sets of series alive. And personally, I think the classic series will still produce as many fanfic as previously. For the reasons listed in my previous posts. And remember who generally write (and read) those stories: dedicated fans like ourselves. I don't think they'll let the classic series down.
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chrisbishop
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_____________________
If the Multiverse Challenge was a competition….
“…and the Multiverse Challenge Award given by Spectrum Headquarters for the most altered Captain Scarlet story, goes to…
GERRY ANDERSON
…for his tiresome, sorry, tireless efforts to meddle with the finer elements of a truly original show to fulfil his mission to update a classic television programme in ways that render aspects of it extremely disorienting.
Mr Anderson had demonstrated a brilliant grasp of today’s life-and-business mantra – Change For The Sake Of Change – while at the same time apparently missing the point of the impact his original Captain Scarlet series had on television viewers who had hoped (rather optimistically as it turned out) to see the characterisation and magic of the original show maintained. Any resemblance between ‘Captain Scarlet’ and ‘Captain Scarlet 2005’ is purely ….a miracle!
Who’d have thought it folks but ‘Thunderbirds’ got off lightly!”
_________________________________________
From Me: Speaking as someone unlikely to see the new show until probably some considerable time after Sep 05, as long as I can think of it as another multiverse story (admittedly one with a lot more episodes and on TV) I might be able to - almost - get used to the alternate version, except the bit where Scarlet is no longer 100% British. The ‘cultural cringe’ must be alive and well among whoever thought that up. (I’m not British BTW)
And there’s just one other thing I kind of feel strongly about (probably in the minority here). The Captain Scarlet show I know and love needs no redefinition or clarification. It is quite simply ‘Captain Scarlet’ (or ‘Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons’ to give it its full title) – it really doesn’t need any qualifying words to be tacked on. I feel the new programme is the one that needs something in the title to indicate it is separate from the original, hence my suggestion in the ‘award’.
...I’ll get off my soapbox now….
OK, I can’t resist one last word… Maybe it’s just me but… Does anyone else think the CGI version of Captain Blue somewhat resembles Rutger Hauer in ‘Blade Runner’ ?
Lothlorien
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Lothlorien
Actually, I wouldn't mind performing a little cosmetic surgery on anything I write if it has the effect of making it easier to read along the lines I described, i.e. to produce two almost identical versions. Mind you, I'll concede that modifying Concordian would be less than trivial on account of Lieutenant Green's very visible presence - and almost impossible if either his or Captain Grey's biography has been changed in the new series to remove their links to the WASPs, as you've already pointed out. And of course if the character of ANY of the principal players were completely redefined, it would be quite impossible to write in such a way as to leave open the possibility of the story relating to either series. But Concordian's a slightly unusual case, I suspect - and I never suggested that every story could (or should) be treated that way. (Though incidentally, I note in passing that if Captain Grey is about to become Scottish, we might find it easier to reconcile his character with that of Sean Connery, on whom the features of the original puppet were based - since Connery is himself Scottish and has apparently been voted the sexiest man alive.)
But then... this all hardly matters really, does it. We can sit here and squabble about it over our keyboards until the cows come home for all the creators of the new series care - because it's already a fait accompli. As I said - we can like it or lump it... and since any Captain Scarlet is better than no Captain Scarlet, I think we'd better do our best to like it. Unfortunately this may be easier said than done.
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Clya Brown
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