Getting close to Captain Black

[Marion W]

Originally posted on MSN Forum 08/07/2004


Can anyone remember if - in any TV episode - Captain Black actually touches another character - specifically a Mysteronised character?
I know that in the comics, he's forever beating Scarlet to a pulp - and vice versa - but I cannot remember an instance on the TV where he does come into contact with anyone. On-screen anyway - there might be instances where it's assumed he might have - like kidnapping Verdain in Model Spy. I shall have to watch it again... the sacrifices I make to pursue an idea.....
Meanwhile... can anyone think of any more?
Thanks.

Marion W

[chrisbishop]

A thought came to me when you told me about this, Marion.

I do remember that in "Manhunt", Black PUSHED Symphony into that boot where he wanted to exposed her to radiation. He did tie up that other character in "White as Snow". For now I can't recall other instances. But those characters are HUMANS, not Mysteron agents - and I thought it was about Mysteron agents you were wondering this morning.

Hope this has been helpful.

[Marion W]

Yes, Chris - it is specifically Mysteron agents that I am interested in - although I don't believe Black touches anyone much... aside from shoving and tying up, I mean
Ah, these plot bunnies are a right pain at times....
Marion W

[DocDenim]

One can always wonder what he was doing with Helga once he'd ditched Verdain and very conveniently vanished, car and all, with the supermodel......

Doc Denim

PS - I didn't see many comics (none, precisely) but in the J. Theydon book, The Silent Saboteur, I recall that Scarlet also had at least one physical set-to with Black, and gave him a bloody nose.

[DocBrown]

I've just watched "Manhunt", and I see that in addition to physically pushing Symphony into the radioactive chamber, he also earlier knocks out Harris, the security guard, by hitting him over the head with the butt of his gun. Again however, that was a human, not a Mysteron.

Incidentally, earlier in the same episode, Lieutenant Green asks Colonel White whether he can go down to join in the hunt. White refuses, but Green persists, adding with some feeling as an afterthought "I just wish I could meet him face to face - just once!" This rather interesting line suggests to me that Green has never actually met Black and/or that he has some personal score that he wants to settle: possible fan-fic material there?

Anyone on the lookout for bloopers might wonder about Captain Grey's relaying of the bearing his geiger-counter operator gives him for Captain Black's direction, which is reported as zero-two-three degrees and seventeen minutes. Grey immediately reports this back to Cloudbase as zero-two-three point one-seven - which isn't the same thing at all unless Spectrum has a protocol for reporting sixtieths of a degree as if it were a decimal. On a related point, Symphony is told to fly to area reference "3TM", which would have to be so vague as to be useless if it were part of a global co-ordinate system: presumably therefore Spectrum use a local frame of reference that relates to their current scene of operations.

One other little thing: after Symphony reports having spotted SPV 0782 on Highway 84, this is reported to Captain Ochre, who raises his pistol and replies confidentally "Don't worry, Lieutenant - we'll stop it!" HOW, for heaven's sake? It's difficult to imagine an SPV being stopped by anything short of a solid concrete wall, and probably not even that. Surely any such vehicle worth its salt ought to go through Ochre's barricade like a knife through butter - or does Spectrum fit all its SPVs with automatic engine cutoffs which can be remotely activated by any captain who is manning a roadblock? However, evidently Spectrum DO believe that a few cars parked in the road are capable of stopping an SPV, since that's just what they set up to stop the one they believe Black is driving at the end of the episode, after having taken a few pot-shots at it as it drives out of the Culver Atomic Centre with (unknown to them at the time) Symphony at the controls. It seems to me that those early SPVs weren't all they were cracked up to be after all: good job they're being replaced in the new CGI series!
DocBrown

[Marion W]

Yes, Doc, I wondered about Helga the supermodel too.... ... but as that happens 'off-screen' - assuming anything does happen - I can always keep to my theory... if it works out. Like I said, plot bunnies are a pain.

Cheers
Marion W

[Yarol]

Helga the super-model...somehow I get a vision of her being sent to a Spectrum base (after a few days), tied up and gagged, with a note taped to her forehead reading:

Mars Needs Women!
Just not this desperately...

and signed with two green rings burned into the paper.


Yarol (who really should get more sleep)

[Marion]

Yes, I could see that happening right enough. The Mysterons don't really mysteronise many women after those two 'charmers' do they?
Only Judy Chapman - the lady with a remarkable resemblence to Gabrielle the model. Maybe, as we never see what Spectrum did with Gabrielle - she escaped and reinvented herself as Judy Chapman? Or maybe she was sent on a re-habiliatation course? It didn't work -if she was - because she's rushing round the globe with her handbag stuffed with a deadly virus not long afterwards.
What was that about the female of the species being deadlier than the male?

[Steven]

Maybe it was her double. I have heard the saying that everyone has a double in the world. I shudder to think to that that someone looks like me.

But seriously, they had to reuse puppets in Capt Scarlet and the other series even those it was blatantly obvious, due to budget restratints.

[DartBrat701]

I do remember that in "Manhunt", Black PUSHED Symphony into that boot where he wanted to exposed her to radiation. He did tie up that other character in "White as Snow". For now I can't recall other instances. But those characters are HUMANS, not Mysteron agents - and I thought it was about Mysteron agents you were wondering this morning.

At that same time, (or at least that's how it kind of looked to me. ) Black also managed to grope Symphony in a couple of locations on her body.

Which brings up an interesting question; What was Black's relationship with the Angels & the other Spectrum agents.....PRIOR to the Zero-X mission, and his subsequent Mysteronisation?

[Marion]

Strangely enough, I'm working on that question now - in a roundabout sort of way - although I have more or less forgotten what was so important about the original question I asked in this thread. I have no doubt it was also plot-related... they usually are

[DartBrat701]

Could anyone tell me, why Capt. Black was always hanging around graveyards at night?

Unless, it could be that's where he materializes on Earth....and where he disappears.

Any comments?

[Marion]

I know we see him there every week on the credits, but he doesn't frequent graveyards as a prefered hangout location, as a rule.
In NCS his body is actually buried and resurrected in the graveyard, so presumably he starts from there when he goes about his Mysteron business - however he may not go back there. Unlike a Vampire there is no indication that Mysterons need to return to the scene of their 'resurrection' to survive!
We never see what happened to him in the classic series. Spectrum are not even sure he is alive until 'Manhunt' - at least, Captain Blue isn't sure... which might not be the same thing.
Fan fic has him in many and various locations...
Check this out, if you haven't already!
http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/washing_day.htm

[gojohnniegogo]

This has been bugging me since I read it on here a year ago or so, and no he never touched a mysteronised replicant. Strange as to what the reasons for it are.

[shaqui]

I know we see him there every week on the credits, but he doesn't frequent graveyards as a prefered hangout location, as a rule.
http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/washing_day.htm

Interestingly, a number of strips feature Black receiving his orders in a graveyard - at least one TV21 strip did, one of the 'Sunday' strips, and also one of the 1990s Fleetway strips. I suppose the sensible conclusion drawn (no pun intended ) from that is the writers or artists were inspired by the titles of the series.

On a more subtle note, it's also an interesting visual metaphor for the character!