EPISODE GUIDE INTRODUCTION

Each entry in the guide is split into three main sections – Story, Dialogue and Trivia – which in turn are split into further subsections for your pleasure and perusal.

A picture gallery of who’s in the episode from the regular cast. For the sake of argument, characters are only counted if they have at least one line to say or are seen outside the confines of Cloudbase on a mission – so if Captain Magenta’s only appearance in an episode sees him lurking in the background of a Cloudbase briefing scene and he doesn’t actually use his lyrical Irish tones then he won’t get counted. Sorry. I’m cruel.

Details the Mysteron plan, typically said by the Mysterons themselves during the second title sequence. That’s nice of them.

A rundown of what the episode’s about.

The Mysterons are powerful beings indeed. This section details any new powers they seem to have magically acquired, how they use their powers, and how they could have done things far more easily if they’d only remembered what abilities they already had…

Since Captain Scarlet’s body will renew itself if he gets "killed", our star seems to continually throw himself into dicey situations knowing that it won’t matter if he "dies" or not. Which is just as well as most episodes typically end with him being shot, crushed, blown up, running his vehicle into a building…

Spectrum, despite being the best security service Earth has, still slips up once in a while, allowing the odd disaster here and there (or even causing one with intent). And when I say "once in a while", I mean once every ten minutes…

An ongoing tally, comparing the "scores" for Spectrum v Mysterons. If the Mysterons achieve the aim they set out to reach in their threat then they get a point. If Spectrum prevents them from doing so, Spectrum gets a point. It’ll be interesting to see how close a game it is by the end of the series…

Subtlety isn’t always a strong point in a Supermarionation script, especially where explaining the new technological marvel of the week is concerned. This section is for all of those forced and unnatural lines of pure exposition, usually when a character begins asking his companion various questions that he really ought to already know the answers to…

A section for lines that unintentionally raise a few childish smirks, especially if taken out of context.

As the opposite to the above, here we list the lines that were included in the script to be intentionally funny… but aren’t. Supermarionation shows are infamous for their "rubbish comedy" moments, particularly episodes that end with false laughter, though fortunately the grim world of Captain Scarlet has a low quotient in that area. Having said that, a few clunkers manage to slip by the quality control…

Whereas most episodes of Thunderbirds seemed to end with a patented Supermarionation "comedy" moment, the majority of Captain Scarlet episodes end with either Colonel White or Captain Scarlet himself verbally expressing their stoic resolve to carry on battling the enemy for the sake of all the men, women and children of this fair planet of ours. They usually come out of the blue and scream out "The writer couldn’t think of any other way to finish the episode." So I’m going to list them in this section.

A repository for all the other just plain awful lines that don’t fit into the categories above.

… and yet Colonel White still insists on sending Captains Scarlet and Blue out on every single assignment of actual importance, even though you can usually bet that it’ll all end in tears, explosions and the loss of a nuclear facility. However, every so often the Colonel actually lets some of the other field officers get a slice of the action.

The Mysterons are really quite nasty, when all is said and done. Here I list the (usually innocent) lives lost due to Mysteron interference…

… and on a similar note, here we look at all the equipment, vehicles, or even entire buildings that Spectrum loses during the course of an episode.

A very specific category, this one. The world of Captain Scarlet is dangerous enough with the Mysterons hanging about in space, but things certainly aren’t helped by the fact that 50% of the roads seem to run alongside cliff edges. It’s therefore not surprising when a vehicle flings itself off a precipice during this series, and this section exists to notify you of when it happens…

Linked to the above categories, but far more general. Where would Supermarionation be without explosions, eh? Here I simply say how many we get in each episode.

Only Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue are given names in the series – Paul Metcalfe and Adam Svenson respectively – and they’re rarely heard even then. However, every so often, usually when the writer wants to inject a bit of emotion into an episode, we get to hear one of the two names being used in an appropriately tear-clogged fashion.

Supermarionation puppets couldn’t really convey a great deal of physical expression, and the emotions of a character relied mostly on the voice artist. Regular characters would often get numerous heads made to be switched around just in case they really needed to show Lady Penelope looking heartbroken or scared instead of seeing her smiling away quite happily in every situation. However, perhaps owing to the expanded regular cast, none of the characters in Captain Scarlet are afforded that luxury. None… barring Colonel White. For some reason, this character alone was given a "happy face" to go along with his usual grim and determined expression. It’s not used very often because the Colonel rarely has anything to smile about, but the occasions that he does allow the laughter lines to show are usually very peculiar ones indeed…

Simply a place for any other additional notes, really, such as the first appearance by such and such or where Captain Blue gets the SPV from this week etc.

A finishing comment by me where I evaluate the episode as a single entity and say whether it’s any good or not.