Mysteron continuity in early OCS
With my appreciation to Spectrum-Headquarters.com for the screencaps above.
I've said earlier how much I love the fact that Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons actually has a continuity and, broadly speaking, three big narrative arcs that run through it: the hunt for Captain Black, Operation S.W.O.R.D. and the war of nerves in general as each side learns more about the other.
Despite being someone who is very ready to hand wave, suspend disbelief and sternly remind folks 'it's just a film/show/game/book', Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, to my mind, comes so tantalisingly close to landing one of its narrative arcs flawlessly that it's a shame it stumbles over it a bit.
Sure, Operation S.W.O.R.D. maddeningly never gets launched, and it's absolutely fine that the fight to capture Captain Black continues apace, but it's that final arc in the list - and really the show's first that it establishes - that could have opened and closed cleanly (but doesn't) and that we're going to look at now: the war of nerves and how each side progressively sizes the other up and, within that, the Mysterons, who have, as various members of the cast keenly remind us throughout the series, "powers we can never hope to understand."
Now as with all Anderson shows, you've got your production order and broadcast order, but this isn't so much of a problem given that your 'big' (and it isn't big at all) issue in the first ten episodes only comes down to whether you think Point 783 or Manhunt comes first. It doesn't matter for this post, because the key problem is that Manhunt comes before Operation Time.
Everything else in that first ten episodes is in the same order whether you watch it in production or broadcast order - and that's crucial, because there are three absolutely vital (and one incidental) anchor points in that first ten: The Mysterons itself, obviously, Operation Time (when we learn two key Mysteron weaknesses) and Spectrum Strikes Back, when all of this is consolidated into gadgets to take into the second series arc.
That fourth, incidental anchor point? Winged Assassin, which very clearly sets out its stall as a direct follow-on from The Mysterons. This, in itself though, isn't the issue.
This all works really nicely when you don't think about it too hard - Spectrum loses in episode two, setting out that this isn't going to the weekly good guys' victory lap, and then enjoys some success in episodes 3 and 4 (let's put Point 783 first), so the Mysterons are a serious and credible threat. Operation Time teaches us what it does about the Mysterons and Spectrum Strikes Back gives us the electron gun and Mysteron detector, even if we never see the former again and the latter - perhaps in danger of 'sonic screwdriver syndrome' - finds itself handwaved out of episodes, sinking into Monte Carlo bay in Model Spy and being outright forbidden in Lunarville 7 (like that wasn't a giveaway!)
"Hold up there," I hear you say. You forgot Manhunt. Yep, and that's the one teeny, irritating issue in what would have been perfect. Manhunt is beautifully timed. After a month's viewing and what is, let's face it, basically a draw, we get a glorious and very personal showdown between Earth and Mars, and the continuity comes apart in two little moments, one I can handwave, one I can't.
The first is Captain Black's escape. He waits the best part of 24 hours to then - smartly - return to Culver, irradiate Symphony, put her in the SPV and steal away. Except, we see in Heart of New York and Model Spy that he can just dematerialise. Now, I've got a few answers as to why he doesn't do that and they're all (in my view at least) interesting:
The radiation did something to Black's ability to dematerialise. We know that the Mysterons' powers are very much centred around matter and molecules and that various sorts of energy are disruptive to these. I can see radiation playing as much havoc with Mysteron capabilities as electricity. There's nothing saying he didn't dematerialise after passing through the decontamination unit at Culver, assuming he didn't just head elsewhere conventionally.
The dematerialisation is something the Mysterons develop after the incident. They boast of reversing matter to the humans in episode one and it's of course clear from the get-go that they can influence and alter matter in-situ. We see this as early as Scarlet and Brown's car accident and then DT-19 and Macey's truck all before the credits have rolled on the third episode. It makes total sense, though, that once at war they would accelerate their progress and learn to affect matter by moving where it is, not just altering how or what it is.
(Although really, this is kind of a '2b') The Mysterons, not Black, control the dematerialisation. It works nicely in Model Spy in that there's a moment where it seems Black is truly trapped and then he and Helga vanish with a last second save from the Mysterons. If anything, I think it's a shame that we see this ability before Model Spy but I also get why Heart of New York seeds it for the viewer - and both the production and broadcast orders support this seeding. Heart of New York could be read either way: Black seems in no hurry to reverse or leave the car. He either knows the Mysterons will pull him out or controls the process.
So we can fairly nicely explain that several ways. The big issue for me is the poor mechanic in Stone Point Village.
By the way, I like the ongoing trope, however accidental, of Black wreaking havoc on the lives of the ordinary and the unnoticed. Petrol station attendants really seem to come in for it for some reason.
The Mysteron reconstruction falls foul of a Captain Scarlet with an absolutely zero tolerance for administrative and security failures and catches a bullet for forgetting to ask for ID. What, one wonders, does Scarlet do to Spectrum agents who really mess up?
Anyhow, all joking aside, this is the one irritating point for me: we learn in subsequent episodes, especially Spectrum Strikes Back and The Launching, that dropping the Mysteron to the floor with a bullet is not the end of the story, except here it would seem to be. I'm at least glad that Manhunt happens before Operation Time, else this would be really bad. As it is, it's the first time we see a Mysteron agent shot that wasn't Captain Scarlet, and it is presented as such a non-event when it is anything but.
Of course, we forgive it as a little behind-the-scenes goof and we remember and respect that this makes a hell of an effort on continuity for a 1960s, televised show that is, nominally, for children.
To be fair, I can also just chalk it up to Scarlet being sloppy sometimes. He's slapping himself roundly on the back at the end of The Launching and seems genuinely surprised that Brand gets back to his feet. I can equally imagine that he and Blue nab the SPV tout-suite and it doesn't even occur to them to check the Mysteron agent definitely isn't moving.
Suddenly, forgetting to ask for ID doesn't seem so bad after all, eh?
