Fate

Scott had refused food but accepted a jelly after managing to keep some water down, and they resettled around the room after eating. Gordon was humming a sea shanty, Alan playing his game and John was talking with Kayo and Penny while Virgil and Scott spoke together in quiet tones.

It went unnoticed at first, but then Scott shuddered. Virgil stopped talking immediately and reached out to touch his forehead, a move Scott adroitly avoided. But he couldn’t avoid the second shudder and Virgil reached out and hit the alarm button.

‘Virgil?’ ‘Scott…you’re sweating and shuddering. Something isn’t right.’

Scott sighed bitterly and deflated as the doctor and a nurse entered. Virgil moved aside as they busied themselves around the obs machines and everyone tried to not comment when the doctor frowned.

‘We need to draw bloods and get the lab to rush them.’ ‘Yes, Doctor.’ ‘And I’m sorry, Scott, but your family need to leave for a while.’ ‘Ah, ok. Can Virgil stay please?’ ‘Usually not, but due to his medical expertise I’ll allow it as long as you don’t get in the way, Virgil. Understood?’ ‘Totally understood and I promise.’ ‘I’ll hold you to that.’

Virgil moved to the back of the room, well out of the way, as bloods were drawn and two IVs applied – one a broad-spectrum antibiotic and one fluids to prevent his blood pressure from dropping any further. A nasal canula was fitted in case it was needed and the obs machine was tweaked to be more sensitive.

‘Scott, Virgil, we have a fair idea which bacteria is causing the septicaemia but we need to be sure, hence the bloods. Once we know we can use the appropriate antibiotics but until then this one will at least start fighting the infection. Until this is under control I’m afraid you’re stuck here.’ ‘Bottom line, Doc?’ ‘Bottom line is…we’ve caught this early and as long as you keep responding to treatment there should be no long-lasting complications. But Scott…you need to do what we say and rest. It is the best treatment for you now.’ ‘Ok, Doc. Ok.’

Time seemed to slow as they waited for the results but they came back quite quickly. A new IV was attached and Virgil fretted as Scott drifted off to sleep. So many things could go wrong…

He threw a small smile at John as he entered but he couldn’t keep the facade up when he was followed by their Grandma, and Sally came straight to him and rested a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze for comfort.

Virgil patted her hand in thanks and moved aside for her, crossing the room to sit beside John. He couldn’t take his eyes off Scott, though, not until John gave him a not-so-subtle nudge. Virgil turned as John showed him the screen he’d been tapping away on and rolled his eyes.

Trust John to have been researching sepsis, treatments and outcomes and goodness knew what else…John always needed to know the ins and outs. But still Virgil leaned in and the two read together the details.

Potentially several weeks in hospital. Six to twelve months for recovery. Possibly longer. And that was only the physical effects! And only if there were no further complications…

The two shuddered in unison.

Six months of Scott confined to the island, being barely able to move let alone the potential brain fog and emotional fallout of Post-Sepsis Syndrome should he suffer that too. And knowing the Tracy Luck that’s exactly what Scott would get.

‘We better start making plans.’ ‘Yeah. Otherwise it’s going to be a long six months for us all.’

Virgil snorted and John looked at him.

‘Do you know what Gordon said when you first told us that Scott had been called out?’ ‘No?’ ‘That with the amount of callouts we have had in the last week…sigh…that it was just another one of those days. You know, where we were all on rescues around the globe and one of us gets into trouble and there’s no one around to help them.’ ‘Yeah. And it’s almost always Scott.’ ‘Yeah. We really need to do something about that.’ ‘That’s a task for me and Kayo and Penny to deal with. Right now let’s get Gordon and Alan up here and start organising Scott’s homecoming and the next few months.’

Sally, silently listening, smiled in approval. Her boys would rally around Scott as they always did and it was as always beautiful to behold.

It didn’t take long for the youngest two to join them and the four began making plans for Scott’s discharge. Gordon would, of course, take charge of his physio while Virgil would look after the medical side with herself. John would share Scott’s TI duties and help with anything he could and Alan…Alan would run distraction for the times when Scott’s inactivity would eat away at him.

Stingray (2001 dvd box set)

Troy Tempest. Born 2038 in nyc, where he studied, when he joined WASP and got promoted, etc. Troy isn't given a current age, but was promoted to Captain and given command of stingray at age 22.

Phones | George Lee Sheridan. Born South Carolina, no year. He's 31 right now, and older than Troy. Short life story.

Marina. 19 years old. Gives the explanation on why Marina is silent as heard in the 'Marina speaks' audio adventure. In love with Troy.

Atlanta. 23 years old. Born California, has run the Shore household since the death of her mother. In love with Troy.

Commander Sam Shore. "Born in Kansas in 2015, Shore was christened Samuel Arthur. He ran away from home at an early age to join the navy." Outlines why he uses the hoverchair.

Sub lieutenant John Horatio Fisher. Born Oregon, age 22. Went from well regarded world navy cadet to Marineville relief controller. "He is a fully qualified WASP patrol boat captain".

Oink. Marina's pet seal.

Titan. 230 marine-years old. He's evil and here's all the reasons why, also keeps his god like a pet in a teeny tiny fish tank in his throne room.

X-2-Zero (title of biography and the back of the DVD boxes with the episode outlines) [alternatively X2-Zero (text of biography), or X20 (DVD subtitles) ]. 107 marine-years old, he's got a secret base at this location with this tech, and serves Titan.

The Aquaphibians. "Physically monstrous", "green skinned", "used by their masters to aggravate the Stingray crew". They use the terror fish as a vessel, it's got weapons, and they speak gurgle language.

Thunderbirds (2025, 60th anniversary edition)

No basic biographies like other box sets :(

The closest thing is an episode guide book featuring these pages:

My phone has """AI photo enhancements""" that essentially just swirls the pixels around slightly, which I cannot disable 🫠, so that tiny text is illegible here, but it's only barely legible in person anyway (it's so tiny why would they print it like that??)

There's a video talking about each of the characters but it's very long.

It immediately outs the Tracy family as iR though, including who does what.

Talks about personalities and stuff each of the characters has done in episodes... by showing long clips from those episodes.

Brains talking about Scott: "I think it's fair to say he's inherited his father's cool head". Meanwhile TAG Scott is the complete opposite of that 😂

7 minutes to get through Jeff and Scott, I'm not watching the rest right now. I've got other series's to investigate.

New Captain Scarlet (2023 box set)

Despite getting it from the Anderson website and it being a recent release, this one doesn't have any biographies?? Neither on the first disk as an introduction style special feature (stingray, csatm), nor on the last disk with all the other special features (ncs, thunderbirds).

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (2015 dvd box set)

Turns out it's not the 2001 version apparently (according to the website I got it from). Still weird that it doesn't note down the release date anywhere on the box though, it only says copyright 1967, whereas others include the copyright for the original release (eg ncs is 2004) and copyright this version of the packaging (eg ncs is 2023).

The "character identities" look like this:

No middle names anywhere.

Wikipedia gives codename, real name, nationality. All match DVD.

Differences:

The captains are labelled as 'field officers' on DVD but 'senior staff officers' on HQ.

HQ birth place is generally either the same or more specific than DVD.

Scarlet's hair is listed as black on both spectrum HQ and fandom wiki, but dark brown on DVD.

Lieutenant Green has brown eyes according to wiki but hazel according to HQ and DVD.

Both websites say Ochre has dark brown hair, DVD says just brown.

DVD says Magenta is 6ft 1", 180 lbs, but HQ says 6ft, 173 lbs.

Wiki thinks Grey's eyes are blue, DVD and HQ say brown. DVD says 4 March 2035, 6ft 3", 190 lbs, but HQ says 4 March 2033, 5ft 11", 173 lbs. There's a note on HQ saying that their info doesn't match that from the 2001 DVD and the DVD doesn't align with other sources... yet the 2001 info matches mine, SO WHEN WAS MY DVD RELEASED? 2001 or 2015??? When I look up the 2001 version, the box looks completely different to what I've got...?

Dr Gold interlude - wiki states he was born 1983, yet the series is set in 2068, meaning he's 85 and still working??? HQ links to Skybase central for the NCS characters, where Gold is listed as 50 years old (no birth date) which is definitely more realistic.

Both websites give Fawn brown eyes and dark brown hair while DVD gives blue eyes and black hair, DVD says 5ft 9", 150 lbs, HQ says 5ft 8", 157 lbs.

Websites give Destiny brown eyes blonde hair, DVD says green eyes platinum blonde hair.

The websites disagree on Rhapsody's hair colour whilst one sides with the DVD; HQ says red hair, wiki and DVD say strawberry blonde.

Symphony is given green eyes by DVD, but brown by websites (despite wiki image showing eyes too light to be considered brown). Also websites say 6 January 2042, DVD says 6 January 2043.