Tuesday, August 9, 2016

SPECTRUM IS GREEN by Dave Goode





When I was a kid I loved the Gerry Anderson produced television series FIREBALL XL-5. Classic space opera with a catchy theme song. But my favorite Gerry Anderson series was CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS. Set in the year 2068 the series focused on the struggle between Spectrum,a global security organization and the Mysterons of Mars. What was interesting about the series was that the Mysterons hostilities against Earth wasn't because that's what aliens do in science fiction. You know? Attack Earth.One of their cities on Mars was destroyed when Captain Black panics on Earth's first encounter with the Martians.


Captain Scarlet was Spectrum's primary agent against the Mysterons. Scarlet would acquire the Martian healing power of "retro-metabolism",giving him the ability to recover from injuries that would otherwise prove fatal. All of Spectrum's agents were given color-coded names. Aside from Captain Scarlet and Captain Black there was Captain Blue,Captain Magenta,Lt.Green and Colonel White.







The coolest thing about the series to me was the end credits that featured illustrations by Ron Embleton(1930-1988). These illustrations put Captain Scarlet in a series of cliff-hanger situations. Embleton was a noted historical illustrator as well as comic book/strip artist.




But his most famous work outside of the Captain Scarlet illustrations may have been on the Oh,Wicked Wanda feature in Penthouse magazine that he worked on from 1973 to 1980.









4 comments:

  1. Being indestructible like Superman is one thing.Being Capt.Scarlet had to be painful.

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  2. I'd never watched any episodes until recently. Very good show. Very suspenseful.New episodes were produced by Gerry Anderson in 2005 (done in Hypermarionation!). The original series can be seen on Shout Factory TV.

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  3. Those illustrations look like trading cards. I wonder if Embleton did any.

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    1. Yes. http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/cards.htm

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