Mysteron

The Mysterons are a fictional race of extraterrestrials and the antagonists in the 1960s British Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–68) and its 2005 animated remake, New Captain Scarlet. The Mysterons in the series are the remnants of the original Mysteron race: alien beings that originated in a galaxy other than the Milky Way and maintained a colony on Mars. They are symbolised by ubiquitous, projected green rings of light and the deep bass voice of their first human convert, Captain Black. They were voiced by Donald Gray in the original series and Mike Hayley in the remake. In the 2000 animated test film Captain Scarlet and the Return of the Mysterons, they were voiced by Gary Martin.

Depiction

Captain Scarlet As shown in the first episode, hostilities between Earth and the Mysterons commence following a Zero-X expedition to Mars, led by Captain Black of the Earth security organisation Spectrum. The purpose of the mission had been to locate the source of radio signals that Spectrum had detected emanating from the planet. The Zero-X astronauts discover an alien city on the Martian surface. After mistaking a deployed surveillance device for a weapon, Black fears an attack and orders a missile attack on the complex, destroying it. However, the city is almost immediately rebuilt before their eyes as a blue beam of light passes over its ruins. Speaking in a deep, echoing voice, the aliens identify themselves as the Mysterons and state that they have discovered "the secret of reversing matter" (a power later referred to as "retrometabolism"). They have the ability to heal any physical injury and re-create the exact likeness of any object or person – a power they can exercise only after the original person or object has been destroyed. Dedicating themselves to a "slow but nonetheless effective" retaliation for the unprovoked attack on their complex, the Mysterons take control of Black's mind and return him to Earth to act as their primary agent, destroying people and objects so that they may be re-created under Mysteron control.

Attempting to assassinate the World President, the Mysterons kill and re-create Spectrum's foremost agent, Captain Scarlet, as an indestructible doppelganger. The plot fails, however, when Scarlet's reconstruction falls to its apparent death from the top of a tower, later returning to life with his indestructible qualities intact but his original human consciousness restored. The Mysterons broadcast their threats by radio, often disguising their intentions using word play – such as stating that they will "kill time" when they intend to kill a Spanish official whose surname is Tiempo in the episode "Operation Time". The original script for the first episode described the voice of the Mysterons as "commanding" and "hypnotic", also specifying that it would be created "by the [voice] artist inhaling helium and the subsequent recording being played back at a lower speed, together with a repetitive echo treatment". The Mysterons are represented by twin rings of green light that they cast onto scenes of death and destruction from which their facsimiles emerge. The pilot script described these rings as "two fiery green circles" suggestive of eyes. Gerry Anderson said that he came up with this device after seeing a TV advertisement for wool that featured the Woolmark logo being projected over the body of a woman. During filming, the ring effect was produced by panning a transparency across the set using a slide projector. Mysteron reconstructions of humans are impenetrable to X-rays, making radiographs of their forms indistinguishable from photographs. This enables Spectrum to develop a device (the "Mysteron Detector") capable of identifying them. Additionally, reconstructions are particularly vulnerable to electrical current. The re-creation process requires the subject to be clinically dead before the copy is created. In "Treble Cross", air force pilot Major Gravener is killed and duplicated but later resuscitated in hospital, allowing Spectrum to set a trap for the Mysterons by sending out the original Gravener in place of his double. Despite their general ruthlessness, some episodes show that the Mysterons are unwilling to cause suffering. In "Manhunt", Captain Black releases one of the Spectrum Angels from a radioactive booth before she suffers fatal injury – albeit after trapping her there, and then only as a ruse to evade Spectrum.

Comic strips

The Captain Scarlet comic strip in TV Century 21 depicted the Mysterons as both energy beings and a computer collective. On 16 September 1967, a new comic strip called "The Mysterons" appeared simultaneously in the comic books Solo and its sister publication TV Tornado. The initial story provides an adaptation of the destruction of the Mysteron city on Mars by Captain Black, as shown in the first episode of Captain Scarlet. Following the re-creation of the city, the strip shows the previously peaceful Mysterons deciding that they must protect themselves from further aggression by conquering the universe. To that end, some of the Mysterons depart in a flying saucer, headed for the Andromeda Galaxy. Solo merged with the TV Tornado comic the following week, with the Mysteron strip running in the latter publication from issues 36 to 58. In the second instalment, when a Mysteron party lands on the planet Andorme, the atmosphere restores the hitherto disembodied creatures to visibility in the "ancient Mysteron shape". In this form they are depicted as spherical, polyhedral beings, with three of the faces having "eye slits", one of which can emit a destructive energy beam.

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