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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess.

@commandermac.bsky.social

2.4K followers 450 following 6.1K posts

Atomic-powered analoguepunk enthusiast. 💥 Website editor/classic comic compiler at Anderson Entertainment. 🚀 "Gerry Anderson pervert", apparently. 📖 fredmcnamara.com 💥 sequential21.net ⚡ gerryanderson.com/blog/blogs Anxious and aro 💚🤍🖤 He/him

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 11d

ALL SECTIONS ALPHA: THE MAKING OF SPACE: 1999 is available to pre-order from @gerryanderson.bsky.social! Edited/co-written by me, this hugely updated and gorgeously designed hardback expands Tim Heald's original book to tell the definitive story of Moonbase Alpha!

gerryanderson.com/products/all...

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Reposted by Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess.

Cethan Leahy @cethanleahy.com · 6h

Me when I see Elon Musk screen caps on here:

A woman in a dark coat in a living room saying "Have you been on Twitter again? Well, don't."

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 5h

Since we're all in a Captain Scarlet mood, I'm diving back into David Motton's scripts. Some of the material that gets cut from the annual stories is kind of wild. Love how Colonel White is so accepting of the Mysterons' stranglehold of humanity's deceased.

Script extract from the "2000 Criminals" story from Captain Scarlet by David Motton. Highlight of the extract is: "As you know, Scarlet, dead men have a habit of returning to life as Mysteron agents."

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 6h

Can't really loose myself in the smugness of this lot. None of this really matters to them, does it? Last year's lot were mostly terrible, but at least some tangible emotional jeopardy was present. A 'celebrity' version really defangs the concept.

Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 6h

Oh God, we're all watching the Celebrity Traitors, are we?

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Reposted by Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess.

Jon Dear @accordingtojond.bsky.social · 7h

Martian and Quatermass (Andre Morell). Quatermass and the Pit (BBC, Rudolph Cartier, 1958-59)

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 7h

🚨CAPTAIN SCARLET ON ITV RETRO KLAXON 🚨

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcfY...

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 15h

Absolutely buzzing for Captain Scarlet's 60th anniversary when we can finally show you all how desperately haunting some of the long-neglected TV Century 21 adventures are!

Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 15h

That's kind of the logic the spin-off media ran with. TV21's penultimate serial for CS showcases the Mysterons loosing their powers of retrometabolism - and with it, the loss of their stranglehold on Captain Black, who's finally allowed a very permanent, final, absolute death.

Captain Scarlet carries the corpse of Captain Black away from the defeated Mysterons' Martian complex. From TV21 & TV Tornado, issue #238 - art by Jim Watson

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 15h

Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 16h

Anyway, I'm meant to be writing about Sophie Aldred's Thunderbirds dissertation but appear to have become side-tracked by writing a Captain Scarlet dissertation. 😅

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 16h

"Don't come crying to me if you get hurt!"

"Thanks dad! Gee, I can't wait to go commit absolute war crimes in impoverished states in service to the American military-espionage complex!"

Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 16h

It doesn't get more terrifyingly unknowable than this beautifully composed shot. Who is dragging the human Scarlet's body? How is the Mysteron doppelganger suddenly *there*? We don't know!! That's the point!!

Who cares if it doesn't make sense? Let's all bask in the gruesome horror of it all!

The Mysteronised Captain Scarlet towers over his deceased human counterpart.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 16h

"If only we were fighting something we understood. Something tangible. Something in three dimensions."

"I know what you mean. We can only hear them over our radios, but I've got a feeling they're with us all the time."

Quite a captivatingly opaque summary of the Mysterons' unseeable menace.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

Would Captain Scarlet be a more satisfying beast if all of these above elements weren't so disparate in their execution? Sure! But it's just as fun to probe how Captain Scarlet presents these startling horrific ideas, even if the reach of the classic series often exceeds its grasp.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

But there's the events of 'Traitor' to consider. A string of mysterious sabotages triggers paranoia that Captain Scarlet could be the cause, and that he may still be in the hands of the Mysterons.

That tense uncertainty of Scarlet's loyalties is quite effective in its unknowable nature!

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

I think the closest we ever get to acknowledging the uncanniness of it all comes in second episode 'Winged Assassin', where a fully recovered Scarlet goes 'back on duty' - but this guy has never been on duty!!

Some hand-wavy dialogue is all that's given in accepting the weirdness of it all.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

Nobody ever treats Captain Scarlet like he's the Mysteron doppelganger he is, though. He's treated like he's triumphantly returned, back to his former self. No-one ever acknowledges that there are two Paul Metcalfes - only one of which remains alive.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

The indestructible Scarlet only ever recalls his pre-Mysteron life. No angst is endured. Are *all* Mysteron agents therefore born with the masked personalities and memories of their human counterparts?? It all just becomes more terrifying the more you consider it!

Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

I think we're meant to believe that Captain Black remains very much the original article, however. He's never replicated, but I think Conrad Turner unfortunately lived a similarly short life. There's no man in that body, only a hateful Martian spectre.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

Very much the latter! The series never quite succeeds in making peace with this lingering aspect, and it's something the CGI remake simplified to make sense.

Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

The Captain Scarlet who becomes Spectrum's indestructible champion is *not* Captain Scarlet. He is a failed Mysteronised cadaver, somehow imbued with the memories and personality of the original Paul Metcalfe, who is killed a couple of minutes after he's introduced.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

This is a PSA for Blueskiers rediscovering Captain Scarlet:

1. Electricity is the one thing that can kill both Mysterons and Captain Scarlet himself.

2. We can't be certain how unkillable Scarlet is, because Gerry Anderson never fully considered the body horror implications of his own creation.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 17h

The series explains that high voltage electricity is the one thing that can kill Mysterons - including Captain Scarlet.

Reposted by Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess.

hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 1d

Goodnight from Badbury, rain flooding down its hill like black tears in memory of ancient battles. Goodnight from DI Callaghan and DS Nokes, having a cup of tea and a pink wafer debrief in the police canteen after their run in with the Ashcourt Gutterbloods. Goodnight from Hookland.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 1d

-dons Alan Partridge voice-

STOP GETTING GERRY ANDERSON WRONGGG.

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Fred McNamara But He's Spooky Now, I Guess. @commandermac.bsky.social · 1d

Far, FAR, too many of you think their names are spelt 'Jeff Tracey' and 'Captain Scarlett'.

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