History Series / CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons

The aliens were never seen in person and would attack Earth by killing prominent humans and replacing them with superpowered duplicates who would attempt to perform terrorist attacks. Their [[TheDragon primary agent]] is Captain Black, a former Spectrum agent who was turned after accidentally starting the war by [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill panicking and attacking them first]].

!!''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' provides examples of:

* AlmostOutOfOxygen: In "Avalanche," a network of missile complexes is attacked, and those inside are killed by what at first appears to be some sort of poison. The team sent in to investigate scans for all manner of poisonous gasses, but finds nothing. Then one of them takes off his breathing mask, and quickly discovers that all the oxygen has been removed.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than the other Supermarionation series, partly due to the opening titles and partly due to the fact that the good guys sometimes lost. Captain Black has several close shaves with Spectrum but is never actually caught, for example. As well as how OncePerEpisode the Mysterons would engineer somebody's death, then recreate him as a soulless construct to kill and endanger his former fellow humans. Not to mention the deaths; ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' would hardly have an innocent getting murdered through crushing.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: While pretty much every episode qualifies, "Treble Cross" has the Mysterons' victim of the week (Col. Gravener) be seemingly killed and replicated However, he's found in time and revived, and when the clone is destroyed, the real Gravener agrees to impersonate his double. [[spoiler:It works, and the Mysteron plot is foiled]].

* EjectionSeat: The good-guys ''always'' eject just in time.

* FauxActionGirl: To some extent, ''all'' the Angels.

* TheFederation: The UN seems to function as a world federation of nations.

* GeneralRipper: "Avalanche" had one who was determined to nuke Mars if his bases kept being taken out by a Mysteron saboteur. Colonel White was determined not to let this happen, as he was afraid of what the Mysterons would do if they got mad enough to abandon their usual subterfuge.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than the other Supermarionation series, partly due to the opening titles and partly due to the fact that the good guys sometimes lost. Captain Black has several close shaves with Spectrum but is never actually caught, for example. Not to mention the deaths, where OncePerEpisode the Mysterons would engineer somebody's death, then recreate him as a soulless construct; ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' would hardly have an innocent getting murdered through crushing.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than the other Supermarionation series, partly due to the opening titles and partly due to the fact that the good guys sometimes lost. Captain Black has several close shaves with Spectrum but is never actually caught, for example. Not to mention the deaths; ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' would hardly have an innocent getting murdered through crushing.

* ForgottenPhlebotinum: It's established in the first episode that Mysteron copies are indestructible, but with the exception of Captain Scarlet, this was inconsistently applied throughout the series.

* HonorBeforeReason: Bluntly put, the best explanation for why Blue so often has to be explicitly ordered to let Scarlet do something on his own even when he knows that Scarlet will survive such an attack where he can't.

* VoiceOfTheLegion: The Mysterons.

* WhatTheHellHero: In "White as Snow", Scarlet tells White that he pulled rank on Green to obtain the colonel's whereabouts, used his Spectrum ID to get through navy security and stowed away on the submarine before it left its base [[note]] Because the Mysterons has threatened to personally kill Colonel White, and Scarlet figured, correctly, that they'd still be able to send someone after him even if he hid out in a top-secretion location. [[/note]]. White sentences Scarlet to death for gross insubordination but immediately grants him a reprieve, ruefully noting that the captain's indestructibility would make his execution pointless.

## As part of their invulnerability, they are radiation-opaque. This means they can be detected by x-ray photography. Prior to this discovery, Scarlet himself was their only method of detecting infiltration via a vague "[[MySignificanceSenseIsTingling sense]]", which is why [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything he in general and Spectrum in particular]] was always sent to investigate Mysteron activity.

* ExpositoryThemeTune: The ending credits theme, after the original instrumental version was replaced. It runs down the main character, his power of indestructibility, his allies, his villains, and their plan to conquer Earth. The opening has NoThemeTune as such, although it does have musical backing.

* WhatTheHellHero: In "White as Snow", Scarlet tells White that he pulled rank on Green to obtain the colonel's whereabouts, used his Spectrum ID to get through navy security and stowed away on the submarine before it left its base. White sentences Scarlet to death for gross insubordination but immediately grants him a reprieve, ruefully noting that the captain's indestructibility would make his execution pointless.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: While pretty much every episode qualifies, "Treble Cross" has the Mysterons' victim of the week (Col. Gravener) be seemingly killed and cloned, but he's found in time and revived, and when the clone is destroyed, the real Gravener agrees to impersonate the double. [[spoiler:It works, and the Mysteron plot is foiled]].

Followed by ''Series/Joe90''. For the 2005 CGI [[TheRemake Remake]], see ''WesternAnimation/GerryAndersonsNewCaptainScarlet''. See also ''Series/UFO1970'', the series' DarkerAndEdgier SpiritualSuccessor.

--> ''They smash him, but they know he'll return... [[DeathIsCheap to live again!]]''

*** The Latin-American dubbing replaced the acronyms with ''Spectrum verde'' or ''Spectrum rojo'' for SIG and SIR respectively.

* ImprobablePilotingSkills

* TitleThemeTune: In one version thereof, "Captain Scarlet" is the ''only'' lyric. As a bonus, the later theme -- the one with the lyrics -- was sung by a group called The Spectrum (which was not created for the series).