Captain Black (Captain Scarlet) - Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons

Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons

Black was seconded to lead a Zero-X mission to Mars, in order to investigate mysterious radio signals detected by Spectrum. Until then, planet earth was aware only of rock snakes (featured in Thunderbirds Are GO) inhabiting the planet. Consequently, Black was shocked to find an alien city on the Martian plains. When the complex turned scanning apparatus onto his Martian Exploration Vehicle (MEV), Black misinterpreted this as a weapons system and, believing the city to be hostile, ordered his subordinates to launch an attack on the complex. When the Mysterons reconstructed their city and threatened to assassinate the World President, they seized control over Black's mind. After Zero X returns to Earth, he disappears, and thereafter is the instrument of the Mysterons' campaign of vengeance against Earth for what they saw as unwarranted aggression.

Through Captain Black, the Mysterons relay instructions to other agents on Earth and compel him to undertake acts of terrorism and murder through their disembodied voice. However, even under the influence of the Mysterons, Black is not completely devoid of humanity. For example, after becoming a radioactive hotspot in the episode "Manhunt", he captures Symphony Angel while hiding from Spectrum and subjects her to lethal radiation inside an atomic centre, but desists before she is killed and allows her to escape. While Spectrum agents chase after an SPV, which they believe contains Black but is actually being driven (badly) by Symphony, he decontaminates himself inside the atomic plant and thus avoids Spectrum's attempts to detain him.

Text features in TV Century 21 and related publications stated that Black, as Conrad Turner, was born in Manchester (though he had a North American accent in the show) and lost his parents as an infant during a limited nuclear war. He was raised by distant relatives who provided little emotional support, causing him to be cold and reclusive. He joined the Royal Air Force and fought in a British civil war at age 19, and after the country joined the World Government he became famous for his work in the World Army/Air Force and later as a Fireball XL3 pilot in the World Space Patrol. He was Spectrum's first agent and oversaw Cloudbase's construction.

In the episode "Treble Cross", an Air Force test pilot unexpectedly survives an assassination attempt by the Mysterons and helps Spectrum in another effort to catch Captain Black. However, he is not deceived when the human pilot replaces his own Mysteron duplicate and evades Spectrum for a second time, suggesting that the Mysterons have equipped him with a "sixth sense" which can warn him of danger.

Black can also teleport if under threat of capture. This occurs in the episodes "The Heart of New York", "Model Spy" and "Inferno".

The character is only seen wearing his Spectrum uniform in the pilot episode "The Mysterons" and in the second opening sequence for each episode thereafter, symbolically standing in a graveyard at night. In all other episodes that Black appears, he is wearing civilian clothing.