9. The Colonel Is Called White Because He's The Sum Of All The Agents
The Spectrum agents all have names based on colours, such as scarlet, blue, and green. But why was their colonel called "White"? The theory is simple: White is the base colour of the spectrum of visible light; in essence, he is the sum of all the agents' colours. However, as any schoolkid can tell you, the spectrum of light is made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. So let's check the names of the Spectrum agents. Blue? Check. Green. OK. But what were the other agents again? Captain Ochre, Captain Magenta, Captain Grey, Captain Brown, Doctor Fawn, and (of course) Captain Scarlet fill out the ranks - and none of those are exactly colours in the spectrum of visible light. So much for the theory.
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
