Professional history

According to various sources, T. James Younger is a long-time politician. When the United Nations created the World Government on February 1st 2034, at the end of the European Great Atomic War, Younger, a born Australian, was between eight or fourteen years old at the time (depending on his birth date). Considering that in 2067, it is said that he was a long time politician, he possibly started young, and at the beginning of his career, he more than likely did like many other politicians by starting to serve politics in his own country (Most like John Roberts, who became President of the United States before being elected the third World President in 2069).

Younger's served within the World Government during either Nikita Bandranaik's second and/or third term of office (He was too young to serve during Bandranaik's first term). For a long time, he was a 'State Senator' at the world Security Council, representing the Australasian states.

In 2057, he was elected Senator for Mars. Three years later, he became Vice Chairman of the World Government and Deputy to then Vice President, Shaw Jansen.

In November 2066, Word President Nikita Bandranaik announced he will not be standing for re-election in 2067. After a period of ill-health, he had decided to retire, having served three seven-years terms in office).

At an age between 40 and 48, T. James Younger then ran for the World President office in the 2067 elections and won with an overwhelming majority.

One of Younger's first most important's official gesture as World President was to sign Spectrum's inaugurational chart, on July 10th 2067, thus making official the new world security organisation launched by his predecessor on September 28th 2065.  Spectrum would become answerable only to the World President, unlike the other World security organisations, which were under the responsability of the Supreme Headquarters Earth Forces (SHEF).

Younger's Family

World President T. James Younger is a family man. He has a teenaged son, Daniel (or Danny), who's 14 years old in 2068, and a daughter Sahra. Her age is not divulged, but from pictures of TV21 Issue 175, she might be around her brother's age. However, in her story 'Tin Soldier', where the World President and his family visit Cloudbase, Chris Bishop reimagined her as a six years old young girl.

In the TV21 story arc, in which he was introduced, Danny Younger was kidnapped. To avoid having to chose between his son's life and divulging state secrets, the World President calls on Brent Cleever (then retired Agent 21), to find Danny. Cleever succeeded in the mission and at the same time unearthed a nefarious plot that would have forced Younger to resignate his office. Chris Bishop does not make any mention of these events in 'Tin Soldier', in which she depicts a rebellious teenager in Daniel Younger.

Nothing is know of the World President's wife, and there is no mention of her, so it could be assumed that Younger is a widow.

Danny Younger's kidnapping, in the pages of TV21, Issue 175.

T.J. Younger and the Mysterons

The World President with Captain Brown, seconds before the latter would explode.

In the year 2067, strange radio signals are detected coming from an unexplored region of Mars.Curious as to what those signals could be, the World Government launched an exploration Zero-X mission to go to Mars to investigate. In November 2067, because he once had been part of the World Space Patrol, Captain Black, of the new Spectrum organisation, was chosen to lead this mission.

Kidnapped by the Mysteronised Captain Scarlet.

The Zero-X mission reached Mars and in January 2068, the crew discovered a strange alien city, and are the first humans to encounter the Mysterons. Everything goes sour when the Mysterons turned their cameras - which suspiciously looked like cannons to the Earthmen's eyes. Captain Black orders an attack which destroys the Mysteron city - which then recreated before their eyes. The Mysterons vowed to get revenge on Earth - in a slow retaliation - taking Captain Black over as their agent of destruction. They then announced their first act of retaliation by threatening to assassinate the World President.

Younger was then put under the protection of Spectrum. The Mysterons killed and recreated (mysteronised) Spectrum Captains Scarlet and Brown in order to reach their target. They made a first attempt against his life through the Captain Brown replicate, but it failed and Brown was killed in the process. Then Captain Scarlet kidnapped Younger, who was saved during an operation led by Captain Blue. In the process, Scarlet was killed, but later revived, free of the Mysterons' influence, to become Spectrum's best asset in Earth's war against the Mysterons. (All events told in the TV episode 'The Mysterons').

After these events, World President Younger became a target of the Mysterons again, albeit indirectly, when the Mysterons attempted to sabotage a secret conference he attended to, where Spectrum Intelligence presented special weapons meant to be used by Spectrum against the Mysterons. Younger, Colonel White, Captain Blue, and other people were almost crushed alive by another mysteronised Spectrum officer, Captain Indigo, but were saved just in time by Captain Scarlet. (As reported in the TV series 'Spectrum Strikes Back').

'The Mysterons threaten Mars' (colorised version).

World President Younger was a recurrent character in the comic strip. Mostly, he was seen as only a face on a videoscreen (TV Century 21's 'Secret Mission', 'Indestructible' and Countdown's 'Sunburst' and 'Crash Down'), giving up assigments or discussing Mysteron threats with Colonel White. In 'The Mysterons threaten Mars', along with Colonel White, he is kidnapped by a dissident general. In 'Showdown', his life is threatened again by the Mysterons and he's almost lynched, before Captain Scarlet saves him. Finally, in 'Mysteron Shock', he is tricked into disbanding Spectrum - naturally, a plot from the Mysterons so that Earth would be defenceless against them.

Fan fiction stories also use him as a recurrent character - or at least, often make frequent mentions of him. It is said in a few occasions that although he accepted the fact that Captain Scarlet is an asset to the fight against the Mysterons, understandably enough, he doesn't feel comfortable around him. The story in which he has a more central role in thus far is 'Tin Soldier', by Chris Bishop.

Younger stepped down from World Presidency in 2069, because of ill health. John Roberts, previously seen as President of the United States in the TV episode 'The Launching', became his successor.

President Younger disbands Spectrum, in 'Mysterons shock', in the pages of TV21.

Character's discrepancies

According to TV21 issue 121, T. James Younger was born in Australia (no more details provided) "47 years ago". The date line for the magazine, being 2067, that would mean that Younger was born in 2020.

However, Keith Ansell's "All series Gerry Anderson Chronology" published the pages of the "Century 21 - The World of Gerry Anderson" magazine, claims that Younger was born in 2026 (possibly in July), making him 42 at the time of the events from the episode "The Mysterons", which are set in 2068.

Furthermore, the same "All series Gerry Anderson Chronology" also reveals that Younger full name is 'Tiberius James 'Patrick' Younger'. However it is unknown where this information exactly comes. Most sources state his name as 'T.J. Younger' or 'T. James Younger'. In her fan fiction story 'Tin Soldier', Chris Bishop stipulates that his full name might be 'Theodore James Younger', but this is purely fan fiction speculation and there's nothing official about this.

Notes of interest

The World President as drawn in TV21, issue 175.

The same man (on the right), in issue 185.

In 1967, the TV21 comic magazine was relaunched (to coincide with the release of 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' on september of the same year.  The 'Agent 21' strip, which action was previously set somewhere around 2047 and 2048, moved forward in time to 2067, so that the stories would be set in the same time period as 'Captain Scarlet' and the other strips. Brent Cleever was still the star of the strip, but he had became a kind of superhero, having gained magnetic powers. Consequently, the title of the strip changed for 'Mr Magnet'. Cleever became the World President's personal troubleshooter. Since this is 2067, the world President clearly is T.J. Younger, but he is still drawn as his predecessor, Nikita Bandranaik. In the story arc where his son is kidnapped (Issues 175 to 180), the World President's name is clearly 'Younger', but it is only from issue 185 that he is drawn correctly as T.J. Younger.

In addition to the episodes 'The Mysterons' and 'Spectrum Strikes Back', the World President character appeared also in a flashback sequence, in episode 'Traitor'. He is the only character, other than those of the main cast, to appear more than once in the TV series.

In 1993, Transworld Publishers Ltd published four book adaptations of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons TV episodes, all of them written by Dave Morris. Amongst the adapted episodes, were 'The Mysterons' and 'The Lauching'. While in 'The Mysterons', the name of the World President remained unsaid - much like in the TV episode of the same title - in 'The Lauching, the author implied that 'President Roberts' was indeed the World President, and the same man who initially had been threatened in 'The Mysterons'. Whether is was due to creative change or lack of knowledge of the fandom is unknown.

Dr. Sommers

Also seen as...

The World President puppet was re-used as another character only once in the TV serie, and barely recognisable, appeared in the episode 'Expo 2068', it appeared as Dr. Sommers.

It was, however, used multiple times in the 'Joe 90' and 'The Secret Service' TV series, and it is noticeable that it was particularly used to personify various heads of state.

In 'Joe 90', the puppet was most notably cast as Colonel Henderson ('Business Holiday'), Brad Johnson ('Test Flight'), Canadian Prime Minister MacCormack ('Breakout') and President Juan Cordova ('Viva Cordova'). It also appeared a few times in 'The Secret Service', its most memorable appearance as the Arab king of Muldovia in 'Mayday! Mayday!'.

Younger's voice and face

Paul Maxwell

Patrick McGoohan

The facial features of the World President are said to be inspired by those of then popular actor Patrick MacGoohan. In the 60s, McGoohan was known for his roles in 'Danger Man' and starred as well in two Disney movies 'The Three Lives of Thomasina' and 'Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow'. But most importantly, he achieved complete stardom while playing the title role in 'The Prisoner'.

Patrick McGoohan was indeed originally cast to voice the World President in the pilot episode, but sadly, budget constraints didn't permit for that to happen.

The voice acting instead went to Paul Maxwell bot both TV episodes 'The Mysterons' and 'Spectrum Strikes Back'. Paul Maxwell also voiced the character of Captain Grey, as well as many supporting characters.

A Canadian actor born November 12, 1921, Paul Maxwell worked in British television and cinema, in which he usually played second-role or supporting American characters. His most notable role in television was that of Steve Tanner, in 'Coronation Street', from 1967 to 1968.

Before 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons', Paul Maxwell was famous for being the voice of Colonel Steve Zodiac in 'Fireball XL5' and he also gave his voice to Captain Paul Travers of the Zero X Mission in the feature film 'Thunderbirds are go'. Noticeably, he played the evil 'Man in the white hat' in the opening sequence of 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'.

For the audio adaptation of the first episode, entitled 'Introducing Captain Scarlet', Francis Matthews, the voice of Captain Scarlet, provided the World President's voice.

(Sources: TV Century 21 material (Annuals, books and magazines), Engale Marketing's Century 21 magazine, Issue 15, Winter 1995, Fleetway Magazines, Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons book by Chris Drake & Graham Bassett, Complete Book of Captain Scarlet by Chris Bentley… all related to TV Century 21 material - Photo-montages provided by dedicated fans.)