Created in 1967, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons is the second most popular of the Supermarionation programs. Following the success from the blockbuster series Thunderbirds, Gerry Anderson and company really stepped up the quality in this series. Much darker in tone and more daring in violence and action, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons also features yet more of the amazing model work that fans had grown to love from the previous series such as Thunderbirds and Stingray.
Captain Scarlet music video
Thanks to the advancements in electronics, the puppets were made much smaller than previous marionettes, allowing for program to allocate resources to other areas of the program including set design, vehicles and of course explosions. Whereas Thunderbirds was a rescue operation in premise, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was purely action and warfare. During an investigative expedition to the far-off Mars, Captain Black of Spectrum unwittingly starts an intergalactic war with the invisible inhabitants called ‘Mysterons.’ The ‘act of aggression’ referred to in the opening sequence of each episode was a misunderstanding in thinking that the Mysterons were aiming a weapon at the planet Earth when it was actually a radio telescope. I know… oops.
The first casualty of this war, Black is replicated into a Mysteron agent and sent back to Earth to seek out vengeance against the human race. With the ability to recreate anyone or anything through their bizarre advanced science, the Mysterons pose a threat to all life on Earth. There is no hope of success until they make a terrible mistake resulting in the creation of Captain Scarlet, the indestructible agent of Spectrum who stands in the way of their planned global conquest.
Pitted against the deadly and villainous Mysterons, the agents of Spectrum employ every resource at their disposal including the SPV (a kind of roving tank in which the driver faces the rear of the vehicle and pilots via televised control, Captain Scarlet’s patrol car, personal jet packs and more. Watching the series is like seeing a big budget action movie through the eyes of a 9 year-old. Cars speed down motorways, jets strafe radio towers and everything explodes.
Aside from Captain Scarlet, Spectrum has several other agents including Captains Blue, Brown, Ochre, Magenta, and Grey. Presiding over the colorful captains is Colonel White who has easily the most confusing desk I have ever seen. Bedecked with a wild array of buttons and switches having who knows what purpose, the entire affair swings about freely allowing him to dramatically face his massive video-screen. Spectrum operates from Cloudbase, a massive satellite skimming the stratosphere. The proximity to outer space supposedly allowed the agents to more quickly get into the action.
Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that it bears an uncanny resemblance to UNIT’s base of operations from Doctor Who’s ‘The Last of the Timelords’ finale.
But it’s not all lads!
Piloting a flight of fighter jets (called Angel Interceptors) were the Angels: Destiny, Symphony, Harmony and Rhapsody. Something of a precursor to Charlie’s Angels on American TV, the sexy pilots were as sultry as they were deadly. This addition of the attractive yet bold and daring pilots made the show a bit of an oddity in that it presented female viewers with a point of reference, so it wasn’t just the boys who could re-enact Captain Scarlet adventures in the playground.
Created to appeal to an American audience in order to meet the demands of ITC’s financer Lew Grade, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was much more action-oriented than any of the previous programs developed by Gerry Anderson’s team. Lacking the trademark humor and light-heartedness of the other series, many found the program to be too violent and frightening for children (just wait till they saw Joe 90!).
Check out the extreme death sequence from the first episode that required a special Captain Scarlet head to be constructed!
The series has a real sense of dread imbued into it and an unusual amount of suspense and tension for a children’s program. From the cinematic opening sequence down a dark alley, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was a sure sign that the directors working with Gerry Anderson shared his frustration at not working on large budget films and instead channeled their energy into this bizarre kid’s show. Many of the directors who worked on Captain Scarlet were even involved in some of the cult Hammer Horror films, which may account for the somewhat sinister and gothic air of the Captain Scarlet program.
In addition to the series itself, there were spin-offs including records, books, comics and of course numerous model kits and toys. Running for a short 32 episodes, the program was exported to over 40 countries and was a roaring success.
2005 Series Trailer
A 2005 revamp of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was mounted by Anderson using a mixture of live image capture and roto-scoping to make the CGi characters come to life. The most sophisticated computer animated TV series of the day, the series ran for two years to the mutual acclaim of new and old fans (though it did take some getting used to.
Rumors of a live action Captain Scarlet feature film have circulated for some time, but after Thunderbirds proved to be a failure at the box office, that idea may be permanently shelved.
One of the most dynamic of the Supermarionation series, I have to admit that it could easily be my favorite… luckily I don’t have to choose! Available on DVD through Carlton Entertainment, Captain Scarlet programs can be found in a deluxe boxed set availble online or at specialty stores. It is also included in a ‘Gerry Anderson assortment’ set including other Supermarionation projects.
If you are a fan of Thunderbirds and have never seen Captain Scarlet, do yourself a favor and view it today!
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A scant two months after it was announced, the wind from this new BBCi Doctor Who project was stolen by major news. Perhaps the biggest oddity of this Ninth Doctor was that no sooner had Richard E Grant been announced as the ‘official’ new Doctor Who than the BBC had granted Russell T Davies the go-ahead to produce a new televised series that would bear no relation to Scream of the Shalka at all. In a way this was akin to two holiday presents at once for Whovians worldwide but it also left many confused at what had just happened. It would take two long years for those questions to be answered and by then the animated feature had become a distant memory.



