Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

CS&M's American-broadcast predecessors (Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds) prompted novelty, fun, and no small amount of wishful thinking on the part of this frustrated model railroader. Thunderbirds to me at least became a pleasurable engineering-problem-of-the-week. But CS&M was different, far different.

Invisible yet palpable evil was afoot. Characters that looked a lot more human got snuffed. Intentional catastrophes abounded or were openly threatened. And to confront this was SPECTRUM, sometimes arriving not quite in the nick of time.

It may have aimed for the kids, but it was adult fare, at times delivered with genuine style and suspense. (I suspect the producers later chose to tone things down, hence Joe 90 and The Secret Service.) And at all times it was delivered with outright craftsmanship, a superb meld of direction, stories, voice acting and characterization, photography and editing, production design, sound and musical score, and in-camera special effects.

If you're new to Supermarionation, don't mind the puppetry, kit-bashed models, tabletop explosions or rolling backgrounds, overlook the occasional wire and slot in the pavement, and just watch a show that has style. Because everything is scaled-down but filmed as realistically as practicable you'll get drawn into it faster than you think. For a sampler view the episodes "Winged Assassin," "Big Ben Strikes Again," "Manhunt," "Operation Time," "Shadow of Fear," "The Heart of New York," "Fire at Rig 15," "Traitor," "Noose of Ice" and "Attack on Cloudbase."

I don't quite know when I'll view the CGI successor series, but I suspect tastes have changed over time. CS&M's original premise has unquestionably grown spookier. Suffice it to say I've seen nothing like this before or since. Be surprised, and enjoy.

(UPDATE: I gradually view the new series' episodes. Though its imagery can dazzle, given the choice between "Hypermarionation" and, as another user puts it, "the luxuriously sedate menace of the 1967 original," I still prefer the latter.)

...No joke, as a 6 year old I watched this right after seeing Giant Robot, we were in heavon. Could NOT get enough, though those Mysterons and their 'Twin orbs of light' were enough to send us scurrying behind the couch...

Haven't seen it since though.

*** from memory.

Anderson's follow up to 'Thunderbirds' is far more brutal and pessimistic about the future. Virtually every episode begins with the Mysterons murdering someone to 'reconstruct' them under their control. The puppets are technically superior to ThunderBirds, Stingray etc and the special effects by Derek Meddings and co are excellent. There are some nice touches-the multi-racial, equal opportunity organisation 'Spectrum', the puppet 'guest stars',particularly the Robert Mitchum lookalike, and the fact that Colonel White, the Spectrum commander and the Mysterons share the same voice (is this symbolically significant as opposed to Anderson economising on actors?).However, overall it lacked the charm and innocent appeal of its predecessors. For pedants like me there were also some holes in the basic concept. It was quietly forgotten that Captain Scarlet himself was not the original but a Mysteron reconstruction. Was there no danger of him being taken over again? Like the workings of the Star Trek transporter the exact nature of his indestructibility was left vague. In the opening credits he is shown to be bullet proof, but in the series itself he just seems to be able to recover quickly from catastrophic injuries. Anyway, as far as I recall none of the other Mysteron agents were indestructible so why was he? Anderson is reputedly remaking the series as of 2003 so perhaps we'll learn some answers. Hope it's better than some of his latter day shows like 'Terrahawks' and the abysmal 'Space Precinct'

Simple stories are probably the result of budget and material restrictions, which is what makes this show so great. Each has some basis in science, technology, or military. All fascinating subjects for "cool" television shows. It is as though a ten year old boy imagined 24 minute plot-lines and had an unlimited amount of model-builders to create a world in which those action figures live out his stories. If you ever played with toys and honed your skills enough to see your "controlling" hands disappear, you'll love Captain Scarlett. However, like watching Knight Rider as a kid, you may not love it so much now because that was a really dumb show. You've got to be able set your frame of mind, again, to that of childhood.

Perhaps an entire generation was scarred by the voices of the Mysterons - between them and the Daleks I spent a good part of my childhood hiding behind the sofa. It was certainly a golden age for children with the prodigious talents of Gerry Anderson ensuring a constant stream of spectacular programmes for after school entertainment.

'Captain Scarlet' was a follow-on to the immensely successful 'Thunderbirds', and whilst technically superior it never achieved the same level of popularity. Why? I think the answer lies in 'Captain Scarlet' being a darker production, sometime after 'Thunderbirds' Gerry Anderson seems to have lost a lot of his faith in humanity. The Mysteron conflict is started by human stupidity. Technology goes horribly wrong - and this time people die as a consequence.

Or maybe it's just unpopular because the theme music isn't anywhere as catchy.

Storywise, well there is a common plot. The Mysterons kindly inform Earth of their latest plan by means of a cryptic clue, (obviously they are a race of frustrated Martian crossword compilers). Shortly afterwards they use their patented replication technology to make a copy of a person who then goes about fulfilling the Mysteron plans; think 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers' remade for kids. The Mysteron chief agent on Earth was the creepy Captain Black who desperately needed a shave and somehow managed to escape every week. It's all up to Captain Scarlet and his colour-coordinated sidekicks to save the day in a nuclear-powered, high-rise, high-speed world.

It is clear that Gerry Anderson was just itching to move into live-action television (something he would achieve with the later 'UFO'), and was running into the limitations of puppets. Whilst technical advances between 'Thunderbirds' and 'Captain Scarlet' meant that it was possible to produce anatomically correctly proportioned puppets; string puppets could not be made to walk convincingly. So 'Captain Scarlet' is filled with shots of sitting people, moving walkways or head and shoulder shots. The use of much thinner strings on the puppets and insert shots for hands helps sell the illusion.

In the end the weaknesses don't matter. The Century 21 team had established the formula with 'Thunderbirds'. Mix some high speed chases, a perilous situation for the heroes and end it all with a satisfying explosion or two and you can ensure that 25 minutes whip past before anyone can nit-pick.

Like any Anderson production, the story used a lavish number of models and sets (almost all of which ended up in ruins by the end of the programme). Many of them are now classics - the SPV tank and the futuristic Spectrum Patrol Car were lovingly moulded into die-cast toys and were repeatedly crashed in living rooms around the country. If anyone has mine, please let me know! As always the special effects were of the very highest standard (many of the people involved went on to work with Kubrick on '2001') and still look good today.

Re-watching the programme, one thing I found particularly striking were the strong roles given to women characters people who weren't British or American. Spectrum agents are a mix of all nationalities and ethnicities, apparently Anderson wanted children of all races to have heroes and learn to play together - not a bad aim for the 1960s and something that more programmes could remember.

Looking at it today, 'Captain Scarlet' has survived much better than most programming of the era. Produced on a lavish budget and shot on film, it has been digitally remastered for re-broadcast and DVD and positively glows. Somehow the colours look richer than modern productions and the storytelling doesn't appear to be designed for the very stupid. Even down to the classic retro-futuristic fonts and the wonderful Century 21 logo it still looks modern.

In short, I still love it.

As they used to say at the end of each show; Captain Scarlet is indestructible. You are not. Remember this, do not try to imitate him.