Captain Scarlet

Having just acquired access to the HD Animation channel through Dish Network in the US, I stumbled upon the New Captain Scarlet for the first time. So far, I have seen about 4 episodes. (It is shown daily on the HD Anime channel, followed by an episode of "Youri the Spaceman.") In 70" high definition, the New Captain Scarlet is absolutely spectacular ... the most impressive HD experience I have had so far in these past four weeks.

I am a fan of some of the early Supermarionation series (e.g. Fireball XL5, Stingray), and have always been impressed with the quality of direction and production, and of the respect that Anderson and company has apparently had for their juvenile audiences. Each series has had a level of detail and story exposition that goes far beyond any comparable juvenile adventure series here in the US at the time.

However, I was not a fan of the first Scarlet series. The puppets were just too stiff to maintain any involvement. At least Steve Zodiac and Venus went ice skating once in a while.

But I digress. The new series is impeccably detailed, and the action is superbly directed and genuinely exciting. In contrast with the original series, the characters can at least walk, and much more. The stories aren't much to speak of, but every other aspect of production is impressive.

The New Captain Scarlet is an excellent TV series with not only some great story telling and superb action, but the animation is impressive. I was only expecting perhaps good action and maybe some good vehicle animation but what we got was a production that excelled every expectation. Are you looking for excellent CG animation? This show has it. Using state of the art motion capture technology in a studio specifically built at Pinewood, series creator Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, UFO, Space: 1999) has produced one of his best series ever. The animation just continued to impress every week.

The stories and characters would probably suffer, right? No!! I am surprised that there is quite a bit of character study, not enough to slow it down, but enough to keep the characters interesting and enhance the action and events that happen on screen. Oh yea, the action (explosions, etc) is fantastic.

The series is said to be made for kids but really the target audience expands to any fan of Sci-Fi action and animation. There is so much to like in this series that instead of going on and on I would suggest watching it for yourself!

What a welcome return for Cap Scarlet.What a shock it was for me to switch on the TV with a huge hang over to see such a welcome spectacle up on screen It does the original show great justice and brings Scarlet at Hyper drive into the 'Naughties'.

I guess its a bit of a gripe that we have to put up with MOM,but I'm sure its a good show caser for the first run shows just to get it out there noticed .Take note ITV .... you have a potential Monster of a hit here ...be brave .. a Tea time spot on Sunday will be cult viewing for old and young .

The Icing on the cake would be to spice up the Score ...bring back the Bary Gray Bongs and strings and this show will be near perfect .

Last Summer I thought Mr Anderson was being a bit of a grumpy Old Man,complaining the way Thunderbirds the Movie was going . Now I understand where he was coming from . So bring it on . Lets have all the Classics in 'HYPOMARRIANATION'....'Thunderbirds , Stingray ....the lot ..

Many years ago captain scarlet and the mysterons was an old childhood favourite. I remember never getting tired of the angel's accent into their jets nor the long winded intro. Not to mention having laughs a when they used real people's hands for certain shots (the puppets couldn't grip things).

Ah memories. I think my first reaction when I heard of this new cgi remake was the same as any other scarlet fan. The outrage. How could they do this to scarlet? And so on. But were our worries confirmed? No.

Instead a new captain scarlet, up to date, action packed, displaying all things that tend to lack in children's TV these days. A complete re-invention. Characters with expressions for a change. Faster, more tense, episodes. New story lines. Great new gadgets. I'd even go so far to say this is better then the original but that's debatable.

This show took me aback when I first saw it. It wasn't bad it was brilliant. Just imagine all the restraints working with puppets caused now imagine the old show without them. Now you see where I'm coming from.

True the mysterons lack their creepiness. Lieutenant Green has been replaced. The driving backwards inside SPV's is gone. But does that really matter? If you have a kid boy at home aged say 5-10 there is a strong chance he'll love it as well as you (whatever age you are). Remember if you prefer the original Scarlet, this show is for the young viewer. To them this will be better.

This is one of those shows you need to give a chance. Don't copy my brother and hate it even though you've never watched a complete episode.

Gerry Anderson's "New Captain Scarlet" began its 26 episode run on the morning of Saturday 12th February 2005 on CITV although, to be honest, I wish it wasn't part of "Ministry of Mayhem"! Why are ITV afraid to try for a bigger audience late afternoon/early evening? Also, in "MOM", the gap between the two halves of each episode is much longer than a regular commercial break would be!

I'd like to know the thinking behind changing Lt. Green from a black male to a white female especially as there are already five female characters in the shape of the Angels although, of the five, we only meet Destiny in the first episode. The suggestion is that, like Councillor Troi when "Star Trek: The Next Generation" began, she is the character through which the emotional content of an episode will be channelled.

I'm also curious about the change of name from Cloudbase to Skybase? That aside, it moved at a furious pace and, in so-doing, lost the luxuriously sedate menace of the 1967 original. The Supermarionation version was much aided by Barry Gray's music whereas the score for the new CGI series meanders rather nondescriptly, instantly forgotten. I wonder what the closing credits are like? We weren't given the chance to see or even hear them on CITV!

There was much to recommend the new show. Particularly impressive were the Angel flight sequences and Black's resurrection, fist through the coffin lid! This made him come across as some vampire-like figure and the great coat swirling behind him reminded me of "Blade Runner" though younger viewers would probably have associated it with Spike from "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer"!

What would be nice is for those younger viewers to want to discover the beauty of the original puppet series which, for all its woodenness, still felt three dimensional; something you just don't seem to get from computer generated material. Even so, I enjoyed it and will stay with the series both now and when it returns later in the year...