Captain Scarlet

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 ..

Did you know the only show the BBC cancelled because of inappropriate content on the night of 9/11 was Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons? Obvious why when you think about it.

Twelve years after seeing this on scratchy analogue TV I found the DVD in a charity shop and watched it again in jaw dropping digital clarity. It hasn't dated and retains the compelling sense of dark threat.

Everything about this works, the action, the characters and of course the tech stuff. Cleverly it makes no direct reference to the internet, which was still a bit new and shiny in 2005, thus future proofing itself in a way the 60's puppet series didn't.

There are some minor 'update irritations' from the original puppets, which I saw first time round BTW, the the music is disappointing and the drum sting (paradiddle?) between scenes is not the same or as good. I would have preferred Leutenant Green to have become a black woman, if only because of its currency with the transgender debate and Captain Blue borders on the prissy at times.

But look, this is as good and probably better than the Thunderbirds are Go! reboot. Enjoyable expertly made Gerry Anderson magic.

It was just a shame our great TV companies were a little too scared of the subject matter to not hide it away in a younger kids show topped and tailed with embarrassed and diminishing comments.

"incoming on the holo-screen Colonel" "What is it Leutenant?" "Looks like a full scale HD Blue Ray release, ETA September 2017, sir" "Alert all agents, telly binge round at mine!" "SIG!"

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!

Eliminated the closing song. noooooo. its gritty. love the vehicles stuff. recommended. I guess the rights for the closing song was too expensive or not available. Miss it

To borrow a phrase from our American cousins, Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet 'kicks serious ass!' This 26-part CG animation epic retains the basic setup of Earth caught in a war of nerves against The Mysterons, shapeless, disembodied entities from Mars with the ability to destroy objects and people and then reconstruct them for their own ends.

The 1967 original is of course fondly remembered by fans for its air of menace and that aspect is just one of many elements the new series embraces and improves on with glee. Each week hapless humans die in spectacular 'accidents' and Mysteron agents are shot, electrocuted, blown up and flung off cliffs with impunity. In 'Skin Deep' the delightfully villainous Captain Black even shoots a woman in the face, at point blank range. This kind of deliciously dark mayhem is exactly what young and old love about the show.

The scripts (the majority of them by Phil Ford) are not only pacey, varied and imaginative but exploit aspects of the basic format that were simply beyond the abilities of the original. For example, 'Chiller', sees Scarlet so badly injured in a Mysteron explosion that his spirit literally frees itself from his mangled remains. The result is that Scarlet finds himself invisible to everyone else on Skybase. Not only invisible but insubstantial, able to walk through walls and people like a ghost. All of which poses a major problem given that Scarlet knows a traitor has carried a bomb on board. But how can a ghost warn his friends? In 'Swarm', a plague of Mysteron nanobots takes over Skybase, wrapping its human prey in spider-like cocoons. 'Mercury Falling,' features Captain Blue and Destiny piloting a nuclear powered space shuttle (a tribute to 'Fireball XL5') which has been transformed into a flying bomb aimed at Washington D.C. And 'Rat Trap' sees our heroes dispatched to a spooky Martian colony to face some killer robots on the rampage.

But for all the visceral hi-tech wizardry on display the new series also offers a satisfying emotional core. A blossoming love affair between Scarlet and Destiny Angel is a real pleasure to watch and surprisingly heartfelt in its impact. Although aimed at children this is, as Thunderbirds was before it, a show with genuine adult appeal. And if Scarlet is predictably loyal and heroic his worry about his invulnerability and the way it sets him apart from other humans adds another layer of depth to his character.

As for the photorealistic CGI animation one word sums it up and that word is 'spectacular'. Given that the original Captain Scarlet was a puppet (marionette) show - with all the inherent limitations of movement and expression that entails - the new version is nothing short of miraculous. The characters can finally move without having to be in a vehicle or stand on a conveyor belt! They can smile, look sad, angry, frustrated, and have thrilling hand to hand fights. The new series exploits all of these possibilities to the hilt.

In conclusion all I can say is that anyone who lives outside the UK should contact their local station and request them to carry this show. If you like Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's work but were horrified by Jonathan Frakes' Thunderbirds movie yet still want to see one of the old puppet shows updated with love and skill then New Captain Scarlet is a must. It's easily the best thing Anderson has done since Year One of Space:1999 and far better, IMO, than the BBC's recently relaunched Doctor Who.