Gerry Anderson was informed that New Captain Scarlet would be aired in a Saturday evening slot, same as the BBC was going to do with the new series of
Doctor Who (2005), which would end up premiering a month after New Captain Scarlet and was expected to do very well in that time slot. However at the last moment ITV, who had invested a large amount of money into New Captain Scarlet, went to Gerry and his production company and asked them to replace the series theme music with an updated version of the original
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967) theme tune sung by
The Spectrum, using a popular band/recording artist of that year. ITV had apparently wanted to cash in on the popularity of
Busted's Thunderbirds Are Go! song from the soundtrack of the 2004 movie
Thunderbirds : Les Sentinelles de l'air (2004) (which was a movie based on Gerry's original
Les sentinelles de l'air! (1965) TV series). The costs involved would have been enormous and would have been met by the production company rather than ITV, so Gerry refused, knowing that there would be consequences and so ITV ordered the airing date be brought forward before Gerry could go back and make any adjustments and changes that the series needed, including changes in the opening titles. Then ITV went and buried New Captain Scarlet in a Saturday Morning slot within the Ministry of Mayhem show, splitting each episode in two and providing very little publicity. Meanwhile, Doctor Who became a cult hit for the BBC whilst New Captain Scarlet is largely forgotten about and was never repeated on ITV.
