Friday 16 January 2015

64 Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons



First  watched  : Uncertain

This  was  my  favourite  of  the  Gerry  Anderson  programmes  although  it  falls  into  the  category  of  rarely-glimpsed  treat. It  was  made  straight  after  Thunderbirds  in  1967  and -  to  an  extent - wrapped  up  after  32   episodes  because  Anderson  assumed  another  one  wouldn't  be  commissioned.

The  series  has  a  darker  tone  than  its  predecessors  which  is  probably  why  I  preferred  it. In  the  first  episode   set  in  2068  an  exploration  of  Mars  commissioned  by  a  global  defence  organisation  called  Spectrum  goes  horribly  wrong   when  its  commander  the  trigger-happy  Captain  Black  destroys  a  Martian  complex  at  the  first  ( mistaken ) sign  of  aggression. The  inhabitants  are  a  group  of  sentient  computers,  the  Mysterons,  who  vow  revenge  on  Earth. The  Mysterons  have  perfected  the  re-arrangement  of  matter  so  they  can  both  resurrect  themselves  and  create  indestructible  facsimiles  of  people, starting  with  the  hapless  Captain  Black  to  do  their  bidding. When  they  attempt  the  same  with  another  Spectrum  agent,  Captain  Scarlet, for  some  not  properly  explained  reason he  recovers  his  free  will  upon  his  resurrection  and  thus  becomes  Spectrum's  most  effective  weapon  against  the  Mysterons'  attacks.  

Captain  Scarlet  and  the  Mysterons  is   therefore  much  more  violent  and  paranoid  than  its  predecessors  with  the  hero  regularly  getting  killed in  the  knowledge  he  will  come  back  to  life  in  the  next  episode.

The  series  was  rebooted  with  CGI  in  2005  as  Gerry  Anderson's  New  Captain  Scarlet  and  became  the  last  completed  project  of  Gerry's  lifetime. Unfortunately  his  contract  with  ITV  didn't  nail  down  how  the  product  would  be  presented  and  the  episodes, though  shown  in  order  , were  broadcast  as  part  of  the  magazine  show  Ministry  of  Mayhem  , cut  in  half  without  titles  or  even  a  fixed  time  slot  which  appalled  him. I'm  sure  I'm  not  the  only  person  who  missed  it  altogether.


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