Review of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

In the 1960s Gerry Anderson coined the phrase "Supermarionation" (a portmanteau of "super", "marionette" and "animation") for his puppet television shows, this is seen by most as his popular series, and one I grew up with in childhood. Basically set in the year 2068, three men from Earth were sent on a mission to investigate signals coming from the planet Mars, they discover an extraterrestrial complex. The aliens, known as the Mysterons, wanted to welcome the humans, but their sensor device was mistaken as a weapon, the humans opened fire and destroyed the Martian base, but moments later an alien device reconstructs the wreckage. The Mysterons threaten vengeance on all life on Earth, beginning a "war of nerves", slow retaliation for this (mistaken) attack, issuing threats of death and destruction against specific targets, such as world leaders, important people, military installations, whole cities, and their primary agent to assist in these plans is human turned Mysteron agent Captain Black (Donald Gray). The Mysterons have the powers of reversing matter, or "retro- metabolism", they can destroy an object (such as vehicles) or person and reconstruct them for their own ends, the Martians are invisible, but their actions are indicated by the appearance of two light rings that appear. The Spectrum Organisation are assigned to combat the Mysterons, directed from Cloudbase, the airborne headquarters stationed thousands of miles above the Earth, commanded by Colonel White (Donald Gray), aka Charles Gray, with his assistant Lieutenant Green (Cy Grant), aka Seymour Griffiths. The first mission sees Spectrum agent Captain Scarlet (Francis Mattews), aka Paul Medcalfe, killed and turned into a Mysteron, in an attempt to assassinate the World President, however this fails, with Captain Scarlet falling to his death. However, the Mysteron powers of retro-metabolism are retained, remarkably Captain Scarlet returns to life, no longer under the control of the Mysterons, Doctor Fawn (Charles Tingwell), aka Edward Wilkie, confirms that after a few hours even a fatal wound to Captain Scarlet will heal completely, he is virtually indestructible. Captain Scarlet is often paired with fellow Spectrum officer Captain Blue (Ed Bishop), aka Adam Svenson, other Spectrum officers with colour code names include: Captain Ochre (Jeremy Wilkin), aka Richard Fraser; Captain Magenta (Gary Files), aka Patrick Donaghue; and Captain Grey (Paul Maxwell), aka Bradley Holden. Spectrum is defended by the Angels, a squadron of five female pilots who fly the Angel Interceptor fighter air crafts, they are: Destiny Angel (Liz Morgan), aka Juliette Pontoin; Symphony Angel (Janna Hill), aka Karen Wainwright; Rhapsody Angel (Liz Morgan), aka Dianne Simms; Melody Angel (Sylvia Anderson), aka Magnolia Jones; and Harmony Angel (Liz Morgan), aka Chan Kwan. Spectrum also has a number of vehicles and crafts they use on their missions, including the armoured assault vehicle the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (SPV), the Spectrum Saloon Car, the Spectrum Passenger Jet and many more. Captain Scarlet sometimes experiences severe nausea when there is Mysteron activity close, and along the way Spectrum discover things about the Mysterons that aid their battle with them, including they are impervious to X-rays, allowing them to detect Mysterons agents, and they are vulnerable to electricity, this is the best weapon to kill the Mysteron agents. Also starring Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, Martin King, David Healy, Lian-Shin Yang, Neil McCallum and Thunderbirds' Shane Rimmer as various characters. There were 32 episodes of this classic show, the puppet characters are all likable, the stories all have their own charm, the music by Barry Gray, including the closing credits song "Captain Scarlet" by The Spectrum, is great, and there are plenty of exciting scenes, with explosions, there may not be many laughs, it is a darker and often scary, but it will definitely keep you watching, it is a highly entertaining show for adults and children alike, a brilliant family science-fiction adventure. It was number 82 on The 100 Greatest Scary Moments (for booming voice of The Mysterons), and it number 51 on The 100 Greatest Kids' TV Shows. Outstanding!