2003 Archive 
The new series of Captain Scarlet, "New Captain Scarlet" was finally broadcast in the UK on Feb 12 2005. After many years of rumour, test footage, screen shots and limited information, the world is finally able to see the show.
In the intervening years between now and the heyday of the Supermarionation era, Gerry Anderson's work has seen some highs and lows. This article reviews the first few episodes of the new series.
A BIT OF HISTORY
In 1966, Gerry Anderson started work on "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons". It was a new direction, with many changes from the prior era. The puppets now were different, more realistic, and the plotlines had a darker tone. Since the Supermarionation era came to an end with "The Secret Service", Gerry Anderson has had a number of successes, notably UFO and Space:1999, as well as some productions which were less well received. Sometimes it was due to production quality, and sometimes the general idea was dubious. Space Precinct was an interesting idea for a show but it ultimately failed, not only because of the weekly large rubber-headed monster aspect, but also due to dismal broadcast times. In the US, it aired at 3am in the week! Lavender Castle looks like it might have been interesting, but the very young age range for it made it difficult for older fans to appreciate. However, I don't want this to sound like I am in any way judging Gerry Anderson, I think it is great that he is so active in entertainment production and especially proud of the way he so deftly avoided the bullet that was "that movie" from last year. How many other TV and film producers active and successful in the 1960s have consistently produced output as Gerry Anderson has? How many are still going today? I can't think of anyone.
But I digress.
So after a few years in the woods, putting out one idea after another, Gerry Anderson made an important decision. Take a known property and do a remake. It already has a built-in fan base and once updated, should have a similar effect to the one it had in 1967. Remake Captain Scarlet, not using puppets, but using computer generated images (CGI) animation. In true Gerry Anderson style, he dubbed it "HYPERMARIONATION".
The production of the show itself has been long and fairly well detailed on this site, so I'll spare you the gory details; however it is worth noting that each episode costs £1,000,000 to produce. This is a 25 minute TV show. There is to be a total of 26 episodes, costing a total of £26 million. About the same or possibly less than "that movie" from last year. I know which one I'd rather have on DVD.
THE PREMIERE
Much to everyone's surprise, the show debuted in the UK on the MOM (Ministry of Mayhem) saturday morning TV slot on UK channel ITV (Independent TV). It was originally expected to air in the autumn of 2005 so this was a wonderful surprise for the fans who have been waiting so long. Not such great news for the licensees, but we'll get into that later. Despite some very positive promotion for the show in the week running up to the premiere, the actual broadcast was, by all accounts, a bit of a disaster. The show was slightly edited to remove some mild violence, the end credits were cut off, and worst of all, the show ended abruptly midway and viewers had to endure a dismal 20 minutes of banality until the second part was broadcast. There was no warning about the split and no clue if or when the second part would be shown. Although I admit I did not see this particular broadcast, it does seem that everyone who did see it had the same reaction and none of it was positive. The notion that children have a short attention span is total bull. Anyone who makes a TV show knows full well that ads will probably appear, but they do not usually expect a 20 minute intermission which is so ludicrous that the viewers may give up and go elsewhere.
THE SHOW
The show uses a fairly distinct style of animation which rises it above most of the TV-based CGI fare, but is probably at a level with cut-scenes from current computer games. The show's titles are fairly familiar Gerry Anderson fare, but I have to say the music is somewhat flat and seems less like theme music and more like general background music accompanying a series of clips from the show. The characters are introduced and we see clips from the episode about to come. This seems remiscent of Thunderbirds, only the music was better then. Having said that, the original Captain Scarlet opening theme was also rather lacking in oomph, as it just had the alley scene and the mysterons theme. One more musical note (!), the drum beat cut has been retained, but seems to be somehow less effective. It seems slower and lacks the punch of the original. The characters that we all know and love are still there, Captains Scarlet, Black and Blue, Colonel White, Lt Green and the angels, notably Destiny. A number of changes have been made as well, Lt Green is now a woman, because Spectrum is an equal opportunity employer...? Destiny is now the "main" Angel and most importantly, more emphasis is being given to the characters than was done in the original series. This can only be a good thing.
Despite the fact that all the character remain, some subtle changes have been made. Doctor Fawn is now Doctor Gold. Another odd change (does anyone know why?) is that Conrad Turner, a.k.a. Captain Black, is now Conrad Lefkon.
The characters themselves look fairly good, apparently many of them were based on computer scans of the original puppets, which explains why many of them look so much like their 1960s counterparts. Notably different is Captain Blue who looks like a very gruff US marine and should probably be given one of those really big guns they used in ALIENS. Also, Destiny Angel looks rather too much like a Terrahawks puppet for my liking. But these are minor issues. Captain Black looks suitably menacing and Colonel White looks great.
HARDWARE
Even though the names stay (pretty much) the same, all of the hardware has been given different names. The SPV is now a Rhino and even cloudbase in now SkyBase. The hardware still has a vaguely familiar look to it, but has been updated for the toy licensees - I'm sorry I mean the designs have been updated to what the producers think young kids expect today.
Some of the new designs are very slick (that flying bike - is wicked) and others seem like an assemblage of parts rather than a single thing, like the Rhino. Actually some seem like Transformer vehicles. The Angel Interceptors, or Falcons as they are known look beautiful. There is no doubt that the hardware needed to be updated and I think on the whole they did a good job. Not too clear on why the names were changed, but I suspect it might have been a licensing issue.
STORYLINE
The storyline for the first two episodes follows a familiar thread where we once again get to see Captain Scarlet and Black detroy an alien city on Mars. We once again get to see Captain Scarlet fall into the power of the Mysterons and do their evil bidding. However, this time, the whole story is done in a way which makes the whole thing somehow easier to understand and accept. The capabilities of the CGI animation really help, as it is now possible to have the characters fight and to make use of any camera angle including low angle shots as well as some really cool shots through the cockpit of the jets. The production quality of the show is first rate and the pace does not let up from the moment it starts. Even though the theme music is a bit of a let-down at the start, it works very well during the show itself and serves to drive the action. At the time of writing, I have only seen the first three episodes, but one thing that did strike me was that the music used in the show is 99% just the main theme re-used in various places, rather than having additional music created. This seems quite odd.
A major chunk of the storyline takes place on SkyBase which has a fairly generic and uninspired look, but once we get to terra firma, things improve noticeably. The funeral scene for Captain Black is so realistic, its like watching a live action movie. It is moments like that which show significant potential for the future. After Captain Scarlet's bid to destroy SkyBase fails, the Mysteron grip on him is lost and we get to see Captain Black emerge from the grave. This scene is basically a revamp of the trailer put out a few years ago and shown at the Fanderson 2000 event.
Captain Black kidnaps a wealthy businessman and kills him in a delightfully gruesome and yet bloodless manner. It is good to see that they did not shy away from this aspect, as it could easily have been the target of the "think of the children" police and that aspect could have been diluted. The first 2 episodes, "Instrument of Destruction" 1 and 2, combine as basically an introduction to the series and characters. The third episode, "Homecoming" seems to have been made after careful analysis of the original pilot. Some subtle tweaks have been made, noticeably to the characters, including our favourite US marine, Captain Blue, who now looks slightly less gruff. At this time, its unclear how many improvements will be made, but I understand that things do get better in this respect. The one aspect that seems to persist is the odd way the characters mouths move. They move slightly slowly and not really in sync with the dialogue, but this is probably a technical issue. A very noticeable thing about the character animation is that generally they don't need to do any. Most of the character movement is done via motion capture taken from live actors. This adds a major amount of realism and really helps pull the viewer in. One more thing about the characters and then we'll move on. The costumes for this show seem to fall into one of two categories, either "spray on" suits that look somewhat restricting or extremely bulky and non-moving suits made of plastic. The businessman who gets killed in the first episode has a suit so large and hard that it does not seem to move at all. This is all the more noticeable because so many other parts of the production are so well done. give it time.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Although the audience is clearly children, the show is suitably well done that adults can watch it and enjoy it just as easily. After a few minutes of getting used to the characters look, it is very easy to get sucked into the storyline.
Talking of children, due to the early broadcast of the show, the licensees are not ready with their merchandise as they were expecting an autumn broadcast. Most manufacturers will not have items ready until July at the earliest. Put me down for a really big falcon jet!
CLASSIC MOMENTS
There are several "fan" moments in the shows as well. There is a sign in the first episode which points to "Pinewood" (the studio where the show is made) and in "Homecoming" one of the astonauts in named McClane, clearly a reference to father of Supermarionation child Joe 90. The farmer driving a tractor in the first episode seems (at least to me) to bear more than a passing resemblance to a certain Mr Anderson... The only sad thing about the fact that this is a CGI show is that there will be no physical props, etc to see after the fact.
I know that I have picked apart many aspects of the show, but I have to say that despite my minor issues, this is one of the best TV shows to come along from any TV producer in a very long time. The stories are first rate, the action never lets up and the characters have some dimension. Each episode is a real attention grabber and once it gets hold of you you are powerless to resist. I have watched each episode several times and I don't think I will grow tired of it any time soon. Its great TV the way it should be made. As gerry himself commented for a promo piece for the show - "It's the real thing".
Is it as good as the original? Absolutely. Is it better? Possibly. The DVD is set to come out toward the end of the year and I can't wait.
Nice work Gerry. Now get cracking on the "new" Thunderbirds!