During an exploration of the planet Mars, jumpy Earth security forces open fire against a city of previously peaceful alien beings, the Mysterons. This is the action that leads to an ongoing war of nerves between the two races, one which could end with the total obliteration of the human race. The people of Earth put their faith in the efforts of Spectrum, the world’s number one security force, and in particular its top agent, the indestructible Captain Scarlet, to save them from the cruel Martian enemies...

Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons remains one of the most fondly remembered of Gerry Anderson’s many Supermarionation programs, arguably second only to Thunderbirds in the affections of the British public. Despite its status as a kiddies’ puppet show it’s a surprisingly grim series, especially having come off the heels of the antics of International Rescue. There, whilst innocents would constantly find themselves in deadly danger you could always count on the people of IR to save them without so much as breaking a sweat (unless you were on a collision course with the Sun), and the majority of threats were caused by accidents or by the actions of the misguided. The sole exception was of course that evil Malaysian terrorist known as the Hood, who turned up six times (seven if you count the first film) to cause all manner of mayhem in his quest to steal the secrets of International Rescue, even if that involved strapping bombs to aeroplanes, destroying nuclear facilities or throwing small children down Australian mineshafts. Here, however, the forces of Spectrum face a constant enemy – the vengeful and ethereal Mysterons, the aliens with the biggest grudge in history, determined to slowly destroy us poor humans and everything we damn well stand for. Also, whereas International Rescue would always succeed, quite often Spectrum actually fails and the Mysterons manage to destroy their target. This in itself makes Captain Scarlet a more unpredictable series than its predecessor.

And yet, despite these serious intentions, Captain Scarlet is still gloriously silly and surreal. The running time of every episode is 25 minutes in duration, 50% shorter than those of Thunderbirds (though the norm for a Supermarionation series), and though this gives the series an increased pace and excitement this frequently comes at the expense of the plots and stories, most of which have to leap through an SPV-load of hoops and encompass a cavalcade of plot inanities in order to gain any sense of cohesion. There’s barely any semblance of characterisation either, barring general two-dimensional personalities, and the Mysterons becoming increasingly powerful as the series goes on until it gets to the point that it seems ludicrous that the Earth still exists under the continual onslaught of assassins, explosions and duplicated scientists. There’s even an episode in which the Mysterons attempt to do away the forces of Spectrum by spiking their drinks. No, really. But that all comes much, much later…

But I come to praise Captain Scarlet, not to mock it. Well, actually that’s a lie as I plan to do both in equal measure. This is just one of those series which is constantly entertaining, where shortcomings in the storylines and format become something to adore and is perfect viewing for a group of friends who want something to have a giggle at. Or maybe that’s just me and my mates. Whatever else, the series was very well made and continued to improve on previous Supermarionation efforts in its filming and model work. The puppets are far more human looking than those in its predecessor as well, and the problem of having them walking (which never worked well, as Thunderbirds attests) was overcome by… never having them walk anywhere. Yes, in the future we will get to places as far and diverse as the other side of the room by way of moving tracks and conveyor belts. Stoically. Good stuff.

This part of the Vervoid intends to be a silly and joyous episodic guide looking at one of my favourite television series, covering a not entirely diverse range of points and topics and incorporating a certain amount of rambling. Don’t expect any behind-the-scenes info like I sometimes slot into my Secretive Film reviews because when it comes to Supermarionation I know stuff all except what I see on the telly screen. Oh, John Tracy never went out on missions in Thunderbirds because the puppet resembled somebody that Gerry Anderson didn’t like and that Sylvia Anderson, his wife, did. There. That’s your lot. The fact I can only recall half of that bit of trivia shows how informative this guide will probably be. Ahem.

But first, a run down of the forces of Spectrum to jog your memories:

Captain Scarlet

A Mysteron duplicate free of their influence, Captain Scarlet is the top asset in Spectrum’s arsenal, being totally indestructible. His real name is Paul Metcalfe, and he’s fiercely loyal to Spectrum and to its leader, Colonel White, even if he questions his superior’s orders and motivations on occasion. Aside from this, he really doesn’t have a personality to speak of, though the clipped English tones of voice artist Francis Matthews (who co-stars in Hammer’s The Revenge of Frankenstein, if you’re interested) are quite pleasing. He and Captain Blue are nearly always the ones to be sent out on important missions even if their actual success rate is highly debatable.

Captain Blue

Adam Svenson, best friend to Captain Scarlet. A cool, calm and collected American Spectrum officer with a startlingly Aryan visage, he’s usually dependable – more so than Captain Scarlet, to be honest – and a good chap to have around. It’s later hinted that he has a thing for Symphony Angel but it’s never made important. Shame, really.

Colonel White

The chap in charge of Spectrum. Ruthlessly efficient and calculating, he also looks like that cool bloke in the red shirt from Jonny Quest. Is frequently exasperated by the gung-ho antics of Captain Scarlet but tolerates them so long as he gets the job done. He’s rarely seen away from a rotating desk, several of which appear to be positioned strategically around Cloudbase for the very purpose of his convenience.

Lieutenant Green

Colonel White’s right hand man, usually seen sat at a control panel flicking switches for anybody that asks him to. Also called upon for scientific facts and opinions as he’s a bit of a boffin, so he gets to go out on assignments every so often. However, he’s the only Spectrum officer we see who isn’t a Captain, which leads us to assume that everybody else on Cloudbase is his superior, the poor sod.

Captain Black

The guy who started the war and got converted into a Mysteron Agent for his troubles (the only time the Mysterons don’t kill their victim – so presumably Black is actually inhabited by the Mysterons rather than simply being a duplicate). A rather menacing cadaver, who likes to hang around graveyards if the title sequence is anything to go by, Captain Black is often seen assassinating lowly car mechanics and aircraft pilots so that they can be converted into Mysterons.

Doctor Fawn

He’s a doctor and his surname is Fawn. That’s it, really. Oh, he likes wearing his Spectrum uniform to personnel meetings. Probably because he never gets to leave Cloudbase. Hardly ever appears in the series, either.

Captains Ochre, Grey and Magenta

Three other Spectrum field officers seen on a semi-regular basis, primarily used as background appearance fodder to make the organisation seem larger during key scenes. However, whereas Grey and Ochre have barely a personality cell to share between them (I think Captain Grey has about three lines throughout the whole series), Captain Magenta is occasionally used as shameless Irish comic relief, albeit often unintentionally, by virtue of the fact that he’s basically useless and has difficulties counting to twenty. Ho ho! Those crazy Irishmen! Oh, and he’s quite clearly pink and calls himself Magenta to up his self-esteem.

The Angels – Destiny, Harmony, Symphony, Melody and Rhapsody

These five beauties pilot the Angel interceptor aircrafts that zip about whenever Colonel White wants some aerial surveillance on assignments or needs something blown up from long range. Despite not being the leader, only Symphony ever really gets a lot to do in the series away from the position of "death-dealing airborne assassin", getting captured by Captain Black in the fourth episode and stranded in a desert towards the end of the series. She also has quite a delectable voice, which makes up for the absolutely horrid cod French accent that Destiny sports, not to mention Harmony’s halting and badly affected Japanese tones. In fact, the voices are frequently the one thing to distinguish the five as they don’t really have individual personalities or characteristics, and indeed Symphony’s hairstyle frequently changes so as not to resemble Destiny Angel’s long blonde locks too much. Melody Angel is particularly hard done by as the makers never even made her skin colour consistent between episodes; sometimes she’s white, sometimes tanned, and in the "cast list" title sequence she’s jet black!

Vehicles

The Spectrum HQ is the floating Cloudbase, which… floats and gives them all somewhere to live. It is able to move around on its own and planes take off from it a lot. That’s all I can say about it. Well, it’s all that I want to say about it. Spectrum vehicles encompass a variety of aircraft and ground vehicles, including the Angel interceptors and snazzy red saloon cars. However, the most iconic vehicle, and the only one I can be bothered to actually write about, is the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle – the SPV. These bluey-grey three-seater vehicles zip about, spraying bullets and the like, and occasionally are called upon to viciously bash other vehicles off the road. The occupant sits backwards and drives with aid of a monitor. SPVs are also strategically hidden about the globe and looked after by lowly undercover Spectrum agents just in case an officer in any given area should happen to need one.

Oh, and the Mysterons are aliens. You never see them aside from two big green floating circles, and they create duplicates of murder victims. Mmm.

There. Now that your memories are firmly jogged, you can whip on over to the episode guide! Ying-tong-iddle-I-po.