Gerry Anderson's NEW
  Captain Scarlet   (2005-2006)
  
    producers: Anderson Entertainment LTD
                      for Gerry Anderson Productions PLC
    animation: CGI animation
      episodes: 26 x 22mins

  
   "Captain Scarlet, you are
    virtually indestructible!"

 

   Spectrum is still green, the Angels are ready and waiting to intercept, and
   our favourite Captain remains indestructible in this ambitious updated series
   from Gerry Anderson. But if you've somehow missed the original, then
   you'll be needing the blanks filled in. So here goes:

   Colonel White and his Spectrum agents hover above the Earth in their
   technical defence station, Cloudbase, ready to defend our home planet
   from threats both of human and of alien descent. But after a mission to Mars
   goes awry, Spectrum finds itself pitched against a deadly invisible enemy,
   known only as the Mysterons. The Mysterons appear as a pair of deadly
   green glowing rings. Whomsoever they make contact with will be killed
   and resurrected from the dead to wage war against the Earth. Also at their
   disposal is former Spectrum agent Captain Black. He's a useful fellow to
   have around, to steer each deadly plan to fruition. Only, he's up against his
   former colleague and friend Captain Scarlet. Just like Black, he was taken
   over by the Mysterons. But he escaped their clutches, and in the process,
   gained an indestructibility which proves vital in Spectrum's defence plans...

   

   In 1967, Scarlet and company were brought to life as Supermarionation
   puppets. But it's a whole new ball game here. Gone are the strings, the
   models and the puppets who have now been reconstructed on computers,
   in CGI. And now they're free of their studio shackles, Captains Scarlet
   and Blue, Colonel White and the rest of the Spectrum agents can tackle
   the Mysteron threat in the air, on the ground, under ice and away in the
   outer reaches of the solar system in an array of free-roaming adventures.
   What's more, their encounters are bigger, deadlier, and more devious than
   ever, because the Mysteron threat has grown with the show's new format.
   Those deadly green rings can crop up anytime, anywhere, seeking out their
   next victim... taking lives... taking control...

   There are new twists and turns everywhere you look. There are new vehicles
   and ships, including Albatross personnel deployment aircraft, battle-armoured
   Rhino cars, and nippy Skyrider bikes. There are new names on the list of
   Spectrum agents, and Lieutenant Green has even turned into a woman
   (well, not surgically, just the character). Then there's Destiny Angel. She
   has a bit of backstory now. You see, she had an ongoing relationship with
   Captain Black before the Mysterons showed up. Now she and Captain Scarlet
   have been drawn together by events, complicating the combatants' relationship.
   Oh yes, the new show isn't just for kids. Sure, it's big and explosive, but
   its stories have enough sophistication to rope in an adult audience too,
   and the results are nothing short of spectacular.

   Seriously. The new-look Captain Scarlet has some fantastic adventures
   that are more than equal to the shiny new visuals. Of course, there are
   a few shortcomings. Take the two-part pilot which retreads Scarlet's origin
   story from the original series. Some of the scenes look like interstitials
   from a videogame. Thankfully, the dynamics of later episodes show clearly
   how the production team were honing away at the presentation, week on
   week, so that by the time we get to season two the series becomes
   breathtakingly good.
   
   Has The Hound succumbed to the desires of Gerry Anderson's PR firm?
   Well, you can rest assured that there's no Mysterons abroad on this
   web site. He is eulogizing simply because this is a great, great series.

   Or rather, it was.

   That's because "New Captain Scarlet" was the cruel victim of circumstance,
   here in the UK. Gerry Anderson's first unveiled a four minute CGI promo entitled
   "Captain Scarlet and the Return of the Mysterons" back in the year 2000.
   It then took him five more years to put together the considerable funding
   required for such a groundbreaking show, and to recruit a team capable of
   bringing this complicated series to our screens. How unfortunate then, that
   when it finally premiered on ITV, "New Captain Scarlet" found itself shoehorned
   into a noisy Saturday morning kids show, chopped into two parts and docked
   of its credits. The broadcast and scheduling was, frankly, unforgivable.
   And a repeat at a later weekday afternoon slot on CiTV came too late to
   amend the damage. The show's uniqueness had confounded modern
   schedulers.

   Remember, Gerry Anderson hailed from an era when those ITC serial adventures
   ruled our screens. But somewhere over the intervening years the format
   dropped out of favour with the schedulers. "New Captain Scarlet" harked right
   back to that era, and thus had no waiting timeslot to drop into. Not only
   that, the media at large also didn't seize upon the show. It's something
   to mull upon when one considers the huge success of the BBC's new
   "Dr Who". Their PR gurus whipped up a media frenzy for the Doctor's return,
   and the series hit the ground running in its 7.00pm timeslot, just a few
   months later. One wonders if Scarlet might have thrived in similar
   circumstances. But now we'll never know. After two seasons, and 26
   fantastic episodes, the production team was disbanded, the computers
   switched off...

   

   "New Captain Scarlet" remains a triumph. And if you don't believe that,
   just check out the season two episode "Enigma". Its story centers on
   the appearance of a bizarre Mysteron ship which lands in the Australian
   Outback. There are some extraordinary sequences of the Angels in flight,
   shadowing the new arrival. And once our heroes step inside the craft, the story
   twist has their enemy playing mind games and offering them an olive branch
   of peace. This is top-drawer stuff, with so much fantastic material shoehorned
   into its 22 minute running time....

 

    In the news
    
    Series II Giveaway 
    The Hound ran a second Giveaway in September 2006...

    Series I Giveaway
    The Hound ran a DVD Giveaway in February 2006...

    The Hound: Nov/Dec 2005
    CGI Scarlet gets short shrift...

    The Hound: February 2005
    CGI Captain Scarlet is FAB...

    The Hound: April 2003
    Funding sought for Scarlet series...

 

     Captains & Angels

     There are new names abroad in Spectrum's ranks...

    Colonel White                Destiny Angel
    Sir Charles Grey               Simone Giraudoux
                                                   
    Captain Scarlet              Harmony Angel
    Paul Metcalfe                  Rebecca Drake
    
    Captain Black                Melody Angel
    Conrad Lefkon                 Esther Jackson

    Captain Blue                  Rhapsody Angel
    Adam Svenson                 Caroline Foster-Finch
       
    Captain Grey                  Symphony Angel
    Ian Taggart                     Yoko Inukai

    Captain Ochre                Doctor Gold
    Elaine McGee                   Mason Frost

    Captain Magenta
    Mario Moro
    
    Lieutenant Green
    Serena Lewis

 

     Episode titles

     Series One                       
    Instrument of Destruction (pt 1)
    Instrument of Destruction (pt 2)
    Swarm
    Rat Trap
    The Homecoming
    Mercury Falling
    Circles of Doom
    Rain of Terror
    Skin Deep
    Chiller
    Trap For a Rhino
    Heist
    The Achilles Massenger


    Series Two
    Touch of the Reaper
    Virus
    Enigma
    Best of Enemies
    Contact
    Proteus
    Syrius Major
    Fallen Angels
    The Storm At the End of the World
    Duel
    Shape Shifter
    Dominion
    Grey Skulls  

     Broadcast info

     "Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet" premiered within the
     kids magazine show "MOM - The Ministry of Mayhem" on ITV,
     Saturday February 12th 2005.

     "MOM" aired from 10.30am, but our show didn't pop up until
     around 11.00am. And just to confuse things further, Scarlet was
     broadcast in two parts. So we had part one of "Instrument of
     Destruction Part One" at approximately 11.00am. Part two of
     the episode followed at around 11.25am.

     By the third week, Scarlet's broadcasts had at least settled into
     10.50am and 11.20am timeslots, although each brodcast still varied
     by a minute-or-so either way...

 

    New Captain Scarlet on DVD


     Series sets

      Captain Scarlet - Series 1
                Region 2 / 4 discs / ITV DVD / Oct 2005

      Captain Scarlet - Series 2
               Region 2 / 4 discs / ITV DVD / Sept 2006

      Series 1 and 2 Slip Case
                8 discs / both series in one slip case / Sept 2006


     Individual releases

                            
    Series 1                  Series 2
     Episodes 1-4             Episodes 1-4
     Episodes 5-7             Episodes 5-7
     Episodes 8-10           Episodes 8-10
     Episodes11-13          Episodes 11-13

 

     series created and produced
     by Gerry Anderson

    sup director:        David Lane
    directors:            David Lane, Dominic Lavery,
                              Mark Woollard
    writers:               Phil Ford, John Brown, Brian Finch
    assoc producer:   Gerry Donohoe
    exec producers:   Nigel Jealous, Jim Reeve
    editor:                 Andy Walter
    music:                 Crispin Merrell
    prod designer:      Mark Harris
    line producer:      Mark Sherwood
    CG producer:       Ron Thornton
    voices:               Wayne Forrester (Capt Scarlet)
                             Nigel Plaskitt (Capt Black / Dr Gold)
                             Robbie Stevens (Capt Blue / Capt Grey)
                             Mike Haley (Col White / Mysterons)
                             Emma Tate (Destiny / Lt Silver)
                             Heather Tobias (Melody)
                             Jules Dejongh (Lt Green / Harmony / Symphony)
                             Julia Brahms (Rhapsody / Capt Ochre)
                             Jeremy Hitchin (Capt Magenta)
                 
 

     On the web


     Captain Scarlet
     The official site is, alas, no more. But we'll hold the link
     here in case it reappears at some point...

     Skybase Central
     Meanwhile, here's a fine unofficial fan-site, part of a
     larger place known as Spectrum Headquarters......

 
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