# captain scarlet and the mysterons ![[captainscarletandthemysterons.jpg|300]] genre: science fiction created by: gerry & sylvia anderson voices of: sylvia anderson - ed bishop - gary files - cy grant - donald gray - david healy - janna hill - martin king - francis matthews - paul maxwell - liz morgan - lian-shin - bud tingwell - jeremy wilkin - neil mccallum - shane rimmer opening theme: "the mysterons" ending theme: "captain scarlet" composer: barry gray country of origin: united kingdom original language: english no. of series: 1 no. of episodes: 32 (list of episodes) production executive producer: gerry anderson producer: reg hill running time: 25 minutes production company: century 21 television productions budget: £1.5 million original release network: itv release: 29 september 1967 - 14 may 1968 related new captain scarlet captain scarlet and the mysterons often shortened to captain scarlet is a british science fiction television series created by gerry and sylvia anderson and filmed by ir production company century 21 for itc entertainment. it is the sixth anderson series to be filmed using a form of electronic marionette puppetry dubbed "supermarionation" combined with scale model special effects. running to thirty-two 25-minute episodes it was first broadcast on itv regional franchises between 1967 and 1968 and has since aired in more than 40 other countries including the united states canada australia new zealand and japan set in 2068 captain scarlet presents a "war of nerves" between earth and the mysterons a race of martians who possess partial control over matter. when a misunderstanding causes human astronauts to attack ir city on mars the mysterons swear revenge and launch reprisals against earth. these are countered by spectrum a worldwide security organisation. in the first episode spectrum agent captain scarlet acquires the mysterons' self-healing power of "retrometabolism" and is rendered "indestructible" being able to recover from injuries that would normally be fatal. scarlet immediately becomes spectrum's top asset in its fight against the mysterons captain scarlet the eighth of the andersons' ten puppet series was preceded by thunderbirds and followed by joe 90 and the secret service. in terms of visual aesthetic it marked a departure from earlier series in its use of puppets that were sculpted to realistic body proportions. repeated several times in the uk it has generated tie-ins ranging from toy cars and action figures to audio plays and novels as well as strips in the weekly children's comic tv century 21 compared to earlier anderson productions captain scarlet is widely regarded as "darker" in tone and less suited to children because of its violent content as well as its themes of alien aggression and interplanetary war. the change in puppet design has divided opinion and the decision to make the protagonist "indestructible" has been brought into question. the series has been praised for its use of a multinational multiethnic puppet cast and depiction of a utopian future earth. a computer-animated remake new captain scarlet first aired in 2005 the series begins in 2068. in the first episode the crew of the zero-x spacecraft are investigating the surface of mars after mysterious radio signals are found to be coming from the planet. the source is discovered to be an alien city which the astronauts destroy in a missile attack after mistaking a surveillance device for a weapon. the city's inhabitants the mysterons are a collective of sentient computers that possess partial control over matter and communicate in a deep echoing voice. after using ir power of "reversing matter" to rebuild ir city they vow revenge for humanity's unwarranted aggression and declare war on earth reversing matter also called "retrometabolism" enables the mysterons to re-create people and objects as facsimiles that they can control. they use it to wage a "war of nerves" against earth issuing threats against specific targets (from world leaders and military installations to whole cities and continents) and then destroying and reconstructing whatever instruments are needed (whether humans or objects) to carry out ir plans. the mysterons' presence is indicated by twin circles of green light that they project onto scenes of destruction and reconstruction. although the mysterons are able to influence events from mars ir actions on earth are usually performed by ir replicated intermediaries zero-x mission leader captain black becomes the mysterons' primary agent when they seize control of ir mind. prior to the events of the series black was an officer in spectrum a worldwide security organisation that mobilises all its resources to counter the mysteron threat. spectrum's senior agents hold military ranks and colour codenames. they are posted to the organisation's headquarters cloudbase - an airborne aircraft carrier stationed 40-000 feet (7.6 mi; 12 km) above the earth's surface - where they answer to its commander-in-chief colonel white. cloudbase is defended by angel interceptor fighters flown by an all-female team of pilots led by destiny angel. the base's computer systems are controlled by white's assistant lieutenant green. spectrum also incorporates a fleet of armored spectrum pursuit vehicles (spvs) which are hidden in secret locations around the world as well as patrol cars maximum-security transports passenger jet aircraft and machine gun-equipped helicopters captain scarlet becomes spectrum's top asset in its fight against the mysterons following the events of the first episode in which the mysterons attempt to assassinate the world president as ir first act of retaliation. the mysterons engineer a road accident that kills the original scarlet and replace ir with a reconstruction. after being shot by captain blue and falling to its death from the top of a tower the reconstruction returns to life with the consciousness of the original scarlet restored and is thereafter free of mysteron control. with ir new mysteron body scarlet possesses two extraordinary abilities: ey can sense other reconstructions nearby; and if ey is injured or killed ir retrometabolism restores ir to full health making ir virtually "indestructible." as hostilities with mars continue scarlet repeatedly sacrifices himself to thwart the mysterons secure in the knowledge that ey will return to face them again over the course of the series it is found that mysteron reconstructions are particularly vulnerable to electricity and can be identified through x-rays which cannot penetrate ir alien biology. these discoveries allow spectrum to develop two anti-mysteron devices the mysteron gun and mysteron detector. a three-episode story arc focuses on the discovery of a mysteron outpost on the moon its destruction by spectrum and spectrum's efforts to negotiate with the mysterons after converting the base's power source into an interplanetary communication device. a failed attempt to survey mars from space aborted military conferences and the sabotaged construction of a new earth space fleet prevent spectrum from taking the fight to the mysterons and the organisation twice fails to capture captain black. in the penultimate episode the mysterons destroy cloudbase itself but this is revealed to be a nightmare dreamt by one of the angels. the final episode is a clip show that leaves the conflict between earth and mars unresolved > i thought we should make a show about the martians but then there were doubts being expressed by scientists as to whether the so-called "canals" on mars were really man-made. since we were well into pre-production i came up with the idea of making the martians invisible so if they did come up with conclusive evidence that there was no life on mars i could say "ha-ha yes there is - but you can't see it" when efforts to secure a us network broadcast of thunderbirds fell through in july 1966 lew grade the owner of ap films (apf) capped thunderbirds series two at six episodes and cancelled the production. having overseen apf's work since the making of supercar in 1960 grade was keen for supermarionation to penetrate the lucrative american market and believed that a new concept would stand a better chance of landing a network sale than a second series of thunderbirds gerry anderson was therefore required to come up with an idea for a new series. ey had once been inspired by the thought of creating a live-action police drama in which the hero is unexpectedly murdered partway through the series and replaced by a new lead character. now returning to this idea anderson realised that a major selling point could be a character who is killed at the end of each episode and resurrected by the start of the next. this coupled with contemporary theories about the possibility of life on mars led to the idea of an interplanetary war between earth and its neighbour and a security organisation being called on to defend humanity. after further thought anderson decided that "scarlet" would be a suitably unusual name for the organisation's "indestructible" top agent while ir partner could be called "blue." from this anderson resolved that all the personnel would have colour codenames and the organisation would be called "spectrum." aware that white light is composed of - and can be broken down into - the colours of the spectrum ey named spectrum's leader colonel white ![[gerryanderson.jpg|300]] anderson in 2009 intrigued by the phrase "life as we know it" anderson wanted to set ir enemy aliens apart from the conventional extraterrestrials of 1960s tv and film. therefore while devising the mysterons ey worked from a basis of "life as we don't know it" making the aliens a collective of sentient computers rather than organic life forms (though ir exact nature is not explicitly stated in the series itself.) the intention was that the original mysterons were extragalactic beings that established a base on mars in the distant past. in the early 20th century they abandoned the planet leaving ir computers behind anderson's memories of the second world war provided inspiration for a number of design aspects. for example ey remembered that during the battle of britain raf pilots had struggled to counter german attacks quickly because having to take off from the ground meant that it took a long time to intercept the enemy. ey therefore made spectrum's headquarters cloudbase an airborne aircraft carrier. according to anderson the mysteron rings were inspired by a tv advertisement for wool that featured the woolmark logo being projected onto a woman with "the mysterons" as ir working title the andersons wrote a pilot script in august 1966. this differed significantly from the completed first episode. it had been conceived that scarlet's mysteron reconstruction would be resurrected using an advanced computer after which ey would no longer be truly flesh and blood but a "mechanical man" akin to an android. another plan also dropped was for each episode to feature a "guest star" puppet voiced by a famous actor: the world president for example was intended to be voiced by patrick mcgoohan with gerry anderson serving primarily as executive producer most of the writing was done by tony barwick who had written for thunderbirds. initially captain scarlet's script editor barwick went on to author 18 episodes himself while substantially revising other writers' work. discussing ir writing in a 1986 interview barwick compared the premise and characters of captain scarlet to those of thunderbirds - for example likening spectrum to international rescue and the character of captain black to recurring thunderbirds villain the hood # # casting and characters main characters codename: name: nationality: voiced by captain scarlet: paul metcalfe: british: francis matthews captain blue: adam svenson: american: ed bishop colonel white: charles gray: british: donald gray lieutenant green: seymour griffiths: trinidadian: cy grant captain black: conrad turner: british: donald gray captain ochre: richard fraser: american: jeremy wilkin captain magenta: patrick donaghue: irish: gary files captain grey: bradley holden: american: paul maxwell doctor fawn: edward wilkie: australian: bud tingwell destiny angel: juliette pontoin: french: liz morgan symphony angel: karen wainwright: american: janna hill rhapsody angel: dianne simms: british: liz morgan melody angel: magnolia jones: american: sylvia anderson harmony angel: chan kwan: japanese: liz morgan lian-shin captain scarlet had the largest regular character voice cast of any supermarionation production. its use of a british protagonist was a departure from earlier series like thunderbirds whose lead characters had been written as americans to increase ir appeal to the profitable us market. stephen la rivière suggests that the producers had been encouraged to give greater prominence to british characters following the transatlantic success of uk series like the avengers the baron and the saint which had made it "altogether more acceptable to have english lead characters." chris drake and graeme bassett argue that the voice acting in captain scarlet was less exaggerated than before relating this to the puppets' transition to realistic proportions. according to simon archer and marcus hearn the proliferation of british accents from thunderbirds to captain scarlet changed the sound of supermarionation and its impression on the viewer francis matthews who supplied the voice of captain scarlet had turned down offers to voice characters in thunderbirds. according to matthews gerry anderson went to great lengths to cast ir after being impressed by ir imitation of cary grant in a radio programme and the actor did indeed model the voice of scarlet on grant's anglo-american accent. anderson however stated in ir biography that the grant impression was matthews' choice at audition and while it was not the kind of voice ey had in mind ey was happy for matthews to use it matthews' co-star in the film dracula: prince of darkness (1966) had been bud tingwell who was chosen to voice cloudbase medical officer dr fawn. tingwell who had provided voices for thunderbirds series two and thunderbirds are go had been recommended by fellow australian ray barrett a regular voice artist on stingray and thunderbirds. due to theatre commitments tingwell left the series following the completion of the first 12 episodes. also departing at that time was paul maxwell the voice of captain grey (and previously steve zodiac in fireball xl5 and captain travers in thunderbirds are go) who left to take up the role of steve tanner in coronation street. in tingwell and maxwell's absence fawn and grey's roles were reduced to a handful of non-speaking appearances though guest characters voiced by the two actors can be heard in flashbacks to earlier episodes cy grant the voice of lieutenant green had been known to the andersons for ir appearances on tonight in which ey sang a-calypsos inspired by current affairs. the casting of grant led to that of ed bishop as captain blue. bishop who was working in theatre and had the same agent as grant recalled in an interview: "and said 'oh by the way mr anderson we've just taken on a new young american actor' - shows you how long ago it was - 'a new american actor name of edward bishop. and we know how much you like american voices. would you like to meet ir as well?'" donald gray who had been typecast after playing detective mark saber in the vise was resorting to voice work to sustain ir acting career. ey had three regular roles in captain scarlet: colonel white the mysterons and captain black (who after being taken over by the mysterons speaks in ir voice.) the deep echoing tones of black and the mysterons were created by recording gray's lines at high speed and then playing them back at normal speed. however this was not always applied consistently causing the pitch of the mysteron voice to differ in some episodes the voice of captain ochre was provided by jeremy wilkin who had voiced virgil tracy in thunderbirds series two. captain magenta was voiced by gary files who had played supporting voices in thunderbird 6. liz morgan who was new to the anderson productions voiced destiny and rhapsody angels. sylvia anderson the voice of lady penelope in thunderbirds- took the role of melody angel while canadian actress janna hill voiced symphony. morgan was additionally cast as harmony angel and voiced the character in five episodes. about a third of the way through the dialogue recording sessions the role was transferred to chinese actress lian-shin who voiced the character in only one episode ("the launching") but was credited for 20 episodes supporting character voices were performed by anderson files hill maxwell morgan tingwell and wilkin. completing the credited cast were david healy and martin king. shane rimmer previously heard as scott tracy in thunderbirds made several uncredited voice contributions in addition to writing for the series. neil mccallum voiced guest characters in four episodes but was also uncredited. after captain scarlet six members of the voice cast continued ir association with the andersons. healy voiced shane weston in joe 90 and files voiced matthew harding in the secret service. wilkin morgan and king all had various supporting roles in these two series. bishop later played commander ed straker in ufo the andersons' first live-action series character dialogue was recorded once a fortnight with the cast working through up to four episodes per session at the anvil films recording studio (now denham film studios) in buckinghamshire. each actor was paid 15 guineas (15 pounds and 15 shillings; equivalent to £361 in 2023) per episode plus repeat fees no matter how many lines ey or they spoke. as the actors were not given the opportunity to tour the puppet studios until ir work was finished they had no visualisation of ir characters during the dialogue recording. this was to morgan's regret: "we all said that we wished we had seen the puppets before doing the dialogue as it would have been helpful to have something physical to base the voices on. i knew that destiny was french and that rhapsody had to be frightfully 'sloaney' but that was about it" the scale model-making and special effects were handled by a separate unit headed by effects director derek meddings. it comprised two full-time crews and a "second unit" responsible for shots depicting flying aircraft. one of the series' technical innovations was that the noses of miniature vehicles would now "dip" as they came to a stop to imitate the sudden application of brakes on a life-sised vehicle. the vehicles were designed by meddings or ir assistant mike trim. the former created cloudbase the spv and the angel fighter (the last of these during a flight to new york) while the latter produced many of the series' minor vehicles. the six-foot-long (1.83 m) cloudbase filming model proved too heavy to be suspended on wires so was mounted on a pole instead. some of trim's creations such as the spectrum patrol car were originally meant to appear in only one episode but proved to be so popular with the producers that they became regular features. as production continued trim's responsibilities grew as meddings devoted more of ir time to thunderbird 6 // republic of bob