Is Captain Scarlet Better Than Thunderbirds?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ย. 2021
- Often forgotten in the midst of other retro sci-fi shows, is the darker Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons actually underrated?
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#CaptainScarlet #GerryAnderson #Review - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
HUGE thanks to Daniel Shillito for commissioning this review! You can commission your own over at:
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Yo! I remember this wtf
You have to have an "It Was All A Dream" episode in a Gerry Anderson show. Ideally you also need a "there's a shrinking ray and now we've been shrunk down to the size of puppets" episode.
I think the reboot, 'New Captain Scarlet,' resolves a lot of the issues from the original. The characters get more development, the Mysterons don't tell everyone what they're going to do and there's even some serialisation - I was particularly interested by the hints at a civil war among the Mysterons themselves. Captain Black is a character in his own right with a personal link to Scarlet, and there's even an episode where the Mysterons begin to lose control of him. The only downside is that the animation is a bit ropey and doesn't have the visceral excitement of Derek Meddings' practical effects.
So... effectively a "Secret Service" or, gawd help us, "the Investigator" episode?
Or are you thinking more along the lines of the puppets getting shrunk down to the size of puppets in-universe (which would very much be a mind-twisting episode, Mr Hazzard...)
I've not seen much of the reboot, but what I have seen is good - and the Achilles Messenger episode is actually one I really wanted to see developed more; I also wish there was a little more time to develop the stories though - Circles of Doom is an example - I felt could have done with a little more time to really fill out the implications and just how vulnerable Earth was, and Rat Trap was great - but a few more minutes to really tease out that atmosphere of dread before the reveal would have been awesome.
Sorry, just my thoughts...
I will say, at first i was harsh when it came to the reboot cause i grew up with the original as a kid, for me the art style in a few areas i didn't like and the action was dummed down compared to the original and the episodes would end without giving a proper conclusion, However, it felt like it had more depth when it came to its characters and felt like what ever happened did carry on. and it gave characters : MORE CHARACTER. for example lieutenant green, in the OG lieutenant green was someone who just communicated with the other captains there was one point where we find out on a certain mission that lieutenant green is wanting to get down there with the other captains on there mission on cornering and capturing captain black, another one is where he's just tagging along with scarlet and blue twice and that's kind of it really, in the New Captain Scarlet, lieutenant green is a workaholic and is a female this time, at first i kind of disliked the sex change but after awhile i actually prefer it cause she's got personality, her personality is that she's a workaholic and does enjoy working along side colonel white there's even a scene where she's order to abandon ship but she disregards the orders and stays with colonel white which he respects and my favourite scene is one where shes saves colonel white on duty outside of cloud base and she's promoted and she refuses the promotion believing that her current position as a lieutenant will do more helping in the fight then being a captain and cornel white goes on saying I'm glad you said that cause i knew you were going to say it. like wow thats so much better then the previous lieutenant green, i would recommend watching New captain scarlet if your wanting to see change in the problems of the OG.
Hello there
Stingray had several episodes with this type of ending
It doesn’t “resolve” any issues, just changes things.
Who forgets Captain Scarlet? There’s literally a reference to it in Doctor Who 😁
Where? I’d love to know!
@@joshimations894 series 8, episode 11. The Doctor calls the Valiant Cloudbase.
Then proceeds to say that he danced ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) with Sylva Anderson.
@@Wounded_Kitten ah thank you so much
@@Wounded_Kitten It's a pity that they didn't hint that the Doctor gave Sylvia insight of the future that she and Gerry corporate it in their story lines of Thunderbirds, like a famous skyscraper falling down, the Paddington rail crash, the creation of BT (changed name their from Electric Telegraph Company to British Telecom in 1984), Chernobyl when Reactor No 4 blew up (the exact same reactor number that blew up in Australia in the episode The Might Atom) and gulf of Mexico fire.
I know there was an episode with The Doctor thinking that UNIT's aircraft carrier is like Cloudbase and then Petronella Osgood told him that's from Thunderbirds and a few seconds later a general corrected her saying it's Captain Scarlet.
I can plainly say this now, yes. Yes it is. By quite a bit.
Captain Scarlet was always my personal favourite. As a child one of my most prized possessions was a Captain Scarlet wallet with a Spectrum ID card inside.
where kan you get that is need that!
@@johnsmith-lz4kk that was 53 years ago. So it may be tricky to get hold of now. I watched the show when it originally aired. If you do find one now, it'll probably cost a fortune.
@@SJKPJR007 a pity
SIG
😂❤🎉...I had one too...😊
3:03 3:07 3:43 6:19 6:34 7:51 9:56 10:39 13:44
All the instances of real hands. I just think the real hand parts are hilarious.
I agree. I was wondering if the hand model is credited.
I was looking for this comment haha
We were kids,we did`nt think much past explosions and action,this show holds a special place for me and i`m sure many others,but how can we choose "the best"from such a group of incredible series?every show has it`s own highs and lows,for me CS was the pinacle of supermarionation,but all were brilliant in their own way.
There certainly was humour in Captain Scarlet...subtle humour. Not the goofy humour seen in earlier Supermarionation shows with the "wahhhh wahhhhhhhhh" at the end. I don't know what the fixation is with having humour in everything anyway. I love a good comedy, but imagine saying "I didn't like Schindler's List, there were no knee slappers in the whole thing!"
I think comparing a serious drama based on actual events during a time of genocide to a somewhat campy scifi puppet show is a bit extreme.
There's nothing wrong with "goofy humour." There's more than one way of making people laugh. If you "don't know what the fixation is with having humour in everything," then you don't understand that there's room for humour in any story, regardless of genre.
Rubbish captain scarlet captain as was not good
@@guyparham575nice try. Make sense next time, ok?
Yes. I was about 10 years old when this was first shown during the '60s. The "dark" opening sequence was superb. Storylines were great. Marionettes better than all previous shows. Cool music. Even the cut from one scene to another was great. The whole thing was spot on. My favourite. The reviewer seems you have forgotten by criticising this show that it was intended for kids, not adult intellectuals!
I was scared shitless by the Mysteron as a kid. I still remember "this is the voice of the mysterons".
I heard that the original ending of Attack on Cloudbase was supposed to kill everyone from somewhere (I forget where) which is why the ending feels so rushed. If that really is how it was meant I think the series would've ended perfectly.
There was a TV movie released in the 80s IIRC that also gave it an ending, one where the attack on Cloudbase happened but instead of it being all a dream-the Mysterons reset time to the original day where Black attacked Mars, creating an endless war pretty much. I think that would've been a better ending than the Inquisition too.
The last possible ending is going by production order-which would make Inferno the last episode.
I love captain scarlet it's my fave show just thought I would let you know
I doubt that it wasn’t originally to be a dream sequence because 1) all Anderson series have dream episodes (Including the Live action shows) and Scarlet was due.. and 2) the whole tone of the episode was deliberate altered to be surreal, and and characters act out of their normal personas and over dramatic, as Symphony herself states when explaining her dream at the end.. also, there were clues dropped.. like for example, Captain Black being in the sickbay and no one either IDing him or mentioning it at all..
I always Liked Captain Scarlet. I do think the New show unlocked a lot more of the potential it had though! And that was even darker than the original. In fact I believe one episode was shelved because it was deemed just too scary for audiences.
Only downside is, it was made in 2005 and, well the CG really hasn't aged well. That said, I'd argue it still looks better than the CG in Thunderbirds Are Go.
Not going to lie, I now want a short where Captain Jack and Captain Scarlett meet up in a bar and just discuss deaths... sounds like a serious sitcom idea there!
😮😊😅😂❤
Gerry Anderson made my childhood. I really over used my VHS tapes I had of those shows. I was so happy to get them again on DVD two years ago for Christmas. Utterly fantastic and a show that actually treated the viewers (children) as actual people and not oh look here is a massive explanation of Mars and how everything works
"There's one a lot of people tend to forget about". Erm yeah, OK. Whatever.
Omg how exciting. I loved Captain Scarlett as a child so atmospheric and well done. Has a far darker and moody tone than Thunderbirds.
Personally I preferred Captain Scarlet out of them all.
I watched it as a kid in the 90’s and still love it now. Even got the blu-ray complete series the other day.
The action was good and the music was also very catchy. Plus I also thought Captain Scarlet was like a future James Bond and reminded me of Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond.
Always loved this series, unfortunately let down by it arriving straight after Thunderbirds, the production design and music are top notch though. I feel New Captain Scarlet definitely succeeded where some of the writing in the original was let down but has aged visually worse.
But glad you enjoyed reviewing the series and I’m happy for it to be the first commissioned video.
I disagree, I thought the new one was a let down. Changing much of each character's personalities and the way the Mysterons worked didn't sit well with me, Colonel White was the only character that translated well to me.
Are you kidding? New Captain Scarlet is inherently superior to the original.
@@epsilonalphaargo1948 It didn't feel faithful to the source material. The characters were different and the dynamics were different.
@@christianfrost8660 If that's your opinion that's fine by me.
I loved both this AND Thunderbirds when I was younger. flash-forward to today, I still love them both.
Everyone my age who knows this show was exposed to it by having their dad sit them down in front of it in a 'back in my day' way.
Also, the CGI remake from the 00s wasn't too bad iirc. Though I was a kid, so who knows of it actually stands up...
I’ll say the Blu-Ray of New Captain Scarlet looks gorgeous. It’s also streaming on Amazon Prime if you want to give it another go. Personally I reckon it holds up…
There's some episodes of New Captain Scarlet uploaded to TH-cam on the official Gerry Anderson account if you wish to check it out again
I used to watch Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds when I was young... and I'm in my 20's 🤣
There’s a theory going around that the Lunar Controller and Orson were never Mysteron agents, but more like fanatics/followers. Same with Frazer in Crater 101. Though this theory only came to be because it’s far better than just another pair of Mysteron agents.
I suspect that half of the "fan theories" out there were created by someone dissatisfied with what we actually got and thought, "actually it would be better if….."
Thunderbirds, even with all its predictability in the episodes, stands supreme in my heart. It’s not as far out scifi as Scarlet, and its touch of alternate futuristic reality that’s delivered in a more lighthearted and sometimes humorous light bring a bigger warmth to the series. And the music!!!
Loved the intro to the show (Captain Scarlett, he's invincible. You're not!) and the more mature tone.
What I liked about Captain Scarlet over Thunderbirds is that sometimes the Mysterons won, it wasn't like every episode of Thunderbirds where you know International Rescue will save the day.
"Indestructable...Captain Harkness!"
....
"What do you mean, there was another one before him?"
We always said Captain Blue was the real hero -- because he can GET KILLED and still jumped into the middle of the Mysteron brawl.
❤
Attack on Cloudbase being a dream was so bad they retconned it with an alternate ending in one of the vhs releases
Love that you've branched out into this, always glad to see Captain Scarlet get some love. Would you consider reviewing the CGI remake? That was the one I remember seeing most, it introduced me to Captain Scarlet, and I thought it was rather good.
I have just watched the original Captain Scarlet series, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it, I have yet to watch The Thunderbirds but Captain Scarlet is a really enjoyable show. Though I do find it very funny that every episode features the Mysterons just telling Spectrum what their next move is.
Yeah, the IRA used to do this back in 80s
The idea was that the Mysterons knew they could wipe out the world easily if they wanted, so they didn't they wanted to undermine Humanities will to fight back by taking away their hope and taking away their beliefs. Nothing says that you can't defend this planet like telling Earth your target and then succeeding in destroying it. A war of nerves to Earth, a revenge driven game to the Mysterons to which they must obey their own rules to keep the belief that they are morally superior to Humanity.
That’s the genius part. The mysterons are using intimidation tactics. Terrorists do this all the time
The original series is a magnificent time capsule of 60s retro-futurism, with an incredibly gritty and ominous atmosphere that I don’t think the new remake seemed to capture. It’s also uncanny how accurate certain elements of the show were in projecting the future - technologically, politically, etc. A true work of art.
Our Nerd spirits must be in sync as I have recently been diving back into the classic Thunderbirds as part of Uni! How strange, glad to see you are a fan of Anderson's wonderful creations as well.
Captain Scarlet was a show I loved to watch as a kid/young teenager.
Don't know if you saw the ITC Entertainment compilation films from the 80s of most Anderson shows. Captain Scarlet vs. the Mysterons, which featured the episodes "The Mysterons", "Winged Assassin", "Seek and Destroy" and "Attack on Cloudbase", actually changed the ending so the Mysterons attacking Cloudbase wasn't a dream. Instead revealing the Mysterons had the ability to reverse time so they may one day reach a peaceful settlement with Earth. While that may sound more satisfying than it all being a dream, it still leaves a plot hole regarding how Captain Black came to be on Cloudbase during the attack. And why Captain Blue didn't recognise him at first posing as Dr. Fawn's assistant.
The puppets definitely hold up better
This commentary is a shocker going into over egged detail about everything that doesn’t matter. When I was 7 I first got hooked on Captain Scarlet not because the plot was to thin or the lighting was poor or that characters were unbelievable. I loved it for its fun,escapism, cliff hangers, adventure. Why do people have over analyse everything. Take it for what’s was a fantastic fun
Captain Scarlet was always a favourite of mine as a kid, right after Thunderbirds. Loved the special effects, the vehicles and the alien invasion stuff, I just wish it had longer/more episodes.
There was other continuity though, with one episode with a Mysteron doctor being exposed by x-rays and then killed by electrocution, leading to another episode where the Mysteron Detector and Mysteron Gun are developed and tested on Captain Indigo. Although it does raise the question of if electrocution is the only way to kill Mysterons, does that mean all the ones before that where shot etc aren’t actually dead and could still be out there!?
Always wondered why Captains Brown and Indigo were never replaced after their died though, as it’s not really a spectrum with some of the colours missing. Black I understand as he was technically “missing”, but it seems like Spectrum was made up of like 8 coloured officers and 5 Angel pilots and that was about it!
As much as I miss Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Captain Black will always be my favourite since we share the same theme color. Heck I always think of him whenever I see anything black. 🖤🖤🖤
There certainly was humour in Captain Scarlet, it just wasn't as goofy as Thunderbirds, and there was less of it - probably because Spectrum was acting fast on the job? If Captain Scarlet had more humour in it I don't think we'd take it as seriously and it would derail the more serious tone.
I much prefer Captain Scarlet's pacing - the episodes did feel like it was a race against time to stop the Mysterons. Thunderbirds however is a great example of nostalgia overriding critical thought. Thunderbirds episodes were double the length of Captain Scarlet but seriously - try rewatching them. You'll find Thunderbirds' pace to be slow and boring, with scenes padded and padded out with big music. Thunderbirds had time to do character development in their episodes and they hardly did any, and as for being International Rescue they were very slow with their missions! I actually much prefer Captain Scarlet's edgier, grittier setting - the characters act like they're on a team, and like they're professionals, not some happy-clappy, rich family.
Thunderbirds is great for only a few things - the vehicles (good lord they're amazing), the fantastic music, and of course, Lady Penelope & Parker (of course!). Captain Scarlet does a lot of things better - you might say it's predictable because they Mysterons announce their plans at the start of every episode, but Spectrum doesn't always win... so it's really not that predictable is it? A decent review but I think you missed these things I mentioned.
He also missed that Captain Scarlet was virtually indestructible, so in effect you were testing if what he could survive every episode.. and he was found to vulnerable to high voltage electricity. But the issue wasn’t whether he would survive but whether he would succeed
Fun Fact: Thunderbirds was never meant to be an hour long. When the head of ITC saw the first episode he was so impressed by it that he ordered the show's runtime to be increased to an hour long, along with increasing the show's budget... but by that point 9 of the 26 episodes were fully finished. (Conjecture on my part, but if they were that far into production it's likely all of the scripts were fully finished.)
That's probably why the pacing is so terrible; they’re 30-minute episodes, stretched out into 60.
@@Wounded_Kitten I heard about that. I think that worked to their advantage as being such a spectacle.. but yeah, that was a trade off with some of the pacing
I agree with you. The was goofy in the Thunderbird. There wasn't even pacing of stories in this role
No, Thunderbirds is not "a great example of nostalgia overriding critical thought." Never blame nostalgia for getting in the way of things. It's your friend. Let it hold your hand. It will make things all the more enjoyable. And never refer to it in a condescending manner. As a matter of fact, I did watch Thunderbirds not too long ago, and while it may be a bit on the slow side, I most certainly did not find it "boring," so don't act like everyone is you and say "seriously" like no one will wildly object to you. Mission: Impossible aired the same year as Thunderbirds and shared many of the same attributes, and yet both shows managed to be thrilling and engaging. Both are slow-paced and have a similar runtime, but that serves to soak in every detail of the task at hand for which every second counts as the tension builds and builds all the while. The music helps maintain interest, especially during long sequences without dialogue in which the protagonists slowly but surely get closer to their goal, all while the music builds and builds as the situation becomes more intense. Mission: Impossible purposely focused more on the missions than character development, keeping it minimal, but even so, the heroes proved to be clever and likable. Same goes for Thunderbirds. The heroes were very slow on missions because operations like those require patience and precision. Everyone must be at the right place at the right time in order for everything to work out according to the plan and make the mission successful. The characters in Thunderbirds do act like they're on a team and like they're professionals, all while still being a "happy-clappy, rich family," so don't act like those things are mutually exclusive. And no, Thunderbirds is not "great only for a few things," but for a lot of things.
Bottom line: I prefer Captain Scarlet too, but there's no need to put down one to praise another.
I wasn’t disappointed with the lack of B plots when I watched Captain Scarlet but I was only 6.
What about the real Lieutenant Green? World War II bomber pilot prisoner of war and a popstar!
I prefer the length of the Captain Scarlet shows, although it would have benefited from a few two-part stories sprinkled throughout and more individuality in character traits and greater character development.
Pointless fact, Captain Black's real name is Conrad Turner.
Man you gotta talk about the music though, Barry Gray is one of the composing greats when it comes to TV, just listen to "White as Snow" (Also known as TVR-17 POP), it is such a Bop!
If someone had pitched both captain scarlet and thunderbirds to me, I’d go for captain scarlet anyday but something always feels like it’s just not as good as thunderbirds. I used to be scared from the opening sequence to ever get though a episode when I was really,young so opted for thunderbirds so it’s more nostalgic for me and the 50 minute length always got me drawn into to the storyline. I love captain scarlet but I always felt disappointed by the stiffness of the show, scarlet should be like captain jack or James Bond or action man always willing to move about but he can’t as much, that’s why I love the 2005 reboot because the cgi allows the character to be free with himself and do things he should of been able to do before
You did a great review on one of the classics from my BBC2 childhood.
Out of curiosity, do you think you'll watch, and possibly review, the CGI animated series of Captain Scarlet some day? I haven't watched it myself but it would be interesting to compare with the original series and to know if the franchise developed at all, giving more story and character arcs etc.
A bit harsh… there was a deliberate attempt to keep the show in the same format and even within that they did some very interesting things regarding progression especially with the first few episodes… also Captain Scarlet was regarded as virtually indestructible.. he could be killed, specifically by high voltage electricity… also it was never really expressed that there were no limits to his invulnerability.. Spectrum kind of assumed because they were sending their agents in to mortally dangerous situations anyway,..
I mean, do we really expect Scarlet to be surviving a nuclear device going off a close range? Who knows, right? That was how the show kinda presented itself… so it woulda been kinda different watching the show the first time around with no expectations.. rather than coming back for it after kinda loosely knowing the premise already..
You know the brutalist architecture of the 1960s? I see the Supermarionation shows as the brutalist school of kiddie cartoons! They were all a bit creepy, but CAPTAIN SCARLET is the creepiest of all--I too got the impression that the Mysterons were toying with the earthlings...
In a live-action movie, I see Chow Yun-fat as Captain Scarlet and Gary Sinise as Captain Black...
It was great (if you ignore the Attack on Cloudbase episode, a trope which was repeated unforgivably in UFO) from the point of view of a five year old but I recently rewatched it and was surprised by the body count, I still like it. A lot darker than Thunderbirds and sadly another series that was cancelled before its time.
If you ignore the premise that the main character cannot die and thus there is no element of fear for him, the suspense was created as to whether or not the Mysterons would succeed this week.
I've been watching a few Gerry Anderson shows lately, so looking forward to seeing what you think of Captain Scarlet.
You hit the nail on the head with your review. I loved the look of Captain Scarlet's world and hardware, but I was extremely disappointed with the episodes themselves. And what was the purpose of having each captain wear a different colour--so that it's easier for them to get their laundry back?
No, he completely missed the nail by no less than three miles. The episodes are thrilling, intriguing, explosive, move along at a brisk pace, and keep the audience wondering if Captain Scarlet will succeed. If all that leaves you “extremely disappointed,” you must be extremely, impossibly difficult to impress. As for why each captain wears a different color, it follows the theme of their organization, Spectrum.
@@imfsresidentotaku9699 Colours - playground friendly, everyone picking a colour and no I am not going to be Captain Pink! Just like the Power Rangers, a good merchandising tool.
I love both shows but it's difficult to compare them.Thunderbirds had more character development and more in depth plots because it was a longer show,roughly 45 minutes each,while Scarlet suffered from only being 23 minutes Thunderbirds was about a rescue team while Scarlet was a Sci fi spy war story.Both have really cool vehicles and lots of action,but difficult types of action.Gerry Anderson never dumbed down his shows for kids and that's why they still stand up so well.I love all of his shows and own most of them.FAB and SIG forever.
Captain Scarlet was by far the best of them all IMO
What could have been another bleak ending would be the Mysterons defeated but the cost of victory was so high that it just wasn't worth celebrating, half of all life on Earth was wiped out, resources are scarce & only a few Mysterons are left but mistreated by the survivors.
I think scarlet would be better if it kept the longer episode lengths of Thunderbirds
Why did Captain Scarlet revert back to the 25 min format? Especially after Thunderbirds was the first Anderson show to be 50 mins (thanks to Lew Grade telling Gerry to make the episodes 50 mins instead of 25 mins). Feels like they took a step backwards with Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and The Secret Service as UFO would return to the 50 min format. As you say, they could've gone more in depth with the plot and developed the characters better in 50 mins like they did with Thunderbirds.
Thunderbirds had a problem with scheduling during children's slots. Had to fit a 25 - 30 minute slot. Many broadcasters, and this is my first memories of the show, showed each episode as a two parter with a cliffhanger. A great format for kids TV - lots of playground talk as to what might happen tonight and how are they going to get out of that one? Also a terrifying disciplinary weapon for a parent. That day between Thunderbirds was one to be very, very careful. Got caught once, missing the end of the alligators story.
Enjoyable thankyou but some bits missed. At the start there is an ark which crossovers episodes. Over a few episodes we learn weaknesses such as electricity. Xrays etc but that stopped as you say and turns into 25 min enclosed episodes. What do you do with an indestructible force ? I always thought as a child the mysterons are toying with us i.e. we are friendly but cross us and we will have fun toying with you. Nope in the end as simple as it was I enjoyed the single events every week. They toyed with me saying scarlett was NEARLY indestructible so yep a possible episode he could die. This series as my 10 year old self was fantastic. In hindsite yeah to simplistic but I was child so as a child it's a great show and still is :-) oh and barry grey is on top form here. Rarely mentioned but should be mentioned frequently. SIG
Used to love the Jerry Anderson stuff, mostly this, Thunderbirds and Stingray. So cool to be reminded of this ^_^
Great video! I never liked Thunderbirds - I found it boring - but I loved Captain Scarlet. I understand your criticisms and the show does feel a little flat when watching it again as an adult but as a young boy, watching it primarily for the action sequences, it didn't disappoint. I was let down by the 'dream' episode, but I now see it as letting older viewers know what the outcome of it all would have been - the cop out ending avoided having parents complaining that their children were upset by a downbeat finale to the show. I've always thought a new series should be made with real actors, exclusively for an adult audience - they could even set it in present day with Scarlet not having aged due to his (assumed) immortality. Ultimately, I think the appeal of Captain Scarlet is the in quirky ideas - humans as the villains? Alien terrorists? Enemies that sometimes win? It was unpredictable and offbeat - and looked amazing. The only thing that baffled me? Why do the Mysterons only refer to humans as 'Earth men' (as in 'we know you can hear us Earthmen' - even when the Angels are actually listening onscreen)? Martian misogyny?
2:13 that scene scared me so much lol... the plane in wreckage, hundreds of people dead... then the exact same plane flies across in the distance... with that fabulous eerie music
I have a Thunderbird 2 phone case as I write this. So pumped youre doing Gerry Anderson shows now
Obscure Gerry Anderson? I was briefly obsessed with Joe 90 when I was young. But Captain Scarlet was brilliant - nice review
Great video, you deserve more subs! Nice to see someone intelligently taking about captain scarlet
I LOVED this so much, ty Haribo
I was convinced that period of my life was a fever dream. I'm very happy that you made this video mate!
They were both good. I loved the T-birds AND Captain Scarlet.
Even their uniforms aren't as Kitsch as those of International Rescue. I wouldn't mind rewatching this show like. Another cool standout of Captain Scarlet was the closing credits with the man himself pitted against all sorts of perils. Amazing artwork.
7:07 As someone who prefers episodic shows that's a blessing.
I absolutely love Attack on Cloudbase, if you take out the it being a dream moments, it works like a finale and oh my goodness, an episode where the bad guys win!
Captain Magenta trying to count all the Mysteron ships is hilarious too!
The good thing about Attack on Cloudbase is that, as with other Anderson dream episodes across the different shows, you are given subtle clues that it is a dream .. like over exaggerated emotion or things that are out of place that aren’t explained or flagged. I do wonder when so people watch this episode if they have been paying close enough attention to the tone of the show to notice that the drama in this is out of synch with the rest of series,
.. if not, they may feel it to be a cop out… but Symphony does kinda spell it out at the end of the episode what was the difference between her dream and Captain Scarlet reality …
I think it’s lost on most people.. and let’s not talk about the American compilation film that edited the episode to not be a dream but actually the end of the war 💀💀💀💀
SPOILER::
The Mysterons literally win the second episode…
@@mb2000 that’s one of the clues it was a dream. Obviously Magenta can count, else he wouldn’t have been enlisted.. but he obviously was the joke of the team generally.. he’s an over eager agent who is dressed in baby pink ..
And people say the show didn’t have a sense of humour 😂😂 they were even taking the mickey out of spectrum’s colour coded system 💀💀
For a kids' show it had a higher body count than a Quentin Tarantino.movie.
2005 version is also pretty good
Don't forget the hesitant Captain Turquoise who couldn't make up his mind about being blue or green.
Terrible confusion in the Welsh language version. (Oh has Captain Yellow come out from behind the sofa yet?)
Great work as always. Very well balanced appraisal. I'd always compared Captain Jack and Captain Scarlet too.
I loved Thunderbirds, but Captain Scarlet is awesome!
Captain Black is the only supervillain to hold me hostage in a theatre in Manchester. 😃😂
I think the late David Mitton -the mastermind behind the props of Thomas and Friends and Tugs, worked on Captain Scarlett, and you can clearly see the influence
I can't help but feel our reviewer lost sight of the show being from the 60s and aimed squarely at children with some of the critiques he throws in this video.
My thoughts exactly!,more explosions less chat!
The design of Captain Scarlett was very advanced for its time , miles ahead of anything else , including Star Trek.
It was only matched by 2001
I was just talking about Captain Scarlett with my friend a few weeks ago and saying I prefered it over Thuderbirds (not that Thunderbirds was bad), haven't seen it in a while now but did want to rewatch it... wondering if it is just nostalgia or not. lol
A good review, watching it on ITVX , I now realise how thin the stories were.
dear lord you DO like to live dangerously with this one :)
I hope you do a review for New Captain Scarlet and other Gerry Anderson works like Stingray and Joe 90
Despite my enormous amounts of nostalgic (and current) love and enjoyment for this show, I find myself agreeing with the main criticisms here.
This show definitely had more potential than what it capitalised upon, and I think that a proper narrative continuity throughout the entire run would have massively elevated it.
Thunderbirds could get away with having each episode be standalone thanks to its theme and general setup.
Captain Scarlet was begging for a consistent narrative through-line. The setup of the long, and slow running “war of nerves” was a perfect foundation for such continuity and shifting status quo.
Alas, taken episode by episode the show remains thoroughly entertaining!
Sadly very few shows of that era had much of an escalating drama outside of each self contained episode. The idea was that you could watch in literally any order and enjoy each episode without any prior knowledge, which was fine at the time but doesn’t work so well in today's Netflix generation.
Captain Scarlet is one of the worst offenders. It is begging for some sort of continuity. Some sort of escalating drama would have made it fantastic.
@@intergalactic92 the first few are testing Scarlet’s indestructibility, Captain Black identified and the pursuit begins,
You have Scarlet’s six sense proved unreliable, you have the episode where they find out the Mysteron agents weakness ie high voltage electricity and imperviousness to X-rays which leads to the development of the Mysteron gun and Mysteron detector.. these are employed in the later episodes.. you have of course the moon saga, and you have the plan to go to mars that is mentioned in the episodes but doesn’t materialise.. so it doesn’t go nowhere.. we also learn that mysterons can tell the difference between their own clones and the real person they copied (probably why they kill them lol),
So it’s not a great deal of progression but you can see they tried to sneak a bit in. when Gerry was interviewed about the SPV he complained about having to explain it every episode, demonstrating that the show was indeed restricted with the studio wanting it to be able to be picked up from any episode... taking a real chance in the first three episodes by killing of Scarlet in ep2 and only having him mentioned and appear half way through episode ep3, literally after the break ! the only issue I had was the inconsistencies with continuity . Which you only get if you have some plot progression ironically. So I think the review is a tad harsh on that side.. I don’t remember any progression Thunderbirds at all
@@mistergeneration As an animation fan, I found the "there’s no plot progression" criticism to be utterly ludicrous. Like intergalactic92 said, network executives prioritised being able to re-run a show in any order over telling an over-arching plot. And besides, not _every_ tv show needs to have an over-arching plot anyway, it shouldn't be a negative if it doesn't have one.
Captain Scarlet was my favourite Gerry Anderson show - at least of the puppets. It is also, for me, the only show where the remake is on a par with the original
CPT Scarlet was definitely the best, the theme tune is always the best.
I'd love for you to take a look at Joe 90!
I always preferred Captain Scarlet to Thunderbirds
Haven’t seen this yet, but the answer is yes.
Captain Scarlet was certainly better than The Secret Service
(Though that falls into the "so bad it's good" category imho)
As an interesting side not IMO Go Nagai created a show called Star Fleet. After its cancellation in Japan due to cost a British company was willing to help fund it. Unfortunately a studio fire put the kibosh on that plan.
Out of all of Gerry Anderson's productions, Thunderbirds will always be the standout show and number 1 among most Supermarionation
fans. And in all the interviews I've heard with Gerry, Thunderbirds appears to be the one he was most proud of, although I'm prepared to be corrected on that. For me though, Captain Scarlet was and remains my personal favourite. But it was all fantastic, wasn't it?
I’d probably have gone with the captain scarlet animation instead, so we could compare old thunderbirds vs a 2000s caption scarlet
Have you ever reviewed the CGI Captain Scarlet ... now that can be a forgotten Gem ?
Loved Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. Loved Stingray too, felt it’s a little overlooked these days by the other two.
i preferred Captain Scarlet as a kid. But it's not one i've gone back to. Didn't really like Thunderbirds. But i do remember loving Stingray. Not gone back to that one either though.
Scarlet stands up better than Stingray.. although Stingray does have a kind of ‘Bewitched/I Dream of Jeanie’ feel to it due to its focus on Troy’s women dilemmas
Of course Captain Scarlet is the best thing Anderson ever did, loved it for more than 50 years.. Fantastic SIG
More money was pumped into Captain Scarlet than Thunderbirds. I liked Stingray.
Come on, we're missing this now.
My only qualm about Captain Scarlet is the name Mysterons. Not the fact that Spectrum call them Mysterons, it's that the Myserons call themselves that. They're not a mystery to themselves, surely.
I have to get this on DVD, only watched like 2 episodes years ago, and nothing of the reboot, which I want as well.
"Stingray" needs to be part of my collection too.
The "Thunderbirds" reboot, not sure about that one. Is it any good?
Got "Terrahawks" on DVD, but didn't like it (except the puppet-style & that british Sargent droid of course), so I sold it & got "Star Fleet" instead.
I'm a fan of both Captain Scarlet and the Thunderbirds and they're both good for... different reasons