new captain Scarlett would be Jerry
Anderson's final television series and
his first to be fully animated in CGI
their hyper marination enjoy the show
starlit first airing in 2005 the series
was a complete reimagining of his 1967
series captain Scarlett and the mr. ons
and would ultimately be the only one of
his classic shows he would get to remake
fighting an enemy that we can't see or
one that we can see but can't recognize
for the most part the concept of the new
show remained the same as the original
after a disastrous first encounter with
an alien race living on Mars global
security organization spectrum find
themselves plunged into a war of nerves
with the mr. ons captain scarlet and
black are killed and taken over by the
mr. ohms but after a failed attempt to
destroy spectrums aerial headquarters
sky base
captain Scarlett is returns to normal
with one notable difference captain
Scarlett you are virtually
indestructible captain black however is
not so lucky and neither are most of the
people he encounters over the course of
the show's 26 episode run you could say
I only wanted to grab your attention as
the mr. ons continue to kill and
replicate human beings to use as agents
in various plans to destroy humanity
they are an enemy that not only fights
in the shadows but marshals those
shadows against us but the war goes on
gentlemen and we will win it
we must Gerry Anderson had long been
campaigning for the chance to remake one
of his classic shows and the success of
the early 1990s BBC repeats of
Thunderbirds stingray and Captain
Scarlett's led to Carlton international
media asking him to explore the
feasibility of recreating one for a 21st
century audience spectrum were
assembling their top agents at cloud
base HQ for fresh conflict with the old
enemy captain Scarlett was chosen to be
the subject of a five-minute CGI test
film captain Scarlett and the return of
the mr. ons which entered production in
January of 2000 at the moving picture
company in London
[Music]
Warners you
for your unemployed vote attack on our
picking up several years after the
events of the original series the film
told a brisk story of the mr. ons
renewing their war of nerves against the
earth and captain blacks attempt to
destroy an atomic power station with the
help of a hypnotized captain blue I will
obey
luckily scarlet is able to save his
friend and thwart blacks plan but the
mr. own agent escapes to strike another
day relax guys
easily the most notable aspect of
captain scarlet and the return of the
mr. ins was the return of both Francis
Matthews and Edie Bishop as captain
scarlet and blue when do you think
they'll make their first move Paul very
soon madam you can be sure of that
the film was very well received by fans
at conventions and Anderson was
encouraged to pursue the remake rights
to continue with the project and this is
just the beginning aside king rather
than proceed with a continuation of the
original series however the decision was
made to produce a complete reimagining
of the concept and Anderson had the sad
duty of informing Matthews and Bishop
that their services would no longer be
required I get that enough excitement
for one day
instead the new series which entered
production at Pinewood Studios Kubrick
building in May 2003 would feature an
entirely new cast and entirely new
versions of all the regular characters
from the original series along with a
full redesign of all the classic
spectrum vehicles cloud base was now sky
base spectrums aircraft were named after
birds and their ground vehicles after
fast animals so where the hell is the
Rhino these new designs still retained
the essential flavor of the originals
although the spectrum Rhino would lose
the infamous rear-facing seats of the
original SPV
we'll die a big Murray death
piece-by-piece
a war of nerves is that what you mean
the mr. ons themselves were also refined
to remove several of their most glaring
weaknesses such as their fondness for
telling spectrum exactly what their evil
plan was every single week also rather
than killing somebody and then making a
copy while leaving the body of the
original lying around for anybody to
stumble upon the CGI mr. roms were tidy
up after themselves by using the matter
of the original victim to create the
replicant to actually see the mr. ons
rebuild matter it's remarkable the new
series would also focus more heavily on
the characters of the sky base crew as
captain Scarlett and captain black were
more firmly established as mortal
enemies but we were friends once
we were best of friends and now best of
enemies as opposed to never actually
meeting face to face in the original
series their relationship was further
complicated by destiny angel who had
been captain blacks girlfriend before
his death and now finds herself
developing a relationship with Scarlett
whatever makes you happy
the new sky based crew were assigned all
the familiar code names from the
original series even including the late
captain's brown and indigo although dr.
Thorne would now become dr. gold the
most major controversial change to the
regular cast however came with leftenant
Green who had been male in the original
series but would now be female in the
CGI show like never in all my born years
while some fans found this a difficult
change to take it's important to
remember that new captain Scarlett was
not a continuation of the original
series but instead a complete
reimagining utterly separate from the
world of its predecessor the
Supermarionation Green hadn't been
killed or fired no but one more question
like that left in it and you will be it
was simply that in this new universe the
codename of leftenant Green had gone to
an equally capable woman rather than a
man as ever your assistance is
invaluable the production team
evidently felt that the new green had
been a success as halfway through the
show's run another codename held by a
man in the original series would be
given to a woman Scarlett it's okay with
the CGI captain oka the Captain Scarlet
franchise had its very first female
captain and although the show made great
use of leftenant green and several of
the angels having her out in the field
with scarlet and blue and holding equal
rank was another big step forward both
green and ochre were among the new
show's most popular characters and were
thoroughly in keeping with the
progressive mentality that the original
series had displayed towards equality of
gender and ethnicity although the gender
swap issues do remain very controversial
to this day and you will almost
certainly find some heated discussions
in the comments below this video oh
great
and to those complaining there about
forced PC diversity or similar tabloid
slogans only extending in one direction
and why can't there be any male angel
pilots yes new captain Scarlett also
included a male character training to
fly an angel fighter he died just call
me banana fingers fortunately for anyone
worried that those pesky women might be
about to take over the world of new
captain Scarlett the new mr. ons were
also equal opportunities employers in
the original series only three female
mister on agents had ever appeared but
more than a dozen women would be taken
over in the new series along with mr.
nice children and mr. nice animals
new captain Scarlett also preserved the
original shows cheerfully bloodthirsty
nature with scenes of human beings being
killed and replicated that equaled and
sometimes exceeded the violence of the
Supermarionation show unlike the cold
emotionless zombie of the original
series the new captain black almost
seemed to Rhenish performing gangster
style executions when necessary
perfect and even Scarlett himself wasn't
above occasionally breaking a mr. ons
neck I'd forgotten how incredible it was
new captain Scarlett CGI was continually
refined and improved over the course of
its 26 episodes and while some of their
facial animations and exterior
environments didn't look 100% convincing
even at the time much of it still holds
up really well today particularly the
aerial dogfights and many of the scenes
set on Mars captain Scarlett destiny
angel and the rest of the cast were
recreated in CGI based on busts created
by sculptors MacKinnon and Saunders
which were then digitally scanned to
create full computer models of the
characters motion capture technology
allowed for physical performances to
animate the movement of these models
while sensors fitted to the faces of the
voice actors allowed the character's
facial movements to match those of their
performers there was fun the technology
allowed the series to tell the kinds of
stories that it wouldn't always have
been possible to do with puppets but
which felt very similar to those seen in
the classic TV 21 comic strips new
captain Scarlett and his colleagues were
all frequently involved in hand-to-hand
combat something their Supermarionation
predecessors usually struggled with
and faced off against whole armies of
mr. ins a shape-shifting mr. wrong and
rampaging hordes of killer robots nice
21 of the show's 26 episodes were
written by Phil Ford which gave the
program a consistent voice throughout
and even allowed for the occasional
running subplot most notably that
tantalizing revelation of dissent among
the mr. own ranks as a species the mr.
ons are still individuals and some of us
don't believe in this unfortunately new
captain Scarlett would not be treated
well in its country of origin I despise
it when humans do the mr. ons of dirty
work instead of giving the show the
prestigious timeslot it deserved or even
its own time slot at all ITV instead
chose to air it within the Saturday
morning kids magazine show Ministry of
mayhem hosted by Stephen Mulhern and
Holly Willoughby it's the world
exclusive it's incredible although
Ministry of mayhem itself appeared
enthusiastic to be hosting the show at
first with Mulhern and willoughby even
appearing in spectrum uniforms a few
times it soon became clear that the show
was not a suitable home for new captain
Scarlett little bit too scary fear
wasn't it each episode were generally
air around 11 a.m. but would be chopped
into two segments interrupted by some
commercials and a few other tedious
wastes of time back in the studio before
getting to the second half of the story
supposed a very Iran by airing the
series this way ITV essentially deprived
new captain Scarlett of its audience
since its name wouldn't appear in any TV
listings and ensured that any subsequent
broadcasts would have to be considered
repeats even though the show had
technically never had a proper premiere
do you want to come with me to make
matters worse just a couple of months
after new captain Scarlett premiered in
the UK another cult classic family
sci-fi show from the 1960s would make a
triumphant return to British television
Doctor Who
Saturdays at 7:00 on BBC one the success
of the new doctor who should have been a
clear indication that audiences were
receptive to a 21st century take on a
nostalgic favorite but sadly ITV didn't
get the message
and continued running new captain
scarlet in the ministry of mayhem slot
when the show returned for the second
half of its run in the autumn oh I'm
going well the episodes were broadcast
without their closing credits and from
the episode best of enemies onwards
without even the opening credits thus
depriving almost everyone who'd worked
on them of the recognition they deserved
over heaven sex scarlet and in one last
indignity the final two episodes were
aired in the wrong order international
sales of the series were difficult
thanks to it having appeared to fail in
its home market and the show's
merchandising soon found its way to
bargain bins thank you for that Anderson
was bitterly disappointed with how the
series had been handled and one word he
frequently used to describe ITV's
treatment of the show was murdered the
final episode of new captain scarlet
gray skulls aired on November 26 2005
and saw the series go out on a high is
that kinda nuts but little did anyone
realize at the time that this episode
would be the very last Jerry Anderson
production it's time to be on my way
although he had ideas for many more
projects some of which would come to
fruition after his passing it was
announced in June 2012 that he had been
diagnosed with Alzheimer's and he would
pass away in his sleep on December 26th
the same year scarlet a spectrum on
coming home in the fifteen years since
it was first broadcast new captain
Scarlett has managed to overcome the
poor treatment it received on initial
broadcast and find a new audience on DVD
blu-ray and streaming services so I
guess I kind of planted it although
sometimes unfairly dismissed by some
Anderson
and simply for being made in CGI as if a
CGI series somehow requires no work to
create many more who have since
discovered the show have been surprised
at just how well it holds up I can't
remember ever being more delighted to be
so very wrong although it never received
the chance it deserved new captain
Scarlett was an exciting and
action-packed series that went places
the Supermarionation Scarlett could
never go and proved that remakes can be
worth doing if the core of what made the
original series work is kept intact and
in this case the heart of the original
captain Scarlett was very much alive and
thriving in the CGI show that I rather
hope that was what you would say
although Jerry Anderson's fondest and
longest held ambition had been to remake
Thunderbirds captain Scarlett had long
been almost as beloved with audiences
worldwide learn to cure my scarlet fever
if Anderson's career had to come to an
end it was only fitting that it do so
with a remake of one of his most popular
shows and it's an enduring testament to
his skill as a filmmaker that has a
series in its own right new captain
Scarlett was one of his finest
achievements
[Music]
you