Review of Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons: 1

Introduction

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons came after Thunderbirds and Stingray and continues along the same lines as its predecessors, with Anderson`s puppets and models telling the sci-fi story of a mysterious alien race who vow to destroy the Earth after a misunderstanding that led to astronauts attacking them on Mars.

The international intelligence organisation Spectrum is the first line of defence, led by Captain Scarlet, who was once captured by the Mysterons, but survived and now is indestructible, with the power to regenerate from fatal wounds. Scarlet features in numerous adventures as the Mysterons look for revenge.

Video

Video comes in full-frame, and as with the DVD versions of Stingray and Thunderbirds, the digitally remastered picture is surprisingly good given the age of the program. Most shots are crisp and colourful and show a good level of detail. There is the occasional spot of dirt on the print, but there’s no evidence of grain.

Like the other series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons shows its age – it`s now 38 old - but there is no denying the quality of the production and model-making – another testament to Anderson`s high production values.

The puppet`s wires aren`t quite so visible as in the earlier series, and the explosions (which all to often look poor when done in miniature) are slightly better too. There`s some dubious rear projection at times as well, but overall the effects are very good given the age of the series.

Audio

The sound has been remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 and is of reasonable quality, although the extra channels have primarily been used to provide some stereo separation in the front channel. You can also select the original mono soundtrack.

The sound reproduces the effects, score and dialogue faithfully, and the speech is always clear and understandable.

Features

Gerry Anderson’s commentary track during the first episode is good, and like the one on Stingray, it gives away some of the secrets and at approximately 30 minutes in duration is long enough to provide good information, but short enough to remain interesting.

There`s also a TV 21 Audio Adventure, similar to the ones seen on Thunderbirds and Stingray, some publicity materials and a look at the TV 21 records.

The menus are nicely animated in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons style and are easy to navigate.

Conclusion

Overall, fans of Gerry Anderson’s work will not be disappointed, like the others we`ve seen, the DVD is well presented with good video, sound and extras, wrapped up with nice menus and importantly the £15.99 recommended price isn’t too steep for 3 hours of entertainment.

As far as the content goes, it’s typical Gerry Anderson material with a crazy sci-fi plot, plenty of action and technology being used to save the world. Each of the six shows runs for 30 minutes, and being designed to hold children’s interest, crams plenty into the short running time.