Development 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. 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 his 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, he named Spectrum's leader Colonel White. Intrigued by the phrase "life as we know it", Anderson wanted to set his enemy aliens apart from the conventional extraterrestrials of 1960s TV and film. Therefore, while devising the Mysterons, he 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 their 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 their computers behind. Anderson's memories of the Second World War provided inspiration for a number of design aspects. For example, he 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. He 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. 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 he 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 Scarlets script editor, Barwick went on to author 18 episodes himself while substantially revising other writers' work. Its use of a British protagonist was a departure from earlier series like
Thunderbirds, whose lead characters had been written as Americans to increase their 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 him after being impressed by his 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 his biography that the Grant impression was Matthews' choice at audition, and while it was not the kind of voice he had in mind, he 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. 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 [my agent's representative] 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 him as well?'"
Donald Gray, who had been
typecast after playing Detective Mark Saber in
The Vise, was resorting to voice work to sustain his acting career. He had three regular roles in
Captain Scarlet: Colonel White, the Mysterons and Captain Black (who, after being taken over by the Mysterons, speaks in their 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 their 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; ) per episode, plus repeat fees, no matter how many lines he or she spoke. As the actors were not given the opportunity to tour the puppet studios until their work was finished, they had no visualisation of their characters during the dialogue recording. 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-sized vehicle. The vehicles were designed by Meddings or his 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 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 his time to
Thunderbird 6.
Puppet design , the puppet heads were moulded on a
silicone rubber base and finished in
fibreglass. At heights ranging from (approximately one-third life size), the new generation of puppets were no taller or shorter than their predecessors. As in earlier series, the main characters were given interchangeable heads with a range of expressions; these included "smiler", "frowner" and "blinker" heads. The costumes were designed by
Sylvia Anderson, who drew inspiration from the work of
Pierre Cardin (in particular, his 1966 "Cosmonaut" collection) when devising the Spectrum uniforms. Despite their
realistic form, the new puppets were even harder to animate on set, ironically making the design
less life-like than Gerry Anderson had intended. The switch to accurate proportions upset the puppets' weight distribution. When standing, they often had to be held in place with clamps and tape to prevent them from wobbling. The smaller heads made it harder to obtain close-ups. Additionally, as most of the wires were headmounted, the smaller head size reduced the puppeteers' control, making movements jerkier. To limit the amount of movement required, characters were often shown sitting at moving desks or standing on moving walkways. For example, Colonel White has a rotating desk and Lieutenant Green operates the Cloudbase computer from a sliding chair. Puppeteer Jan King commented: The "under-controlled" puppets described by King had no wires and were manipulated from the waist. One advantage of this method was that a puppet could pass through a doorway without necessitating a break in the shot. For scenes with characters sitting in aircraft cockpits, the crew built variations on the under-controlled design that comprised only a head and torso. These were operated using levers and wires located underneath the set. Scarlet's appearance has been compared to that of his voice actor,
Francis Matthews, as well as
Roger Moore. Lieutenant Green was modelled on
Cy Grant, who voiced the character; Rhapsody Angel on
Jean Shrimpton; Melody Angel on
Eartha Kitt; and Harmony Angel on
Tsai Chin. On earlier series, guest characters had been sculpted and re-sculpted in clay episode by episode. For
Captain Scarlet, these roles were played by a "
repertory company" of over 50 permanent puppets that were made to the same standards of workmanship as the main characters.
Response to puppets The redesigned puppets have attracted a mixed response from crew members and commentators. Some of the crew believed that the new marionettes lacked the charm of the previous generation due to the accurate proportions that were now being used. Curtis recalls: Fellow sculptor John Blundall called the new design "ridiculous". He criticised attempts to make the puppets appear more life-like, reasoning that "we always try to do with puppets what you can't do with humans." He suggested that the move from caricature to realism came at the expense of "character and personality", arguing that "if the puppet appears completely natural, the audience no longer has to use its imagination." From a practical perspective, supervising puppeteer
Christine Glanville considered the puppets "awful", remembering that their smaller, lighter heads would not move smoothly: "If you wanted them to turn their heads, then more often than not there would be someone out of shot, with their fingers just above the puppet's head, actually turning it round." The sequence is accompanied by a voiceover from Ed Bishop stating: A number of variations have been used. In the first episode, the voiceover runs: Later prints feature an additional voiceover by Donald Gray, warning the audience: "Captain Scarlet is indestructible. You are not. Remember this. Do not try to imitate him." This served to establish the background to the series and warn younger viewers not to put themselves at risk by copying Scarlet's actions. It was used either on its own or following the "One man ..." voiceover. In 2005, the Animation Art Gallery in London released limited-edition prints of the paintings signed by Francis Matthews. In Japan, the original opening titles were replaced with a montage of action clips from various episodes accompanied by an upbeat song performed by children. This version is included in the special features of the
Captain Scarlet DVD box set.
Filming The first episode, "
The Mysterons", began filming on 2 January 1967 after two months' pre-production. The budget for the series was set at £1.5 million (about £ million in ). At an average cost of £46,000 per episode, or £2,000 per minute, it was the most expensive Anderson production to date. Other directors were recruited from outside the company; one of them was
Robert Lynn, who had been an assistant director on feature films.
Captain Scarlet was filmed in a set of converted factory units on the
Slough Trading Estate, which had served as Century 21's studios since the making of
Stingray in 1964. Continuing a practice begun on earlier series, episodes were filmed in pairs on separate stages to speed up production. Filming overlapped with the
Thunderbird 6 shoot, which was being conducted on a different stage. The Mysteron rings were created by panning a transparency of two green circles using a
slide projector, a technique suggested by producer Reg Hill. The puppet footage for each episode usually took two weeks, or 11 working days, to shoot. Although filming of the series was scheduled to take eight months, the demands of the
Thunderbird 6 shoot caused it to overrun, finally concluding in November 1967. Gerry Anderson, who had intended this to be more like a traditional fanfare, said of his initial response: "I thought, 'Christ, is this all he could produce?' Looking back on it, however, I can see that what he came up with worked very well." The drumbeat had two other functions: to cut from one scene to another, with the shot alternating between the previous scene and the next in time with each beat; and to cut into and out of each episode's midpoint advert break, where it was accompanied by a zooming image of the Spectrum logo. Two versions of the ending theme—"Captain Scarlet"—were recorded. The first version, used on the first 14 episodes, is entirely instrumental except for the lyrics "Captain Scarlet!", repeated at intervals by a vocalist ensemble including
Ken Barrie. Each instance is followed by a
vocoded repetition supplied by Gray himself, the final two forming a
ternary with the word "Indestructible!". The instrumental was later reworked as a song with lyrics performed by The Spectrum, a London boy band who shared their name with the fictional organisation. Formed in 1960 and signed to
RCA Victor, the group were being promoted as a British imitation of
The Monkees. They were brought to the Andersons' attention by Gerry's chauffeur, who had heard them on the radio, and signed a contract with Century 21 worth £100,000. At their early concerts in 1977,
Siouxsie and the Banshees performed a spoof of the ending theme with extra lyrics mocking Scarlet. Between March and December 1967, Gray also recorded
incidental music for 18 episodes. The remaining 14 re-used these scores, supplemented by cues produced for earlier Anderson series. In their notes on the CD release, Ralph Titterton and Tim Mallett write that the
Captain Scarlet soundtrack has a "
military feel" that favours percussion, brass and wind instruments, in contrast with the full orchestral sound of
Thunderbirds. Gray preferred traditional instruments for much of the action, limiting electronic music to scenes set in outer space and an echoing four-note
motif that serves to identify the Mysterons. Gray performed some of the series' electronic music himself. The soundtrack has since had two CD releases: the first by Silva Screen Records; the second by
Fanderson, the official Gerry Anderson fan club. Fanderson's version was available exclusively to club members and contained music from every episode except "
The Heart of New York" and "
Treble Cross" (which contain no original music) and "
Traitor" (whose cue recordings are lost). The tracks from each release are listed below.
Silva Screen release (2003) Reviewing the Silva Screen release, Bruce Eder of
AllMusic describes the collection of theme and incidental music as "a strange mix of otherworldly '
music of the spheres', late–50s/early–60s '
space age pop', '
British Invasion' beat, Scottish folk-inspired tunes, kids-style 'Mickey Mouse' scoring, martial music, light jazz, and light classical". He singles out the two versions of "White as Snow" from the
episode of the same name, "Cocktail Music" from the episode "
Model Spy" and a piano piece from "
The Inquisition" (which Gray performed himself) for special praise. In his
BBC Online review, Peter Marsh suggests that the grimness of the music reflects the series' use of realistic puppets and its presentation of death, as well as its alien villains and lack of humour. He comments that "dissonant
vibraphone chords shimmer under hovering, tremulous strings contrasted with urgent, militaristic drums and pulsing brass—driving the action ever onto its climax (and, no doubt, a big explosion)."
Fanderson release (three discs, 2015) ==Release==