Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons
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Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons Title Screen
The Mysterons – sworn enemies of Earth. Possessing the ability to recreate an exact likeness of an object or person. But first, they must destroy ... Leading the fight, one man fate has made indestructible. His name: Captain Scarlet.
—Opening narration by Edward Bishop,
heard at the beginning of most of the instalments.


Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as simply Captain Scarlet, is a science fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions Television company of Gerry Anderson, John Read, Reg Hill and Sylvia Anderson. It was first shown in the United Kingdom (originally on ATV Midlands, but later the whole of the UK) between September 1967 and May 1968. It used motorised puppetry (Supermarionation) and scale model special effects.

The series is one of several of popular science-fiction TV adventure programmes the Andersons produced in the 1960s, beginning with Supercar and followed by Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and Joe 90, and ending with the little-seen The Secret Service. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was the first such programme produced after the international success of Thunderbirds in 1965 and 1966.

Summary[]

The series takes place in the year 2068. The story begins when the Spectrum Organisation, a worldwide security and peace-keeping organisation, monitors strange signals coming from the planet Mars and assigns one of its top agents, code-named Captain Black, to command the Zero-X Mission to Mars, to find out from where these signals have originated. They arrive and start scouring the Martian terrain in a Martian Exploration Vehicle (MEV).

On their surveillance, they discover an alien complex, which houses an alien intelligence known as The Mysterons, though they are not initially so called. They are originally peaceful and very pleased to have visitors and precede to welcome them. They move their camera towards the MEV to get a closer look, but Captain Black panics when he sees it, mistaking it for a weapon and believing them to be hostile.

In violation of his own orders to make peaceful contact with the originators of the signals, he orders Lieutenant Dean to obliterate the complex with the MEV's missiles, totally destroying it. But the aliens use their power of reversing matter to reconstruct the complex and vow to take revenge on Earth for the Zero-X team's act of aggression; it is then that they identify themselves to Earthmen, saying for the first time, "This is the voice of the Mysterons. We know that you can hear us, Earthmen." They take control of Captain Black's mind as a punishment and make him their primary agent in their war of nerves against Earth.

During the Mysterons's first act of revenge against Earth, another Spectrum agent, code-named Captain Scarlet, is killed and reconstructed by the Mysterons for a time to do their bidding. But he is then freed from their control by being killed again and he maintains the ability of "retro-metabolism," making him virtually indestructible. He then becomes Spectrum's number one agent and greatest asset in the fight against the Mysterons.

Main Character Voice Cast[]

Guest characters were voiced by Sylvia Anderson, Gary Files, David Healy, Martin King, Paul Maxwell, Neil McCallum, Liz Morgan, Shane Rimmer, Charles Tingwell, and Jeremy Wilkin. See also Multiple Duty Puppets.

*Indicates that they are shown in the opening titles as shown in the gallery below:

The first instalment only showed Captain Scarlet and went straight to the story line; afterwards, the other instalments after showed the other characters listening to the latest Mysteron threat with the Mysterons themselves showing their neon rings.

Instalments[]

The instalments of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons are listed in the order of their initial transmissions in the United States. NOTE: "Traitor!" was later re-transmitted as Instalment 29, due to two and a half minutes having been deleted from its original transmission.

Alternate Narrations[]

During the years when the television programme was first transmitted, one of two alternate title narrations were used. The first one, transcribed, read thus:

One man. A man who is different. Chosen by fate...caught up in Earth's unwanted conflict with the Mysterons. Determined...courageous...indestructible. His name: Captain Scarlet.
—Edward Bishop.


This narration also included a warning disclaimer to those who thought they could be just as indestructible as Captain Scarlet. This disclaimer was spoken on television by Donald Gray and was also used and labelled on several types of merchandise such as books, videos and DVDs:

"Captain Scarlet is indestructible. You are NOT. Remember this. DO NOT TRY TO IMITATE HIM!!!''
—Donald Gray.


The other alternate title narration was specific to the first instalment of the programme. Transcribed, it read thus:

The finger is on the trigger...about to unleash a force with terrible powers beyond the comprehension of man. This force we shall know as--the Mysterons.
This man will be our hero, for fate will make him indestructible. His name: Captain Scarlet.
—Edward Bishop.
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