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The series was one of several of imaginative and popular science-fiction TV adventure series the Andersons produced in the 1960s, beginning with Supercar and followed by Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, and the little-seen The Secret Service . Scarlet was the first series made after the international success of Thunderbirds in 1964-66, which included two series of the TV show and two feature films.

1 The story

The basic premise, played out over 32 episodes, was that a special group, Spectrum, defend the Earth from the insidious plans of the alien Mysterons.

On a mission to Mars in 2068, a Mysteron 'city' was destroyed by Captain Black, leading the Mysterons to declare war on Earth. The Mysterons have the ability to replicate and then control any person they kill or anything they destroy, through their power of retro-metabolism. They use this skill to conduct a war of terror against Earth—primarily aimed at the world leaders, major cities, industrial and defence establishments, and, of course, "Spectrum" and its airborne Cloudbase headquarters. The Mysterons are never seen; their presence is indicated by two circles of light tracking across the scene. Their actions on Earth are always through their replicated intermediaries—often Captain Black, who the Mysterons killed and then revived as their first agent.

Spectrum personnel have military ranks and colour based code names (hence Captain Scarlet), headed by Colonel White. Other characters include Captains Blue, Ochre, Grey, and Magenta, Lieutenant Green, and the five female fighter pilots, who have a different collective codename—the Angels—and are individually Destiny, Symphony, Melody, Rhapsody, and Harmony.

Captain Scarlet, already one of Spectrum's top agents, becomes their secret weapon after the events of the first episode, The Mysterons. In that episode, Scarlet (whose real name is Paul Metcalfe) is one of two Spectrum agents killed by the Mysterons and then replaced with a duplicate under their control; for reasons never explained in or out of the series, however, when the duplicate falls 800 feet from a tower, the personality of Paul Metcalfe reasserts itself in the duplicate, who is immune thereafter to Mysteron control. Not only that, but Scarlet's new body has two new powers: it allows him to sense the presence of other Mysteron duplicates nearby, and if he should be injured or even killed, retro-metabolism will re-create him, as good as before. ('Self-repairing' might be a more accurate way to describe this than the 'indestructible' that the series uses, since it is established that Scarlet feels all the pain associated with any injuries he suffers.) For obvious reasons, this advantage is kept secret outside Spectrum, and even Captain Blue is often heard saying "But Captain, you'll be killed!" (Later in the series, the Mysteron duplicates are discovered to be vulnerable to high-voltage electricity, meaning that the same could permanently destroy Scarlet.)

Whether the puppets of the various Anderson series were modelled on real people, and who those real people were, is the subject of some question. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson have claimed that they asked the puppet designers to give the puppets rough resemblances to specific celebrities of the day. Some of the puppets, however, appear to be quite clearly modelled instead on the actors who provided their voices; chief puppet artist Mary Turner admitted that Thunderbirds' Lady Penelope was modelled after Sylvia, a relevation the latter claimed came as a surprise. On Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue and Colonel White were said to particularly resemble their voice actors, Ed Bishop and Donald Gray respectively. (Ironically, although many fans believe the resemblance of Captain Blue and Ed Bishop to be particularly strong, based on Ed Bishop's appearance in Anderson's live-action series UFOUFO DVD coverdepicting one of the distinctive"spinning top" UFOs. Note UK 12-Year-Olds rating. UFO was a British television science fiction series created by Gerry Anderson. Anderson had previously made a number of very successful marionette-based childre, the blonde hair that Bishop's UFO character Straker shares with Captain Blue is Bishop's brunette hair bleached blonde in the first episode, and a wig in subsequent episodes of the series.) The Captain Scarlet character has been said at various times to have been modelled on Cary GrantCary Grant ( January 18, 1904 November 29, 1986) was an English-born American film actor. He was perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man, not only handsome, but witty and charming. Born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, he had a conf, Roger MooreThe name "Roger Moore" is shared by multiple people: # Roger Moore (actor), the english actor, most famous for his roles as James Bond # Roger Moore (computer scientist), designer and implementor of APL/360 Roger Moore is also the name of an Arkansas gun, and on Scarlet's voice actor Francis Matthews ; while no definite answer appears to be forthcoming, Matthews says that Gerry Anderson went to great lengths to get him to sign on to the production because of his skilled Cary Grant impression.

As in the Andersons' previous puppet series, the characters' eyes and mouths were operated electronically, but in Captain Scarlet the control mechanism was placed in the puppets' chests rather than their heads. This meant that the puppets no longer needed oversized heads to accommodate the mechanisms and could be built with normal proportions for the first time. In order to enhance the sense of realism further, the puppets were never seen walking, as it was impossible to make their legs move realistically. For this reason characters are often seen standing on moving walkways or even sitting at moving desks, and there are of course any number of futuristic land, sea, air, and space vehicles for them to ride in, such as the SPVAn SPV or Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle was a fictional pursuit and attack vehicle from Gerry Anderson's science fiction serial Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It has six wheels and is coloured grey-blue. The seats are positions so that if the vehicle drive (Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle), courtesy of special effects director Derek Meddings and his miniatures unit. SPVs were located around the world, hidden in public or commercial buildings. Upon meeting the staff of a building, a Spectrum agent would show his identificationIdentification can mean The act of identifying. See identity. Recognition of human individuals An identity document Identification (information). and the SPV would be moved out for use.