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Captain Scarlet

Captain Scarlet

List Price: $79.95
Your Price: $71.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Sci-Fi Blast from the 60s!!
Review: I'm a 30 year old that didn't really grow up with this stuff. After seeing Team America: World Police, my life sort of changed and I couldn't get enough. Since the movie hasn't come to DVD yet, I had to get my fill elsewhere and what better place to start than the puppet world of Gerry Anderson.

After being impressed with the Thunderbirds, I stepped into further unknown territory with the Captain Scarlet DVD set.
Gerry Anderson pushed the envelope even further with more realistic puppets and more sophisticated gadgets. There are lots of well thought out storylines and scenarios and the hard work that went into the sets and overall craftmanship is undeniable.
I have to say there are some elements that are a little annoying about the episodes. Gerry thought it would be pretty cool to have a heavy drum-filled interchanging scene transition rather than fading. While this may seem cool the first few times, it quickly gets irritating. Another annoying thing is the Angel's profound love for the saying 'S.I.G.!'.. ALOT! It is their most favorite thing to say and if I hear them say it again, I will be out on a massive puppet murder spree! Last but not least is the voice of the mysterons. It sounds like an old man moaning from his wheelchair. I know, I know this is the 60s and it might have scared the noodles out of kids back then, but honestly, this guy sounds about as creepy as Barney.
Other than these annoyances, I like the series. My personal favorites are 'The Mysterons', 'Renegade Rocket', 'Seek and Destroy' (which has some pretty impressive dog fight sequences with the Angels jets!) and 'Operation Time' which has a pretty cool storyline twist. It is kind of interesting to note that some of the puppets are revamps on different stories, with different clothing and hairstyles.
One thing that I noticed that could be a plothole is that if Captain Scarlet retained the powers of retrometabolism(meaning that he has superhuman healing powers), how come the mysteron agents aren't invincible. They get shot, thrown from buildings, catch on fire... and THEY don't come back. Are they just merely Mysteron pawns? Are Captain Black and Scarlet the only ones with this supernatural gift? Hmmmm.. It's good that Captain Scarlet is invincible because he really isn't all that great with a gun and he does get himself killed countless times, ACCIDENTALLY. And I can't understand why the Mysterons seem to want to 'spill the beans' about where they will attack next. Geez, why don't you just give the Earthlings the victory, if you're going to do that. The 'Voice of the Mysterons' broadcasts the threat over spectrum's radios!
Still, the series are fun to watch. I am about half way through the DVD set. Just remember, even though it takes place in the future, it is still very 60s! People drive around in 65 Rivieras and the phones have chords on them.. CHORDS! hehe. And not to mention, there are plenty of AWESOME EXPLOSIONS. You definitely can't go wrong with the PYROTECHNICS AND THINGS GETTING BLOWN UP!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Still timeless after all these years.
Review: "Captain Scarlet" is supermarionation for the older generation. Created by Gerry Anderson, the genius behind "Thunderbirds", "Supercar", "Fireball XL5", "Stingray" and others, "Captain Scarlet" is darker, more serious, and more mature than the others. The characters are more lifelike, inside and out. Physically more properly proportioned; inside, the personalities are more highly developed than before. As in real life, the good guys don't always win nor always make the best decisions but, fortunatly, our hero Paul Metcalf AKA Captain Scarlet returns for the next episode! The series is a real gem, well written and produced with keen attention to detail and really great vehicles, from the headquarters in Cloudbase, to the car and the Angels' jets. The entire series has held up magnificently over the years, a tribute to the Andersons' forsight and care.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing!
Review: ...

This DVD set is a revelation. It was been perfectly restored. The people who worked on this release should get some sort of freakin' award! It's a thing of beauty and a joy forever!

This show is simply the best children's TV show ever made. It's cool, it's intricate, the sets are wonderful and the meassge is noble. You can't go wrong with Captain Scarlet.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gerry Anderson's legacy continues!
Review: After Thunderbirds, the next series Gerry Anderson created was Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. With Captain Scarlet, Anderson was able to improve on his technique of Supermarionation.
For those of you who don't know, Gerry Anderson's many TV series featured marionettes. He developed a technique he called Supermarionation in which the puppets eyes could move and blink and the mouths could move in sync with prerecorded dialogue via electronics inside the puppets' heads. One drawback in his early series though was that in order to accommodate the mechanisms the heads had to be oversize in proportion to the bodies. But with Captain Scarlet he solved that problem and he developed puppets not only with perfect proportions but with finer facial features to make them more life-like.
The series takes place hundreds of years in the future. Deep space exploration is beginning, and humans have finally landed on Mars. The explorers find that Mars is inhabited by a race called the Mysterons. Unfortunately, first contact turns tragic, and a Mysteron city is accidentally destroyed. The Mysterons declare war on humankind, and the Earth's main defense is the organization of SPECTRUM. Headquartered in the airborn Cloudbase, and commanded by Colonel White, SPECTRUM's agents fight the Mysterons. But their mission is not easy. Not only are the Mysterons invisible, but also after they kill a human, they can reanimate their body and turn them into a Mysteron slave.
But all is not lost. SPECTRUM has their own tricks up their sleeves. Their top agent, Captain Scarlet himself, was a former Mysteron zombie who regained his will. Thanks to the Mysterons, Captain Scarlet is now virtually indestructible, making him the ideal choice for the most dangerous missions.
Captain Scarlet ran for only one season. Fortunately this DVD box set contains the whole season. If you have the Thunderbirds sets, Captain Scarlet is a must!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally the USA catches up to the UK
Review: An excellent collection and remastering of the orginal series -- for all of you that have had to suffer through a VHS-dubbed copy, you will enjoy this way too much. The 5.1 surround sound really captures the explosions and daring dialogue and the ever crisp uniform of Captain Blue.

Spectrum is Green!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Captain Scarlet
Review: At last A & E has released the Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons on DVD. I first saw it when it was on TV in the 1960's and its combination of believable characters and tense,gripping stories hooked me immediately. I rarely saw the show when it was on the Sci-Fi Channel, so I'm glad the whole series is on DVD now. It's more violent than other Supermarionation shows, but it was more realistic, showing that Spectrum could fail to stop the Mysterons as well as stop them. I wholly recommend this DVD set not only for the old time fans like me, but also for people who never saw the series before.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Captain Scarlet
Review: At last A & E has released the Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons on DVD. I first saw it when it was on TV in the 1960's and its combination of believable characters and tense,gripping stories hooked me immediately. I rarely saw the show when it was on the Sci-Fi Channel, so I'm glad the whole series is on DVD now. It's more violent than other Supermarionation shows, but it was more realistic, showing that Spectrum could fail to stop the Mysterons as well as stop them. I wholly recommend this DVD set not only for the old time fans like me, but also for people who never saw the series before.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spectrum is Green!
Review: For those of us who fondly remember the Supermarionation series "Thunderbirds", the successor to that series is an even more stunning achievement.

With "Captain Scarlet", more than ever before viewers will find themselves forgetting that the puppets are not real actors, as they watch the action play out before them. Everything takes on a life of its own thanks to the vast improvements made over the relatively primitive "Thunderbirds" puppets.

The seriousness which marked the best offerings of the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson team can most likely be traced back to the influence of Sylvia Anderson. While "Thunderbirds" often leaned more towards Gerry's style of fun kid's show, "Captain Scarlet" leans more heavily on Sylvia's dramatic seriousness.

Fans of the much-maligned live-action Anderson series "Space: 1999" can well testify as to what could happen without Sylvia's input. In Year One of that program, the serious and metaphysical elements of sci-fi were in full force. Sadly, Gerry and Sylvia divorced between seasons, ending their collaberation. In Year Two, Gerry's solo version of ":1999" was light, fun and campy, but it was also a huge disappointment compared to the serious drama supplied in Year One.

Happily, the pre-"Space: 1999" "Captain Scarlet" has Sylvia on board, making for a dramatic program well worth remembering.

If you think this is just kid stuff, you would be quite incorrect. Strange for what was supposed to be a kid's show, people were routinely killed off by the evil Mysterons every week, and Captain Scarlet himself was originally a villain! The puppets, sets, effects, and overall production design of "Captain Scarlet" are far superior to "Thunderbirds", and more serious in tone.

The end result is a spooky, sometimes even gloomy, stylish sci-fi drama. If you dig the Andersons' work, "Thunderbirds", or 1960's futurism, you owe it to yourself to get this set and absorb this amazing series, "Captian Scarlet".

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good show, cheap packaging
Review: I agree with all of the other reviews on here...but...
The packaging is far lacking compared with the Thunderbirds DVD's. It might as well be wrapped in brown paper. I have also had problems with the dvd discs. The first and last episode on each disc will not play using a remote. I have to
manually search through each chapter to get these episodes to play.
Never mind that the A&E packaging is basically a throw away, buy it for the show.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not Just For Kids
Review: I can't say anything about this DVD format, because I don't have it (Yet :-), however, I can say a lot about the series. The first time I saw it was when my grandfather bought me a transtlated to Hebrew video cassete of two episodes when I was 5. Since then I didn't get the chance to see any other episodes. Today, 14 years later, it arrived to the TV here, and I LOVE it, I watch it every day! It's a cool program, a lot better that 'Thunderbirds' (That is also on here, but I don't watch it.)

The great stroyline and the general coolness of the program cover some basic naivity and a couple of lousy effects, yet the idea to show the mysterons as circeles of light is geniuse.

I wouldn't say it is "A Must" some of you out there might find it silly, boring and unrealistic in today's world of fast action, amazing computer effects and the fact that we know that there are no Mysterons on Mars. All I can say is that I bet that your kids, from 5-10 would love it, and I know that I, at the age of 19, really really enjoy it and would love to have this DVD so I could watch it over and over again.


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