I'm due for the third post of an off week, and I decided it was time for something I've had backlogged for quite a while. I've mentioned a fair number of times that a lot of my formative pop culture experiences in the early 1990s were already old movies and shows from the 1960s and 1970s. (Daytime network TV died when Get Smart was replaced with talk shows.) Even then, there were things (including Godzilla) that I really experienced second- or third-hand, through books, toys and off-handed references. Among these was something that seemed almost too novel to believe. It was a show done with a throwback technology that was neither live action nor animation. Stranger still, it was about a war between humans and aliens where the humans had provoked the conflict, and where the aliens sometimes won. That was my introduction to Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, the most famous/ notorious production from the late Gerry Anderson featuring Supermarionation.
Fast forward to a few months ago, and I found out I could watch this and other Anderson shows with a subscription I already had. I watched or half-watched my way through most of the series run. It was indeed an impressive artifact. It starts with Captain Scarlet and Captain Black, the top agents of an organization called Spectrum, investigating a mysterious alien city on Mars. Black shoots first after mistaking a scan by the aliens as an attack. Though the aliens, identified as the Mysterons, are unharmed or nearly so, they declare their intent to destroy humanity. Their chosen method of warfare amounts to outright terrorism, as various humans are replaced with virtually indestructible duplicates on missions of assassination, sabotage and general mayhem. The replaced humans include both Black and Scarlet, only Scarlet defects back to humanity after being defeated. The asymmetrical war continues throughout the run as the Mysterons try things like hijacking an aircraft for a kamikaze attack, planting a nuke to blow up London, and poisoning the water supply of Los Angeles, always preceded in apparent sportsmanship by an often cryptic warning to the leaders of Spectrum. Again and again, Captain Scarlet does battle with the Mysterons, routinely sustaining mortal wounds only to recover by his hazily explained healing factor. However, there are indeed times when even his literally suicidal tactics aren't enough to stop the Mysterons' plot.
Backing up, it should go without saying that this is surely one of the most violent, dark and flat-out insane shows ever put on the air, let alone among programming aimed at kids. The violence is disconcerting even by modern standards, with at least one fairly graphic death every episode as the Mysterons murder the people they are replacing. Then there are the explosions and crashes of the various vehicles, including a mobile battering ram that has to be operated with the crew facing backward. On top of that, even the episodes with a minimal body count still routinely end with Captain Scarlet fantastically mangled and mutilated on-screen, which is somehow far more brutal as portrayed with the damn puppets. Finally, there is the existential implications of the threat. The Mysterons' powers so far exceed those of humanity that they could just as well be gods or demons, and their mentality and methods are even more unfathomable. While Spectrum could turn the world into a police state, as they might already be judging from their now all-too-familiar security measures, they still never come close to finding a way to stop further replacements and attacks or hit back at the Mysterons in any meaningful way. Given that the humans are already losing some of the time, it follows that sooner or later, sheer attrition will turn the tide in their favor.
Unfortunately, these things do not make for a particularly good show, especially over its relatively long 30-episode run. The better points can be appreciated over the first few episodes, while the bad ones pile up. Allowing the bad guys to win bends the usual formula, but the show remains on the hero/ villain formula nonetheless. If it comes to that, Anderson had already gotten further afield with Thunderbirds, which could get through a typical episode without having a conventional villain at all. In practice, the Mysterons have to hamstring themselves for the humans to have a chance at all, out of what could be anything from their own standards of morality to cat-and-mouse sadism. Far greater defects come from the characters, or lack thereof. It's one thing to have Captain Scarlet nearly emotionless; it's another to make his colleagues largely interchangeable, especially the all-female Angels flying the planes. Ultimately, by the time you get into the double digits, really interesting episodes become exceptions rather than the rule. The later ones most worth digging further for are "Lunarville 7", where colonists on the Moon declare themselves independent and neutral; "Place of the Angels", featuring an especially unnerving female Mysteron; and "Special Assignment", where the Mysterons catch Captain Scarlet in an apparent residual human vice.
What's most intriguing, and the reason I decided the show was worth posting about, is that the assumed world remains by all appearances a quite pleasant place to live. We do see at least a few civilians in the vast majority of the episodes, and they always seem healthy, happy and well-adjusted, really far more than they should be if the existence and full extent of the Mysteron threat were generally known. This, incidentally, is one thing where the puppets work, to the point that I don't find them to have much further impact on the narrative. At various points, it's further confirmed that there are shops, hotels, casinos and even fashion designers operating at peacetime capacity. There's also a good vibe from frequent views of the cityscapes, which are more or less 1960s architecture with a few "futuristic" touches. A telling example is a parking structure in the first episode that towers high into the air for no obvious reason, topped by something like a lily pad. It's one of the few departures from general realism, yet still makes some sense on its own terms. Further recognition is in order for the audacity of the creators in making one of the biggest things we ever see a parking garage.
That goes about as far as I planned on. I by all means recommend this show, at any rate in small doses. It's exactly the kind of thing that makes vintage science fiction fascinating. While it would be easy to discount it as merely naive, it offers a nuanced outlook and philosophy. Humanity may face dire threats that once seemed unimaginable, but in the end, ordinary humans will still be people, living their lives well enough to find some measure of happiness. That is a good enough note to end on. That's all for now, more to come!
Image credit The TVDB.
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