DVD: Captain Scarlet (A&E)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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In 1967, producer Gerry Anderson took his Supermarionation puppets into new territory with the series Captain Scarlet. Following on the heels of hits like Thunderbirds and Stingray, Captain Scarlet featured a new look, with puppets reconfigured to more realistic human proportions, and a new mood, with a darker plot line that included the death of featured characters from the very first episode, challenging the stereotype of Supermarionation as a vehicle for children's programming.

This four disc DVD set includes all 32 episodes of the battle between the forces of Spectrum and the deadly Martian Mysterons, remastered in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and augmented with a variety of special features. Most notable among those features are the two episodes that feature Gerry Anderson's commentary, which every fan of the Supermarionation productions should hear. There are also a variety of galleries, biographies and other guides that provide insight into the production methods, including puppetry, live action, model making and stunning pre-CGI special effects.

While the Supermarionation era would continue for a couple of years after Captain Scarlet, by 1970 Anderson would move on to live action work with Space:1999, leaving Captain Scarlet as perhaps the most artistically fully realized work of his puppetry productions (although each of his series has its partisans). Having the series collected in a state of the art format is a real treat for its legion of fans.

© 2003 - Shaun Dale