Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to simply as Captain Scarlet, was a 1960's British sci-fi TV series produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read, and Reg Hill. It was first broadcast in the UK between September 1967 and May 1968, and was filmed using a form of marionette puppetry known as Supermarionation and scale model special effects, and as such was particularly popular with young boys.

Set in the year 2068, the series presented the conflict between Earth and a race of Martian extraterrestrials known as the Mysterons. After a misunderstanding results in their city being destroyed by a human expedition party, the Mysterons declare war on Earth and begin a series of revenge attacks. Spectrum, a worldwide security organisation which protects mankind, boasts the extraordinary abilities of their top agent, Captain Scarlet, who comes to possess the Mysteron power of 'retro-metabolism' — the ability to return to life after suffering fatal injury, which makes Scarlet nearly indestructible.

When talks to find an American broadcaster for Thunderbirds fell through in the July 1966, production for the show's second season ended with the completion of just six episodes at the behest of ITC financier Lew Grade. Having overseen Gerry Anderson's work since the creation of Supercar in 1960 before going on to buy his production company AP Films, during the making of Fireball XL5, Grade was eager for Anderson's programs to be shown abroad and decided that a new concept would do more to attract potential bidders than a second season of Thunderbirds.

As a result of the cancellation, Anderson was required to come up with an idea for another Supermarionation series. He had once been inspired by the thought of creating a live-action police drama in which the hero is unexpectedly murdered halfway through the series and replaced by a new lead character. Now giving fresh consideration to this idea, Anderson resolved that a selling point for his new series could be a character who can be killed at the end of each episode and resurrected at the beginning of the next. This, coupled with contemporary theories about the possibility of the existence of life on Mars, led to the idea of an interplanetary war raging between alien antagonists based on Mars and a worldwide security organization being set up to defend human civilization.

The multinational Spectrum personnel have military ranks and color-based code names (hence 'Captain Scarlet'), and are headed by the organization's commander-in-chief, Colonel White. The fourteen Spectrum personnel who regularly appear in the series are stationed on Cloudbase. They are Scarlet, Captain Blue (often Scarlet's mission partner), Captains Ochre, Magenta, and Grey (secondary Spectrum agents), Lieutenant Green (assistant to Colonel White and Cloudbase computer operator), Doctor Fawn (chief medical officer), and five female fighter pilots, who have a different collective code name — the Angels — and are individually designated Destiny (Angel leader), Symphony, Rhapsody, Melody and Harmony.

Over the course of the series, two other Spectrum officers are killed and reconstructed by the Mysterons in addition to Scarlet, but their duplicates do not possess the power of retro-metabolism: Captain Brown in "The Mysterons" and Captain Indigo in the episode "Spectrum Strikes Back".

When communicating, Spectrum officers use the call signal "S.I.G." ("Spectrum Is Green") as their affirmative code. The negative, "S.I.R." ("Spectrum Is Red"), is used less regularly.

The Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle and Angel interceptor are two of a number of vehicles which Spectrum has at its disposal. Officers use the Spectrum Saloon Car (SSC) for ordinary, non-offensive travel over land. The Maximum Security Vehicle (MSV) and "Yellow Fox", an unmarked security transport disguised as a fuel tanker, offer safety for Mysteron targets. Aircraft include the Spectrum Passenger Jet, the two-seater Spectrum Helicopter and the Magnacopter for carrying larger numbers of people.