Those of us of a certain age have fond childhood memories of the
various TV series produced by husband-and-wife team Gerry & Sylvia
Anderson: familiar names like ?Stingray?, ?Fireball XL5?, ?Supercar?, ?Thunderbirds? and ?Captain Scarlet?. These started out using
marionettes, because that was all that would fit the budget their
production company could get. Later, as their reputation grew, along
with their ability to attract investment, they were able to create
?UFO?, their first live-action series. That remains famous to this day
for its unusual look, due in large part to Sylvia Anderson?s wardrobe
designs.

But that?s for another time...

All the abovenamed puppet series had a common motif: they were set in
a sci-fi future, with lots of cool-looking hardware: flying cars, fast
ships and submarines, spacecraft, other advanced gadgets, and a united
Earth where war between countries (at least human-inhabited ones) had
been banished. And lots of action, danger, explosions, crashes, in-the-nick-of-time rescues! Also, the credits would mention at some
point that they were ?filmed in Supermarionation? -- this was the name
for the automated electromechanical lipsync technique invented by the Andersons? production company, triggered directly by the audio
soundtrack, to avoid the puppeteers having to move the mouths manually
as had been previously done. This saved a lot of work.

Gerry Anderson has said that he did not work with string puppets by
choice: if 3D computer graphics had been available (and affordable)
back when he was making these series, he would have jumped on it like
a shot.

Well, eventually, after many decades, he got his chance. Back round
the turn of the century, he got the opportunity to remake his ?Captain
Scarlet? series with CG. And so we have the series entitled ?Gerry
Anderson?s New Captain Scarlet?, which debuted in 2005. Apparently he
wanted to do ?Thunderbirds? (probably the most well-regarded of his
puppet series), but he couldn?t get the rights, so he settled for this
one instead.

Unfortunately, Gerry Anderson died (of dementia) in 2012. I suspect
the illness started taking its toll not long after the two seasons of
the new ?Captain Scarlet? were made, otherwise he would likely have
gone on to remake others of his old classics. But he never did.

Watching this all-CG series, and the attempts at modelling human
characters using the technology of 20 years ago (and I think a bit
less than cutting-edge even then), the phrase ?uncanny valley? does
come to mind. But as a bit of a CG geek myself, I don?t mind that so
much. Instead of the old ?Supermarionation? trademark at the end, we
now have ?Hypermarionation?, which apparently just refers to the use
of well-known motion-capture (mocap) techniques involving real human
actors, the recorded data then being used to make the CG models walk,
run and generally move more realistically.

One nitpick I will mention, is that the character animation setups
seem to have forgotten that the human neck can articulate at its base,
not just at the top where it attaches to the head. This makes for odd
poses every now and then, when the character?s torso is bent forward
and the head is looking up -- that immobile neck makes for some
exaggerated angles for the head. Also the lipsync looks fairly
half-hearted; I?m sure they could have done better back then, but no
doubt this was limited by some budgetary constraint.

One thing I?m sure Gerry Anderson would have been massively thrilled
over, is that, thanks to mocap, for the first time he could animate
characters doing proper fight scenes! Punching, kicking, leaping,
dodging -- all the things that would have looked absolutely laughable
when attempted by marionettes. Even walking used to look terrible. But
now that full range of humanlike movement was available to him.

And of course the hardware. Lots of it. The giant permanently-airborne headquarters of the SPECTRUM organization (called ?Cloudbase? in the
original series, here renamed ?Skybase? -- something something
trademark reasons), the vehicles (the large, yet fast and remarkably maneouvrable, eight-wheeled ?Rhino? sure leaves the old ?Spectrum
Pursuit Vehicle? for dead); this was made during the time when the
Russians were still considered friends, and hadn?t gone back to being
enemies again, so you also have the gigantic ?Druzhnik? super-tank
(?the only thing that can stop a Druzhnik ... is another Druzhnik?)
used by SPECTRUM agents at some points, and also by bad guys at
other points.

The explosions are very well done. I was particularly taken with the
use of a ?bunker buster? type bomb to destroy the underground Mysteron
base in one episode; the intricate details of the whole event, the
ground slowly collapsing after the bomb disappears below, before the
explosion spreads to the surface and flings everything out again in an
almighty blast of fire -- I think they had expert military advice on
how such things would look. This would explain the mention of the
Royal Air Force in the closing credits of every episode. (And not just
the one with the Lancaster bomber in it.)

But all in all, this is just a skirmish-of-the-week series, let?s face
it. The original motivation for the Mysterons of Mars wanting to
destroy the humans on Earth seems weak, and each episode sees the two
sides fight to a stalemate, yet again. There are some romantic asides
between, for example, various of the Captains and the Angels who pilot
the fighter jets that are launched from Skybase, but this is never
allowed to go far enough to distract attention from the action. (Story
arcs? What story arcs?)

But the action set-pieces are terrific. Much better than with puppets.
Just enjoy it on that basis, and don?t think about the rest.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-03-19 02:55:21 +0000, Lawrence D?Oliveiro said:

Those of us of a certain age have fond childhood memories of the
various TV series produced by husband-and-wife team Gerry & Sylvia
Anderson: familiar names like "Stingray", "Fireball XL5", "Supercar", "Thunderbirds" and "Captain Scarlet". These started out using
marionettes, because that was all that would fit the budget their
production company could get. Later, as their reputation grew, along
with their ability to attract investment, they were able to create
"UFO", their first live-action series. That remains famous to this day
for its unusual look, due in large part to Sylvia Anderson's wardrobe designs.

But that's for another time...

All the abovenamed puppet series had a common motif: they were set in a sci-fi future, with lots of cool-looking hardware: flying cars, fast
ships and submarines, spacecraft, other advanced gadgets, and a united
Earth where war between countries (at least human-inhabited ones) had
been banished. And lots of action, danger, explosions, crashes, in-the-nick-of-time rescues! Also, the credits would mention at some
point that they were "filmed in Supermarionation" -- this was the name
for the automated electromechanical lipsync technique invented by the Andersons' production company, triggered directly by the audio
soundtrack, to avoid the puppeteers having to move the mouths manually
as had been previously done. This saved a lot of work.

Gerry Anderson has said that he did not work with string puppets by
choice: if 3D computer graphics had been available (and affordable)
back when he was making these series, he would have jumped on it like a shot.

Well, eventually, after many decades, he got his chance. Back round the
turn of the century, he got the opportunity to remake his "Captain
Scarlet" series with CG. And so we have the series entitled "Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet", which debuted in 2005. Apparently he
wanted to do "Thunderbirds" (probably the most well-regarded of his
puppet series), but he couldn't get the rights, so he settled for this
one instead.

Unfortunately, Gerry Anderson died (of dementia) in 2012. I suspect the illness started taking its toll not long after the two seasons of the
new "Captain Scarlet" were made, otherwise he would likely have gone on
to remake others of his old classics. But he never did.

<snip>

Although not done by Gerry Anderson, there was a "Thunderbirds Are Go"
CGI animated series that lasted for three seasons (2015-2020). It was okay-ish, but as usual, it had too many silly changes to really be a
proper "Thunderbirds" show. The chauffeur Parker was voiced by same
actor who who voiced him in the original Gerry Anderson marionation
series.
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3138604/>

There was the "Firestorm" project, by Gerry Anderson using
"Ultramarionation" puppets, but only made one 10min minisode eventually released in 2018. It was based on an Japanese anime series of the same
name created by Gerry Anderson in 2003.
Puppet remake: <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK5IcpD4bemyKlvj5QEwCQg>
Anime Series: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm_(TV_series)>

Gerry Anderson also had a planned "remake" (more precisely a "reboot")
of "Thunderbirds" back in the 1980s called "T-Force" that never got
made. <https://gerryanderson.com/en-nz/blogs/blog/thunderbirds-thursday-the-lost-1980s-thunderbirds-remake>





--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Thu, 19 Mar 2026 18:39:02 +1300, Your Name wrote:

Although not done by Gerry Anderson, there was a "Thunderbirds Are
Go" CGI animated series that lasted for three seasons (2015-2020).
It was okay-ish, but as usual, it had too many silly changes to
really be a proper "Thunderbirds" show.

Yes, I remember seeing some promos gushing over it on YouTube. There
were W?t? folk making much of the fact that part of it was done with
CG and part with miniatures, and you couldn?t tell which was which.
(Are miniatures that good, now ... ?)

I wasn?t sure what the point was of that.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-03-19 05:48:50 +0000, Lawrence D?Oliveiro said:

On Thu, 19 Mar 2026 18:39:02 +1300, Your Name wrote:

Although not done by Gerry Anderson, there was a "Thunderbirds Are Go"
CGI animated series that lasted for three seasons (2015-2020). It was
okay-ish, but as usual, it had too many silly changes to really be a
proper "Thunderbirds" show.

Yes, I remember seeing some promos gushing over it on YouTube. There
were W?t? folk making much of the fact that part of it was done with
CG and part with miniatures, and you couldn'??t tell which was which.

Models were used for most of the outside scenes. <https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/mixing-it-up-the-effects-of-the-new-thunderbirds/>

(Are miniatures that good, now ... ?)

The models have always been good. It was the CGI that caught up and
could be far more realistic. :-)

I wasn'??t sure what the point was of that.

Mainly as a traditional nod to the original show.




--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)