Review of Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons: 2

Introduction

Volume 2 of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons features another six episodes of the Gerry Anderson series, which came after Thunderbirds and Stingray. It continues along the same lines as its predecessors, with Anderson`s puppets and models telling the sci-fi story of a mysterious alien race who vow to destroy the Earth after a misunderstanding that led to astronauts attacking them on Mars.

The international intelligence organisation Spectrum is the first line of defence, led by Captain Scarlet, who was once captured by the Mysterons, but survived and now is indestructible, with the power to regenerate from fatal wounds. Scarlet features in numerous adventures as the Mysterons look for revenge.

Video

Video comes in full-frame, and as with Volume 1, the digitally remastered picture is surprisingly good given the age of the program. Most shots are crisp and colourful and show a good level of detail. There is the occasional spot of dirt on the print, but there’s no evidence of grain.

Like Stingray and Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons shows its age (now an unbelievable 38 old!), but the quality of the production and model-making is undeniable – a tribute to Anderson`s high production values. The puppet`s wires aren`t quite so visible as in the earlier series and the explosions (which all to often look poor when done in miniature) are slightly better too.

Audio

As with the first volume, the sound has been remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 and is of reasonable quality, although the extra channels have primarily been used to provide some stereo separation in the front channel. If you prefer, you can watch with the original mono soundtrack instead.

The sound reproduces the effects, score and dialogue faithfully, and the speech is always clear and understandable.

Features

Extras here consist of a TV 21 audio adventure, a look at the TV 21 comics in a text/photo gallery, a look at Spectrum Cloudbase and the Angel Interceptor – again via text/photos and finally some TV adverts and promotional materials.

The menus are nicely animated in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons style and are easy to navigate.

Conclusion

Fans of Gerry Anderson’s work will not be disappointed, like the others discs that we`ve seen, this DVD is well presented with good video, sound and extras, wrapped up with nice menus. In addition, the £15.99 recommended price isn’t too steep for 3 hours of entertainment.

As far as the content goes, this is typical Gerry Anderson material with a crazy sci-fi plot, plenty of action and technology being used to save the world. Each of the six shows runs for 30 minutes, and being designed to hold children’s interest, crams plenty into the short running time.

Overall, the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons DVDs are a good package and anyone with fond memories of the series from their childhood will enjoy them.