NEWS
26th December 2012 - Gerry Anderson dies in his sleep, aged 83

Gerry Anderson's son, Jamie, has reported via his website today that Gerry passed away peacefully in his sleep at midday. Gerry had been suffering from dementia for two years prior to his death and had been living in a care home since October. He leaves four children and his widow, Mary. Our thoughts are with them at this sad time.

Gerry appearing at Glasgow book festival - 9/03/2008 (posted 17/02/08)

Saw this advertised earlier and rushed to book my ticket! Gerry Anderson is one of the guest stars at the Aye Write book festival being held at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. He's set to appear on 9th March, between 4:00 and 5:30 pm.

Guess where I'm gonna be...

Series 2 Boxset News - 02/07/2006

Play.com are advertising the Series 2 boxset of NCS, along with a release date of 18/09/2006. Hurrah!

  • Series 1 & 2 of New Captain Scarlet have now been aired on terrestrial TV in the UK, and there are rumors of a repeat slot for Series 2 for all those who missed it first time around (like me).
  • Series 1 is available on DVD from all good retailers.
  • There is a box set of both series that has had its release date postponed. Hopefully, there will be a Series 2 box set released at the same time.
  • There is a great deal of merchandise available for the CGI series. Check the merchandise page on the Spectrum Headquarters for more detailed information.


New info received - 24/04/2005
Good news for those who have missed episodes this season, due to, for example, lack of advertising, the premiere being seven months early, or that you just can't stand MOM (understandable), there is to be a re-run of Season 1 before S2 premieres. It's rumored to be in a proper time-slot too!

New info received - 31/01/2005
The new series it due to air in the UK on ITV on 12th February 2005 at 9.30am! I haven't been able to establish which particular 'ITV' it will be on, or whether it is just in one or two regions, as the schedules haven't been released for that week yet for any region.

The series itself is now going to be split into two, the first being aired in Spring, and the other scheduled for Autumn.
Season One
Instrument of Destruction - part 1
Instrument of Destruction - part 2
The Homecoming
Rain of Terror
Mercury Falling
Swarm
Chiller
Rat Trap
Circles of Doom
Trap for a Rhino
The Achilles Messenger
Skin Deep
Heist

New info received - 10/01/2005
Character details have been published on the official site www.captainscarlet.com. Character profiles have been updated accordingly.

New info received - 10/10/2004
The names of the characters who will be starring in the CGI series have been confirmed in issue 50 of FAB magazine, published this month. The following information is taken from there:

Captain Scarlet ~ Paul Metcalfe
Captain Blue ~ Adam Svenson
Colonel White ~ Sir Charles Grey
Captain Magenta ~ Mario Moro
Captain Indigo ~ John Roach
Captain Ochre ~ Elaine McGee
Captain Grey ~ Ian Taggart
Captain Black ~ Conrad Lefkon
Lieutenant Green ~ Serena Lewis
Dr. Gold ~ Dr. Mason Frost
Destiny Angel ~ Simone Giraudoux
Rhapsody Angel ~ Caroline Foster-Finch
Symphony Angel ~ Yoko Inukai
Harmony Angel ~ Rebecca Drake
Melody Angel ~ Esther Jackson


Un-named as yet are:
Lieutenant Silver
Captain Brown
Captain Orange

There have been a lot of changes made to the line-up in the new series, apparently due to contractual formalities etc. It's nice to see that the three main characters, Scarlet, Blue and White have retained their names, and White even the knighthood that was bestowed upon him in Fan Fiction (see "Mixed Doubles" by Mary J. Rudy). However, their biographies have altered significantly.

Scarlet was still born in Winchester to an English mother, but now has an American astronaut, Tom Metcalfe, as his father, who was the first man on Mars. Scarlet, intent on following in his father's footsteps, studied Astrophysics (like his mother) before joining the US Airforce and US Special Services, where he met Captain Black. Scarlet and Black became good friends before joining Spectrum, but Scarlet is interested in Black's girlfriend, Destiny Angel.

Blue is an American descended from Scandinavian family dating back to the Vikings. His family have a 'long and glorious military tradition', and his father is a three-star general. He was raised in Texas before entering the military and winning a Purple Heart. General Svenson, a friend of Colonel White's, wanted Blue to join Spectrum, but he initially refused, believing his offer to be based on who he was. He is said to fight hard and party harder, and he is a first-class sportsman who likes to have a good time - especially with the ladies.

Quite a change from what we're used to, then. Full character profiles will be posted in due course, on a separate page from the SM series, as will a list of the actors voicing each part.

Information from June 2003

Cloudbase has not escaped the revamp. It has been renamed 'Skybase', and is now operating at a height of 60,000 feet.
The machinery has also been redesigned, and pictures should be available soon.



Interview with Gerry Anderson
June 2003

Thanks to Dave Golder, editor of SFX, for giving us permission to give you this.

It’s official – after years in development, Gerry Anderson is bringing Captain Scarlet back to TV screens. “It’s all signed and greenlighted. We are in production,” the veteran producer told SFX. Anderson has been trying to make a computer generated update of Captain Scarlet for some time now. One reason that it hasn’t happened sooner is that he did not want to be beholden to a studio or network.

“If that happens,” he says, “you get executive producers and all kinds of other people involved, and you begin to lose the plot.” Instead he produced a CG showreel last year to try to drum up private investment - $32 million of it, in fact.

“That’s a lot of money for a kid’s show,” he observes bluntly. “But the quality is way above anything that has been seen before in children’s television.” He chuckles quietly. “Having said that, we’re making a ‘children’s series’ we know damn well that all the adults will watch too.”

Work on the Captain’s 26 half-hour episodes has now begun in earnest. Anderson is working with two effects companies, Double Negative and Passion, who are in the process of establishing a dedicated Captain Scarlet studio near Anderson’s offices in Pinewood. “We will be a stone’s throw from them and be able to liaise every hour of the day.”

Liaising is the name of the game. Anderson is not writing the whole series himself, but he will be acting as, as he puts it, “conductor of the orchestra”.

“I’m involved in working on all the aspects of the production,” he explains. “The writing and the design work. But we have a number of other writers working for us.”

Ultimately, he has control over the show, each episode going through several conferences as it is brought to life. Anderson then goes over the scripts one last time before they are animated.

“Not because I don’t trust the writers,” he insists, “but because with it being CGI and very expensive, I have to make sure we’re not wasting money on things when it could be better spent elsewhere.”

But what will Captain Scarlet actually be like? Expect the same kind of stories, and the same characters, even the same arc. But expect it all to look completely different. They are, after all, no longer dealing with yesterday’s future, but today’s.

“We are making the show as if it were the second series. Having said that, we have completely redesigned it. The characters are the same, but thereafter – the uniforms, the vehicles and aircraft – are all brand new. One reason is that we’re working 35 years later. The other is that the classic series belongs to Carlton, and we can’t afford to get our merchandise mixed up with theirs, as, with a series of this cost, a lot of the income will come from merchandising.”

Despite repeating just how blimmin’ expensive the whole enterprise is, Anderson is not too worried about who will buy the completed series.

“Here again we’re in a wonderful position,” he assures us. “We’ve already been approached by the BBC and a station in Japan. We are the masters of our own…”

Destiny?

“I hesitate in saying that because that’s the name of one of our characters, but yes.”

Though we can’t show you any of the pictures yet (none of the designs are registered at the moment, and Anderson doesn’t want his ideas nicked) you can expect to see them first in an upcoming SFX.

Shameless plug there, I suppose. It's in the article.

Click here to view the first CGI pilot. This was written in order to sell the idea of the CGI series, and is not an actual pilot episode for the series itself.

I'll keep you updated on any news I come across, but if anyone finds anything, please e-mail me to let me know, and I'll post it for everyone else.