Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons - Captain Scarlet Review

If you just catch a glimpse of "Captain Scarlet", you may confuse it with "Thunderbirds". Sure, both shows were created by Gerry Anderson, and both use the "Supermarionation" technique, but the shows are very different. "Thunderbirds" featured the Tracy family, founders of International Rescue. The group saved people's lives in each episode, a very happy, cheerful storyline. "Captain Scarlet" contains a much, much darker plot. In an expedition to Mars, Captain Black and his team come across a Martian city. Thinking they are going to be attacked, they strike first, destroying the city. The city belonged to The Mysterons and they aren't very pleased at all, declaring war on earth. The Mysterons have the power of regeneration, allowing them to make clones of dead people which they control. Captain Black was regenerated and is now an agent of the Mysterons in the war against Earth. Captain Scarlet was also regenerated, but a fall from a high building breaks the Mysteron hold. He's now an industructable Spectrum agent!

Each episode starts with a warning from the Mysterons as to what they will destroy and it's up to the Spectrum security force to stop them. People often die and become Mysteron zombies through regeneration, something that could be a little scary to young kids.

Packaging
"Captain Scarlet" comes packed in a clear, 4 disc Nexpak case. I didn't realize until today that the paper cover is two-sided with episode and extra information on the inside. I don't like this since it's hard to read through the clear plastic, and disc 4 must be taken out in order to read the back. I would have preferred a double-sided index card instead.

Video

Like A&E's "Thunderbird" releases, I was amazed at the quality of the picture. The show is 35 years old, but looking at the picture on these DVDs you'd never know it. There's a little bit of dust, but far less than in "Thunderbirds". Stock footage is slightly poorer quality, but once again, not as bad as the stock footage used in "Thunderbirds". There was an oddity in the first episode; when Captain Scarlet and Captain Brown are travelling in the car the picture fades from full color to magenta, then blue. When I first watched the episode I figured it was the Mysterons scanning them, but the same footage is shown in episode 2, but in full color. Is this an error, or not...?

Audio

A&E has once again done a wonderful mix to Dolby Digital 5.1, also keeping the mono track for those that want it. These 5.1 tracks don't contain the same incredible panning effects as found on "Thunderbirds", but they do the job nicely. I found the voice over at the start of the episodes very muddy and didn't contain the full dynamic range it should. The voices just don't sound very rich and full. There are 2 commentary tracks by Gerry Andersonon "The Mysterons" and "Attack on Cloudbase". There's a warning when you go to play "Attack on Cloudbase" informing you that due to the commentary track being included, there's no DD 5.1 track available. How is it possible they fit a commentary track and both mono and DD 5.1 tracks for "The Mysterons", but were unable to do the same on "Attack on Cloudbase"? The only thing I can think of is the inclusion of the DVD-ROM materials on disc 4, but surely that doesn't take up that much room as it's a 6 meg file. I was a little disappointed by this, but I guess I have to believe they did everything they could to fit it on there and couldn't.

Extras - How we rate extras

Disc 1