Captain Scarlet Captain Scarlet

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the husband-and-wife team behind Thunderbirds and Stingray. It was produced by their company, AP Films (later Century 21 Productions), using their signature Supermarionation puppet technique. The series first aired on ATV in the United Kingdom in 1967.

In the series lore, Captain Scarlet (born Paul Metcalfe) gains his indestructibility after being killed and then retrometabolized by the Mysterons, a hostile alien intelligence from Mars. This retrometabolism restores him to life while retaining his original human personality and loyalty to Spectrum. The process makes his body virtually indestructible, allowing him to survive situations fatal to ordinary humans.

The original Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons series ran for 32 episodes, each approximately 25 minutes long, airing from 1967 to 1968. A CGI revival titled Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet was later produced in 2005 using motion capture animation rather than puppets. The original Supermarionation series remains the more fondly remembered version.

Captain Scarlet is a top agent of Spectrum, a global security organization tasked with defending Earth against the Mysterons' threats. Spectrum personnel are identified by color codenames, with other key characters including Captain Blue, Colonel White, and Captain Black (who becomes the Mysterons' primary agent). Spectrum operates from Cloudbase, a massive airborne command center.