Bring The Magic Home!: The Story Of ITC's Carlton Video Home Entertainment

9 - THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS, WE KNOW YOU CAN HEAR US EARTHMEN!

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons is one of my favourite television series ever made - my third favourite to be precise. As I stated with previous chapters, it is pretty clear how much I love this series to bits, and hope that this reflects my passionate love for Captain Scarlet. The series is defiantly the second-best treated ITC series out of all of them, or perhaps even the best! Before the release of Captain Scarlet on video and DVD, and even before the releases of Thunderbirds, Stingray, and Space: 1999, Gerry Anderson had created a very impressive test film in 2000 using motion capture technology to create a short adventure with Francis Matthews and Ed Bishop that proved highly popular among fans. The test film, originally titled Captain Scarlet: The New Millenium and changed to Captain Scarlet and the Return of the Mysterons, encouraged Anderson to pursue the remake rights from Carlton to produce a new series using the same cutting edge CGI techniques. As well as the exciting news of Captain Scarlet's reboot, Carlton would begin to release the series on home video, digitally remastered by BBC Resources accompanied by a BBC2 screening (with the new prints and a new stereo sound mix), and a whole new wave of merchandise!

Carlton's Captain Scarlet 2001 style guide was presented in a black plastic ring binder and included a digital image library on CD. The guide featured a proportional size chart for the six main Spectrum vehicles. Comics, annuals, mugs, nightwear, playsuits, back-packs, lunch boxes, mobile phone fascias, video games, talking action figures, soundtracks, the fascinating The Complete Book Of Captain Scarlet, a SUPERMARIONATION cross-sections book and trading cards were once again available as Captain Scarlet mania once again returned in the early 2000s. Again, some of my favourite toys from this era were the various Soundtech Vivid Imaginations Spectrum crafts with voices from the characters, including the Angel Interceptors, Spectrum Saloon Car, Spectrum Helicopter, Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, and a massive Cloudbase set. A large supersize SPV was also available, and Corgi manufactured their own models of the SSC and SPV. 

The BBC2 repeats began on Monday 10th September 2001 at 6:20 PM - and it was a good thing The Mysterons was aired that day. Any later, and anyone watching BBC2 seeing the Spectrum Helicopter crash into the London Car-Vu would not have made the British public feel any safer from the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11th. The repeats continued from Manhunt on Monday 24th - Winged Assassin, Big Ben Strikes Again, and The Heart Of New York were all delayed from the showings because of the terrorist attacks. The run would eventually end on 29th July 2002, airing in almost random order. The repeats would begin again in weekday mornings as double bills from 29th July to 31st October 2003 - by which time preparations were well underway for the rebooted series. This was to be the final broadcast of the classic Captain Scarlet on any of the UK's analogue terrestrial television channels.

Originally, in June 2000, Fanderson reported that after Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and UFO were intended to the next two series to be released in the UK. In November, A&E hoped that both series would be released in the US in 2002. By February 2001, Captain Scarlet was expected for release in September that year. By August, the entire series was available to preorder on video and DVD - as individual volumes or as a complete series. The eight videos (comprising four episodes each) were £9.99, and the five DVDs (holding six episodes - and the last volume were eight) were £15.99. The entire DVD set was available for £74.99, which by 2017 would have cost over £110 as the equivalent. A special documentary produced by Gerry Anderson and Carlton Video were The Indestructible Captain Scarlet and Captain Scarlet S.I.G. - more on that later. The entire series VHS and DVD box set were released on September 17th, as were DVD volumes 1-5, and VHS sets 1-2. 12th November saw DVDs 3-5 out, and videos 3-4.