Many years ago captain scarlet and the mysterons was an old childhood favourite. I remember never getting tired of the angel's accent into their jets nor the long winded intro. Not to mention having laughs a when they used real people's hands for certain shots (the puppets couldn't grip things).Ah memories. I think my first reaction when I heard of this new cgi remake was the same as any other scarlet fan. The outrage. How could they do this to scarlet? And so on. But were our worries confirmed? No.Instead a new captain scarlet, up to date, action packed, displaying all things that tend to lack in children's TV these days. A complete re-invention. Characters with expressions for a change. Faster, more tense, episodes. New story lines. Great new gadgets. I'd even go so far to say this is better then the original but that's debatable.This show took me aback when I first saw it. It wasn't bad it was brilliant. Just imagine all the restraints working with puppets caused now imagine the old show without them. Now you see where I'm coming from.True the mysterons lack their creepiness. Lieutenant Green has been replaced. The driving backwards inside SPV's is gone. But does that really matter? If you have a kid boy at home aged say 5-10 there is a strong chance he'll love it as well as you (whatever age you are). Remember if you prefer the original Scarlet, this show is for the young viewer. To them this will be better.This is one of those shows you need to give a chance. Don't copy my brother and hate it even though you've never watched a complete episode.

The action and tight scripting make for compelling viewing for kids and adults alike. A faithful and intelligent update of the characters of the original cult TV series these 3d animated adventures are a pleasure to watch.Fans of the original series may find some of the character updates surprising. Lieutenent Green is now a woman and Captain Blue is a bit of a jock these days. Captain Scarlet has lost his "Cary Grant" accent but still retains a "mid-atlantic" tone. The Captain Scarlet character is actually subtly updated by the third episode and has the more rugged handsome look of the original.The voice artists do a great job of putting some real feeling into the stories and the motion capture enhanced animation lends dynamic life-like movement to the animated characters. Hightly recommended... what a shame that production has ceased after just two seasons. Another great Gerry Anderson production that bit the dust too early.

A fan of the original 1960s version of the show, I was very excited to here about Gerry Anderson's new version of Captian Scarlet. So far, it has yet to disappoint. The update is faithful to the puppet show, yet has been tweaked to give it a more modern edge.I think the more dramatic element of the show is great - with the Love triangle between Captain Scarlet, Destiny Angel, and Captian Black. We are already seeing hints of a budding romance between Scarlet and Destiny, although the relationship will undoubtedly be a little more angst ridden after the death or her former love interest, Captain Black, also Scarlet's best friend. There is also tension between Scarlet and Captain Blue. One time buddies, but now Blue finds it hard to trust his friend, since Scarlet spent some time under the Mysterons control.Of course the most obvious changes come in the form of a female Lieutenant Green, who was a male character in the 1960s version. Fans either will love or hate this change, but it is one that I can live with. However, with Destiny's prominence in the show perhaps there wasn't as much need to change Green's gender, as the other Angels will also feature more heavily. Destiny, herself, is leading the girl power for the show and this is welcome for the modern audience. Although in the puppet series Destiny was the female lead, her character has been much more fleshed out in the new series, and indeed she is English and not French! The show has also retained its darkness which was a part of its original appeal, indeed the Mysterons are still superbly menacing as well as cold blooded killers (they crushed a guy in a car scrap centre and blew up a bunch of air pilots). The overall show still has a dark feel, yet Skybase and all the various crafts look really effective.Of course, there are the odd gripes. The story's move very quickly and there are a lot of prolonged car chases. The graphics, whilst great, sometimes look a bit odd (cars on the road and lip synching). But the likeness of the marionettes is great.Overall a great show, modernised, yet faithful. Here's to the rest of the series and season two later in the year!

Gerry Anderson's "New Captain Scarlet" began its 26 episode run on the morning of Saturday 12th February 2005 on CITV although, to be honest, I wish it wasn't part of "Ministry of Mayhem"! Why are ITV afraid to try for a bigger audience late afternoon/early evening? Also, in "MOM", the gap between the two halves of each episode is much longer than a regular commercial break would be!I'd like to know the thinking behind changing Lt. Green from a black male to a white female especially as there are already five female characters in the shape of the Angels although, of the five, we only meet Destiny in the first episode. The suggestion is that, like Councillor Troi when "Star Trek: The Next Generation" began, she is the character through which the emotional content of an episode will be channelled.I'm also curious about the change of name from Cloudbase to Skybase? That aside, it moved at a furious pace and, in so-doing, lost the luxuriously sedate menace of the 1967 original. The Supermarionation version was much aided by Barry Gray's music whereas the score for the new CGI series meanders rather nondescriptly, instantly forgotten. I wonder what the closing credits are like? We weren't given the chance to see or even hear them on CITV!There was much to recommend the new show. Particularly impressive were the Angel flight sequences and Black's resurrection, fist through the coffin lid! This made him come across as some vampire-like figure and the great coat swirling behind him reminded me of "Blade Runner" though younger viewers would probably have associated it with Spike from "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer"!What would be nice is for those younger viewers to want to discover the beauty of the original puppet series which, for all its woodenness, still felt three dimensional; something you just don't seem to get from computer generated material. Even so, I enjoyed it and will stay with the series both now and when it returns later in the year...