Massive, massive, ENORMOUS part of my childhood. Fucking loved them.
My favourite was probably Captain Scarlett closely followed by Thunderbirds with Stingray slightly behind them (probably, looking back on it, the marine creatures in it are part of why I now fear aquatic life).
As an adult I can find enormous enjoyment from that 60’s vision of the future kind of aesthetic but I think they probably stand up as well structured and executed pieces of kid’s telly as well tbf.
I only remember one particular episode of Captain Scarlet. From memory, most of it was a dream Captain Scarlet was having, and I think the commander guy told him to get a haircut at one point. Great stuff.
(now that I’ve typed it out, it may have been a dream I had)
fucking brilliant. got thunderbirds on dvd somewhere waiting for the perfect hangover. in hindsight i should have exercised my birthday rights the other day to watch them. never saw anything other than the holy trinity of thunderbirds/stingray/captain scarlet but i used to be obsessed, had the comics and everything. was fascinated by the marionettes, the fact that by captain scarlet they had refined them so much that the mechanism for the mouths had been moved from inside the head to inside the chest to give them better proportions, really lent itself to the surprisingly dark tone that captain scarlet had. seriously, after thunderbirds’ saving the world week in week out and stingray’s fighting sea monsters and that, captain scarlet being based around a war with an invisible alien race that was triggered when humans destroyed their home city and a gimmick that meant there was a really good chance of the main character dying every week is pretty incredible for a kids tv puppet show. really stunning stuff
I watched them a lot as a kid when they were all re-shown in the early 90s, and got into Thunderbirds (believe the toothbrush holder at my parent’s house is still a plastic Thunderbirds mug…), was even lucky enough to get the Tracy Island toy that inspired the Blue Peter make.
But looking back… they were very of their time, quite slow moving and not super engaging. Stingray in particular was a fucking drag. Can’t give more than a three, though I admire the artistry of it all.
