Once consigned to history thanks to increasingly regular releases across VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and streaming removing the need for the novelty of classic Gerry Anderson episodes being stitched-together rather than presented in their 'proper' format, the Super Space Theatre compilation movies are undergoing a resurgence in popularity. Our growing line of Blu-ray releases of these entertaining yet curiously compiled efforts of several episodes from classic Gerry Anderson series into 'movies' allows for this vital part of Anderson home media history to be enjoyed once again.

Several of these movies embrace sensibly creative ways to produce something resembling an ongoing narrative out of episodic series. Invaders from the Deep, for example, brings together four separate yet similar Stingray episodes themed around many underwater civilisations staging attacks against the Terraneans, while Destination Moonbase Alpha wisely opts for Space: 1999's only two-parter, The Bringers of Wonder, to become a compelling cinematic experience.

Captain Scarlet's pair of compilations, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars and Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons (both released in 1981), capture an arrestingly separate depiction of the war of nerves to the one seen in the original 1967 television series. While the vast majority of the SST movies weld together tonally or narratively similar episodes without much disruption of the source material, Captain Scarlet's films go to great lengths to tell a renewed take on the war of nerves that isn't altogether harmonious in its execution.

Captain Scarlet versus Continuity Problems

Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars brings together Captain Scarlet's most significant lunar-based episodes. The film places Shadow of Fear as its first chapter before blending together the Lunarville trilogy; Lunarville 7, Crater 101 and Dangerous Rendezvous. Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons stitches together the events of The Mysterons, Winged Assassin, Seek and Destroy and Attack on Cloudbase, bringing together the interconnected first and second episodes before dovetailing into a pair of Angel-centric episodes.

For starters, the accepted Captain Scarlet saga becomes utterly ruptured with these films when presented in this order. Compared to other Supermarionation series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons embraces a more serialised approach to its storytelling, meaning that it's one of the few Anderson puppet shows in which you have to watch it from the beginning to understand the contextual inciting events that trigger the war between Spectrum and the Mysterons. It's beyond bizarre and just a bit hilarious then that the events of The Mysterons are only compiled into the second of the SST films! 

For new or younger viewers who may have been introduced to the worlds of Gerry Anderson via the SST films, the war of nerves therefore begins in violent effect, with the Mysterons not only waging their war against the Earth with little reasoning, but secretly staging a hostile takeover of the Moon. It's not until the second instalment that viewers learn how Captain Scarlet acquired his indestructible capabilities - but his remarkable powers of recovery are barely featured here! Several defining aspects of Captain Scarlet become stripped of their importance when this cinematic experience brings an altogether separate beginning to the war of nerves.

Is it too far-fetched to assume the release order of these films was surely intended for Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons to be the first instalment? The Stingray and Thunderbirds compilation films begin, sensibly enough, with films that adapt each series' opening episode. Why would that logic be swapped around for the one Supermarionation series that begs you to begin with its first episode to understand its narrative? Additionally, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars' very title implies that it's in reaction to earlier events!

Even the back covers of these films' VHS releases add to this theory. The 1985 Channel 5 VHS release of Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons, presented as volume 2 in its home release range of Captain Scarlet, has this tellingly incorrect back cover description:

"More exciting adventures as the indestructible Captain Scarlet takes on the might of the Mysterons from Mars. With the help of Captain Blue, Colonel White, Lieutenant Green and the Angels, Captain Scarlet attempts to uncover strange happenings on the moon. He also spearheads a plan by Spectrum to discover the secret of the Mysterons and finally attends a rendezvous set up by Colonel White which is hoped will bring an end to the war of nerves. But you never know what Captain Black the Mysterons' Special Agent has planned for our hero."

What exactly happened for these films to have been swapped, if they indeed were? In our age of 24/7 availability of streaming and definitive Blu-ray boxsets that present these classic series in gorgeously rendered high definition, stretching back into the past and bemoaning the release order of VHS tapes feels like an antiquated argument. Yet for over a decade, this disjointed rendition of many of Captain Scarlet's most narratively important episodes remained the only way to view these particular episodes. Polygram's acquisition of the Gerry Anderson catalogue in the 1990s saw further VHS releases, and once again, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars was presented as volume 1 with Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons as volume 2. Not until Carlton's arrival and digital remastering campaign throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s were these episodes were restored to their individual presentations.

The other War of Nerves?

How then do these two films, when viewed in their given order, alter the depiction of the war of nerves? Mostly stripped of the inciting incident, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars portrays the Mysterons as conquering-hungry invaders, desperate to not be witnessed by mankind (Shadow of Fear) but effectively creeping from their home world into humanity's domain. By removing Spectrum's accidental faulty attack in starting the war, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars punctures the nuanced dramatic qualities of its source material. Amusingly though, by incorporating Dangerous Rendezvous, viewers at least get a bite-sized recap of the war's triggering. Now, Spectrum's attack is framed not as the exciting establishing incident, but a trimmed-down flashback sequence compacted into the film's final fifteen minutes.

But we haven't reached the most controversial adjustment these films make to Captain Scarlet lore. The climactic moments of Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons' incorporation of Attack on Cloudbase fail to match the original episode's revelation that the Mysterons' invasion and subsequent destruction of Cloudbase were all hallucinations from Symphony Angel. Instead, a shockingly different set of events play out that speaks to the ambitions of re-editing these episodes into a cohesive cinematic experience.

As Colonel White performs his solemn military salute aboard the terminally damaged Cloudbase, which sinks beneath the clouds while the Mysterons' invasion force remain victorious, the scene fades to a strangely out-of-sync transparent pyramid (not entirely gelling with the 1960s aesthetic of the episode itself), set against a shabbily edited backdrop of outer space. A detectably close impersonation of the Mysterons proceeds to deliver a voice over set to footage cut within the pyramid's triangular frame of the Mysterons' Cloudbase attack inexplicably being reversed.

The Mysteron Imperial Council has taken the decision to reverse their destructive actions, allowing time to shift backwards and restore Spectrum to life. Leaving Spectrum with a vague proclamation that peace may still yet be achieved between the warring races, the scene then cuts back to Captain Blue and Captain Scarlet locating Symphony Angel, safe and sound. Obviously, no further reflection on their time-altered states is delivered by the characters, leaving the scene's recontextualised events oddly unspoken, as if the characters can't comprehend the events that have just happened to them. After all, the Mysterons have powers we cannot hope to understand.

You don't have to traverse far into the Captain Scarlet fandom to discover that many fans would have vastly preferred if the classic series had ended on the tragically bleak events of Attack on Cloudbase and that they weren't framed as dream. Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons fulfils that need, but not without further rupturing consequences that cause the war of nerves to stumble. 

On home media, Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons remained the second volume in a range of nearly 10 VHS releases of the series. The events of Attack on Cloudbase being reimagined to occur so early on in the series and be presented as having taken place in reality, while the majority of the series now occurs after those events, is surreal to consider. With this framing, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons still concludes on an unresolved note, the episode closest to serving as a genuine finale now reshuffled to have occurred far earlier on in the saga. Imagine if Thunderbirds to the Rescue had included a freshly composed scene depicting the Hood actually recovering from his explosive encounter with Lady Penelope and Parker when escaping from London International Airport and revealing that his secretly taken pictures of Thunderbird 1 had survived? 

Revenge of the Mysteron Imperial Council

Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars and Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons succeed in not merely adapting their source material; they reinvent the war of nerves in ways nobody was surely asking for, resulting in a schizophrenic push'n'pull between sensibly strung together episode selections and unjustifiable narrative bizarreness. If the Super Space Theatre films can broadly be thought of as greatest hits compilations plucked from classic offerings from Gerry and Sylvia's worlds, then Captain Scarlet's pair of movies surely take top spot in their unexpected ambitious attempts to reinvigorate the war of nerves.

Whether through genuine mishap in their release order or their reinventions of classic episodes (or perhaps both), Captain Scarlet's Super Space Theatre movies offer a riotous repurposing of the classic Supermarionation series. In the age of VHS releases as the primary means of owning these classic series, there's a lengthily period in which the Mysteron Imperial Council, unique to Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons, can be thought of as a legitimate concern for the wider Captain Scarlet canon. Stand by to experience the Mysterons' time-reversal capabilities once more with the forthcoming release of the Captain Scarlet Super Space Theatre Blu-ray Collectors Edition, coming soon!  

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