Visiting locations used in your favourite show is a must for fans of many classic television series around the world. For Gerry Anderson fans that’s an almost impossible task for the Supermarionation series, since the worlds of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the rest were created almost entirely in studio – yet many locations used in the live action series still …

Last time we examined our five favourite “it was all a dream!” episodes from the various Gerry Anderson shows, and now it’s time to do the opposite! Let’s dive to the bottom of the barrel in search of five episodes best described as “a terrible horrible nightmare!” #5 – Errand of Mercy The Secret Service was mad to start with, …

The Century 21 model department usually had a lot of work to do preparing the latest episode of whichever show they were currently making, and sometimes it only made sense to dig into the collection of vehicles that had already been built for previous series to see if any of them could be used again. To list the return appearances …

‘Comedy episode’; two words guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of cult television fans, sometimes even more so than ‘clip show’. There’s nothing more painful than watching our favourite shows fail in a misguided attempt to be funny, and the various Gerry Anderson series are no exception in this regard, but they have also produced several comedy episodes that …

As we saw last time (in Life after Captain Scarlet – part 1) Century 21 made good use of the Captain Scarlet regular cast in guest roles throughout Joe 90, albeit with some faces being seen more often than others. In 1969 production began on the very last Supermarionation series The Secret Service, and once again most of the Spectrum crew …

When Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons entered production in 1966 it brought with it a revolution in the style of puppetry that Gerry Anderson and his team had been using up to that point. Gone for good were the larger-headed slightly caricatured puppets of the earlier shows, and in came realistically-proportioned marionettes that better suited the darker more serious tone …

Every team needs their leader, and with teamwork forming such a prominent theme in many of Gerry Anderson’s productions, some strong characters have taken their places in ‘the responsibility seat’ to conduct the operations of International Rescue, the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, Spectrum, and many more. Let’s take a look at my top ten leaders that have to use quick thinking and …

Our Supermarionation heroes are no strangers to the concept of miniaturisation! By taking advantage of the puppets’ one-third life size stature, many fantastical situations have been employed over the years to bring our favourite Anderson characters into the land of giants; from strange drugs and bizarre dream sequences to the mysterious powers of the Minimiser and The Investigator. Did these …