The original Captain Scarlet episode THE LAUNCHING goes up against New Captain Scarlet’s TOUCH OF THE REAPER! We’ll be comparing these two menacing Mysteron threats from the 1967 Supermarionation series and Gerry Anderson’s 2005 CGI remake. In The Launching, Spectrum work to protect President Roberts in the ultimate Mysteron misdirection, while Touch of the Reaper sees Scarlet and the team battle a horrific virus spread by touch that leads them to Air Force One.
Writer and founder of the Security Hazard blog. A lifelong fan of all things Gerry Anderson from Thunderbirds to Stingray to more obscure creations such as The Investigator and The Secret Service. I have published a book with the official Gerry Anderson store, and published many articles on the Anderson Entertainment website. Away from Anderson, I'm also a Doctor Who lover, a LEGO obsessive, and a writer of original science fiction. View more posts
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An enjoyable, interesting insight this was. The Launching must be the most problematic of all CS&TM episodes due to the fact that many scenes had to be reshot.
The timeline of its production probably went like this:
May/June 1967: episode is initially recorded
23 June 1967: New incidental music is recorded at Barry Gray’s studio for this and the next episode to go behind the cameras: Lunarville 7.
26 June 1967: The Spectrum visit the studio to record the new lyrical end theme at the same time Lunarville 7 is being filmed, this becoming the first episode to have the new arrangement.
Come October – whoops! It is discovered there is a real world Chicago Tribune newspaper. So as not to be sued for plagiarism, various scenes of The Launching have to be refilmed (whilst Expo 2068 was being shot) abridging the newspaper title to Tribune. You mention the original version had all of its music cut and scored before it went to the executives only for them to reject it due to the newspaper title. I wonder if they did all of that during that three day period (23-26 June ’67) meaning the initial cut used the original instrumental closing theme? After the reshot, they probably decided to replace the closing theme with the lyrical one.
Lian-Shin was probably hired before The Launching went into production hence why her name features on all of the episodes from number 13 (The Heart of New York) in production order. Sadly, she was never employed by the team again but her name was left on the credits to avoid the cost of removing it.
Could the original version of The Launching be hauled in someone’s shed? What did it look like? How did the scenes differ? Does it have the deleted scene with Symphony and Harmony talking about President Roberts? Is the instrumental end theme utilised for the credits? Maybe we should start a house-by-house shed search? Get Film Is Fabulous to locate it! One day it might turn up…
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