Tag Archives: supermarionation

Ep 8 – The Evolution of Supermarionation

What makes a Thunderbirds puppet different from a Captain Scarlet puppet? The marionette stars of AP Films and Century 21 changed considerably between each of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s exciting television series. Jack and Ben are going to chart the advancements of the Supermarionation puppets and choose some of their favourites!

In Conversation With Peter Borg: The Making of Gerry Anderson’s The Investigator

For the first time in over 50 years, Maltese actor Peter Borg speaks about his experiences making the Gerry Anderson pilot film, The Investigator.

VIDEO: The Complete Map of Four Feather Falls Explained

In 1959, musical maestro Barry Gray approached Gerry Anderson and the AP Films team with a concept for a television series set in the Wild West. AP Films had recently started developing the technique that would later become known as Supermarionation to produce puppets with automatic electronic lip sync. Having worked for several years under the control of children’s author Roberta Leigh on The Adventures of Twizzle and the first series of Torchy The Battery Boy, Barry Gray’s Western series was the stepping stone for AP Films to become television producers in their own right. 

The Secret Service – 2. A Question of Miracles

If the first episode, A Case For The Bishop, was a little too wild and experimental for your palate, you’ll find yourself in a much safer pair of hands this week. A Question of Miracles, feels like something of a course correction by the Century 21 team. In their format-establishing first script for The Secret Service, Gerry & Sylvia Anderson had laid out all the weird and wonderful tones and techniques they wanted explore with their quirky new series. Some of it worked and some of it didn’t. It was, in many ways, an experiment, as pilot episodes often are.

The Dark Side of Four Feather Falls

The richly detailed Wild West world of Four Feather Falls is full of colourful characters. Gerry Anderson fans who are only casually familiar with this early Supermarionation series might think it’s a charming and twee show for kiddies about talking animals, a singing sheriff, and a magical Native American chief. Now, they’re not exactly wrong about that, but there’s quite a bit more to it.

LEGO Gabriel (The Secret Service)

A vintage 1917 Model T Ford, Gabriel is the odd one out among the Supermarionation star vehicles. Then again, The Secret Service as a series is often forgotten about in the same way. I for one have always enjoyed this novel little series, and have been rather fond of Father Unwin’s classic motor ever since I encountered the real thing at Andercon 2014. So I thought it was time to give this unloved Anderson vehicle the LEGO treatment!

Nebula-75: Filmed in Superisolation, but keeping the “Super” in Supermarionation

What happens to Supermarionation if you take away the lavish sets, dozens of background characters, multiple explosive special effects, and the generous financial backing of Lew Grade. Is it still super?

Spectrum HQ Cloudbase – LEGO MOC

One day I was surveying my collection of Gerry Anderson themed LEGO models and I realised that I had yet to build anything from Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons. I love the sleek design of the vehicles from Captain Scarlet, but they don’t necessarily lend themselves easily to the more blocky look of LEGO without the use of specialised parts. A better builder than I with a more expansive parts inventory would probably make an easy job of building a LEGO Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle or a Spectrum Passenger Jet, but each vehicle presents a unique challenge either because of its shape or its colour.

Ep 20 – Joe 90

Katherine and Jack take their final outing into Supermarionation this week with Joe 90. What will Katherine make of Professor McClaine’s attempts to brainwash his young son, Joe, and sending him off on missions to single-handedly take down the most powerful criminals in the world?