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Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a late-1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill. First broadcast on ATV Midlands between September 1967 and May 1968, it has since been transmitted in more than 40 other countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Characters are presented as marionette puppets with scale model sets and special effects in a filming technique that the Andersons termed "Supermarionation". This technology incorporated solenoid motors as a means of synchronising the puppet's mouth movements with pre-recorded dialogue.
Set in 2068, the series follows the hostilities between Earth and a race of Martians known as the Mysterons. After their city on Mars is attacked by human astronauts due to a misunderstanding, the vengeful Mysterons declare war on Earth, initiating a succession of reprisal attacks that are countered by Spectrum, a worldwide security organisation. Spectrum boasts the extraordinary abilities of its foremost agent, Captain Scarlet, who in the events of the "pilot episode" comes to possess the Mysteron healing power of "retro-metabolism" – the ability to return to full health, even after suffering fatal injury, which renders Scarlet essentially "indestructible".
