Gerry Anderson, RIP

[alex_greene]

I seem to have this habit of coming on with bad news. Neil Armstrong, Sir Patrick Moore ...

Today's bad news is that Gerry Anderson, creator of the legendary TV series Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and the 2005 reboot Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Space: 1999, has passed away today. There are few Brits my age who have not heard of Gerry Anderson. He left a legacy which inspired at least one generation of kids to grow up to become engineers, particularly in the fields of avionics and astronautics.

BBC News Announcement

Rest easy.

[Lemnoc]

Long may his Eagle fly.

[Hopeless]

"Anything can happen in the next half hour!"

Will we ever see anyone like him ever again?

[Airlock14]

Don't forget UFO. Wonderful stuff.
So sad.

[Traveller-61]

His series were such a wonderful part of my childhood (and longer), and I can still remember watching Thunderbirds for the very first time back in the 60's.
Thank you for the memories Gerry. May you rest in peace.

DW

[Faelan Niall]

Time to watch Season 1 of Space: 1999 again. Some of the best TV programming ever. The sets and stories were movie quality, and then they brought in an idiot to do Season 2. If only there were a Space: 1999 Reboot.

[Hopeless]

Time to watch Season 1 of Space: 1999 again. Some of the best TV programming ever. The sets and stories were movie quality, and then they brought in an idiot to do Season 2. If only there were a Space: 1999 Reboot.

But who to cast in the roles?

Perhaps a few story changes to accomodate the fact the original story would have to be updated to what we know now.

He managed to do that with the Captain Scarlet series makes me wonder how he was going to help bring UFO back...

Need a separate thread for the Space 1999 (2099) discussion.

[dragoner]

Space 1999 was one of my favorites as well as a kid, even to this day, episodes like Dragon's Domain creep me out.

Dragon's Domain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79dD5kQ1zLs

RIP Mr Anderson.

[Captain Jonah]

Sadly in life the death of ones hero's come in groups.

As a child we looked to people who were important to us for whatever reason and these were invariably adults.

As we reached adulthood ourselves the older of our inspirations passed away. As we reach toward middle age (or zoom through it) those who were middle aged are now passing away as well.

It is sad to see just about every one I admired and followed as a child has now gone.

Very few people around now seem to inspire me in the same way that I was inspired in the 60s.

Time for a homage weekend of space 1999, thunderbirds and captain scarlet. I have some DVDs around here somewhere.

[alex_greene]

Time for a homage weekend of space 1999, thunderbirds and captain scarlet. I have some DVDs around here somewhere.

You can catch up with all three series on YouTube. I haven't seen every episode of each one of them going, so I don't know if they have uploaded all the episodes of every show, but I've seen all of my favourites. Including the New Captain Scarlet all-CGI series - that series, I know, is complete on YouTube from Instrument of Destruction to Dominion and that one with the biker gang that should have been the penultimate one instead of Dominion.

[locarno24]

I was always a fan of UFO - I can imagine that being fairly easy to update; it hangs together pretty well now. Was watching some episodes a few months back with a housemate.

"Isn't this a kid's show?"
A few minutes later...
"...no, no it isn't."

It didn't hurt that I first came across it almost simultaneously with the X-COM games.


Captain scarlet, by comparison, irked me a bit - for much the same reason as Torchwood. All right, the main character is indestructible, but appears to be so inept he has to rely on this every single week.

[Nuclear Fridge Magnet]

Captain scarlet, by comparison, irked me a bit - for much the same reason as Torchwood. All right, the main character is indestructible, but appears to be so inept he has to rely on this every single week.

There is a lot of truth to what you say... yet after watching South Park too often, I find myself looking on Captain Scarlet as 'Kenny' but with a security pass. They even both wear red outfits.

I can only imagine what Health & Safety would have to say to Colonel White about his 'unkillable' subordinate!

"Colonel, you say he's 'indestructible' because of some sort of Martian energy field that rebuilds him... Can you tell me if Captain Scarlet poses a radiological hazard in your workplace?"

[alex_greene]

His funeral finally took place today.

News article and video here [BBC News]

[Mithras]

Thunderbirds was good (well the equipment was!), but I really, really liked Captain Scarlet which I watched in the early 90s.

[Mithras]

Episode 1 of Space 1999: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=8jAlE_HL ... LDj8&gl=GB

[Mithras]

....favourites. Including the New Captain Scarlet all-CGI series

The wha?????

[alex_greene]

....favourites. Including the New Captain Scarlet all-CGI series

The wha?????

Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet (2005 - 2006)

26 episodes of pure CGI entertainment, cutting edge stuff of the day, brought to you by the visual effects team behind Babylon 5.

All 39 Parts Of Season 1 On YouTube

All 39 Parts Of Season 2 On YouTube

Episode 1: Instrument Of Destruction part 1 (two-part episode) - part 1 of 3

Episode 1: Instrument Of Destruction part 1 (two-part episode) - part 2 of 3

Episode 1: Instrument Of Destruction part 1 (two-part episode) - part 3 of 3

Episode 1: Instrument Of Destruction part 2 - part 1 of 3

Episode 1: Instrument Of Destruction part 2 - part 2 of 3

Episode 1: Instrument Of Destruction part 2 - part 3 of 3

A further 24 episodes await, all on YouTube. The pilot is the only two-parter.

The final two episodes, Grey Skulls and Dominion, are shown on YouTube in the correct order; when aired on TV, the order was inadvertently switched round so Dominion came before Grey Skulls. Dominion is meant to be watched last.