Captain Scarlet episode reviews...

by **DartBrat701** » Mon May 15, 2006 5:09 pm

Episode 12, "Lunarville 7" & Episode 13, "Point 783" are now up for your enjoyment! :wink:

Kudos to you, Kinggodzillak! I'm finding The Secretive Bus highly entertaining!

Keep up the good work! :grin:

by **DartBrat701** » Wed May 31, 2006 5:59 pm

"Model Spy" & "Seek And Destroy" are now showing!

by **Kinggodzillak** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:20 pm

Traitor should be up very soon as well...

There was idea Bus mentioned in his Lunarville that had never occured to me before - that Orson and the Lunar Controller might not have been Mysterons. Indeed, the sight of the Controller zedding away in his pyjamas is not something I'd imagine a Mysteron to do...

by **Marion** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:28 pm

DartBrat701 said:
I'm finding The Secretive Bus highly entertaining!
Keep up the good work!

I have to agree 100% with that - it cheers me up to sit and read the latest episode reviews with my coffee and the odd biscuit (or three) :oops:

Plaudits to all concerned.... 8M-M)

by **DartBrat701** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:24 am

Kinggodzillak wrote:
There was idea Bus mentioned in his Lunarville that had never occured to me before - that Orson and the Lunar Controller might not have been Mysterons. Indeed, the sight of the Controller zedding away in his pyjamas is not something I'd imagine a Mysteron to do...

Quite so!

I must make the following observation here; I think Captain Black looks more stylish in his black leather coat & shades, as opposed to his gray/orange outfit.

It is also interesting, that he still uses his Spectrum-issue pistol. :wink:

by **Father Unwin** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:12 am

I am delighted to see that The Secretive Bus has joined the Forum. I think his reviews of OCS are just great and I always check his site for the latest review.

I for one would be thrilled if he could one day perform the same tongue in cheek review for the New Captain Scarlet series. I think the sources of humour would be very different but the end result would be just as amusing. :-D

by **shaqui** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:27 am

They much preferred Thunderbirds and never did reviews of Captain Scarlet but Ceefax & Bert did cool overviews once...

http://members.fortunecity.com/ceefax69/thunder2.html

(Warning: some reviews contain adult language and viewpoints)

by **Father Unwin** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:23 pm

Hello Shaqui,
Those Thunderbirds reviews are really very good although I think it would be better if the somewhat irritating background could be removed to make them easier to read. If a few screen grabs could be added to enhance the humour that would really be the icing on the cake.

by **Kinggodzillak** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:42 pm

It was a shame they stopped doing those. Their Blake's 7 reviews were good too...

by **The Secretive Bus** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:09 pm

Evenin', chaps!

Zillak nudged me in this direction with this 'ere thread. Delighted that people actually read my Scarlet guide! The Vervoid itself is a great website with a lot of different contributors - elsewhere on the site I've got a small film review section and a series of tribute articles to the character actor Dennis Price. However, the Scarlet stuff seems to get the most feedback.

I have seen some of the new Scarlet stuff thanks to Zillak who sent me a tape with a few of them. Not bad at all though I have to question why the title sequence has Scarlet leaping through, and shattering, Colonel White's office window whilst his superior looks on in tortured surprise. If one of my staff did that to me on regular occasions I'd sack him on the spot. Still, not sure if I'd ever get round to a proper guide for it; don't have all the materials for one thing! My Supermarionation fan status is limited mainly to Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, though, thanks again to Zillak, I've seen the entire Secret Service series which was enjoyably awful. I may yet do an article on New Series Scarlet but I'll see about that. Was also toying with the idea of a brief article on the audio Scarlet episodes but that would necessitate listening to them, a fate worse than being forced off a cliff edge in a saloon car. However, the general Scarlet episode guide entries will be continuing as per normal and on an even more frequent basis now since college has finished.

I have to admit that my general reason for posting here was to clarify the point that Zillak and I are not the same person - I love the guy but I won't sit back and let him take the credit for my own glorious work. :p

Nice to meet you good people, och aye!

by **The Secretive Bus** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:28 pm

And those Thunderbirds reviews are marvellous! Finally somebody else has enquired about John having his own organisation written on the windows of his Thunderbird. However, they're also written on the inside... which means outside it must look backwards. So the words can only possibly be for his benefit!

Guess I'd never have to do a Thunderbirds guide, then, since those ones are good enough...

by **Father Unwin** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:13 pm

Hello Secretive Bus,

As you can tell from my user name, I am a big fan of The Secret Service and would really love to see you review it! Of course, it sends itself up more than any other Supermarionation series but there is so much scope and material there for a humorous review.

As you probably know, this series has never been shown on terrestrial tv across the whole country but only in a few regions. I just want the viewing public to get a chance to see it and become aware of its existence.

I used to correspond with Stanley Unwin in the late 1990's and he was a terrific correspondent. He used to reply almost by return of post using some old typewriter found during the war. He even recorded a personal tape for me and gave me the last but one copy of his autobiography, called Deep Joy.

There are only 13 episodes and you will be able to include screen grabs showing the ignominious fates of Captain Scarlet (Agent Blake), Colonel White (Sir George somebody) and Captain Blue (Joe slumped in a sofa watching a football match!)

Please, Secretive Bus - you know you want to!! :grin:

by **The Secretive Bus** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 1:58 am

'Fraid I haven't the time! I'm going to try and get the Scarlet guide finished by late August as I'm off to university (hopefully) in September and won't be able to devote any time to some of these online projects - plus I won't have my discs with me. It's what would keep me from starting something like a Thunderbirds guide; I'd never finish it, whilst I've timed Scarlet so that I'm sure to be able to finish "The Inquisition" by the right time! There's also three general reasons for not doing "Secret Service":

a) I have the episodes on a video tape (kindly copied for me by Zillak) and don't have screencapture software for videos;

b) "Captain Scarlet", being far more well known, has got me a slightly larger reading audience from people at other forums, which a "Secret Service" guide probably wouldn't get. We're the only people to have heard of the thing after all!

c) Though I mock "Captain Scarlet" (and "Thunderbirds") it's done with affection as I genuinely love both series. So though I make fun of it a lot I keep a keen eye out for everything I admire in the series and can give good ratings for good episodes (you'll notice only about 2 episodes so far have dipped below a 3 star rating). However I'm not really very keen on "The Secret Service" and would be hard pressed to find anything to genuinely like in it. I wouldn't want to write a guide that actually slags off the entire thing as that's just not in the correct spirit - for similar reasons I'd never attempt an episode guide of "Stingray", a very well known Anderson series but one I hold no passion for at all.

So, ah, sorry but it's very very very unlikely to happen.

Rest assured every episode of "Captain Scarlet" will be reviewed by September, though!

by **shaqui** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:30 am

Father Unwin wrote:As you can tell from my user name, I am a big fan of The Secret Service and would really love to see you review it! Of course, it sends itself up more than any other Supermarionation series but there is so much scope and material there for a humorous review.

Please, Secretive Bus - you know you want to!!

Why not write them yourself, and let the Vervoid website host them, Father Unwin? Your knowledge of the series, as a devotee, must exceed others here... ?

by **The Secretive Bus** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:52 am

The Vervoid is a site mainly contributed to by a group of friends from a forum called Planet Skaro (though the webmistress is a loveky gal called Lissa who does all the work and is also a wonderfully witty writer); I'm not sure how "open" the open submissions policy is! Zillak got in partially by virtue of being a mate of mine.

Besides which I'm not sure what they'd think of a sudden surgence of Supermarionation stuff!

It's a website for general media with an occasional focus on Doctor Who and I'm not sure if they'd want too much of it concentrated on something else...

Not trying to nip the idea in the bud as I'd certainly like to read a "Secret Service" guide m'self...