Back when I was a young lad living in Batley, when my storytelling was a mere twinkle in my eye, I was seeing bits and pieces of stuff from a husband-and-wife duo called Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. I had no idea who he was, it was only in my teenage years that I really got how influential he was in a particular sphere; sci-fi storytelling that was very well liked in Britain but seemingly impossible to sell to America as it trod a very fine line between children's television and a more "adult" demographic that most people today would probably called "Young Adult". I think some of my writing has been influenced by some of the stuff I experienced of Anderson's work, so I thought... Hey, why not think back to what I've seen and what I think now. Starting from my first Anderson experience;
*Space 1999: Surprised it wasn't Thunderbirds? So am I thinking about it. My earliest memories of Gerry Anderson's work was Space 1999, the final collaboration between him and Sylvia as they were splitting up as the two series were made. The series I remember best was the second, with the shapeshifter Maya, which means I associated it with a relatively light tone. The first series, which was a lot more philosophical and brutal, I also saw bits of as I think they jumbled the episodes at times. I still remember it fondly to a point, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy having it in my DVD collection. Plus it goes on reruns on live TV a lot.
*Thunderbirds: I remember the very first episode I saw when I was maybe six or seven years old: Pit of Peril, the episode with the Sidewinder military walker falling into an old munitions pit. While some parts of it haven't aged as well as others (mostly-male cast, almost uniformly Caucasian and some stereotypes where they aren't, some cultural hangovers from the 1960s that probably wouldn't be around in the 2050s like smoking), it's on the whole still very strong. I've got the series on DVD and don't regret it. It's still very technically impressive, considering it was all practical effects, puppetry, models, and some forced perspective. It's something I've been watching for pleasure recently, and I don't regret it. I even like the two movies done in that original style, Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6, even if they're not the best of the best (one's very slow, the other's a little jumbled, both have shaky writing).
*Captain Starlet (1967): I don't remember exactly which episode of this I saw first, but it was probably one of the ones set in a snowy area. Avalanche? Noose of Ice? Shadow of Fear? Either way, I experienced Captain Scarlet, and...wow. There's a reason this remains more of a cult thing, because it's not pulling punches. It's tense, very current with world events then and at the moment right now, pretty brutal to its characters, and because of this it's probably better known in the UK than anywhere else. The Mysterons are a genuinely intimidating threat, but also not wholly evil as they were attacked first without apparent mercy, so their actions feel understandable. Also, you may have noticed the little date thing. That's because there's two Captain Scarlet series that were created under an Anderson's view.
Stingray: I've not seen a large amount of this series even now, and it remains in that odd little hole where I put stuff that wobbles between camp and genuinely enjoyable (camp needs to be a special kind of camp to interest me properly). Its undersea exploits, doomed romance between male lead Troy and the mute underwater princess Marina, and some very prescient themes regarding environmental damage and Cold War-esque tensions keep it enjoyable. It's just the puppets look rather silly.
UFO: I didn't even need to think about it when I heard the outro music; this was Gerry Anderson. His first fully live action endeavor, and one of his more serious offerings. Again, like Space 1999, I'm not sure I'd want it as a permanent fixture in my life, but it's something I appreciate. The episodes that stick in my mind are one where an agent is framed for treason and (again reflecting cultural norms of the time) sentenced to death, one where the leader of the UFO organization must choose between his duty and the life of his son, and another where the hostile aliens are first introduced. It has suffered a lot from the episodes being aired out of order.
Captain Starlet (2005): This series was one of the last the male Anderson worked on in any full capacity, and is an oddball of a concept. Combining CGI with motion capture, it's something that I still really enjoy even if its tone is quite different due to playing into more modern character chemistry and drama. It's still got standout episodes (suicide-inducing computer virus, Martian gas making a mine seem haunted, a seemingly-dead astronaut brought back as an agent, a Mysteron defector), and unlike every other Anderson series mentioned so far, it has an actual narrative ending. But once again, often aired out of order, so the story gets muddled.
So, do I still remember these series fondly? Yes. Would I recommend them? Yes, just be ready for some cultural dissonance at times. Were they an influence on my work? Oh absolutely yes. Not every series is a standout, and there are some series that I've only glimpsed (Fireball XL5, Joe 90, The Secret Service) that didn't resonate at all. But I still fondly recall multiple characters as signposts for some characters I would later create. Lady Penelope, Captain Black, Marina, Maya, the fish god of Titan, Destiny Angel, Edward Straker. They live on in the back of my mind. So yes, I don't mind having watched these series at all.
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