''Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars'' is a 1981 television film based on the 1960s British puppet TV series '' Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' created by

Gerry Gerry is both a surname and a masculine or feminine given name. As a given name, it is often a short form (hypocorism) of Gerard, Gerald or Geraldine. Notable people with the name include: Surname *Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), fifth US vice presi ...

and Sylvia Anderson. Produced by the New York office of the series' distributor,

ITC Entertainment The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme Compan ...

, the film is a

compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products *Compilation thesis M ...

of the ''Captain Scarlet'' episodes " Shadow of Fear", "

Lunarville 7 "Lunarville 7" is the 15th episode of ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by their company Century 21 Productions. Written by Tony Barwick and direc ...

", "

Crater 101 "Crater 101" is the 21st episode of ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions. Written by Tony Barwick an ...

" and "

Dangerous Rendezvous "Dangerous Rendezvous" is the 22nd episode of ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions. Written by Tony ...

". Set in 2068, the original series depicts a "

war of nerves War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

" between Earth and the Mysterons: a race of Martians with the power to create functioning copies of destroyed people or objects and use them to carry out acts of aggression against humanity. Earth is defended by a military organisation called Spectrum, whose top agent, Captain Scarlet, was killed by the Mysterons and replaced by a reconstruction that subsequently broke free of their control. Scarlet's double has a self-healing power that enables him to recover from injuries that would be fatal to anyone else, making him Spectrum's best asset in its fight against the Mysterons. ''Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars'' had its first home video release in either 1981 or January 1982. It was followed by another ''Captain Scarlet'' compilation, '' Captain Scarlet vs. the Mysterons''. ''Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars'' was negatively received by fans of the original ''Captain Scarlet''. In November 1988, it was broadcast as the second episode of the movie-mocking TV series ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

''.

Plot

An attempt by Spectrum to survey Mars from space is threatened when the Mysterons murder an astronomer attached to the project and replace him with a doppelganger under their control. Captains Scarlet and

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

(voiced by Francis Matthews and

Ed Bishop George Victor Bishop (11 June 1932 – 8 June 2005), known professionally as Ed Bishop or sometimes Edward Bishop, was an American actor. He was known for playing Commander Ed Straker in ''UFO'', Captain Blue in ''Captain Scarlet and the Myste ...

) track down and kill the reconstruction, but not before it sabotages the mountain observatory that is due to receive the images from the Martian space probe. The observatory is destroyed and the images are lost (" Shadow of Fear"). After the Lunar Controller declares the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

a neutral party in Earth's struggle with the Mysterons, Scarlet, Blue and Lieutenant Green (voiced by Cy Grant) are sent to

lunar colony Colonization of the Moon or Lunar settlement is a process, or concept employed by some proposals, for claiming robotic or human exploitation and settlement on the Moon. Laying claim to the Moon has been declared illegal through international ...

Lunarville 7 to follow up reports of an unidentified complex being built on the far side of the Moon. They discover that this is a Mysteron installation ("

"). After reporting back to Spectrum, Scarlet, Blue and Green return to the Moon to destroy the Mysteron facility. They successfully extract its pulsating crystal power source, thus disabling its reconstructive capability and allowing it to be permanently destroyed with a nuclear bomb ("

"). Back on Earth, Dr Kurnitz (voiced by Jeremy Wilkin) finds that the crystal pulsator can be adapted to enable direct communication with the Mysterons. Transmitting to Mars, Spectrum commander-in-chief Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray) requests an end to the hostilities between humanity and the Mysterons ("

").

Release and reception

Created by the New York office of

, ''Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars'' was one of several TV film re-workings of Anderson series designed to renew overseas interest in these productions and promote syndication sales in the United States. The films were collectively titled "Super Space Theater". Following its initial home video release by Precision Video, ''Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars'' had two later VHS releases: the first by Channel 5 Video in 1986, the second by

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

in 1992. It was also released on

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

and

LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...

. Fred McNamara considers the film "curiously titled" and "thematically" superior to '' Captain Scarlet vs. the Mysterons''.

''Mystery Science Theater 3000''

On 24 November 1988 (

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

in the United States), the film was televised as the second episode of the original version of the movie-mocking comedy series ''

'', broadcast by Minneapolis TV station KTMA. It formed the second half of a

double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...

with ''Invaders from the Deep'', a compilation based on the Andersons' earlier series ''

Stingray Stingrays are a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae ( ...

'', which had been shown earlier that day as episode 1.

References

External links

* {{ITC Distributions Chronology 1981 films 1981 television films 1980s English-language films Alien visitations in films American films about revenge American science fiction television films Captain Scarlet (franchise) Compilation films Films set in 2068 Marionette films Mars in film Moon in film Television films based on television series 1980s American films