The time, the place: ITV, 1961-1966 - the Golden Age of Gerry Anderson and his greatest creations, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, and Thunderbirds.
But really: Various 21st-century world-government technological utopias in which all swords had been beaten into ploughshares and futuristic peace-keeping, world-saving supervehicles, except for those swords unaccountably re-tained by bloody-minded free-lance bad guys; hence the serendipitous necessity for the futuristic (etc).
Before Supermarionation: Gerry Anderson's prentice puppetworks were Twizzle (toy boy with twisty extensible limbs), Torchy the Battery Boy (toy boy with lightbulb in his head), and Four Feather Falls (toy cowboy with magic feathers in his hat). No wonder we made our own entertainment in those days.
Why ''Supermarionation''? Because they were marionettes and they were super - lip movements very nearly synched to soundtrack, wires so thin they were ''almost unnoticeable''. (Translation: noticeable.)
Those futuristic (etc) in full: Supercar: travelled by land, sea, and air. Car it most resembled: Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Fireball XL5: outer-space rocket ship that took off horizontally on sparkler power but, like the USS Enterprise, never landed at all. Car it most resembled: Ford (see also Heroes) Zodiac. Stingray: strictly water-bound. Car it most resembled: Jaguar Mk II. Thunderbirds: five different jalopies that between them went everywhere. Cars they most resembled: five Austin Allegros.
Craggy-jawed heroes: Mike Mercury (Supercar); Steve Zodiac (Fireball XL5); Troy Tempest (Stingray); Scott Tracy (Thunderbird 1).
Amiable stooges: Mitch the talking monkey (Supercar; 'nuff said); Robert the Robot (Fireball XL5; leaked smoke from ears; talked like Bernard Cribbins); George ''Phones'' Sheridan (Stingray; dim, ginger Canadian); the other four Tracy brothers (Thunderbirds; Scott was the eldest and dad owned the International Rescue operation, so there).
Nutty Professors: Prof Popkiss (Supercar); Prof Matt Matic (Fireball XL5); Brains (Thunderbirds).
Villains: Sydney Greenstreet/ Peter Lorre combo Masterspy and Zarin (Supercar); Mr and Mrs Spacespy (Fireball XL5; note cunningly ''obvious'' naming motif); Titan, king of Titanica (Stingray; a bloke with a fish's head on, frankly); The Hood (Thunderbirds; bald master of disguise, always at the mercy of unconvincing and/or flyaway syrups).
The End: ITC boss Lew Grade killed off Thunderbirds prematurely and sent Gerry Anderson away to make expensive but pale imitations like Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and nothing very interesting ever happened ''in the next half-hour . . .'' again. Sad music, please . . . for a string quartet.
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