Streaming Finds: Tracking down sci fi and fantasy shows of interest available on the streaming services.
What Is It? Thunderbirds follows the adventures of the International Rescue Team which has high-tech vehicles equipped for rescue and other daring exploits on land, sea, air, and outer space. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons follows the war between humans and an alien race known as the Myserons from Mars after a misunderstanding between the races. Supermarionation is an advanced form of puppetry that Gerry Anderson developed and used in sci fi and fantasy TV shows he produced in the 50’s, 60’s, and later.
The Skinny: Gerry Anderson got his start in British television working on puppet shows designed for kids such as The Adventures of Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy. He would improve on the puppet technology over the years, giving them a more realistic look, more fluid motian, and lip movement that was in sync with the dialogue, and he would refer to this as Supermarionation. The adventure series Supercar was the first sci fi show that he produced with his advanced puppets, followed by the outer space series Fireball XL5, and the underseas adventure Stingray. In 1965, Thunderbirds would become an international hit and expose his Supermarionation shows to a much wider audience than just the UK (more on that show at this link). Captain Scarlet followed that in 1967, after which he produced the two super-spy entries Joe 90 and The Secret Service. He would then move into live action television producing 1970’s UFO and 1975’s Space: 1999.
All of the above mentioned Supermarionation shows from Supercar to The Secret Service are available for streaming on Tubi TV. That is a free, ad-supported service that is very similar to Hulu when it first started out. It does not offer any originals (at this point at least), but it has a substantial amount of past television series and movies to choose from. The ads are not too obtrusive, and the streaming has been mostly seamless for the shows I have watched. So for a blast from the past, check out Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and more on Tubi TV, and that service also recently added Space: 1999 to its streaming offerings.
Watch Now on Tubi TV for Free:
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Click on the following links for a comprehensive list of the Sci Fi TV Shows available on Netflix | Prime Video | Hulu | Other Services
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