Supermarionation Tuesdays: Supercar!

Theme: Supercar - Barry Gray

Gamers will be shocked to learn that Supermarionation is not a strategy game starring Nintendo's Italianest plumber, but instead refers to a process of filming puppets in sci-fantasy action shows for kids' TV invented by Bri'ish madlads in the 1960s. While the most famous of these was Thunderbirds, the journey of refinement that led up to it saw various prototypes aired, including this week's showcase: Supercar!

What would you do for the flying car?

The premise is simple: German Professor Popkiss and Bri'ish Doctor Beaker have invented the titular vehicle, piloted by nominal protagonist Mike Mercury. All the Supermarionation protagonists had these space-age cool-guy names: Fireball XL5 had Steve Zodiac, while Stingray had Troy Tempest. None of the protagonists really did much except be easygoing Chads, except for Captain Scarlet, who was more of a sarcastic dick Chad. In fact, Mike Mercury barely did anything at all, since Supercar could be piloted remotely by the Professor. Nor had they quite figured out the Chad phenotype later modelled by the Tracy family marionettes: Mike had gap teeth, a gargantuan proboscis, and the browline of an archaic hominid.

Mike looking like he's about to club the Professor with a bone.

Just as Mike served as a prototype for later heroes, the Thunderbirds fan will see early sketches of stern-to-cantankerous patriarchs like Jeff Tracy and Commander Shore in the more genial Professor, and of stuttering savant Brains in Doctor Beaker, with his catchphrase "satisfactory, most satisfactory". "Don't have a cow man" it ain't.

Beaker rocks the world's most optimistic combover.

Another trend they wisely phased out in the later shows was the "cute" animal companion: Supercar's Mitch the Monkey begat Fireball's Zoonie the Lazoon, both of whom were more annoying than cute, though the fault always lay with their human costars, who would gift them free run of the labs and control rooms, which they would invariably trash. These were toned-down into the more endearing seal from Stingray, and finally dropped.

Science genius Doctor Beaker asserts authoritatively that Mitch is a chimpanzee, which is wrong. Chimpanzees have black fur, no tail, and are not known to make good pets or roommates, because they're insanely violent.

Another motif that made it as far as Fireball was the evil yet inept eastern bloc spy duo: in Supercar, Master Spy and his hapless sidekick Zarin; in Fireball Griselda and her hapless husband Boris. Master Spy followed the classic trajectory of recurring villains, at first being somewhat credibly menacing, but quickly becoming a joke after his failures began to stack up too high. Fortunately, the Supercar crew went easy on him: each appearance would end in his capture, but then they seem to have just let him go in between episodes, as he would always show up again later with a new whacky scheme.

A good way to subtly disguise yourself is to dress like a pirate from the neck up.

But the most perplexing thing about the show is that the opener has Mercury & co. rescue little Jimmy, Mitch, and Jimmy's pilot brother from a raft after they bailed out of their crashing plane, only for the older brother to disappear from the show, never to be mentioned again, while Jimmy and Mitch are basically adopted and tag along on missions for the remainder of the show. What became of Jimmy's brother? Did our heroes whack him and harvest his organs? Is he in Jon's basement with Lyman? You decide!

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While Thunderbirds was mainly focused on rescues and Captain Scarlet on stopping the Mysterons' schemes against Earth, Supercar alternated freely between rescues, treasure hunts, crimefighting and the surreal: the final episode concerned Mitch swapping places with a giant ape who played drums in a band he saw on television. While it's obvious that Supercar was more of a stepping-stone to greater things, it's still fun to revisit 470 years on. From these modest beginnings, Supermarionation was to reach heights still unmatched in small screen action entertainment.