One of the surprise hits during the COVID-19 lockdown has been a new short Supermarionation series, created by Stephen La Rivière and Andrew T. Smith and the team behind Thunderbirds 1965 and Moon Rangers for Endeavour. The adventures of Ray Neptune and his crew have entertained and delighted viewers around the world, and with three episodes now released, La Rivière chatted with Paul Simpson about the many challenges involved…

Before the world imploded, what was the current state of play with Supermarionation? 

We were getting ever-nearer to making the Supermarionation series we’ve been working towards for years. When we made the documentary Filmed in Supermarionation, we thought that it’d be nice to have a go at filming with the puppets as a one-off. That one-off has since led to 3 new episodes of Thunderbirds, an advert for the Halifax, a guest spot on the ITV drama Endeavour – plus a series of side projects including more Thunderbirds mini-album adaptations. However, whilst we’ve heard many times – from the fans to people working in TV – that “surely this just pleases the die-hards” we’ve always known that Supermarionation has a brand new audience awaiting it. And so that’s what we’ve been inching towards for years. And just on the verge of that, Coronavirus appeared and seemed to put an immediate stop to it… seemed to.

What prompted the idea of doing a completely new story with new characters? And did you have a specific era of Supermarionation that you were fitting this in to?

Nebula-75 wasn’t the idea we were trying to launch before Coronavirus. But after everything came crashing to a halt, I was chatting to my creative-partner Andrew T. Smith and we were laughing about the fact that so much of TV is done via Zoom now… and then it occurred to us that, with the resources we have here at my home, we could probably make a short Supermarionation film that, whilst being more basic than we’d normally make, would likely be closer to professional television standards than even the big broadcasters are managing at the moment. We also thought that, as people had enjoyed the 1 minute Moon Rangers slot we did for Endeavour, we could make something that might be a nice distraction in the middle of a very difficult situation for many.

So, knowing that we had to work with basically what’s in my flat (or could be sent to us by fellow crew if needed), we started to work out what we could do. We thought we’d write a short ten minute film, comparatively simple with as many Anderson-equse ingredients as we could fit in – which would be an introduction to a series that looked like it was from the ’60s, but that you’d never seen. Not in a million years, did I think we’d get the reaction we have.

In terms of era – on the resources we have I knew we could just about achieve something that felt like Supercar or Fireball XL-5, but in colour. So the brief to everyone was that was the era of the new show. This isn’t Thunderbirds – it’s something simpler. Less special effects driven, more character driven.

What was the writing process – did you work out what puppets you had, and devise characters for them, and then work out the storyline? Or did the storyline come first?

The whole thing is dictated by resources. We’re writing around what we can do. Most of our puppets have copyright faces as they are from the original Supermarionation shows – so they’re out. So then we’re down to guest characters we have. Then we have to consider the space we have – our flat is tiny. We have the living room and one bedroom we can just about fit our equipment into. So we can’t build big expansive sets, and we need to restrain ourselves from having the characters going to too many locations in one episode. The cast per episode also needs to be comparatively small because traditionally each puppet requires at least two operators – sometimes three. Our entire filming crew – which consists solely of people who live in the flat – is three.

When I started out making documentaries and we were interviewing loads of people, I didn’t want those interviews to always to look like they were filmed in our office. We were hugely cash strapped, so I had the idea of buying a couple of book cases and constantly redressing the back with different wall paper to give us a variety of backgrounds. I remembered this little trick, and that became the idea for the walls for the Nebula-75.

We knew the puppets we had, and the relative space restrictions – and we went away separately to write something. Drew wrote a version, and I wrote a pilot script on my new-old typewriter which I bought to avoid the distractions of the computer. So Nebula-75 really owes its genesis to the antiquated Olivetti Lettera 32!

Anyway, we came back together with our separate versions – Drew veered more towards the humour, I played it straighter. We combined elements of the two and Nebula-75 was born.

Ray Neptune, Circuit etc. – who came up with the character names and attributes? 

The name of the show, the name of the characters, the Seven-Five acknowledgement etc come from me. The actual characters come from both of us. For instance, I wanted Neptune to seem a bit lonely – the idea of a man who is trapped inside in an isolating situation, but surrounded by mad characters. He’s not sure if he’s lonelier alone, or with company. That’s not just a reflection of Lockdown – it’s also born from the fact that before Lockdown I tore a ligament in my knee and found myself stuck at home, unable to go out for ages. So Neptune is in some ways the audience. However with the Supermarionation characters, the majority of the work is done by the face and performance – so Neptune is really born from Stephen Mansfield’s excellent sculpt, combined with Justin T. Lee’s quiet, considerate Shane Rimmer-esque performance.

Circuit’s humour – his slight arrogance – comes from Andrew. I had written him much straighter. His character also expanded when I realised I could channel my frustration with some of the more irritating comments from the YouTube audience into the opening of each episode. So the whole thing is really very organic and spontaneous. Andrew and I have lots of conversations, but really it’s all being made up as it goes along. The whole thing is written around what we have, and what we can do. If we lived in a house with an extra bedroom, or a garden, or on a farm, it probably wouldn’t be Nebula-75.

And yet, Nebula-75 is currently on course to be one of the most successful things we’ve done. The total lack of resources, budget and money has created something that seems to be striking a chord with an audience. Other than a few people missing the point and niggling about the ship only being 33 million miles away from Earth, the comments have been entirely positive. It’s extraordinary. I always knew Supermarionation had an audience – but there’s clearly something else that’s working with Nebula-75. Which proves something I’ve always known – you can’t plan success. You can’t plan what the audience will respond to. You shouldn’t make a series on selling points. You should make something the best you can, that you think works. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re doing the best we can in these ludicrously restricted circumstances. We treat it as much as possible like a normal production. There is no ‘that’ll do’. And yet, of course, there are limits. Which is why I wrote into the script the Lo-Budget logo – rather than try and hide it, we’ve decided to embrace it. This show is a Lockdown show – Made in SuperIsolation and Lo-Budget. It’s a true product of our times. Including the fact we can say ‘This show is really cheaply made!’ without doing a Gerald Ratner. The making-of documentaries where we laugh at the whole thing at the end are as popular as the main show. Rather than try and do a lot of PR flannel (I can’t stand the, ‘You’ll just love what we’ve made for you!’ nonsense), we love being able to laugh at ourselves and in these times we want to make others laugh too.

What were the biggest constrictions as a result of lockdown for the pre-production?

Where to start? Space. We’re filming next to the sofa. We can’t bring in lots of stuff because we can’t store it. The fact that we have to live here – the flat looks like a bomb site when filming. The fact that there’s three of us to do everything. We don’t have any of the comforts of a studio. The restrictions are numerous.

But… we’re making something for ourselves. We don’t have to justify ourselves to anyone. We don’t have to say to anyone, ‘Yes, we think puppets will be appealing because of X, Y and Z.’ We’re making something up as we go along, we’re putting it out, and we are building an audience who are loving it. So yes, there are lots of restrictions – but from restrictions comes creativity.

And likewise, for the actual filming of the puppets – what challenges presented themselves that you’d not faced before when you had more space?

Same challenges as usual – but with fewer people to fix them. Plus the last time we filmed, I had a fully functioning knee.

The biggest challenge though is not being too restricted by the space. As much as possible, we’re working to build the universe they’re in. We want to give the sense there’s a big ship, in vast space, a big universe of characters, and a million as yet untold stories. Even if we only see small bits of it at a time.

We get some sort of idea of the help from “outside” that you received from the faux-documentaries at the end of each episode – are the fundamentals of that accurate? What were other people’s reactions when you told them what you were proposing to do?

The fundamentals are correct. We try to be very honest about the circumstances of the production (although we’re always cautious about revealing the methods as we’re trying to create an illusion). Hilton Fitzsimmons built the Nebula-75 and Rusty’s spaceship at his home and that was then sent to us. Justin T. Lee records the dialogue in Canada and also has done some of the post production and animated the titles, as well as being an effects unit for certain shots. Nigel Heath loaned us some lights as we had no budget, and did the mix on the two Solar Smacks commercials we made. Stephen Mansfield has created an extra character for us. But the overwhelming majority of it is done here. We get the bookcases out, Géraldine dresses them, Elliot prepares the puppets, I sort the lights and camera. Then Geraldine becomes the lip-sync operator and Elliot the puppet operator. On shots where the camera doesn’t have to move (on a dolly made up of books) then I operate the puppets too. Sometimes we’re doing multiple jobs at once – camera and puppets, holding two puppets, lip-syncing whilst pushing bits of set out of the way so we can track around the room. Then once it’s all filmed, Elliot goes off immediately to assemble the footage so we know if we can put it all away. Once we know it works roughly, Elliot edits it all, and I shoot pick-ups where we need extra shots. Script alterations are made up as we go along. And of course the voices – Justin records his lines in Toronto, but Geraldine and I record our lines here too.

Probably the most essential bit of ‘help’ outside the flat is Andrew. I focus on the directing of the episode, he produces from his home in Gateshead. But that goes beyond organising stuff and managing our 75p budget – he also pulls together and edits the dialogue tracks, is on hand for technical help in the middle of shooting, and re-writes dialogue on the fly when we want to change something to improve it. So it’s all very home-made. And even the bits not done here, are still being done at someone else’s home.

As for reaction… “Yes, right, let’s do it!” I’m not just working with a film crew; I’m working with my best friends. We’re always feeding each mad ideas about things we could do. We like making stuff – not just for the public, but for each other. Filmmaking interests us – and so Lockdown has become an opportunity to learn new skills and do the jobs we wouldn’t normally do on set. Although, even on past productions we’ve always promoted the idea that anyone should be given the opportunity to learn a new skill and move departments. That was the spirit of the original Century 21 in the 1960s. People on the effects unit could submit scripts. We’ve always loved that. The runner can become a puppet operator and the producer should make tea. I know people tend to associate our work with me – but that’s purely because I’m the designated ‘interviewee’ of our production. But we’re a family. Of equal importance.

The Barry Gray theme – where did that originally appear? I thought to begin with someone had done a great pastiche! (And the song at the end of episode 3 had me laughing aloud – was that all new?)

All the music that appears is music used with the approval of the Barry Gray estate. Ralph Titterton and Catherine Ford, who manage the estate, gave us the go-ahead to use the music they own – a lot of it is from commercials. Robot Man was a single released by Barry in the 60s – and after the unexpected success of Circuit we decided to use it on the end of episode 3 – and now on the end of subsequent episodes of the show.

When you’d completed part 1, what was your reaction to seeing it fully finished?

Surprised we’d made that in our living room! There are some quite complex shots in there.

What sort of reaction did you expect when it went public?

I wasn’t sure. I was aware that it was in many ways quite basic – so I did consider scrapping it (which we’ve done before – there’s all sorts of stuff we’ve shot then quietly buried away). Which proves what I mean above – you can’t plan what an audience will like. Make it as well as you can and see what happens.

And what surprised you about the reaction?

The volume of it! 150,000 views, thousands of likes and the comments not just overwhelmingly positive – it’s not exaggeration to say almost entirely positive. And the ‘negative’ comments were mainly, ‘Really liked this, but you know 33 million miles isn’t that far away’. Which struck me as odd, given that it’s not even the dodgiest bit of science in the episode!

Did you initially intend to do more than just one episode?

No! We discussed it and maybe some other ideas, but it was quite difficult to make. So we deliberately wrote it into a cliff-hanger and thought we’d leave the rest to the audience’s imagination. It’s not just that so many people loved it – it’s that we found an international audience way outside of the normal ‘fan’ audience we’re so often told are only interested in the show. It’s definitely a hallmark of organised fandom to say, “Oh, no one else will ever like this thing I like.” But it’s not true – there’s a big audience for Supermarionation. And so far – with no big publicity – we’ve found an audience who love the puppets. Who are engaged with the stories and the characters – and who have been motivated enough to go away and build models, posters, drawing, fake annual stories. And they’re not necessarily sending this stuff to us – we’re stumbling on a lot of this by accident.

Anyway, we thought, ‘Oh we’d better make another couple then’. So Drew and I went back to our respective computer / typewriter.

You had some fun in the scripts for eps 2 and 3 with the criticisms of episode 1 – will that be a hallmark of Nebula-75 if it moves forward?

Yes! A strength of Nebula-75 is we can respond to the audience. Not just in terms of having fun with the handful of silly criticisms (and they really are a handful!), but that we can see what the audience likes and put in more of it. The audience says they like Circuit, then they get an episode with Circuit!

Did shooting become easier for the later episodes, or were you pushing to try new things?

Not really. I mean, you get better at learning how to handle the space – and I suppose as it grows we’re more prepared to ransack the flat. But we’re all naturally ambitious – we want each shot to be better than the last etc. So even as it becomes easier, we’re inclined to then make it difficult again.

Overall, what’s been the biggest challenges of Nebula-75?

Space. Which is ironic given that the Nebula-75 crew are surrounded by it.

What’s next for Nebula-75?

I truly have no idea. The whole thing is developing day by day. We’re writing a 4th script, we’ve just released our second Solar Smacks advert, I’ve got other interviews lined up this week and broadcasters have approached us. I don’t want to do the ‘oh we’ve got exciting things in the pipeline’ thing because filmmaking is such a fluid world and you look like an idiot if it then doesn’t happen. But, as I write this it looks like it’ll be Seven-Five for Nebula-75. I hope that’ll be the case. But if not, I’m happy we’ve achieved our original goal – which was to bring a little distraction and hopefully entertainment to people in difficult situations. Anything on top of that will simply be nice.

The most recent episode of Nebula-75 can be watched on YouTube here