Commander Ray Neptune relates one of his adventures…

Many creative people in lockdown are considering themselves lucky if they can achieve a small proportion of their normal output. But the Century 21 team, in isolation in their apartment – with the aid of friends around the country and the still-working Royal Mail – have taken the old adage of “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade” and created a new Supermarionation adventure.

The team, who created three new Thunderbirds episodes a few years back, and provided the new scenes for a recent Endeavour episode, literally had only the props and puppets they had there to use for the most part, but these have been repurposed brilliantly to create new characters and situations. You can imagine that lead Ray Neptune could be mates with Fireball XL5’s Steve Zodiac, but Neptune and his crew are further out from Earth than Steve and his team – and a protonic orbit leads to further problems (the science is very much in keeping with other elements).

Sure, some of the lockdown limitations show but you’re quickly drawn into the characters, and only with hindsight will you wonder quite how they pulled it all off. This feels like the first act of an episode, and I’m delighted to see that Stephen La Rivière and team are already working on the next parts. If you enjoyed those 1960s puppet series (particularly the ones prior to Captain Scarlet), you’ll love this. And don’t miss the documentary at the end…

Verdict: It feels so authentic, as if someone has unearthed a previously lost show from the Supermarionation archives – more please! 8/10

Paul Simpson