There are people who feel that Gerry Anderson lost his spark when he finally made the jump to live-action. Many people, in fact.
"The Secret Service" was a bad idea (blending Supermarionation with liveaction footage of Stanley Unwin? DOA), "UFO" wasn't bad but could be laughable at time, "The Protectors" didn't feel like Anderson at all (and in fact wasn't originated by him), and the less said about "Space: 1999" the better. Since many choose to pretend "Terrahawks" doesn't exist, and as even Anderson is less than impressed with "Lavender Castle" (who was?), this leaves us with his hopefully last live-action show, "Space Precinct."
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear... the original pilot "Space Police" had Brogan up against bad guys V. Lann and E. Vile, and while such nomenclature was thankfully not in the actual series, said series (which hobbled itself from the start by casting Ted Shackelford as a tough veteran New York cop transferred to outer space; if they wanted someone from "Knots Landing" couldn't they have cast William Devane? Even Kevin Dobson would have been better - at least he's no stranger to NY cops after playing Crocker on "Kojak"!) had effects that advanced on the efforts from the 1970s, but scripts that were several hundred steps back from... well, from the days of "Supercar."
They came from a variety of British and American writers, but mainly American - especially J. Larry Carroll and David Bennett Carren, who used to write for "Peter Pan and the Pirates"... not reassuring. (Though in fairness to the Americans, having the first episode be penned by British comedy writer Paul Mayhew-Archer probably wasn't wise.) The cast did their best with the material, but it never worked as a science fiction series or a cop show; Anderson does seem to have learned his lesson at last, but perhaps it would be better to just retire instead of bringing back Captain Scarlet.
It must be said, though, that it had a great theme tune. Far too good for the series.
"The Secret Service" was a bad idea (blending Supermarionation with liveaction footage of Stanley Unwin? DOA), "UFO" wasn't bad but could be laughable at time, "The Protectors" didn't feel like Anderson at all (and in fact wasn't originated by him), and the less said about "Space: 1999" the better. Since many choose to pretend "Terrahawks" doesn't exist, and as even Anderson is less than impressed with "Lavender Castle" (who was?), this leaves us with his hopefully last live-action show, "Space Precinct."
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear... the original pilot "Space Police" had Brogan up against bad guys V. Lann and E. Vile, and while such nomenclature was thankfully not in the actual series, said series (which hobbled itself from the start by casting Ted Shackelford as a tough veteran New York cop transferred to outer space; if they wanted someone from "Knots Landing" couldn't they have cast William Devane? Even Kevin Dobson would have been better - at least he's no stranger to NY cops after playing Crocker on "Kojak"!) had effects that advanced on the efforts from the 1970s, but scripts that were several hundred steps back from... well, from the days of "Supercar."
They came from a variety of British and American writers, but mainly American - especially J. Larry Carroll and David Bennett Carren, who used to write for "Peter Pan and the Pirates"... not reassuring. (Though in fairness to the Americans, having the first episode be penned by British comedy writer Paul Mayhew-Archer probably wasn't wise.) The cast did their best with the material, but it never worked as a science fiction series or a cop show; Anderson does seem to have learned his lesson at last, but perhaps it would be better to just retire instead of bringing back Captain Scarlet.
It must be said, though, that it had a great theme tune. Far too good for the series.