The Investigator (TV pilot)
A failed Supermarionation pilot filmed on location in Malta.
The Investigator is a 1973 British television pilot devised, produced and directed by Gerry Anderson, creator of Thunderbirds and other Supermarionation series. It follows two miniaturised American youths recruited by an extragalactic being to fight evil. The pilot marked Anderson's first use of puppets since The Secret Service and was filmed on location in Malta.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Science fiction
- Screenplay
- Sylvia Anderson
- Story
- Shane Rimmer
- Director
- Gerry Anderson
- Starring
- Charles Thake, Peter Borg
- Voices
- Sylvia Anderson
- Shane Rimmer
- Peter Dyneley
- Theme music
- Vic Elmes
- Composer
- John Cameron (uncredited)
Facts from the source article.
Plot
An omniscient being from another galaxy, the Investigator, comes to Earth to eliminate evil and corruption. He recruits two young Americans, John and Julie, miniaturises them, and grants them special powers. In a cave on Malta, represented by a flashing green light, he gives them their first assignment: to foil entrepreneur Stavros Karanti's plan to steal a priceless Raphael painting from St John's Cathedral in Mdina. The Investigator provides an eight-wheel miniature car with surveillance devices. John and Julie spy on Karanti as he boards his yacht, the Borgia, and meets his associate Christoph. They follow the men to the cathedral, where Karanti donates a fake painting and learns security details. Pursuing the criminals back to the yacht, the youths board via a miniature speedboat but accidentally alert them. That night, Karanti and Christoph knock out a guard and seize the painting. John swings from a chandelier to stop them; Karanti fires a gun, causing John to fall injured. The criminals escape, but John and Julie stow away aboard Karanti's Cessna 150. John pretends to be Karanti's conscience through a megaphone while Julie uses a remote control to make the plane roll and dive. Karanti confesses by radio and lands, where police arrest him. The painting is returned, and the Investigator congratulates them.
Production
The Investigator was a puppet pilot created by Gerry Anderson, marking his first work in that format since The Secret Service, which had been the final Supermarionation series from his old company Century 21 Productions. After making the live-action shows UFO and The Protectors, neither aimed at children, Anderson wanted to produce something for a younger audience. He developed this pilot as a model for a new Supermarionation series, hoping to sell it to NBC in the United States. Anderson, his wife Sylvia, and longtime partner Reg Hill planned the project. Sylvia wrote the script based on a story by Shane Rimmer. Private investors funded it, and a shelf company called Starkits produced it between The Protectors and the planned second season of UFO, which later became Space: 1999. Several crew members from the Supermarionation era returned, including co-editor David Lane and voice actors Sylvia, Rimmer, and Peter Dyneley. The puppets, named John and Julie, stood two feet tall and followed the natural proportions introduced in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Unlike earlier Supermarionation puppets controlled from overhead bridges, these were operated from the ground by puppeteers standing on boxes. Julie’s appearance was based on Raquel Welch. Reg Hill designed the model car and speedboat, both controlled by radio. Filming took place entirely on location in Malta during the winter of 1973, using sites such as the Main Gate and St Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina, as well as Malta International Airport. The Times of Malta reported that the planned series was intended to have 26 episodes.
Reception
The Andersons and Hill were disappointed with the finished pilot and abandoned pitching it, feeling its quality was too low for NBC or any other broadcaster. Gerry Anderson described it as a 'pretty dull, uninspired piece of filmmaking' and a 'disaster', regretting serving as both director and producer due to cost constraints. In his 1996 biography, he called it an 'absolute non-starter' and reflected that 'everything, but everything went wrong.' Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn compare it to The Secret Service, describing it as an 'extrapolation' of that series. Ian Fryer argues the pilot displays 'decent professional standards' and that the 'sketchiness' of the premise is justified as a true pilot. He praises the model work but regards John and Julie as poorly-developed characters. TV Zone comments that the lack of puppet movement 'does little to enliven the characters' and calls it a 'poor attempt to recreate the heyday of Century 21'. SFX describes it as a 'weirdly forlorn thing' and 'existentially peculiar even by Anderson's standards.' Anderson's son Jamie said it 'lacked the science fiction context that made [his] previous shows so successful.'
Other media
Dinky produced toy versions of the car and speedboat, but the planned launch was scrapped once it became clear the series would not go ahead. The car was later reworked and sold in 1975 as the Dinky "Armoured Command Car," with the boat following in 1977 as the "Coastguard Amphibious Missile Launch," both stripped of any connection to the pilot. For years, the pilot was not officially released on home video, though fan copies circulated and it appeared at Anderson fan gatherings. In 2012, Fanderson issued a DVD for its members only, using a print restored by BBC Resources, which also recreated the missing closing titles. Network Distributing later included it on their 2015 DVD "The Lost Worlds of Gerry Anderson."
More in British Science Fiction Television Shows
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