8 Hidden TV Monsters (And What They Really Look Like)

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons - often just known as Captain Scarlet in later years - was that puppet-helmed TV show your dad loves that came after Thunderbirds. Using Supermarionation to depict the big bad Captain and his pals as they defend against Martian warfare. The titular Mysterons are the inhabitants of Mars, threatening to get their revenge for human attacks on their home planet. Appearing throughout the series as a disembodied voice and occasionally an ominous light, their true form was decided to be kept a secret for reasons unknown.

Perhaps they were better utilised as an invisible threat, perhaps there wasn't budget for big bad aliens from lightyears away, or perhaps they were just too damn terrifying to ever let audiences lay cast eyes their eyes upon them, for fear of never being the same again. Or perhaps they were giant crystalline sugar cubes that bounced around like the testicle aliens from Futurama. Wait, what?

The Mysterons appeared in their full physical glory in a comic strip in the 60s, adapted from the television series into dodecahedrons of doom. Appearing as nothing more than sentient dice in the comic, it suddenly makes a whole lot of sense why we never saw them on TV. Mysterons, keep your mysteries.

[Ashleigh Millman]