Telling the story of Commander Ray Neptune and intended to evoke a 1960s Supermarionation series that never actually existed, space puppet series Nebula-75 was made during lockdown in a flat last year and is now into its second series. Watch the trailer for Season Two here…
The series follows Commander Ray Neptune of the spaceship Nebula-75, who was all set for a long mission with his crew of civilian recruits, but nothing could have prepared him for the challenge of the ship being flung into the far reaches of space by forces unknown. Now, the crew strive to make their way back to Earth, encountering an array of strange characters along the way…
Nebula-75 began its life during the UK Coronavirus lockdown of 2020. When the team at Century 21 Films found their planned projects cancelled as a result of the global pandemic, they made the decision to attempt to produce something using the resources they had to hand in the London flat where a number of them lived.
Fortunately, thanks to their work on productions such as Thunderbirds: The Anniversary Episodes, Endeavour, and UK television advertisements, they had numerous puppets, props and models to hand.
The series was filmed by a crew of three who happened to already live together during a time when travel was made impossible, with other members of the Century 21 Films team lending their talents remotely. It was originally intended as a one-off production and premiered as a ten minute short, but the resulting film was received so warmly and passionately by online viewers that plans for further installments were soon made. A full length series of half hour episodes were produced throughout the course of 2020, introducing new vehicles and guest characters.
Following the easing of lockdown restrictions, the team have also been able to leave their flat in order to continue production in more suitable studio premises.
The result has been a second series of episodes that expand upon the scope and ambition of the original run – the first episode of which is available now.
You can watch Season 1 of Nebula-75 on Amazon now and watch the first episode of Season 2 via Amazon Prime.