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THUNDERBIRDS |
Series Overview
OTHER GERRY ANDERSON SHOWS Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons New Captain Scarlet Space 1999 UFO 
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Series OverviewTHUNDERBIRDS is the most beloved of Gerry Anderson's supermarionation series, the story of International Rescue, an organisation who travel the world of the near future using superadvanced equipment to save people in peril. It is so popular that it is still being shown somewhere almost every day and it still stands up to the test of time. The reason for this is simply that the show uses production values that would put many a live-action show of the same period to shame. The modelwork is absolutely stunning and the Thunderbirds themselves are wonderful vehicles full of charm and impressive in themselves. Thunderbird 1 is the fast recon ship that gets to the site of the disaster to find out what is happening. Thunderbird 2 is the heavy equipment hauler. Thunderbird 3 carries out space rescues and provides transport to Thunderbird 5 which is the space station that monitors all Earth's radio for distress calls. Thunderbird 4 is the underwater craft. It's not just the superb special effects that raise this show up above the average, but everything. The plots are usually well written and jammed with rescues that are genuinely edge of the seat tense despite starring puppets. When International Rescue go into action, the line between puppet and character gets lost. The show also is filmed like epic live action using all available filming tricks to enhance the compelling action. On top of this there is always a brilliant opening resume of what's to come and an impossibly memorable theme tune. THUNDERBIRDS is a show that is aimed at children, but only the fact that it is filmed using puppets could give that away. Written by Gerry and Sylvia AndersonDirected by Alan Pattilla Top Trapped In The SkyInternational Rescue is ready for operation, but already the evil Hood has heard of their plans and schemes to take photographs of their advanced technology for himself. To this end, he plants a bomb on the new Fireflash, a plane capable of flying at six times the speed of sound. Unable to land for fear of setting of the bomb and with radiation exposure coming ever closure, the only hope for the people aboard lies in the untried methods of International Rescue. Gerry Anderson's children's entertainments are legendary and THUNDERBIRDS is his greatest achievement. The cast may be the puppets he is famous for, but everything else about this series is stunningly realised with production values that would not disgrace a series for adults. The special effects are superb. The Fireflash, Thunderbirds 1 and 2 and the elevator cars that are used in the rescue are brilliant. No young boy that sees this show is ever going to be able to forget being won over by aircraft like these. The plot is also top notch, being shot as though it were a full-blown action film with wonderful cinematography and a climactic few minutes that will make you forget that you're watching a puppet show and actually have you on the edge of your seat. In fact, the only thing that lets down this opening episode is the fact that the M1 motorway is so empty. Where did all the traffic jams go? TopPit of PerilAn experimental army walking machine called the Sidewinder is being tested when the ground beneath it collapses and drops it into a fiery pit. The heat is too much for the army personnel to effect the rescue of the three man crew so, with time running out, International Rescue is called in. It's only the second episode, but already THUNDERBIRDS is showing a dip in brilliance after the superb opening episode. This is partly due to the victims being the US Army testing a new war machine and falling into a fiery pit of their own making and thus seeming a bit less worthy of rescue. The other failing is the Sidewinder itself, a machine that never looks practical nor impressive. What we do get, however, is the Mole, an iconic drilling machine that has been ripped off ever since it first appeared. The fact is, though, that these are quibbles because the kids will love it anyway. Written by Alan FennellDirected by Desmond Saunders Top The Perils of PenelopeAn old friend who helped establish International Rescue comes to Lady Penelope asking for help to track down his missing scientist partner who has gone missing on a transcontinental monorail train. Following the missing man's path, they learn how he disappeared and what the kidnappers want. Unfortunately, in order to get it, they have strapped Penelope to a ladder in the path of the next train in the middle of the longest tunnel in the world. In only the third episode, THUNDERBIRDS abandons what was looking like the standard format (crisis arises, normal rescues fail, International Rescue show up for last minute attempt) in favour of a spy story not unlike many of the ITC era stories (series like THE CHAMPIONS, DANGER MAN et al) but with added sunprobes and monorails. It's a showcase for the delightfully unflappable Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, but the rest of International Rescue are relegated to the role of onlookers in their own show. Still, the sunprobe at the beginning is superb and the monorail is pretty impressive as well. Thunderbird 2 is always impressive, even when it's not doing much. Written by Alan PattillaDirected by Alan Pattilla and Desmond Saunders Top Terror in New York CityA news reporter and his cameraman attempt (and fail) to take film of Thunderbird 1 after a rescue in an oilfield. On the return flight, Thunderbird 2 is shot up by the navy and manages a crash landing back at the island. When, a few days later, the same reporter and cameraman get trapped in a hole beneath the Empire State Building during an operation to move the tower block en masse, International Rescue are faced with the prospect of not being able to get there in time. You get two rescues for the price of one in this episode. Firstly there is the oilfield on fire (and the special effects team do fire so well) and then there is the underground river rescue. This introduces Thunderbird 4, the underwater rescue craft. Unfortunately, this is shot through a fish tank to get the underwater effect. Whilst this does give a good effect for the most part, the appearance of giant fish really breaks the suspension of disbelief that the rest of the show maintains even with its puppet characters. The moving of the Empire State Building is very impressive and the subsequent collapse of both it and a secondary building are really well realised. The climactic scenes where Thunderbird 4 is racing to escape as a building teeters at an ever increasing angle to crash down upon it is nail-biting stuff indeed. The trouble with this episode is the circumstances in which Thunderbird 2 gets shot up. The navy makes no attempt to contact the unidentified craft on its radar before blasting it and Virgil in Thunderbird 2 makes no attempt to call the ship and say, 'Oops sorry, but I'm Thunderbird 2 and I'm going to steer off in another direction so as not to upset you'. This isn't just a case of a grown up complaining about a kids' show either. A four year old in the audience asked simply 'Why aren't they talking to each other?'. Out of the mouths of babes... Written by Alan FennellDirected by David Elliott and David Lane Top Edge of ImpactThe evil Hood is back and this time he's sabotaging an aeroplane (hang on isn't that what he did in Trapped in the Sky?). The Red Arrow is the most advanced weapon being tested and certain powers would like it to fail. Fail it does, through his sabotage and the disgraced head of project flies off to Tracy Island to visit Jeff whilst the second test takes place. This time, the plane crashes into a high tower, leaving two men stranded at the top with no way to get down other than when the whole thing collapses. How can International Rescue go to work with a visitor in their midst. It's nice to see that not all the rescues that International Rescue are going to carry out are going to require huge amounts of very specialised equipment. The rescue in this episode is the equivalent of handing the trapped men a couple of parachutes. Brilliant. On the other hand, the second plot strand of having to keep a guest out of the way whilst the rescue takes place is far less interesting and takes up far too much screen time. Written by Donald RobertsonDirected by Desmond Saunders Top Day of DisasterA rocket due to be sent to Mars is being transported across country when it comes to a suspension that was recently hit by the worst storm it has ever suffered. The bridge collapses and the rocket falls into the river, landing upright and setting off the launch program even though it is weighed down by tonnes of debris. Things look bleak for the two men inside unless International Rescue can save the day. This is another excellent episode tha concentrates on the job of setting up a disaster and then a thrilling rescue against the clock. The vehicle transporting the martian probe and the bridge itself are very impressively realised and the collapse of the structure is extremely well done. Less well done is the subplot of the bridge staff believing that Brains is a little crazy as he tries to help the rescue by communicating with Thunderbird 1 through his watch. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by David Elliott Top 30 Minutes After NoonA married man on his way home picks up a hitch-hiker and gets an explosive bracelet strapped to his wrist. With only twenty minutes he has to get to his office and take off the bracelet. Not quite making it, he gets trapped in a lift shaft and has to be rescued. The gang that carried out the plot then try the same stunt with three operatives that they want to break into a nuclear storage facility guarded only by robots. One of them is a British agent, but when he is captured by one of the robots, he is left sitting on a nuclear explosion likely to destroy half of Britain. This is an episode of two halves. The opening half with a man having to destroy his own building in order to save his life is surprisingly effective and could have made up a whole story, but then it moves onto the second half involving the nuclear storage facility, which is effectively the same plot played out again. The real weak link, though, are the robots that look so terrible that they yank you right out of the story and spoil any chance the story has of keeping your suspension of disbelief intact. Written by Alan FennellDirected by David Elliott Top Desperate IntruderBrains and Tintin set out on a expedition to discover a lost temple full of ancient treasure at the bottom of a lake in the desert, but they are not alone in their search. The villainous Hood is hiding in the lake in his submarine and he has plans to steal the treasure once they have found it. Once again, he has not counted on the intervention of International Rescue. When THUNDERBIRDS moves away from the core format of exciting rescues it usually falls flat and this is another episode where that is in evidence. The scenes with Brains buried in the sand up to his neck are actually quite disturbing, especially for the younger audience, but otherwise there is little real tension or excitement. One of the lesser episodes. Written by Donald RobertsonDirected by David Lane Top End of the RoadWhen a huge road laying machine runs into trouble in a storm in high mountains, International Rescue are left in a quandary. The man they need to rescue is one who knows them and therefore rescuing him is likely to put their anonymity at risk. It's hardly likely that the team would ever leave a man to die just to save their secret, especially one who helped them to create the organisation and so the dilemma really has no teeth to it, but it does distract from the real business at hand. Once the rescue gets underway in driving rain and awful conditions, the episode picks up considerably. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by David Lane Top The UninvitedWhen Thunderbird 1 gets shot down in the deep desert by mysterious fighters, a pair of explorers looking for a lost pyramid save Scott. He gets a chance to return the favour when they discover the lost pyramid and find it the home of a race of people intent on causing trouble. Too much goes unexplained in this episode for it to be truly successful. Who are these men? How have they survived so long hidden away in this pyramid? How has the pyramid escaped detection all this time? None of this is answered. On the other hand the tension as Scott and the explorers race to escape from the pyramid before it destroys itself is quite high and the strangers refuse to speak english at any time, making them definitely exotic. The destruction of the pyramid is also very impressive. Written by Alan FennellDirected by Desmond Saunders Top Sun ProbeThe Sun Probe in question is, unsurprisingly, a probe heading to the sun to collect matter from a solar flare near to the surface. The mission is a success, but the ship's retros fail to fire, meaning that the men are stranded in orbit of the sun and close to melting. Thunderbird 3 is launched to save them, but the heat, for which it is not modified, locks its retros as well and it is left on a collision course with the sun. A desperate bid to send a signal from one of the world's highest peaks is their only hope. The series bounces back from some lacklustre episodes with this real cracker. You can almost feel the heat as the ships approach the sun and then the cold as Thunderbird 2 sets down in a snowstorm on a remote mountain peak. The excitement is sustained throughout and even the insistence of having a stupid robot involved manages not to break the spell that the plot and the direction have managed to weave. The sun probe launch is really impressive model work and this is an all round superior episode. Written by Alan FennellDirected by David Lane Top Operation Crash DiveThe Fireflash aircraft suffers an unexplained crash into the sea. Test flights soon end the same way. International Rescue manage to save the crew of one of the test flights and determine to resolve the technical problems. The technical problem turns out to be a saboteur. You have to feel sorry for the folks that run the Fireflash aircraft (even though they're puppets). Following the events of Trapped in the Sky, they are being targeted again by another saboteur. The plot, though it is a virtual rerun of that first episode, manages to be successful thanks to the brilliant modelwork that keeps the Fireflash as the most impressive non-Thunderbird vehicle in the whole show. Shots of the vehicle clearing the coastline or taking off are so well done that you can't fail to be utterly captivated and impressed by its presence and scale. All this in a children's puppet show. This is truly the magic of THUNDERBIRDS. Written by Martin CrumpDirected by Desmond Saunders Top Vault of DeathLady Penelope's butler Parker has a shady past that comes in useful when a worker gets stuck in the Bank of England's time-locked safe. With oxygen running out, the International Rescue team race to find a way to break into the burglar-proof vault in time and Parker and Lady Penelope race to get an all-important key to London. After a couple of weeks of impressive, epic rescues this is a tight little crisis that doesn't manage to raise the same kind of tension as the larger disasters, something that isn't helped by the fact that the worker locked in the vault isn't even aware of his own situation. Someone on the writing staff clearly has a problem with women drivers as the running joke of Lady Penelope's driving skills is neither big, nor clever nor funny. The kids, no doubt, will eat it up. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by David Elliott Top The Mighty AtomYears after a nuclear powered irrigation plant nearly spread a deadly radiation dust cloud over Sydney, the Hood sabotages a similar station in Africa in order to get a cunningly disguised camera aboard Thunderbird 2. Using seawater to irrigate the deserts is an idea that often comes up even today when discussing climate change and famine, which shows how the series maintains its relevance today. The sequence with the radiation clouds rolling through the Australian outback are genuinely eerie. I'm not sure why it takes International Rescue to push in some control rods into the reactor, but once again Lady Penelope is the butt of some decidedly sexist humour that is the only thing that dates the show. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by David Lane Top City Of FireA crash in the underground car parks of the world's largest self-contained skyscraper causes the building to collapse, trapping a family in the subterranean corridors with the inferno raging ever closer. International Rescue is on the way, but they are relying on a new cutting gas that has previously incapacitated them in tests. This is a really impressive disaster with lots of destruction and fire effects. The Firefly and Mole machines are used to great effect and there really is a sense of excitement and tension, both from the fire and from the fact that the experimental gas could kill the rescuers. Only another hackneyed dig at the quality of women drivers spoils it. Written by Alan FennellDirected by David Elliott Top The ImpostersWhen a pair of imposters dress up like International Rescue and use a fake rescue mission to steal the plans for a supersecret fighter aircraft, the THUNDERBIRDS crew have to halt their operations. Whilst the whole world searches for their secret hideout, Lady Penelope searches for the imposters in order to clear their names. Then the crew of a satellite get into trouble and the team have to decide whether their secrecy is worth a man's life. An episode of THUNDERBIRDS in which they can't even fly. It's a measure of the show that it would dare to risk such a thing. Unfortunately, the inclusion of hillbillies Jeremiah and his ma undermine the whole thing for the sake of a few cheap laughs. It's also a shame that Lady Penelope, an otherwise eminently capable agent and female role model is shown to be a total klutz in the countryside. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by Desmond Saunders Top The Man From MI5Chasing some saboteurs who have used a submarine to steal some secret papers, Lady Penelope finds herself captured and locked up in a boat along with a bomb that is set to go off to distract a passing coastguard ship. She manages to alert International Rescue to her plight, but not her location. The team have to find the bad guys before they can trigger the bomb. For an organisation that claims no political bias, International Rescue seems to spend a lot of its time hunting down spies and saboteurs. Due to the nature of the story, the rescue here is a lot less tense than many others have been. Written by Alan FennellDirected by David Lane Top Cry WolfTwo young boys playing at being International Rescue set off an alarm call with their game. The team bring them to the HQ and give them a tour. It all makes the news and soon the boys are being paid a visit by the Hood, who imprisons them in a mine. Their calls for help go unregarded as the team think they are simply crying wolf again. For an organisation that relies on secrecy for its very existence, taking two small boys to your headquarters and telling them your real names isn't really the way to go. The fact that the news story tells everything except those details is something of a miracle. That it brings the people who lust after the team's secrets is inevitable, so why the team refuse to believe the two boys when they call again is very hard to credit, especially as there was no other immediate emergency taking up their time. Written by Dennis SpoonerDirected by David Elliott Top Danger at Ocean DeepA huge tanker goes missing and its replacement sets out some time later with a cargo of liquid alsterene. International Rescue is being plagued by communications difficulties of an unknown origin. Is there a connection between these two events and dog food? This episode could be used as a timely warning to all scientists and doctors on the unpredictability of the real world and how unconsidered factors can bring about catastrophic results. The fact that the communications problems are caused by an interaction between the chemical compound alsterene and a marine-living lichen seems utterly ridiculous, but science is full of other such ridiculous reactions. The modelwork, especially the tankers Ocean Pioneer I and II, is really noteworthy and the final rescue well up to spec. Written by Donald RobertsonDirected by Desmond Saunders Top Move and You're DeadAlan finds himself stood on the girder of a bridge under a blazing sun. He is unable to move due to the positioning of a bomb nearby that is set up to explode if he moves. As his body slowly begins to fail, he thinks back to the sequence of events that brought him to this point. Brains, meanwhile, searches for a way to neutralise the bomb without being able to get close to it. More playing around with the format of the show, but not to any great effect. What International Rescue does best is rescue people. That's what they absolutely do not do here. There's motor racing cars for the action, but one man standing still is not the greatest way to generate excitement. Written by Alan PattillaDirected by Alan Pattilla Top The Duchess AssignmentLady Penelope's friend the Duchess of Royston is embarrassed at the gaming tables and agrees to sell a very valuable painting. She is, however, kidnapped and it is up to Lady Penelope, her butler Parker and the Thunderbirds team to save her. Despite having the greatest format ever thought of (brothers carry out tense rescues in futuristic vehicles) the series continually plays with it by throwing in spying/crime or action stories that do it no favours at all. This is another one of those, but it does manage to redeem itself at the end by reverting back to the tense rescue scenario and using the iconic underground drilling machine the Mole. Written by Martin CrumpDirected by David Elliott Top Brink of DisasterLady Penelope is approached to invest in a venture involving a superadvanced monorail system, but Parker warns her that the man is a crook. She gets Jeff Tracey to take a look instead and, whilst her house is being burgled, Jeff, Brains and Tintin are trapped on a train hurtling towards a damaged stretch of track. The plot here doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. The scamsters here have a real business opportunity in the shape of the monorail and yet seem to be using it to get dodgy investment money and to set up their investors. If their scheme doesn't make sense then it makes even less that Jeff would go along for the ride with the conman and even less that he would take Brains and Tintin along for the ride. That said, the rescue at the end is exciting stuff and it is rather fun to watch the usually staid Jeff Tracey get annoyed at the conman as he unravels under the pressure. That this amuses us is even more of a testament to the character that the production manages to invest these puppets with. Written by Alan FennellDirected by David Lane Top Attack of the AlligatorsAn experimental growth serum that is planned to bring an end to hunger has been developed in a remote rain forest research station, but some gets spilled into the water course by a thief and suddenly the researchers are under siege by giant alligators. This is one of the most loved of the THUNDERBIRDS episodes and it all comes down to the brilliant wheeze of using baby alligators to double as the giant ones in the story. Undeniably real, they provide a more than credible threat that provides a real frisson of fear to the story. You'll forget that these are puppets that are in danger, not real people. Written by Alan PattillaDirected by David Lane Top Martian InvasionThe Hood decides to use a film set as the setting for his latest attempt to get film of the Thunderbirds. Using his telepathic link with Kyrano to disable the automatic camera detector, he stages a disaster and when International Rescue arrive, he starts filming. The Hood and his schemes to get pictures of the Thunderbirds are played for laughs here. He's a bit like Wile E Coyote trying uselessly to catch the Road Runner. That said, he is willing to let others die in order to carry out his scheme. The danger is reminiscent of that which faced the the journalists in Terror In New York City (trapped in a cave, water rushing in etc), but it just about gets by without too much deja vu. Written by Alan FennellDirected by David Elliott Top The Cham ChamAn aircraft with supersecret cargo is shot down by three unidentified aircraft. Brains believes that they were guided to the attack by a code in a musical broadcast by the Cas Carnaby Five cabaret band. Lady Penelope and Tintin go to the remote snowy resort where the band make their broadcasts in an attempt to find out what is happening, whilst Brains and the team attempt to unscramble the code. When the bad guys find out what is happening, they sabotage the cable car with the two women and Parker on board. This is one of the periodic forays into spying that Lady Penelope seems to get involved in and the undercover work is Ok, but not what the show does really well. The musical backdrop dates the show instantly and Lady Penelope's singing voice is particularly awful. Fortunately, the cable car rescue at the end is a pulse-pounding affair that makes up for everything that has gone before. Written by Alan PattillaDirected by Alan Pattilla Top Security HazardA young boy sneaks aboard Thunderbird 2 during a rescue and makes it all the way back to Tracy Island undetected. Jeff Tracy is livid and orders the team to keep silent, but the boy's innocent curiosity has everyone babbling out the histories of their favourite rescues. Yes, this is one of those awful compilation shows where an excuse is found to use already filmed footage from previous episodes. Admittedly the rescues involved (Trapped in the Sky, Day of Disaster, End of The Road and Sun Probe) are all pretty good examples of what the show does best, but that can't take away from the fact that this a tacky excuse for saving money. Wishful thinking for youngsters who would like to visit the headquarters of International Rescue it might be, but the ending where the team manage to convince the boy that it was all just a dream won't convince even a five year old. Considering the awful breaches of security in Cry Wolf you would wonder why they would bother. Written by Alan PattillaDirected by Desmond Saunders Top Atlantic InfernoTests of a new weapon in the ocean leads to a breach of the sea bed and a giant gas jet burning a few miles from one of the biggest mining rigs in the world. Scott, temporarily in charge whilst his father takes a holiday, sends the team in to cap the fire and put it out. When two more appear, however, the rig and everybody aboard is put in jeopardy and a rescue is mounted that will test all of the team not just its new leader. This is a nice example of the show doing what it does best. An exciting rescue with some sparkling special effects (the burning gas jets are especially effective) and even some characterisation as Scott struggles with the burden of command. Perhaps not a classic, but a very solid entry into the show. Written by Alan FennellDirected by Desmond Saunders Top Path of DestructionThe nuclear-powered Crablogger is a machine that can clear forests for roadbuilding projects in a matter of days. On its first day of full operation in South America, however, the crew are incapacitated and the vehicle careers off course straight towards a small town and the local dam. This episode suffers from some very sloppy plotting. The reactor core needs shutting down and only one man (the designer) knows how to do it. That in itself is a bit stupid, since he's in another continent, but nobody thinks of ringing him up and asking him for the shutdown procedures. No, instead Lady Penelope goes to his house and holds him at gunpoint without explaining why she needs the information. On top of that, the crew are overcome by heat on the first full day of operations. Surely somebody carried out controlled testing and would have picked up such a problem. And why should anyone have built a machine that is a moving nuclear bomb that even with the reactor shut down is filled with hundreds of gallons of highly explosive liquid in the first place? That said, the Crablogger is a very impressive special effect with a real sense of huge size and weight. This makes the end sequences of the machine traversing a ledge that is slowly crumbling beneath it all the more tense (if no less ridiculous). Written by Donald RobertsonDirected by David Elliott Top Alias Mr HackenbackerThe fashion industry is a real cut and thrust business and when a friend of Penelope's comes up with a revolutionary material that can be kept in a matchbox and still fold out into a perfect dress, the industrial espionage machine kicks into overdrive. To protect the collection, the showing is held aboard the Skythrust, a revolutionary plane designed by Mr Hackenbacker, more informally known to International Rescue as Brains. When the plane is hijacked, Thunderbird 2 is forced to shoot it down, relying on a secret something known as the Hackenbacker device to save the day. What better idea for a show about a rescue organisation than an episode in which nobody gets rescued? That's what this is. It spends half the running length with Lady Penelope identifying bugs in various places. Faintly amusing yes, but nothing like the stuff the show can put together. The digs at the fashion industry are also faintly amusing but somewhat cliched and not what we signed up for in the first place. The Thunderbirds pretty much get to sit around and watch events happening in their own show. The rendering of Paris is pretty good though. Not one of the best and not one to keep the smaller children (or boys) terribly interested. Written by Alan PattillaDirected by Desmond Saunders Top Lord Parker's 'OlidayA small town becomes world famous when it becomes the first place to have all of its electricity supplied by a solar power station situated in the mountains above. The reflector, however, crashes down following a severe storm and is left pointing directly at the town with the sun due to rise in only a couple of hours. Someone needs to be fired for not putting up a few lightning rods to make sure that the tower of the solar collecting station wasn't hit by every bolt of lightning in the storm. That aside, most of the episode is given up to Lady Penelope and Parker verbally sparring off each other and wearing silly costumes. The Thunderbirds only get called in late in the episode in order to save the day. Parker pretends to be a Lord in order to persuade the residents of a hotel to play his ancient game of 'Bingo' in order to take their mind off the fact that the roof is starting to smoulder. Nobody at any time thinks that it would be a good idea to evacuate. That said, the rescue is the usual mix of tension and superb modelwork whilst the moment that Fab1 (Lady Penelope's pink Rolls Royce) takes to the ocean to get a signal for the phone makes the vehicle as iconic as any of the other Thunderbirds craft. Written by Tony BarwickDirected by Brian Burgess Top RicochetAn unlicensed satellite plays home to the Ricochet pirate broadcast station. It operates out of an unknown orbit. When a rogue rocket is aborted and blows up nearby, the satellite starts a long, slow fall to Earth. The Thunderbirds must save the two man crew and stop the satellite impacting on the largest oil-refinery in the world with devastating ecological results. Interational Rescue fails! It's a daring concept to play with, especially on a children's show. The fact that it's not true doesn't take away from the bravery of chancing it. It's also refreshingly adult to have the lead broadcaster someone detested by a member of the Thunderbirds team (through jealousy over a woman) and even punches him out. The set up is less interesting. The whole disaster is put into play by the space agency not knowing where the satellite is and therefore blowing up the rocket too close. Surely in this far future they have radar capable of spotting it and computers capable of keeping track of it. Not that it matters, the rescue itself has the requisite level of excitement and that twist of not getting everyone out alive (apparently). Written by Tony BarwickDirected by Brian Burgess Top Give Or Take a MillionIt's Christmas and International Rescue has agreed to play host to one lucky child from a children's hospital. The company supplying the toys for the event, however, is right next to the bank and there are a couple of robbers wanting to make away with a lot of gold. It's Christmas which means Christmas themed stories, sloppy scripting and a thoroughly poor episode. The story with the robbers really doesn't impact on the International Rescue story at all. It just sort of happens and doesn't come to any sort of sensible climax rather than just sort of finish. The ease with which they break into the bank vault itself makes a mockery of any claims for the security system. The Thunderbird team don't actually do anything more than abandon all the security that they worked so hard to maintain in Security Hazard. They invite a child, show him their island, tell him their names and then give him back to the hospital so that the bad guys can target him for kidnapping in order to learn their secrets? I don't think so. On top of that, delivering the christmas presents to the hospital by rocket doesn't sound like the kind of thing that the Health and Safety Executive would think too highly of. But it's Christmas and Brains made it snow on the island, so we'll forgive them, if only because we won't get another chance. Written by Alan PattillaDirected by Desmond Saunders Top |
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