Sci-Fi Review: Thunderbirds (The Series)

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After receiving the blu-ray box set of Thunderbirds from Eleonor for Christmas in 2009, we have finally finished watching through each episode of the series!

While I remember Thunderbirds from growing up and seeing the series on early morning TV, I was also influenced as it was a favourite series of my father. He purchased a number of VHS tapes with Thunderbirds episodes on them including 'Vault of Death', 'Attack of the Alligators' and his favourite 'The Cham Cham' and also introduced us to other Gerry Anderson productions 'Fireball XL5', 'Stingray' and 'Captain Scarlet'.

Thunderbirds is probably the most popular series of Gerry Anderson's with puppets playing out all of the roles and fabulous, futuristic machines in a world set in the mid 21st century. In this world it seems that nuclear power has been fully embraced as everything from the Thunderbirds themselves and even civil passenger jetliners are powered with nuclear reactors. All the while, Earth's safety measures and quality control appear to have dropped which ultimately leads to a number of disasters with horrific consequences prompting the formation of International Rescue. One disaster in particular sees a Nuclear Power Plant in Australia go into meltdown from a simple gunshot which causes a small fire to take down the plant, the resulting radioactive cloud reaches one of Australia's major cities, Melbourne.

International Rescue is headed by millionaire and former astronaut, Jeff Tracy. He lives on secluded Tracy Island (somewhere in the South Pacific we are led to believe) and has five sons. Four live on the island with him while one (usually John Tracy) is always on watch in orbit aboard their satellite and space station, Thunderbird 5. John listens out for distress calls and emergency transmissions on any frequency. Eventually, once International Rescue become known around the world he is able to listen out for transmissions directed to the team. He then relays the message to Tracy Island where Jeff will coordinate the others accordingly.

Scott, the eldest brother pilots Thunderbird 1 and is the first to leave and arrive on the scene. Thunderbird 1 is a hypersonic aircraft capable of launching like a rocket, but flying horizontally with wings that extend to assist with flight. Scott will organise and run operations via a mobile control centre he is able to setup virtually anywhere. Virgil pilots Thunderbird 2 which can carry support equipment and craft in a detachable pod appropriate for the rescue mission. Popular support craft include Thunderbird 4 (piloted by Gordon), a submarine vehicle for deep water operations and The Mole, used for drilling underground. There is also Firefly which is good for moving large amounts of debris and withstanding high temperatures among others. Thunderbird 3 is their space vehicle, piloted by the youngest Tracy brother, Alan. Thunderbird 3 is the lifeline between Tracy Island and Thunderbird 5 and was crucial in the Sunprobe and Ricochet rescue missions.

Each Thunderbird craft and support vehicle is the work of engineering mastermind, Brains. He lives on Tracy Island among others including Grandma, Kyrano and his daughter Tin-Tin. Brains is also key in several missions, using his knowledge to work out a problem or provide on-hand support.

While most of the operations International Rescue deal with are accident or misadventure, some are instigated by a mysterious villain known (but not named on screen) as The Hood. We are shown that he is the half-brother of Tracy Island guest, Kyrano and has a telepathic hold over him which is used in a few episodes. The Hood's motive is usually to lure International Rescue into action and grab photographs of their craft to learn their secrets. The very emergency that springs International Rescue into operation is caused by the Hood planting a bomb on the supersonic, atomic powered airliner 'Fireflash'.

Thunderbirds is a fun series for all ages. Each episode features a different rescue operation that youngsters would enjoy for the machines in use and the ways in which the IR team are able to overcome the disaster situation. There is plenty of humour involved and much of this comes from Parker, the butler/driver for London based agent Lady Penelope and the pink Rolls-Royce, FAB1.

Standout episodes for me included:

• 'Trapped in the Sky', the pilot episode involving a supersonic airliner in distress and how International Rescue become operational,
• 'Terror in New York City', where they are attempting to relocate the Empire State Building - it goes wrong of course,
• 'The Mighty Atom', features the nuclear plant meltdown in Australia which is nearly replicated at a plant in Africa by the Hood. This episode is the only one to feature all of the Thunderbirds in action,
• 'City of Fire', a crash in a skyscraper parking lot brings down the world's tallest building (as it would!),
  
• 'The Cham Cham', the first Thunderbirds episode I got to see. Has a James Bond-esque feel to it.

My father always told me that Thunderbird 2 was his favourite of the machines with Virgil as its pilot, I think my younger brother followed in that liking while mine became Thunderbird 3. I was a bit surprised to find that Gerry Anderson quoted in one of the featurettes that he never really liked Thunderbird 3 and it shows when it wasn't seen until the 11th episode of the series! TB3 was only used in a few rescue missions (because it was a space rocket) and instead was mainly seen ferrying pilots and supplies between Tracy Island and Thunderbird 5.

With the characters, Eleonor would often liken me to Scott, the eldest brother, Dad reminded me of Virgil (which makes his liking for TB2 and Virgil appropriate) while my younger brother reminded us of Alan, the youngest Tracy brother, particularly when he got stroppy :P

In any case, it's a fun series to watch and on blu-ray the episodes are clear and crisp, as are the strings for the puppets and machines in action! Now we're left with the two feature films 'Thunderbirds Are GO' and 'Thunderbird 6' as well as the live-action flop from 2004.

Thunderbirds Are Go!