"Terrahawks" (1983) TV series 1983-1986

Directors:

Tony Bell
Tony Lenny

Writer:

Gerry Anderson (writer, "Expect the Unexpected Part 1, " "Expect the Unexpected Part 2")

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

8 October 1983 (UK)

Genre:

Family | Sci-Fi

Plot:

In the year 2020 Earth is under threat from Martian androids who want revenge on the human race. They consist of Zelda...

Plot Keywords:

Puppet | Alien Invasion | Supermarionation | Puppetry | Gold

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

 (Series Cast [5])

Jeremy Hitchen	...	Chick King / ... (39 episodes, 1983-1986)
Denise Bryer	...	Mary Falconer / ... (39 episodes, 1983-1986)
Anne Ridler	...	Cy-Star / ... (39 episodes, 1983-1986)
Ben Stevens	...	Dix-Huit / ... (39 episodes, 1983-1986)
Windsor Davies	...	Sergeant Major Zero (39 episodes, 1983-1986)

Runtime:

23 min (39 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L

Company:

Anderson Burr Pictures

Trivia:

Terrahawks was the first Gerry Anderson puppet series to be made without the familiar "Supermarionation" puppetry technique and instead used a new superior "Supermacromation", a Muppet-style puppetry technique that made the puppets look more realistic and enabled them to be operated for the first time without any strings.

Quotes:

Lt. Hiro: [his favorite response to nearly anything] ... Exactry.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Making the Unexpected (2008) (TV)

"Flaming Thunderbolts!"

This was the first Gerry Anderson programme I ever saw when I was a kid, and I still love it. Okay, so it CAN be cheesy at times, especially with Zelda and her family always doing the 'evil laugh' thing and the joke about Lt. Hiro's accent (Exactry!), but I still like it as it has a great sense of humour and adventure about it.

I was glad when the series was released on DVD because that means I could now see the entire series! The extras on the DVDs are great as well, particularly the original shooting scripts which are contained. TERRAHAWKS also has some unintentional laughs in the guise of the preposterous sounding writer's pseudonyms used by Tony Barwick to disguise the fact that he wrote 98% of the episodes (examples include T.I. Gerstein, Koo Garstein, Leo Pardstein and P.U. Mastein, geddit?).

The Terrahawks are a colourful team themselves, although team leader Dr. Ninestein is a real jerk most of the time, particularly towards Sgt. Major Zero, leader of the Terrahawk robots the Zeroids. But Zero more often than not gets his own back on Ninestein. The Zeroids are a rather enjoyable set of characters too. Each one has his own personality: there's the aforementioned Zero, who is a real soldier type, Five-Five, who always talks in rhyme, the French-accented Dix-Huit (or Dicks-Hu-It, as Zero pronounces it) and the camp Space Sergeant 101). Villainess Zelda and her family are rather two-dimensional but at times, they display interesting personalities.

One element of the show which could be overdone is the amount of time Terrahawk pilot/pop star Kate Kestrel spends singing, but the songs are generally good. The storylines are pretty good too. One of the best is when some kind of mind control force is loose in the Terrahawk base, causing the team to face their worst fears.

I give TERRAHAWKS a thumbs-up. It may probably never be considered a classic, but it is certainly enjoyable!