Thunderbirds

This is perfect entertainment.

Everyone can appreciate a good puppet show, and everyone can appreciate a good model; but this show took puppet shows and models to a bold new level of detailing and production complexity. I imagine that on paper it might have looked crazy to some, but believe me, it works. It is indeed, as mentioned in another viewer's comment, like a world of toys come to vibrant life.

The making of this show necessitated a fabricated miniature universe. For the premise to work, that world had to be obsessively detailed, with every doorknob, switch, coat button and lock of hair. If the show went to the mountains, they created the mountains. When the ships were in flight, they created the sky. Whatever was needed to pull the story off was built; there was no limit. That these people created a world as believably as they did deserves real praise.

"Thunderbirds" represented a budgetary step up and a refinement of technique for Gerry Anderson, who for years had worked to perfect an all-puppet TV show that could be taken as serious drama. It was always targeted at kids, but the stories seldom featured child characters, and being a "rescue show," the characters were routinely placed in very threatening predicaments. The effects used to depict scenes of destruction (supervised by Derek Meddings) were often frighteningly realistic. When I saw it as a kid, actually, I had no interest in it, because it seemed dry and "too adult." Seeing it many years later, my reaction was "Wow! How adult!"

The show is the source of many amusing chuckles today, mainly because its seriousness is absolutely unflinching, despite the fact that the puppets obviously aren't real people. The action was played straight, with appropriate dramatic music cues, and conventional film camera angles and cutting. This all conspired to create a very convincing puppet universe--one that no one would dare attempt today.

The recent DVD releases (from A&E) have gone through a digital cleanup process, which has brightened the colors and sharpened the images considerably. The original monaural audio has also been incorporated into a new surround-stereo "remix" featuring additional sound effects tracks. The augmented explosions are deafeningly loud at times--which is perhaps as it should be!

In a word: Amazing.

Thunderbirds is justly remembered as Gerry Anderson's best series, and its mixture of memorable characters, superb production values, strong scripts, and tense action remains enticing. The concept of a "free-lance" rescue organization using highly advanced machinery for rescues in exceptionally dangerous situations hits home immediately, and the characterization (enhanced by the show's one-hour format) adds enormously to the tension and sympathy within the show's 32 episodes.

Anderson recruited a superior voice cast in Peter Dyneley, Shane Rimmer, David Holliday (who regrettably left the show after its first season), Matt Zimmerman, veteran AP Film voices David Graham and Ray Barrett, Christine Finn, Gerry's then-wife Sylvia, and John Tate. Though some of the dialogue can be a bit cheesy, it still works, imbuing each character with sympathy and draw. It all enhances the enjoyably lavish sets, props, and special effects that create the intriuguing mixture of future with circa-1964 present. Adding a sweep and majesty to the procedings is the score of Barry Gray, using a large orchestra and displaying an often clever grasp of its strength, from the opening teaser and main march openings to each episode through the many incidental cues used, employing multiple instruments down to a solo by banjo or guitar to create the proper atmosphere.

When it all comes to conclusion, the show wins on almost every level, making for an immortal series.

Thunderbirds was a major part of my childhood. EVERYTHING stopped for Thunderbirds. It did not matter how many times we watched the episodes they remained as fresh as the first viewing. There is a lot of camp humour about the puppets dangling around on their strings but I never noticed that much due to the brilliant idea of never making the characters actually walk. Seriously you watch the TV episodes again you never see anyone put one foot in front of the other. Even the lithe brave Tracys scoot around on little hoverbikes that defy all the laws of physics.

All this did not matter I simply adored EVERYthing about the Thunderbirds series. If I was not watching it I was building Thunderbird craft out of LEGO or sawing the crude wheels of the few Thunderbird toys that were available. Then Captain Scarlet came along and shot down the Thunderbirds. That was quite a good series but it never gripped me as much. Then the years rolled by with only TV21 to keep my appetite for the show nourished until even that with its full colour photos from the show came to an end. Reluctantly I had to leave the Tracy's world and return to my own. AND THEN! The entire series was released on DVD. I had to own it! With trepidation I inserted the first disk . Would the show seem childish and crude against my current diet of StarTrek, Starwars and all the others. Not a bit, as soon as that countdown began once again and the screen was rocked by those explosions I had seen so many times before I was hooked ! Again I was amazed at how fresh and alive the episodes are even after all these years. Even the special effects hold their own in our CGI world. Thunderbirds is an absolute classic. If you have never watched it then I envy you.

You know what I like about this show: it takes me back in time to the days when I loved to play with toys, the days when I used to spend the whole afternoon in the bedroom of a friend of mine playing on the floor with our toys, late into the night, imitating the sound of jet engines with our mouths, crashing our plastic planes into one another, mimicking gunfights, battles, explosions. A few weeks ago I was surprised to find that Chilean TV is replaying the show on Sundays. Last time I had seen one episode must have been fifteen years ago or more, I don't know. I watched and I found myself transported through time back to those days. I can't play with toys anymore, I have lost that childhood thing for toys. But watching the show I re-live the magic of toys, I feel again the beauty and the spell of toy trains, toy cars, toy trucks, toy soldiers, toy planes, etc. And I didn't remember the show looking so gorgeously great on TV (perhaps the reason for that is that back then I watched the show in black and white). Big fun from past!

5......4.......3.........2.........1......

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!!!!!

And what youngster who didn't recognized the start of the show's theme during the 1960's where the era of James Bond, mini-skirts, and just about every spy show there is to boot?

First off,I am a HUGE fan of this show. My parents didn't understand it. My brother didn't care about it. As for me and my cousin who would thumb through the TV section in the local newspaper to see what time it came on....DEFINITELY YES!!!! WE WOULD NEVER MISS IT!!!!

During my childhood in the late-1960's and early 1970's,this show would come on every weekday afternoon and mostly Saturday mornings and afternoons as well as me and my cousin would be hooked to the TV set to catch what the Thunderbirds would get into next cause with this show you can expect the unexpected. For some,they may say that this show consisted of models and puppets and geared toward children as it target audience.....and in my book.....THEY WERE WRONG! THIS SHOW ROCKS!!!!

For the 32 episodes that ran during its two seasons(which was showed first in Britain and then on American television on NBC-TV which after it went off the air in 1966,its repeats continue way into 1970 and from there into syndication until for the remainder of the decade until it disappear in oblivion during the 1980's and 1990's)this show was not just your typical kiddie fare material but it was so more much. Where else can you see gorgeous ladies in distress,spectacular machinary that was out of this world and was the best part of the show,amazing spy gadgets and outlandish sets of wonder and magical beyond belief,and not to even mention evil villains set out to take over the world and also spellbinding cliffhanging excitement that left you in total amazement.

All presented in brilliant color and Supermarionation!!!!

It was no wonder that when the show went off the air in 1966,the crew made their first ever feature length motion picture of the same title which was an international hit. However,the Thunderbird producers Garry and Sylvia Anderson went on to create not just other animated shows,but produced the live-action feature length film "Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun"(ITC/Universal,1969)and the series "Space:1999"(Syndication, 1975-1978)with former Mission:Impossible stars Barbara Bain and Martin Landau.

However after a lengthly absence,The Technology Channel or Tech-TV has brought back all those wonderful memories from the essence of my childhood which are showed Thursday nights. Great series. Don't miss one breathtaking episode!