All 32 episodes of the classic Thunderbirds series are to be reviewed, poked and prodded every Friday right here on the Security Hazard blog.
Following the arrival of the new-ish Thunderbirds blu-ray boxset from Shout Factory on my doorstep, I have decided to share my marathon of these beautifully restored high-definition episodes with all of you as part of a new, regular feature on the blog.
Thunderbirds is a brilliant and incredibly well-made series which stands up fantastically well all these years later. It’s not perfect, but it is charming and utterly thrilling to watch. I absolutely love it and over the course of these reviews I hope you’ll learn why.
I’ll be studying the episodes closely, with a focus on highlighting interesting facts and trivia about the episodes that I have come to learn over the years, and learnt for the first time with this new blu-ray release. As well as all the stunning attention to detail and artistic brilliance that appears on screen, I’ll also be highlighting some of the flaws and imperfections that serve to make the series charming, endearing and frustrating at times! All comments will be made out of my love and affection for the series – good and bad!
The commentaries will also feature lots of snapshots from the episodes and the articles will follow a similar style to my earlier Thunderbirds 1965 posts and the two-part Investigator review.
So for those of you who closely follow the Security Hazard blog here’s the new schedule:
Mondays: Business as usual – a mixture of fun articles and reviews on all aspects of the worlds of Gerry Anderson.
Fridays: Thunderbirds reviews.
Here are some additional facts about the upcoming reviews:
The boxset in use: ‘Thunderbirds: The Complete Series’ on Blu-ray from Shout Factory – Region A. This set is affordable and much improved from the 2008 UK release on Blu-ray which crops the episodes from 4:3 to 16:9. The Shout Factory set is rather lacking in special features (the Launching Thunderbirds documentary leaves a lot to be desired), but the improved image quality of the episodes makes up for that.
The episode order: I’ll be going through the episodes in ‘production order’ as listed here. This is the order in which the episodes appear on the boxset. The original broadcast order is used on the 2008 UK Blu-ray and previous DVD releases. Whilst the order the episodes were produced in is somewhat up for debate owing to the chaotic shooting schedule, the commonly accepted ‘production order’ does roughly demonstrates how work on the series progressed. It shows the evolution of the original half-hour episodes, as well as changes in story and character focus. The broadcast order is a tad mixed up for my tastes. Neither order is perfect but for the purpose of these articles, production order is more useful.
The length of the reviews: The main reason why I’m making these Thunderbirds reviews their own feature is because each blog post is likely to be a few thousand words long and won’t be to everyone’s tastes – although my hope is that Thunderbirds fans everywhere will enjoy digging into the nitty-gritty details along with me.
So this Friday we’re kicking off good and proper with Trapped In The Sky… no pressure…
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