Monthly Archives: December 2016

Thunderbirds – 19. The Impostors

The fundamental premise of The Impostors is a work of sheer original brilliance. It takes the world of Thunderbirds and turns it upside down in a way that remains true to the original formula of the show. The episode is packed full of action, intrigue, and memorable guest characters to tell the story of International Rescue’s fall from grace as their global reputation is called into question. The Impostors turns away from the optimistic and heroic attitude of the series which simply marvels at incredible engineering and bravery, instead showing us the skeptics and the criminals who try to turn any situation to their advantage.

Thunderbirds – 18. 30 Minutes After Noon

30 Minutes After Noon is quite an oddity. It distinctly features two very different rescue missions, an awful lot of live action hand inserts and unusual camera angles, and some robots which… well we’ll come to those later. It couldn’t be clearer that this script originally started life as a half hour story but needed to be extended before production started. Yet despite being linked by the bracelet plot, the two halves of the episode feel like two completely separate stories that have been glued together afterwards. David Elliott directs the episode (or at least the second half of it) with flare and quirkiness, inspired as he was by the film The Ipcress File.

The Gerry Anderson Christmas Quiz

‘Tis the season to put on your favourite festive Gerry Anderson shows! Our gift to you this year is a Christmas quiz to sink your teeth into with a hot mince pie and a glass of whatever takes your fancy. Good luck and let us know how you did. There’s some tricky ones in there!

Thunderbirds – 17. Desperate Intruder

Brains is placed firmly in the centre of the action in this week’s episode as he becomes the only member of International Rescue to meet The Hood one on one. When an attempt was made to give him a prominent role in Day of Disaster he ended up being sidelined as the comic relief. Here the focus is only deadly danger and some of the most disturbing moments ever seen in Thunderbirds. There’s no question that The Hood is back to the level of nasty last seen way back in Trapped In The Sky.

Gerry Anderson Vehicles in Kerbal Space Program

This week the Security Hazard blog has put together a video where we build and fly some classic vehicles from the Gerry Anderson canon in a game called Kerbal Space Program. In true Thunderbirds style, some of them crash and explode a bit too…

Thunderbirds – 16. Edge of Impact

Edge of Impact was one of the first episodes I saw as a kid, sitting as it did on a Channel 5 VHS alongside Day of Disaster. One thing, however, often stopped me from watching it – my irrational fear of The Hood. That’s right, he’s back, and on this occasion he has no interest at all in International Rescue, and instead just wants to put the Red Arrow project out of action in exchange for a box of treasure. Let’s see how he does!

Thunderbirds – 15. Day Of Disaster

Day Of Disaster demonstrates that when the ambitious Americans of the Thunderbirds world are daring enough to try and send a rocket to Mars, one pompous Brit in love with his rusty old suspension bridge is enough to bring the project to a grinding halt. Yes, the British don’t always come out on top in Thunderbirds and appear to fundamentally lack common sense a lot of the time – such as Lord Silton being driven all the way to the bank in Vault of Death only to have forgotten his key, or Sir Jeremy Hodge in The Perils of Penelope standing at a locked door yelling about how British he is but not actually trying to fix the problem. Day Of Disaster is the next in a line of episodes which shows us how ineffective, yet loveable, us Brits are in Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s vision of the future… to say nothing of the amazing sequence when the rocket falls off the bridge.