Thunderbirds 2086

One of the formative shows of my childhood, this captivated me thanks to its intelligent, imaginative and optimistic vision of a future world where technology both enriches and expands humanity's reach on earth and the inner solar system, while also opening the door to new dangers and disasters. Fortunately the International Rescue team is on hand, equipped with gigantic combining space vehicles, a rousing orchestral soundtrack, science, and a team of brilliant pilots.

As a kid I had the episodes 'Cloudburst' and 'Nightmare' on VHS, both of which are standouts. Cloudburst is an especially tense example of this show's ability to use thoughtful science to drive compelling plots that slowly ratchet up the tension, as a meteor storm knocks out a weather control satellite, which in turn leads to a disastrous hurricane which threatens inhabited islands.

I didn't know or care that this started out as a heavy Japanese homage to a 60s puppet show (legitimised when it was ported over and translated) because it has enough great ideas to stand on its own. In hindsight some stilted voice acting in the English dub and a few dubious episodes prevent it from fully meeting its potential. But it deserved better than to sink into obscurity and be forgotten.

When I heard about this show when I was a kid, I was really excited. However watching it, I was sorely disappointed.

Being a big fan of the Gerry Anderson original, the one thing I liked was how the in the original, even though the Thunderbirds had incredible machines, they still had limits & had to work around them. They only had so many specialised vehicles (the mole, firefly) so the stories tended to show how the dangerous situations were overcome using ingenuity, & cleverness.

In Thunderbirds 2086 however, International Rescue (now a huge none secret organisation) had dozens & dozens of thunderbird machines, that would just so happen to be designed exactly for whatever emergency the team had that week. Even as a kid I felt the stories were not as good as the original. But to be fair, I think the original was a hard act to follow, plus it was a Japanese cartoon, so maybe they didn't have the same exposure the the original that we had.

It has been years since I saw this show but at the time, I was able to see not only the US version but the original Japanese episodes which were used to make the US version so I was aware of what liberties were being taken to make the US version.

For example, the US version had US 3D footage added (as transition sequences) and had some cuts to remove parts of some of the scenes or other dumb editing that was made since the original was regarded as too sophisticated for the American audience.

An example of the former cutting was a scene where a character was caught in an explosion. The Japanese version showed the flaming gas hitting the character while the US version cut the actual contact.

In the dumb editing area was a sequence of a Spacestation-to-Spacestation shuttle (think of it as an airplane) being boarded by the passengers. They are shown floating (they are "weightless") down the center isle and seating themselves in the seats on the "floor" of the craft. The Japanese version continues with them then using the seats on the "ceiling" - which is cut out from the US version as well as having these seats hidden behind a matt-painting to hide their existence.

The dubbing also took liberties with the Japanese plotline and always had at least one "in-gag" reference per episode such as having one of the characters ask that an airlock on a space ship be opened (so he can enter) with the request "Open the Pod Bay, Hal" [2001 reference] or having a malfunctioning computer claim to be a "Wild and Crazy Computer" in a Steve Martin-like voice [a reference to his "Wild and Crazy Guy" routine].

THUNDERBIRDS 2086, an anime adaptation of the 1960s show, was my first ever introduction to anime, or Japanese animation. I could have done better considering all the wonderful shows the genre has to offer, but this show makes for a great starting point and years later I still have a soft spot for it.

The premise is pretty much the same as the original show: an elite rescue force commandeers a fleet of special vehicles to disaster areas. Any updates made are fairly typical: as back in the 1970s-80s space operas were the rage, the show not only features perils from space (a critical space station reactor, a mutated plant, an explorer ship returning after nine decades), but also alien encounters (notably the recurring antagonist Star Crusher, an unseen but near-omnipresent being who can control peoples' minds). Fortunately the Thunderbird vehicles are suitably upgraded and made into awesome mecha: a shuttle that merges with two other ships to create a juggernaut carrier, a submarine, a space station, and a collection of other awesome mech, that the series puts to use in various episodes.

A word of warning though: despite the various adventures the cast experience, they aren't too well characterized - a young hero, his love interest, a veteran, a Texas cowboy and a token black cadet and their commander and that's about it. These aren't the cast from the original show, so that could put TB fans off (and ironically at the time of its first airing in Japan anime viewers were put off because it wasn't Japanese enough – no giant robots or alien invaders). Still, the episode stories are fairly good and more interesting (more dramatic and tense, as befits anime) to my mind than what the original show had.

The series boasts some spectacular space visuals, fairly good dubbing by anime veteran Peter Fernandez (SPEED RACER, STAR BLAZERS) and a stirring musical score from Kentaro Haneda (one of Japan's finest composers and piano players). It makes for a great compelling watch.

I am a fan of "Scientific Rescue Team TechnoBoyger" since it was first broadcast in Japan. I was really jealous when I discovered it would be broadcast overseas as "Thunderbirds 2086."

TechnoBoyger's broadcast in Japan was a huge disaster. The ratings were not commensurate with the Saturday prime-time broadcast, and sadly, the show was cancelled after 18 episodes.

It may be why the storyline was changed from a continuous episodes to one complete episode. The original plan was for a specific country not belonging to the World Federation, which played a dark role. By the way, there are remnants of this in the early episodes.

As a result of multiple scriptwriters writing episodes that were one episode complete and had no continuity, the overall impression was that there was no cohesion.

Akira Nakahara, who enjoyed mountain climbing and depicted the wonders of nature, and Kazuo Yoshioka, who excelled in depicting accidents brought about by advanced science, were responsible for episodes of the top quality. However, the episode of the Spanloader was an unauthorised appropriation of an idea written by Takeshi Shudou for "Thunderbirds," which was planned before "TechnoBoyger." Including that, the anime has been the subject of many problems before it was broadcast and up to the present day.