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.

The Thunderbirds used be one of my favorite shows as a child. The other day my son pulled a tape out of our video collection and asked to see it. It warmed my heart to see that he liked it for the same reasons I did. The Thunderbirds is one of several shows done by Gary and Sylvia Anderson. All their shows are the stuff of science fiction legend. These include Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Super car and the Thunderbirds are all puppets shows. The live action shows include the movie "Journey to the Farside of the Sun," the TV shows "UFO" and "Space: 1999" The style of super cool models for cars, planes, ships and spacecraft are common to all the shows. All the shows had a futuristic late 1960's style. Does any one remember the women with the purple hair in mini-skirts from UFO?

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!

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.