A Guest Blog by Hevy782

So here we are at the first episode of a TV classic. If you’re not all that familiar with the world of Thunderbirds then I suggest you read the introduction post first. Now without any further adieu let’s talk about Trapped in the Sky. The basic storyline is that a criminal mastermind, The Hood, has placed a bomb aboard the Fireflash, a hypersonic airliner on it’s maiden voyage, in order to draw out International Rescue so that he can steal their secrets. If the Fireflash uses it’s landing gear then the bomb will go off but if they stay in the sky then the passengers and crew will all eventually receive fatal doses of radiation, meaning that it’s a race against time to save the Fireflash. After an attempt to remove the bomb fails Thunderbirds 1 and 2 arrive with a plan. While they put this into operation The Hood sneaks onboard Thunderbird 1 and takes pictures of the interior so he can recreate it. Scott and Virgil manage to get the plane down by using elevator cars as replacement landing gear. Meanwhile, Lady Penelope and Parker hunt down The Hood and destroy the pictures. With the bomb defused and the secrets of International Rescue safe, Scott and Virgil head back to Tracy Island with their first operation completed successfully. But The Hood isn’t defeated so easily and will return to plague International Rescue time and time again.

I’m going to start off by saying this straight away, I think that Trapped in the Sky is a very strong start to the series. It sets up most of what you need to know about the series and is also just a well made episode in it’s own right. More on that in a second but first I want to quickly talk about a line which is quite amusing in retrospect and that is when Kyrano says that Jeff Tracy was one of the first men on the moon. It’s a throwaway line and probably would’ve meant very little at the time it went out but looking back it’s rather interesting to see how some parts of society thought it would take a long time to reach the moon. Little did they know that five years after they made this episode man would indeed land on the moon. Since then we appear to have given up with space travel however and the world of George Orwell’s 1984 now seems like a more realistic future than that of Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds but anyway, I think that’s enough of my political views and now let’s shift focus back to the topic at hand, Trapped in the Sky.

Now if you’ve read some of my Blake’s 7 post you’ll probably have realised that I am a big fan of model shots and Thuderbirds has plenty of those, and some breathtaking ones at that. Now while the visuals here are rather simple compared to what will come later there are still quite a few nice sequences, namely the landing of Fireflash. It’s a wonderfully made sequence and the instantly recognisable music in the background just fits so perfectly. What’s also nice about this resolution is that it doesn’t work first time which just racks up the tension even more for the second attempt as there is no time for a third attempt. But it’s not the only well done sequence of the episode as there are plenty more such as the attempt to remove the bomb by hand. It was going so well until the man fell and it kind of makes you wonder why they didn’t try it again as it was fairly close to success the first time. Then there’s the scene where Lady Penelope and Parker chase down The Hood. It was a rather minimalistic chase but nevertheless it served it’s purpose and the shot of the car rolling down the side of the hill was nicely done. It’s also quite funny as you would not see roads like that that empty in England nowadays and I don’t imagine traffic is going to improve that much in the next half a century or so.

Now we come to rating Trapped in the Sky and I think a nine-out-of-ten is a very fair rating for this story. Next up is Pit of Peril where a five-hundred ton US Army walker, the Sidewinder, ends up in need of rescue but until then be sure to sound off your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.

A Guest Blog by Hevy782

Not too long ago now a new series called Thunderbirds Are Go premiere and so I thought now would be the perfect time to take a step back fifty years and look at the original series simply titled Thunderbirds, a series that was a big part of my childhood. While I wasn’t around during the sixties to watch them on first transmission I practically grew up on VHS copies of the episodes and reruns on some channel which I’ve forgotten the name of and probably isn’t around now anyway. So this will probably mean that as I review each of the episodes I will undoubtedly end up doing so through rose-tinted specs because the nostalgia will be too great. Apologies in advance for that. But anyway, let’s now talk about the series itself which was created by Gerry Anderson and his wife, Sylvia Anderson, and aired thirty-two fifty-minute episodes between September 1965 to December 1966. It is widely considered their most popular and successful series and, like many of their other TV shows, has gained a strong cult following. The series was made using a combination of marionette puppets and model shots, a process known as Supermarionation. The series was so popular that two films were also made during the sixties using the same techniques as the TV series and then a less than successful live-action film was later released in 2004. Finally there’s the previously mentioned series Thunderbirds Are Go which was released earlier this year and is made through a combination of CGI and model shots. But for now we’re going to stick to the original TV series so let’s move away from what went on behind the camera and instead focus on what was in front.

The series is set in 2065 and follows the adventures of International Rescue, a top secret organisation run from Tracy Island and founded by American ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, a widower and father of five sons, Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon and Alan. Each of his son’s pilots one of the Thunderbird machines, vehicles designed to help save people in almost any situation. The Thunderbirds were created and maintained by the engineer Brains who is also the inventor of practically every piece of technology you’ll see on Tracy Island. Jeff’s mum, more commonly referred to as Grandma Tracy, also resides there along with Malaysian man-servant Kyrano and his daughter Tin-Tin. Tin-Tin also serves the role of the love-interest of the youngest Tracy brother, Alan.

International Rescue’s London agent is Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, an English aristocrat who helps International Rescue to track down dangerous criminals. She travels about in a modified Rolls-Royce (modified by Brains of course) with her butler Parker who is a fan favourite character with an instantly recognisable voice. So as you can see it really is an international organisation with members from many different nationalities. International Rescue’s most dangerous and persistent foe is a mysterious criminal known only as The Hood. He is Kyrano’s half brother and through the use of hypnosis and dark magic he uses Kyrano to steal try and steal the secrets of International Rescue. Now onto the Thunderbirds themselves.

Thunderbird 1 is piloted by the eldest of the Tracy brothers, Scott, and is a hypersonic rocket plane designed to arrive first on the scene no matter what the situation is. Now if I remember correctly Scott was my favourite when I first watched it all those years ago. Not so sure if it’s the same now though. Virgil Tracy is the pilot of Thunderbird 2, a heavy duty transporter that carries vehicles and equipment into disaster areas. These are carried in detachable capsules known as pods and the most popular of these vehicles in the Mole which is designed to drill underground. Unfortunately there are so many vehicles inside the pods that I can’t go through them all so let’s instead quickly talk about Virgil who was Scott’s only competition when it came to my favourite character. And here’s a little bit of trivia for you, he and Scott are the only two Tracy brothers to appear in all thirty-two episodes of the series. Now onto Thunderbird 3 which is piloted by the youngest of the Tracy brothers, Alan. It is a space rescue vehicle and is unique in that it is a reusable spacecraft, meaning that it does no have to jettison any hardware to get into orbit. Scott also occasionally co-pilots Thunderbird 3. Thunderbird 4 is next up and it is piloted by Gordon Tracy. It is the smallest of the Thunderbirds and is used for underwater rescues. It is so small in fact that it is typically launched from Thunderbird 2’s Pod 4. Finally there’s John Tracy who is the space monitor aboard International Rescue’s space station Thunderbird 5. It receives all emergency calls from around the globe and then reports to Tracy Island. When John is on leave Alan takes over as space monitor.

So there’s your introduction to the world of Thunderbirds and now we shall begin looking at the series episode by episode. Tomorrow we’ll be taking a look at the first episode, Trapped in the Sky, where the Hood sabotages a new aircraft called The Fireflash so he can draw out International Rescue and steal their secrets. So then, have you ever watched Thunderbirds? Have you ever even heard of Thunderbirds before now? Whatever your response be sure be sure to sound off your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.