Thunderbirds - To The Rescue

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Made of Iron: The Hood crashes at least three times in the series, including once flying a light aircraft into a villa. His face gets a bit dirty, and the film he's transporting is destroyed. It's implied, however, that he's Killed Off for Real in Thunderbird 6. Chekhov's Gun: Is there a cool, unique vehicle in the first few minutes of the episode? Is everyone taking about what an amazing work of engineering it is? It's going wrong within a few minutes, and everyone is going to need rescuing from it.

Off-Model: The Thunderbird craft in the Comic-Book Adaptation only vaguely resemble the models seen on screen. One wonders if the artist had seen an episode of Thunderbirds once and was trying to do it from memory. Producer Robert Mandell also worked on In Outer Space, To The Rescue, and Countdown To Disaster. Editor Gunter Glinka and Technical Supervisor David Gregg also worked on In Outer Space and Countdown To Disaster.Adventure-Friendly World: Despite the tendency of large-scale science and technology projects in the Thunderbirds 'verse to catastrophically and explosively fail, nobody ever stops building the damn things. Exty Years from Publication: The series was set in the 2060s, conveniently exactly one century after it was made (as is the case with almost all of Anderson's series). Confusingly, though, some episodes are dated in the 2020s. The puppets were made up of more than 30 individual components, the most important of which was the solenoid that synchronised lip movements with the characters' pre-recorded dialogue. [113] This device was positioned inside the head unit; consequently, torsos and limbs appeared relatively small. [106] The puppets' likenesses and mechanics are remembered favourably by puppeteer Wanda Brown, who preferred the Thunderbirds marionettes over the accurately-proportioned ones that first appeared in Captain Scarlet: "The puppets were easier to operate and more enjoyable because they had more character to them... Even some of the more normal-looking faces, such as Scott and Jeff, for me had more character than the puppets in the series that came afterwards." [110] Rimmer speaks positively of the puppets' still being "very much caricatures", since it made them "more lovable and appealing... There was a naive quality about them and nothing too complex." [114] While magnetic tape does still have its uses in the computing world, it has nowhere near the level of ubiquity it enjoys in Thunderbirds. The Uninvited": After Scott has crash landed in the desert, Jeff says that there is not a single solitary soul for miles. There is a cut to Scott in the desert, and the archaeologists coming across him. Later, the archaeologists say they will die without water, and there is a cut to Tintin saying "The water's lovely!" in the swimming pool at Tracy Island.

NOTE: The film is a compilation of the season 1 episodes Trapped in the Sky and Operation Crash-Dive . For an in-depth synopsis, please read their respective articles. Transcript [ ] Main article: To The Rescue/Transcript Credits [ ] Costume Copycat: This happens in the "The Impostors". Two men pose as International Rescue, having copied the uniform, so they can commit crimes for which International Rescue will be blamed. More than 50 years after it first appeared on our screens, Thunderbirds continues to thrill and delight audiences young and old around the world! Its unique blend of high action adventure and toys-to-life magic of the ever-appealing puppets and models, makes it an almost perfect family show. Although it only ran for 32 episodes, the series has become an enduring television phenomenon, and it will no doubt continue to inspire and entertain future generations for at least another 50 years. F.A.B.! Spinoff: The presence of Zero-X in the first movie seems to make it double up as the pilot of the following series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. However, it isn't really confirmed in-series as the Thunderbirds never showed up in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Brains and crew, meanwhile, are following the route of the Anasta Pipeline, which means they must be close to their goal. They head over a hill, and there's the lake. Their arrival is furtively observed - by the Hood, peering through the periscope of his now-submerged sub. They've arrived on time, he gloats - dead on time...Shout-Out: In "Brink of Disaster", the gadgets that Lady Penelope deploys from the Rolls Royce are reminiscent of the Aston Martin in Goldfinger. Scott and Gordon set up the Hydrostatic Hoist and activate it The device inflates like a balloon, and lifts the pillar it has been tied to, dragging it upward...giving Gordon the chance to get to Brains and move him out from under it, to safety... The series' title sequence, storyboarded by Gerry Anderson, is made up of two parts. It opens with a countdown of "5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Thunderbirds Are Go!", provided by Dyneley in character as Jeff Tracy. [50] In a departure from the style of Stingray, the Thunderbirds title sequence varies with each episode: the first part consists of an action montage that serves as a preview of the plot. Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn, biographers of Gerry Anderson, compare this device favourably to a film trailer. [50]

Later on, Tin-Tin and Brains visit Professor Blakely in the hospital, and he seems OK. Now that the world knows about their discoveries at Lake Anasta, Tin-Tin asks him how he feels about being a celebrity. He seems to take it in his stride, but then asks how the two of them are fixed up over the next few months. He has a new expedition planned already - some treasure lost in a sunken ship off the Caribbean, 400 years ago... That plan, however, goes haywire when the Hood sees that International Rescue have arrived. Scott circles the lake, but doesn't see signs of anything amiss; the caravans are there, but with no signs of life. TB2 is about 2-and-a-half minutes away, when Scott says he can see Brains - and he's been buried in the sand! He tells his father he's going down to land. The Hood observes TB1 touching down, but he still believes he can get that treasure - and he'll destroy International Rescue, as well... As far as one can consider vehicles to be characters, various pod vehicles that appeared in only 1 episode never got a toy; only the more famous ones (the Mole, the Firefly, etc.) did.Casual Danger Dialogue: But of course. Charging into danger is part of the day job of International Rescue. You can't expect them to go all to pieces every time their lives are at risk.

Brains and Tin-Tin head towards the place where they'll be meeting Professor Blakely. He's also on his way, but as he doesn't have his own ride, he's hired a very good taxi firm to get there. The three adventurers finally meet face-to-face; and after some get-acquainted small talk, Blakely declares today's the day they'll find out if Brains' theories are correct. Further, he suggests that they go down to Lake Anasta right away. Brains, though, convinces him to have a cold drink first, and Blakely agrees - it isn't like anyone is going to steal the potential treasure from under their noses... I started to think that there really ought to be dumps around the world with rescue gear standing by, so that when a disaster happened, all these items of rescue equipment could be rushed to the disaster zone and used to help to get people out of trouble... I was thinking, 'Rescue, yes, rescue, but how to make it science fiction? What about an international rescue organisation?' Faux Action Girl: Tin-Tin actually does have an IR uniform and occasionally joins the boys on a rescue mission... but stands as the person who ended up in need of rescue the most. Averting this trope is one of the few positive things fans can point to about the 2004 film. Thunderbird 4: yellow, for high visibility in the murky depths (but then again, what other colour would a 1960s submarine be?).Big Storm Episode: There are a few of these. The deadly nature of a storm makes it a natural location to find International Rescue saving people who are experiencing this trope. Despite Grade's decision to double the running time, Thunderbirds was also sold in a two-part, 25-minute episode format. [51] Each "concluding" part began with a narration by Shane Rimmer summarising the first part's action. [200] Granada first showed the series in this format, airing both episode parts on the same night (one before and one after the ITN Evening News). [200] [201] It broadcast the original format for the first time when it began repeats in 1966. [200] In 1968, the franchise briefly screened episodes in three parts due to timeslot restrictions. [200] In the Midlands, ATV broadcast Series One in the hour-long format; Series Two, along with repeats of Series One, was then shown in the two-part format on consecutive evenings. [202] [203] The availability of re-runs varied greatly. ATV Midlands hosted regular repeats into the early 1970s; by contrast, between 1968 and 1976 Yorkshire Television showed no episodes at all. [76] [204] The series was last transmitted on the ITV network in 1981. [204] Punk/new wave band The Rezillos released a song "Thunderbirds Are Go" in 1978, singing the praises of the series: "the TV show that's never been beat." 80s band Fuzzbox released a single called "International Rescue" as an affectionate tribute/parody of the series , which made it to number 11 in the UK charts. Also in regards to the show's presence on the music scene, Gerry Anderson co-directed the video for "Calling Elvis" by Dire Straits in 1991, where the band members appear as marionettes and footage from Thunderbirds is intercut with footage of a woman meandering around her house. In the live action movie, members of International Rescue are often called "the Thunderbirds" by the public. They seem to have adopted the title, as teenaged Alan dreams of the day he will become "a Thunderbird". For Peel, Thunderbirds is "without a doubt the peak of the Supermarionation achievement". [227] Suggesting that the series is pitched at a "more adult" level than its predecessors, he adds that its sense of adventure, effective humour and "gripping and convincing" episodes ensured that "everyone in the audience found something to love about it." [228] [229] Simon Heffer, a fan of Thunderbirds in childhood, commented positively on the series for The Daily Telegraph in 2011: "All the elements we children discerned in whatever grown-up television we had been allowed to watch were present in Thunderbirds: dramatic theme and incidental music; well-developed plots; goodies and baddies; swaggering Americans, at a time when the whole of Britain was in a cultural cringe to them; and, of course, glamorous locations... Then, of course, there was the nail-biting tension of the rescues themselves..." [230] Film critic Kim Newman describes the series as a "television perennial". [231]