5....4....3....2....1, Thunderbirds Are Go
Thunderbirds was a British science-fiction television series created in the mid-1960s by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. The novel part of this show is that the characters are Supermarionation puppets. Often if you looked closely, you could see the strings.
The Thunderbirds follows the exploits of the Tracy family. As International Rescue, their mission was to save the world and be assisted by technologically-advanced land, sea, air and space vehicles called into service when conventional rescue methods prove ineffective.
Five vehicles make up the Thunderbirds fleet:
- Thunderbird 1 - a rocket plane that is always dispatched first to do a forward reconnaissance of a rescue scene.
- Thunderbird 2 - a carrier aircraft that transports all of the rescue equipment. Before it takes off, it always selects a pod with the equipment needed for the rescue.
- Thunderbird 3 - a sub-orbital aircraft that transports John or Alan to the space station
- Thunderbird 4 - a submarine, used for underwater rescues.
- Thunderbird 5 - a space station that monitors distress signals, ready to initiate a rescue.
The show's premise was a bit far fetched, the plots were not entirely believable, but the build-up of the suspense with the dramatic theme and incidental music was a highlight.
The Thunderbirds were my Saturday morning TV viewing. I would happily rise at 6.00 am to watch the show, and though there were only 32 episodes, I could quite easily sit through the constant re-runs over my childhood years. It was one of my favourite shows as a kid.