I came very, very late to this particular "Supermarionated" party having never seen the show even once in my life. I saw and loved Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons as a kid, but never saw any of the other Gerry Anderson shows save Stingray. Rewatching it this time was very enterttaining.
I began to get why folks are so balmy about this series. The good guys are exceedingly good, if powerfully naive, and the baddies are properly bad and stupid. The storytelling is sluggish in places, but from what I read that was somewhat the result of late decisions by the producers about expanding the series to an hour from a very effective half hour.
I did get confused about the way in which International Rescue fit into the global scheme of the 2060's as sometimes they are rogues operating outside the system and sometimes they seem almost an arm of the governments they often benefit. Their secrecy was wildly inconsistent too as in one episode a kid who stows away on Thunderbird 2 is approached as a mild menace and in at least two other episodes kids are given tours of the island and the equipment. Sometimes the Tracys reveal their names, sometimes they fight over having their pictures taken. Their picture detector is a pretty cool device and I'm sure many stars who fend off the paparazzi would like one. That stuff aside it's still wild fun.
I might say the episode where they attempt to move the Empire State Building might be my favorite, it is such a wacked-out notion. The world of 2060 something is pretty hair-raising in some respects and amazingly familiar in others.
The fashion as always in an Anderson production becomes fetishistic with the puppets (yes I know they are marionettes) looking more than a tad goofy from time to time as they try painfully to look cool. The whimsy of the whole affair makes the attempts to hip and cool harmless fluff, a product of a time when such things were somehow taken seriously. (We're much better now of course.)
It's easy to see why these shows hold up, the craftsmanship is top notch and really the kind of thing which could not be done in the modern world. Not because of the craft, but because the insane costs. We caught a comet with this show and the ones which came before and after, and I have to admire that.
Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6, the two big-screen renditions of the classic British sci-fi tv show are dandy. I found them for tiny money in a discount store somewhere I now forget, and tried to watch them, but the pace of the opening scenes of Thunderbirds Are Go, which is measured even by the admission of the director, always did me in. I just got bored in the first fifteen minutes or so and bailed, choosing to do something else, then forgetting about the movies completely. Now I know what to expect and found them just fine. The problem was me.
Now I even began to relish it as the spaceship dubbed the Zero-X slowly and relentlessly assembled itself in the opening moments of the movie. The story then begins to dabble out, the International Rescue team is called in after a disaster to supply security months later. Months later still the Zero-X arrives at its destination of Mars and runs into trouble. Months later still it returns home and runs into still more trouble requiring the intervention of International Rescue yet again. There are some great big explosions, some handsome model work, and an interesting sci-fi scenario.
But ultimately the movie is so uneven, it defeats its own good qualities. I was slightly stunned by the inclusion of a dream sequence which featured the music of Cliff Richard and The Shadows, a totally weird and totally 60's moment. The movie though in the final analysis was entertaining after I got into its flow, though it could've been better.
I really began to appreciate the relative seriousness of Thunderbirds Are Go when I saw the sequel Thunderbird 6. This one is played for more laughs and features a handsome biplane which dominates way too much screen time in my estimation.
The weaknesses of the first movie are amplified in the second. It essentially is a world tour via anti-gravity airship which gives the model makers the chance to fashion a Statue of Liberty, the Great Pyramids, and other notable iconic items. That stuff is the highlight as the plot makes little sense. Villains (who are never really identified) are trying to lure International Rescue into a trap and take the most elaborate and complicated way imaginable to do that.
These are diverting movies, curiosities of a time when special effects really seemed special. I can appreciate them and even enjoy parts of them, especially the first one which as I learned actually has a connection to my favorite Anderson production Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons.
NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post.
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I first saw Thunderbirds in the 90's when BBC TV re-ran the entire series. The episodes are definitely far too long and should have been about 25 minutes long.
ReplyDeleteI think they'd have been better at a half hour too. I think the craftsmen and women who made this show were just enthralled by their creations to some extent.
DeleteAs a kid in the 1960s when the series was first shown , I also found the show tended to go on too long. I seem to recall that in Scotland when the show was repeated in 1968ish they split each episode into 2 30mins sections one before the news ans one after the news .
ReplyDeleteI think the shows would play quite nicely like that. Maybe that's what they wanted all along.
DeleteHey, the order to make them 60 minutes long came from (Lord) Lew Grade, who had been bankrolling Anderson for some years. I've been a fan since they arrived on TV - in my Grade 2 class at school, in 1967, I was your go-to man for Thunderbird drawings.
ReplyDeleteGerry Anderson's success was Grade's success and they both knew it. I was the go-to guy for Marvel pictures in the 6th grade in my school. One of the very few times I was popular.
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