# Thunderbirds are go! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848 "2005-07-30T04:05:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/1 "2005-07-30T04:05:51Z")
Five… Four… Three… Two… One! Thunderbirds are go! Okay, this is me reverting to childhood… 🙂 I’m watching _Thunderbirds_. Just finished Episode 3: City of fire. It involves a 350-storey tower that is brought down by a fire caused by an exploding car in the car park. Eerie. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/2 "2005-07-30T04:07:16Z")
I remember that episode. The acting was kinda… wooden. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/3 "2005-07-30T04:14:30Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > The acting was kinda… wooden. Actually, the acting is rather… fiberglass! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/4 "2005-07-30T04:20:18Z")
Did they ever release that live action Thunderbirds movie? That looked even worse than the series and it, um, was not my cup of tea. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/5 "2005-07-30T04:26:28Z")
‘Worse than the series…’ I understand the individual words, but the arrangement is nonsensical. I mean, the way they’re arranged, it sounds as if the series was bad! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/6 "2005-07-30T07:16:07Z")
Johnny, me old pal, I was a mere sprat of ten when it came on the air, its very the Core Audience itself, and I thought the series, at my most gracious, stunk. Sure, I still watched it since there was naught but it and Air Force propaganda videos I had seen ten times to choose from at that time of a Saturday morning, but that didn’t make it any better. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/7 "2005-07-30T13:53:22Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Johnny, me old pal, I was a mere sprat of ten when it came on the air… I was younger than that – six, or so – watching them on re-run. I think I was a little intrigues by the marionettes, but I really liked the air- and spacecraft. (I was the kid who laid out runways with teletype paper, and played with my Matchbox airplains while watching _Skyhawks_.) Unlike cartoons, the ships they used were ‘real’. I thought it was cool. Now that I’m older, I can pick out flaws. For example in ‘City Of Fire’ they were experimenting with a new gas Brain invented that, when used in cutting torches, allows them to cut through steel faster than with a laser. Seems the gas gets into their pores and makes them pass out. Erm… Why not use a protective suit? Or in ‘Pit Of Peril’ the army guys go into a burning pit with only an air mask for protection, and they’re injured by the over-200°F heat. Kinda dumb. And when Thunderbird 2 comes out of its cave, the palm trees flop to the side so that it can go on the road to its launch site. Why not just plant the trees farther apart? And where do they get their money, anyway? But a lot of the stuff hold up – at least, taken in context. And there’s some amusing dialog that never occured to me as a child. (‘Those International Rescue boys sure have some nice equipment!’ 😛 ) I’m also amused that everything is labelled. (Anderson did the same thing in _UFO_, which was aimed at an older audience and which I also watched as a child.) As a child I liked the adventure and the awesome ‘toys’. As an adult I still appreciate the model work, and the puppetry and the early-'60s version of 21st Century technology. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/8 "2005-07-30T14:10:23Z")
If you’re in the UK, you will be able to enjoy Thunderbirds each weekday on BBC2, starting on Monday at 12.15! (they muck about with the timings throughout the week - typical Beeb). Looks like they’ll be showing them in sequence, as they’re starting with “Trapped in the Sky” followed by “Pit of Peril”, “City of Fire”, the magnificent “Sun Probe” (“This is it; she’s breaking up. Figured I’d be dead by now…”) and, on Friday, “The Uninvited”. I was about 6 when the show first aired (I recall seeing a trailer while I was off school with chickenpox); I was already a fan of the other Gerry Anderson stuff - Stingray, Fireball XL5, Supercar - so took to it readily. Now I’m in my mid-40’s and will still tune in. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/9 "2005-07-30T14:18:48Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > If you’re in the UK… Sadly, I’m not. ☹ If only an attractive English woman were looking for a Yank husband… I don’t think they ever showed _Stingray_ over here. From what I’ve heard, it focuses on characters more than technology. Sounds interesting; I may have to pick it up. Hey, I’ve got _Thunderbords_, _UFO_ and _Space: 1999_ on DVD. May as well add to the Gerry Anderson Collection! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/10 "2005-07-30T16:38:41Z")
Oh, yeah… One of the fascinating things about the series is the wacky ways the crews get to their vehicles. For exampl, Virgil. He puts his back to a painting of a rocket ship. The painting pivots backwards and Virgil slides onto a padded trolley. The trolley runs down a track (with Virgil riding down head-first on his back) until it gets to a 90° turn. The trolley turns so that Virgil is now going down feet-first, and he rides it until a chute deposits the trolley into Thunderbird 2. It folds into the pilot’s seat, and the chute retracts. Or Thunderbird 3. Alan sits on a sofa in the house. The sofa disappears into the floor, and there is a long shot of it riding down on an improbably-long piston. Another sofa heads up as Alan’s heads down. The empty sofa replaces the one Alan used in the house – never mind that it has to be offset by a couple of meters! Meanwhile Alan (and Brain, in the episode I watched) still sits in the first sofa, which is deposited on a rail car that takes him (them) to Thunderbird 3. Another piston raises the sofa way up through a hatch in the bottom of the rocket, and the sofa is locked down to become the pilot’s seat. And uniforms emerge from concealed compartments, so that they can fly in their IR togs. Today I think, ‘Why not get dressed beforehand, and just _walk_ to the ships?’ But as a kid, such incredible entry procedures were futuristic and fun! ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/11 "2005-07-30T16:46:20Z")
I was 10 or so, and collected all the models of the aircraft/spacecraft. Then I threw them out the upstairs window. They didn’t fly too good. I knew the acting was irritatingly bad. But I think I believed the plots, as if they were really exciting adventures. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/12 "2005-07-30T17:11:25Z")
> [@](#): > > I was 10 or so, and collected all the models of the aircraft/spacecraft. > Then I threw them out the upstairs window. They didn’t fly too good. If only you’d foreseen eBay! (Of course, if I’d foreseen eBay, I would have held onto my GI Joe space capsule.) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/13 "2005-07-30T19:34:52Z")
I always felt sorry for poor Deke Slayton and Walter Schirra. I mean all the other Mercury astronauts had Tracy boys named after them- why not those two? Of course, “Deke Tracy” might’ve sounded silly. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/14 "2005-07-30T20:02:08Z")
I loved the Anderson shows as a kid … and I still do! Thank goodness for DVDs, is all I can say; I’ve got all the Supermarionation shows from _Supercar_ to _The Secret Service_, plus the live action _UFO_, _The Protectors_ and _Space: 1999_, and the … errr … rather different _Terrahawks_. _Thunderbirds_ was one of the best (though I think that _the_ best of the Supermarionation shows has to be _Captain Scarlet_.) OK, it’s not plausible on an engineering basis. Or characterization, either. Know what? I don’t care. It’s _fun_. It’s beautifully crafted pure entertainment, that’s what it is - it’s not deep or complicated, it’s just got lots of cool gadgets and stuff blowing up. And that works for me! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/15 "2005-07-30T22:57:51Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Sadly, I’m not. ☹ If only an attractive English woman were looking for a Yank husband… > > I don’t think they ever showed _Stingray_ over here. From what I’ve heard, it focuses on characters more than technology. Sounds interesting; I may have to pick it up. Hey, I’ve got _Thunderbords_, _UFO_ and _Space: 1999_ on DVD. May as well add to the Gerry Anderson Collection! Yes, they did. Chicago, early 60’s. I always found the equipment facinating, & it played a large part in my kindergarten coloring. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/16 "2005-07-31T01:01:53Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > and the … errr … rather different _Terrahawks_. Flaming Thunderbolts! What’s wrong with Terrahawks? Apart from Kate Kestrel’s singing. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/17 "2005-07-31T10:35:03Z")
As an aside - “Stingray”, made in 1963, was the very first British TV servies made in colour (and not in ordinary colour: in “Videcolour” no less). But colour television transmissions did not begin over here until 1967. I can only assume that Gerry Anderson gambled on selling the series to the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/18 "2005-07-31T10:54:30Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > One of the fascinating things about the series is the wacky ways the crews get to their vehicles. For exampl, Virgil. He puts his back to a painting of a rocket ship. The painting pivots backwards and Virgil slides onto a padded trolley. The trolley runs down a track (with Virgil riding down head-first on his back) until it gets to a 90° turn. The trolley turns so that Virgil is now going down feet-first, and he rides it until a chute deposits the trolley into Thunderbird 2. It folds into the pilot’s seat, and the chute retracts. The best parody of this is in Wallace & Gromit’s [A Close Shave](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112691/), in which Wallace goes through all of the **Thunderbirds** routines, with appropriate march music playing, and when he ends up deposited on the window-washing motorcycle, Gromit shows up having just _walked_ into the garage. Priceless! Then the small pond with the garden gnome rotates to give them a clear exit path, in the manner of Thunderbird 2 with its folding palm trees and launch ramp. Aaah, memories! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/19 "2005-08-01T16:02:47Z")
> [@Antonius Block](#): > > The best parody of this is in Wallace & Gromit’s [A Close Shave](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112691/), in which Wallace goes through all of the **Thunderbirds** routines, with appropriate march music playing, and when he ends up deposited on the window-washing motorcycle, Gromit shows up having just _walked_ into the garage. Priceless! Then the small pond with the garden gnome rotates to give them a clear exit path, in the manner of Thunderbird 2 with its folding palm trees and launch ramp. > > Aaah, memories! I was _just_ going to add that! The director’s commentary on the W&G DVD specifically refers to “Thunderbirds” as an inspiration for that sequence. Gromit’s bemused little roll of the eyes as he steps through the door and gets in the sidecar is priceless. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848/20 "2005-08-01T17:07:41Z")
My ten-year-old son is quite taken with the old episodes; we caught one on SciFi network or something at his grandmother’s house a whille back, and he thought it was really cool. So we grabbed a couple of the DVD collections, as well as the new live action movie (he got interested just after the movie disappeared from theaters in the US – which was about five hours after the movie appeared in theaters). He got distracted by other things for a while, but last week found a Tracy Island playset with, I think, Thunderbird 1 and 3, at Toys "R’ Us in a clearance bin and that set him off again. I’ve encouraged him in this interest, because (a) I’d rather him watch Thunderbirds than a lot of other stuff out there these days, and (b) it gives him the necessary background to appreciate [The Rezillos’](http://www.rezillos.com) song [“Thunderbirds Are Go!”](http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/rezillos/thunderbirdsarego.html). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbirds-are-go/314848.md?page=2)