Thunderbirds are Go

[Skybase Girl]

Well, it's here at last! (at least for UK based viewers.) I didn't get a chance to watch it properly yesterday, so will have a proper look at it later on. But first impressions.....I thought it was better than expected. The Tracy boys look better than they did in their publicity pics. Lady P sounds a lot better than the original, although she looks a bit like a character from "Frozen". I'm not sure that the deliberate attempt to make the CGI characters retain elements of the puppets has really worked, though. It just looks like poor CGI in places.

On the plus side, Tintin's replacement, Kayo, is excellent and gets to do more than TT ever did. John is no longer the forgotten one up in space- he's actually really pivotal to the operation. They've kept the original theme music, albeit spiced up a little. The craft are faithful to the original and the lemon squeezer in TB1's hangar is still on the wall. Lots of in-jokes for die-hard fans to enjoy.

Negatives - too fast paced and too noisy. The incidental music is awful, completely relentless and far too loud. Turning the sound down wouldn't really work because then you might miss the dialogue ( although you might feel you wouldn't be missing much.) Barry Gray's music was well-paced and melodic. It didn't just bombard you with a cacophony of sound in a misplaced attempt at drama. The Tracy brothers are now orphans as Jeff has met with some kind of accident. However, he just seems to be missing, presumed dead, so I suppose he could turn up later in the series. Brains is now Asian with a distinctly dodgy Indian accent.

Overall, the newspaper reviews have been very positive and have reacted well to the 5pm Saturday time slot, with parents saying they enjoyed watching it with their children. But as this is ITV we're dealing with, we all know this cannot be allowed to continue. So, yes, less than 24 hours after its premiere, they have announced that future episodes will be screened at 8am on Saturday mornings. Very reminiscent of the disaster surrounding the showing of NCS. Why is ITV run by such a bunch of idiots?

[chrisbishop]

Our fellow fan Mike Adamson wrote a long and wonderful review of the show on his Facebook page, that I invite people to read.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/8785665 ... 048543678/

Unfortunately being in Canada, I didn't have the opportunity and joy to see this show yet, and will have to wait until such time as I'll be able to before giving my own opinion. However, while chatting briefly with me straight after viewing the show did tell me a lot about it, and most of what he said was positive. It comforted me in my first reflection that the static pictures we first saw of the Tracy brothers were far from enoug to get a good opinion on the show. So it would seem we have a lot to be happy about, at least in view of quality.

ITC will REALLY put pushing the rest of the episodes down to Saturday morning? Geez... Maybe there will be a re-run of the episode at a later time?

[Marion]

Not being a member of Facebook I can't see the comments as you have to sign in.
I agree with Skybase Girl - my heart sank when I saw the news that the show was to be rescheduled to 8:00am on Saturday mornings. I suppose members of the target audience might be up and about by then, but from what I hear they are more likely to be playing Minecraft than watching TV...
Fingers crossed that this is not the ITV kiss of death we saw with NCS.
Can't give an opinion on the actual show - I missed it... when's the DVD out?

[chrisbishop]

Marion, I'll copy the text into a PM for you.

[Marion]

Thanks, Chris. A good and detailed review, well worth the read!

[Skybase Girl]

I couldn't see Mike Adamson's review either, Chris. Marion, the show is available on ITV I player or catch up if you're on Virgin media.

[chrisbishop]

I'm pretty sure Mike wouldn't mind if this text is copied here. In any case, it doesn't carry 'personal material'. So here it is - And Mike, if you see this, thank you for your review! It helped giving me an idea about the series and to look forward to it!

Caution: this might contain SPOILERS!

My reactions in prose/review form, 2325 words, here's hoping I can post this much text:

Thunderbirds Are Go – first impressions and a personal perspective, by Mike Adamson.

It's been a long time in the coming, either fifty years or 18 months depending on how you feel about it, but we have a brand new Thunderbirds, and the crap has been flying for months. The only objective thing to do was wait and see the finished product, but who can do that? The teasers and promo stills served largely to fuel hopes, doubts and often heated discussion. The show premiers next week in Australia but by the grace of the web I have been able to see it already and at last feel qualified to speak, from, of course, my own personal perspective.

First, I'd rate it as 7/10, maybe even 8/10, but that needs qualification, which means taking into account the market forces that the producers would have had to face at the very outset. If the primary target audience is juvenile then elements of the "visual language" in which it communicates must be within their vocabulary. *Their* vocabulary, not that of adults -- and the visual metaphors of children's television today are very different from anything we recall. Given how bizarre much modern juvenile animation can seem to older eyes, the producers probably did wonders, walking a tightrope between the age groups that are stakeholders in the project. Thus 7/10 is an approximation of how it appeals to me personally: to the modern seven-year-old, it probably rates 10/10+, and that is by definition the producers’ intent.

The production values are very high, as you would expect. The "issues" apparent in the release stills are sometimes masked by motion, while some fears are amply confirmed. Where to begin? The positives, for sure!
One enormous positive is that Thunderbirds is alive and well, and being taken seriously by a great many people. But specifically -- the voice casting for Scott is brilliant, the timbre and tone are so close to the young Shane Rimmer that at times it's Shane you hear, and the "oomph" that that adds is significant. The rest of the voice casting seems to match the characters well enough, one "hears" each character, they are recogniseable in the ear.
Alan is probably going to grate. He is the child of an already distressingly young bunch, and the most expressly unrealistic. A young teen in charge of the largest and most powerful of all the craft -- a stretching of the original, which was already, if we be honest, a stretch. His rocket powered space surfboard was the kind of nonsense that will have Derek Meddings turning in his grave. A manoeuvering pack for going EVA was the reasonable solution, and it underlines the fact that this production really is a kiddie-flick that it was considered too pedestrian, and way too slow for the hypersonic speed at which events must occur.

Kayo is perhaps the most unusual new element, replacing the no longer viable Tin-Tin, while staying true to form in as much as the Hood is her uncle. We will hopefully find out what became of Kyrano -- one wonders if he was with Jeff when the mysterious event occurred. This plot arc will presumably gather clues as the series unfolds, up to a rumoured payoff at the end.

Brains being Indian is an interesting twist, though his service drone has the potential to be an irritating comedy-relief device.

The mechanical systems that so characterised the original are here developed in interesting and complex ways, and we have instrumentation which matches our conception of the future, including holograms and visual interfaces. All the primary elements are there, all the craft and installations, and they are all given constant workout.

The "Easter eggs" are a joy -- the Stingray insert, other nods to the original, which are probably many and subtle and we will be listing them for a long time to come.
The music is a full orchestral score, there is not a note of rock, rap or metal, any of which would have been a major discord.

The title sequence was excellent but seemed somehow less than it might have been. The end titles however were brilliant, composed of what seems to be concept art -- something of a NZ industry trademark, perhaps!
Negatives -- are they really negatives or are they a lament for changing times? The pace -- many have commented that too much happens too quickly, but this is likely a case of appealing to the speed at which the modern juvenile brain can assimilate information, game-trained from birth and without patience for the story-telling style of any previous generation. It is not simply the amount of story packed into each 11-minute act, it is the speed at which things move on screen. People, machines, often move as if the film is running a few frames per second too fast, they flitter around the screen like, well, cartoon figures. Unlike the solid, necessarily minimally-moving puppets, the characters are free to move in any way at all, they can run and jump, they can float in zero-G, they can adopt super-hero poses, and do; but what they do *not* do is move like human beings. Keyframe animation has its own charm, but expressly lacks the gravitas of mocap, and in this it can be seen that TAG and New Captain Scarlet are lightyears apart -- the show Gerry made was aimed at an audience, I would guess at least five to ten years older, and was made for audiences ten years ago. NCS strives for solidarity in everything it does, while TAG eschews the very notion of solidarity.

The new Thunderbird craft are a mixed bag, and each viewer will have his or her favourite. The technique of controlling the craft remotely from the wrist terminal is a brilliant idea, though it could be more explicitly tied to onboard AI, which would doubtless be needed for it to work. But that is a practical consideration, and practicality is the last thing the designers were worried about, in stark contrast to the original team for whom realism and the suspension of disbelief were the overriding brief.

For myself, Thunderbird 1 seems to work visually the best, it maintains the closest relationship with its progenitor and operates in the most recogniseable way. The launch sequence is dramatic and visually 'ticks all the boxes,' from the mechanical injector seat to the patio awnings blowing in the disturbed air as she climbs out of the pool cavity, and the 'ectoplasm' effect as she goes through the sound barrier in the climb. The rotating tail section appears to serve no actual purpose, it is merely a visual gimmick. The quad lift engines feel solid and dynamically correct, though the new tiny wings seem unlikely to still be able to house the main landing gear.

Thunderbird 2 is where the greatest compromises are found, not merely the aesthetic of her chunky, Nostromo-like build, nor the gay abandon with which the last vestiges of aerodynamics have been discarded, but the *way* in which it has been filmed. The launch sequence is filmed in its entirety looking down on the models, something Derek Meddings expressly never did, because looking down on something tells the subconscious that the object is small. If Thunderbird 2 is hundreds of feet long and weighs hundreds of tons, we should feel that, but the craft bobs and bounces about, drops onto its pod at a speed greater than falling, trundles out of the hanger and along between the retracting vegetation with minimal appeal to drama. Virgil's entry to the craft, his handle-grab and gymnastic flip, followed by manually closing a slab-hatch that looks as if it weighs a thousand pounds, are, for me, utter nonsense, a defying of the limitations of puppetry in a way so arrogant as to constitute smug self-congratulation. Even the water off the side of the runway peninsula is moving in a way which screams "small scale," as if the brief from the producers was to not even try for the suspension of disbelief. Indeed, only three things in the opening two-parter actually moved as if they were obeying the laws of physics, TB1 leaving its pad, the Hood's craft lifting out of the pit at the end, and the collapsing mast in the street in Taipei. TB2 recovering Pod 4 by winching it out of the water on four lift cables echoes an illustration in the 1968 annual, but was very hard to swallow.

Thunderbird 3 is massive and impressive, and the revised entry sequence is mechanically interesting. The sealed-silo launch is also a good idea, and in flight she looks the part. The new design is equally chunky to TB2 and as the production brief seemed to be "lose the grace" it satisfies the requirement. The three "arms" used for grappling with spatial bodies or craft are again interesting, but seem more gimmicky than practical.

Thunderbird 4 has been called the most-like its progenitor, but I don't see that. Though the balance of mass is closely equivalent, every detail has been revised. The launch sequence was comfortably familiar, and she looks the part. However, It seems Gordon gets in and out of the craft with unseemly haste, equalisation of pressure, flooding chambers and such just get in the way of story telling – as with Alan going EVA from TB3, even mentioning the requirement to depressurise an airlock seemed to waste precious seconds that could be better spent with more zipping around. Do children today really think that everything happens by magic? Gordon bringing the survivors out one by one and transferring them to "dry tubes" seemed particularly wasteful of time. (How does he swim so very fast without even flippers?) The stern of TB4 is now an airlock – which flicks open in a blink, as if there is no water to move out of the way of its doors. Looking into the airlock, the interior of the craft appears to be substantially empty – so where are the mechanical guts of the craft? The manipulator arms unfolding from beneath the lateral intakes worked well, and the apparent vision ports in the floor of the cockpit are a nice nod to modern submersibles, but the irony is that dispensing with the semi-spherical cockpit transparency also dispenses with the inherent strength of the shape, which is nonsensical for a submersible.

Thunderbird 5 now plays a much more active role in stories, which may well be a nod to one of Gerry's earliest concepts that had stories occur from TB5's perspective. The new design seems to work well, it is visually interesting and convincingly animated. The station being not just the communications hub of the organisation but a strong data processing node makes good sense. Seeing John in zero-G is a new twist, which suggests gravity manipulation is not part of the repertoire of this edition.

FAB 1 looks very fair, the design is very aware of its predecessor and takes every pain to behave the same way, with the sole exception of sprouting wings and flying. Like TB1's rotating tail, this would appear to be a gimmick which has more to do with giving the tie-in toys extra features than storytelling.

Penny and Parker. Well, as with every aspect, they have a lot less gravitas than their predecessors. Her Ladyship is a classic Barbie and those eyes are unnervingly overdone, while the appeal to youth is again relentlessly enforced. Parker seems surprisingly well done, the face is a creditable transposition of the heavily-caricatured original into a pseudo-lifelike intermediary stage, and David Graham's voicing of the part is very welcome, though the musicality of his reading is not yet there. "'ome, milady?" was done perfectly, however!

As I noted above, to hear a full, traditional score is wonderful, and yet... The main theme seemed "swallowed" by its own over-embellished orchestration and Neil Foster seems to have an aversion to melody. The music is relentless, crashing away throughout, but not a single tune can be recalled. Is it just an emotion-generating background noise?

Nitpick -- if the solar reflector was above the city of Taipei, why were the engineers trapped in the control room not Chinese?

My impression, looking back on the first 44 minutes to air, is that every point I take exception to is a policy decision on the part of the producers to optimise the product for its modern target audience, and in that much I can ultimately understand why they made those choices. I do not understand the modern child's antipathy to visual realism, and am dismayed by the speed at which they process information, but that is surely a generation thing, and endemic to the world. Will I keep watching? Yes. My rule of thumb was a simple one: when it's over, do I feel as if I just watched Thunderbirds? I had to say the answer was yes, though with the caveat that it was not "my" Thunderbirds. I'll stick around and see how much depth they can give these characters, and try to forgive the elements that do not sit well with my older perceptions and expectations. I am not wildly enthusiastic because it is not the show I would have made if the decisions had been mine to make; nor, I am positive, is it the show Gerry would have made, and Jamie has made the same thing clear too. I doubt I'll be buying the merchandise, and yet, the show has its charm -- almost a guilty pleasure, if you will. The producers have provided the frenetic motion essential to sell the product to today's child, while addressing the details at enough levels to have not quiet forgotten the first generation fans. Have they put all their eggs in the basket of charm? For the old brigade, probably, and it's up to each of us whether we accept that charm. For myself, it is definitely compartmentalised away from "real" Thunderbirds -- but I'll tune in next week all the same.

MIke Adamson

[Skybase Girl]

Thanks, Chris; and thank YOU, Mike, for such a pleasurable read. I agree that the producers have been caught up in the notion that the target audience has the attention span of a newt and that relentless action is the way to go, with no time for the subtleties of real life. Yet the 'Radio Times', the longest running TV and radio guide in the UK (the one with the most gravitas, anyway), commissioned a preview audience of six and ten year old boys. All said without hesitation that while they loved it, it was too fast and too loud. Even a six year old knew that so many rescues in such a short space of time was unrealistic. The overall comment seemed to be that you shouldn't short-change kids; it's over-simplification to suggest they don't have the patience to wait around for characters and plot lines to develop. They can and do.

As for the new scheduled timing of the show, that seems to be just another thing the network has completely failed to understand. At the heart of everything Gerry Anderson did was 'the family'. The success and longevity of his work was down to cross-generational appeal. Everyone loved it, because everyone saw it. Exhausted and bleary-eyed parents are not going to be joining their kids at 8am on a Saturday morning when they're looking forward to a bit of a lie-in after a hard week at work. They hope the kids will entertain themselves. Yet something is lost and it will not only be to the detriment of those who loved GA's work. It will hit ITV and the company that made TAG hard in the coffers and will hopefully eventually make them learn from their mistakes.

[Carrie]

Excellent and most thorough reviews above.
As far as viewing is concerned, things have moved on. Whereas many people might have had to generally stick with the programmed schedules for New Captain Scarlet, transmitted - incredibly - over ten years ago, now many people (not all I agree) have some sort of hard-drive recording device like a Sky box or can get iPlayer/ITV Player etc through a PS3. These days I very rarely watch TV when it's actually transmitted, I'll record/download it and watch it when I want with the added bonus of missing out those pesky ads. (Is this what ITV really want? ). So I'm not sure that a fixed time slot is actually a drawback or a negative to viewing figures.

As to the show so far - can I admit to guilty pleasures?
I was perfectly willing to sit down and be prepared to hate it, but in fact I enjoyed it thoroughly! (I've watched Eps 1-3) All three had believable and tense moments and I didn't groan (too much) at the dialogue. I thought that the characters stayed very true to their puppet counterparts, (apart from some initial confusion over Scott and Virgil's hair colours, but their faces and voices really hit the spot for me. (Guilty pleasure No 1 - do I now need counseling?)
Yes, the hair looks like it's rock solid and molded on, an issue too with the NCS Angels as I recall and it really does seem hard to attain realistic walking movements in CGI figures. Somehow actions like John's floating in TB5, the movement of the TB's and Gordon swimming, seem to be more visually seamless.
The entry to the TB's has been done well, apart from, in agreement with Mike Adamson, Virgil's gymnastics at the end. At that speed he'd wrench a shoulder. They way Scott and Virgil get into their armour is reminiscent of the Iron Man movies, but no ones going to spot that, are they?

Positives
Tracy Boys (apart from Alan and he was my least fave in the original) - looking and sounding good and staying pretty true to their puppet counterparts. They don't look as boy-band as I thought they might from the publicity pics. Honestly, I don't mind that they don't smoke, but they can have the odd glass of wine...
Kayo and Parker
John - I too like him having a more comprehensive role to play in rescues rather than just relaying the news. Hopefully he'll get some ground action too!
Music - I rather enjoy the big-budget movie-soundtrack feel.
Nods to other GA productions, Hope there are more!

Negatives
Episodes too short
Sherbet - really???

Sadly I will not be accompanied by my barely turned teenage girls. They're used to watching 'adult' stuff like Marvel movies and Flash and Arrow, so I suspect they would (sadly) find TB a little too 'tame' and possibly even 'lame'!!!
(Guilty pleasure no 2: watching it on my own with a box of chocs)

No re-imagining is ever going to please all of the die-hard fan-boys and girls, but for me, it ticks enough of the boxes to make me want to continue watching.

[hazel]

Carrie - I agree 100%! I was fully prepared to hate this reimagining, but instead, I love it. I regard the appearance and animation of the characters as the realisation of the earlier style of puppets in CGI form (or perhaps I'm over-rationalising? Maybe...) but I really don't have any issues with the way they look and move.

Have to agree about Virgil's gymnastic dismount. Really not a good idea.

I'm also really enjoying the blend of real sets and CGI. No wonder the folding back of the trees looked so realistic - it IS real! WETA have done us proud yet again. It would be wonderful if a WETA rep were to attend the conventions this year...

Re your girls... when I was their age, a couple of girls in my class at school received a stinging rebuke from our English teacher, when they laughed at her comment that she was keen to get home in time to see The Magic Roundabout. She fixed them with a blowtorch stare, and said "Well, perhaps you're not old enough to appreciate it."

[Matt Crowther]

I've not minded the new series as such, if anything it's reignited my interest in Thunderbirds and maybe dabbling in writing in Andersonworld again. Be decent if it was shown in an afternoon slot perhaps. I remember when Thunderbirds was on in the early 90s, the time of the mania and when I got into it of course, and would watch it in the evening with my brothers and dad (I think it was on at least around 5/6pm on BBC2). Sure you can record it on DVR's and there's ITVplayer but New Scarlet suffered I think over here from being buried in Saturday morning television though Thunderbirds Are Go isn't suffering from fast forwarding through what we had with NCS.

What I missed, especially in the first episode, was Barry Gray. The launch sequences in particular.

The music is a problem though it was good to hear the Fast Music albeit in some form in the latest episode. It's not bad this series, it has its moments but the negatives listed in posts above are ones I'd mention -chiefly Virgil being able to close his hatch so quickly and the shortness of episodes. I've watched Trapped in the Sky and Pit of Peril this past week and both have great build-up of tension, the latter with the Recovery Vehicles struggling to get the Sidewinder out. It's a flash bang and done episode feeling. Like today, great to re-do Trapped in the Sky but within ten minutes we know it's the Hood and he's bailing off the liner.
SPOILER:
What I found myself irked at in this latest episode was Kayo blasting Fireflash up in the sky prompting Gordon and Alan to crash, now, I know she was worried about saving them but their crash struck me as a more serious result than what could've been.

And Jeff's dead!?

[Skybase Girl]

Hello Matt, good to see you back!

I've just watched this week and last week's episodes and I must admit, it's really growing on me. I've started to watch it less critically and that's made it more enjoyable. At first, I thought that trying to give the CGI characters a look of the puppets didn't really work, but now I quite like it ( even down to the way they walk!) I even find the music is not as loud as it was in the first episode.

One little irritant is that International Rescue seems to believe that the only villain in the world is The Hood. Every time there is a report of wrongdoing in the world, they immediately jump to the (admittedly correct) conclusion that he's responsible for it. He also seems to be able to disguise his appearance without any physical aids, which even for a series set in the future seems a little far-fetched. But then, you have to suspend disbelief for all of it, really!

Loved the re-imagining of the "Fireflash" story; very well done. And Kayo is turning out to be a far more interesting character than Tin-Tin ever was. At least she doesn't appear to have romantic designs on Alan!

[Isabelle]

I have also watched all the episodes so far, and I agree that after accepting the series' "realities" (animation style, the fact that the ships/planes etc. look like models and not actual size vehicles and so on), it's quite enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens each week.

It's really neat to see the links with the original series. I liked how they even used some of the (remixed but still) original music in this week's episode while Kayo was trying to land the Fireflash. What I had a hard tim with this week was the fact that it's totally possible to stand next to an opened hatch in a plane going what, Mach 5, and not being sucked out... aside from that, Kayo is really a nice, strong, female character.


I don't think Jeff is dead; maybe they want us to believe he's dead and he'll appear at some point. Another think they didn't really explain is how Kayo came about being on Tracy island as part of the team considering her father is nowhere in sight. Unless they explained that and I don't remember?


Um, why do they even bother with the chaise lounges next to the pool? They get blown away each time TB1 launches! And can you imagine the grimy state they must be in?!

[Matt Crowther]

I wondered if Jeff was still with us, it'd be interesting if he does appear at some point as to his voice. Also, can't help but hope Shane Rimmer gets to guest in some way as Sylvia Anderson will do soon.

I read someplace that it's been commissioned for a second series. Maybe they could recycle the two movies somehow. A CGI Tiger Moth blazing hell for leather

[Isabelle]

Is it me, or the construction worker who was trapped in the crane in this week's episode looks like NCS' Ochre?

Another very nice episode (even with Virgil's landing... o-k...). I like how they give the characters their own spotlights, too. GO GRANDMA TRACY!!!