Thunderbirds Are Go 2015

Warning: possible spoilers

I remember watching this show back when I was young. At first, there was a puppet version - which was very creative. The new show even retains some of the elements of that old puppet version like the palm trees bending to clear the runway for Thunderbird 2. There was also an animated version later on where Thunderbirds 1, 2 and 3 could merge into a single vehicle.

The Thunderbirds are an International Rescue team. Even back then, most of the episodes focused on rescuing people from natural disasters - and less on fighting bad guys. But times have changed and audiences have grown more sophisticated. So there has to be a storyline that spans the season, not just random rescues.

This time, a man bent on world domination (isn't there always one) is wrecking havoc by creating earthquakes all over the globe. This villian turns out to be the uncle of the Thunderbird team's security officer, Cato. There are other characters in this revival that I don't really remember in the old show like the grandma, and the spy with her chauffeur. A vehicle has also been added, called Thunderbird S - just for Cato.

I've always wondered what the numbers meant for the "crates" being carried by Thunderbird 2 - the "Hercules" transport of the team. I guess the numbers stand for the other Thunderbird vehicles but the only one which makes sense to carry would be Thunderbird 4. 1 and 3 and are simply too large - scale wise. 5 is a satellite station. And 2 can't carry itself, can it? Is there an extra Thunderbird 2?

A trick used by shows back then was to reuse the scenes where pilots enter their vehicles. Believe it or not, these parts were shown every episode, just like the show title and show credits, shaving off some minutes from the show's air time. And Thunderbirds wasn't the only show doing this. Voltron, Thundersub, and pretty much most Saturday morning cartoons had some part of the show which was rehashed from old footage. Good for production, but today's audiences might feel cheated or get bored. Even the Simpsons have invested in creating different openings for their audiences for each episode. And some TV shows have cut down their opening titles to 5 seconds of air time.

Still, over-all, I think the remake of this show is quite good. And I hope that we finally have a show that focuses on good values being passed on to the new generation - less about violence and fighting, and more about helping others especially in times of calamity.