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BEST OF THUNDERBIRDS
Review by Michael Jacobson
Creator:
Gerry Anderson
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Studio: A&E
Features: See Review
Length: 312 Minutes
Release Date: June 29, 2004
“5…4…3…2…1…
THUNDERBIRDS
ARE GO!!”
Hard
to believe, but Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds have been flying high for
40 years now. Those
Supermarionation action figures of International Rescue started saving the day
back in the 60s, and their reputations as heroes have only grown in correlation
with their continually expanding cult status.
A&E
Home Video has been on the forefront of bringing these classic slices of sci-fi
and action into our homes for the past several years with their double disc
releases and their definitive Thunderbirds Megaset collection.
But now, they’ve offered a treat for International Rescue fans who may
not have the budget for the big box set: a
Best of Thunderbirds two disc set that brings together the top 6 favorite
episodes of Thunderbirds as voted on by the fans themselves.
Looking
over the six chosen, I’d have to say the fans were correct:
if you were going to introduce someone to this show, these would be the
right ones to use. These are not only some of the team’s most exciting rescue
operations, but combined, they give you all the overview you need of the
characters, the spectacular equipment, and the complete ins and outs of how
International Rescue operates.
That
team is, of course, the Tracy family, led by former astronaut Jeff Tracy in the
year 2065, who turned a small uncharted island into the home base for he and his
sons to run a sophisticated and anonymous operation to save the world from
peril. These guys aren’t the ones
who’ll show up to get your cat out of a tree, but if a space probe falls out
of orbit and hurtles toward the sun, these are your men.
“Trapped
in the Sky” is the perfect set-up, as the Tracy boys race to the rescue of an
experimental atomic plane unable to land because of a bomb attached to its
landing gear. How do you get a
plane safely on the ground when it can’t lower its wheels? The answer is a stroke of genius, and remains one of the
show’s most heart-stopping entries!
“Sun
Probe” features the aforementioned spacecraft heading for an untimely
rendezvous with the star (pun intended) of our solar system.
Racing through space to avert a disaster seems like an impossibility, but
it’s just a day in the life of International Rescue.
One
episode that still stands strong but is a little eerie with modern hindsight is
“Terror in New York City”, in which the Empire State Building meets with an
untimely disaster. I remember first
seeing this episode on DVD not long after 9/11 and thinking that even for a
puppet-driven sci-fi adventure, the image of the building taking a tumble was
quite unnerving.
Our
favorite debonair lady agent Penelope earned a few starring roles in Thunderbirds
episodes over the course of the show, and “The Perils of Penelope”
earned a spot on this disc as a fan fave. Finally,
two exotic adventures close out the collection:
“The Uninvited” traps the International Rescue team inside a zombie
pyramid, while “Attack of the Alligators” has our boys fighting…you
guessed it…alligators; albeit ones that have grown into huge monsters thanks
to a freak chemical in their swamp!
In
our day of computer generated imagery, I find it comforting to see that young
kids still take to these shows the way I did when I was younger.
The cult status is proof that generation after generation is discovering
Gerry Anderson’s landmark show and embracing it, and passing the word along.
These six fan favorite episodes are evidence of why the show remains
enough of a hit to inspire a future live action movie.
One can only guess if that production will be peopled with actors as
wooden as the Tracy boys, but that’s a discussion for another time…
Video
***
A&E
has done a good job in keeping these 40 year old programs looking crisp, clean
and colorful. Only an occasional
bit of grain or flicker here and there belie the shows’ ages; for the most
part, the bright tones leap off the screen and make for a fan-pleasing viewing
experience.
Audio
***1/2
The
5.1 remixes of these shows were always an added benefit, and if you haven’t
had a chance to experience them before, Best of Thunderbirds will show
how a TV show from the 60s can sound better than ever. With the subwoofer kicking in plenty of bottom end for the
action sequences, and tasteful use of the surrounds to keep you in the middle of
it all, A&E have done fans right with these efforts.
Features
***
This
double disc set contains a few extras guaranteed to please Thunderbirds fans,
starting with a featurette on Gerry Anderson titled “Before Thunderbirds
Were Go”, along with a new interview with the creator.
There is a “pop-up” episode of “pit of Peril”, a “Story of
Thunderbirds”, and autobiographies of the Tracy family members.
Summary:
