We haven’t seen Thunderbird 4 since the show’s opening two-parter, so this week’s Thunderbirds Are Go redresses that balance somewhat, with an underwater rescue mission that puts the little yellow submarine front and centre.
The hapless Ned Tedford from ‘Slingshot’ is back, this time trapped in an out-of-control underwater extraction platform that threatens to not only crash, but to also pollute the waters with toxic waste.
Whilst we initially groaned when Ned made his shock return appearance, it also made us laugh a lot. To paraphrase Die Hard 2: “How can the same **** happen to the same guy twice?”
It’s not only Ned who makes a return this week – the Hood (as well as his Daft Punk henchmen) is back, this time orchestrating the whole catastrophe, resulting in some solid action of the road-rage variety, as FAB 1 is attacked by his men whilst on the way to apprehend him.
It’s great to see the famous pink car rolled out for more than just getting the characters from A to B, and the chase sequence here really allows us to see just how cool this new version of the classic car really is.
The model effects sequences continue to impress, with everything involving the extraction platform looking absolutely superb. In all honesty, we couldn’t tell what was CGI and what was a model, so kudos to the show’s designers and props men for their hard work here. Another shout out must go to actor David Menkin (who provides the voices of Virgil and Gordon), who spends much of the episode talking to himself.
But as we said, it’s a chance to show-off Gordon and Thunderbird 4 this week, and boy do we get some good stuff here. The rescue scenes are slightly reminiscent of ‘Ring of Fire’, especially when Thunderbird 2 starts to get pulled underwater as it tries to hold the platform with magnetic grabs, but this matters not, when the scenes are as exciting as they are here.
The climactic cliff fall is especially tense, as Thunderbird 4 is dragged down into the depths along with the stricken platform!
Another week, another brilliant episode of Thunderbirds Are Go. Once again, originality in terms of the plot wins out, and the resulting episode is a cracker, balancing Virgil & Gordon’s rescue mission with Penelope and Parker’s high octane car chase with ease.
With only one episode remaining in this half of the first season, it’s certainly a joy to see the quality remain this consistent over 12 weeks. Roll on, Episode 13!
Aired at 8am on Saturday 13 June 2015 on CITV.
> Order Volume 1 on DVD on Amazon.
> Buy the complete Thunderbirds collection on Blu-ray on Amazon.
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