Thunderbirds Are Go

Real effort made with this series but first episode just too frantic- script just trying too hard!

Could have been really good but let down by very poor music score that is plain dull- see the original series to see how it's done.

In episode one someone forgot to put a bit of suspense and build up in. Hopefully better scripts to come but the dramatic "disaster" music and triumphant IR theme lost to a score that seems to have escaped from Disney's Frozen.

Models are a world apart from the sometimes flaky original series - but the attention to detail that inspired a generation of aero and space engineers was not there in this new series.

Maybe this attempt will inspire a new movie with live action - and erase the memory of the last catastrophe

Well, I've just seen the new Thunderbirds series with my eight-year old son and here's the verdict.

The Bad:

(i) No strings! The characters in the new series are CG! animation and not puppets. so you can't play "Spot-the-strings"! They also seem to walk quite normally - gone is the charming 'bobbing' gait you see in the original series. To make matters worse, the Tracy brothers can even do the impossible now, like running, jumping and even somersaulting with gay abandon.

(ii) No models! My biggest disappointment, though, were the models - or rather, lack thereof. In the original Thunderbirds, you knew that every Thunderbird you saw was a lovingly crafted and minutely-detailed real- life model - not just pixels on a CGI screen. So it didn't feel 'real' somehow ..... well, as real as plastic models and puppets can get, I suppose.

(iii) No real explosions! The same goes with the effects - somehow a CGI-generated explosion doesn't really have the same impact as a 'real' explosion created in miniature - and original Thunderbirds' bangs were glorious orgies of pyrotechnics.

(iv) Wrong sashes! Canon got thrown to the winds in the costumes - even eight-year old could spot that Virgil Tracy should have been wearing a yellow sash on his uniform, not a green one, and Gordon should be sporting a green sash, not a yellow one. Outrageous!

The Good:

i) Lady Penelope and especially Tin-tin Kyrano are so much hotter now. Tin-Tin is apparently now called Tanusha 'Kayo' Kyrano (due to copyright problems with Hergé's Tintin).

ii) Brains sounds brainier - though, inexplicably, he now has an Indian accent. My eight-year old commented that he now sounds exactly like Raj in The Big Bang Theory.

iii) Despite what I said earlier about the explosions. I liked some of the newer special effects. The vapour plume produced when Thunderbird 1 goes supersonic was a nice touch. And the falling-coconut-trees effect when Thunderbird 2 takes off is actually quite awesome now (as opposed to quite hilarious in the original series)

iv) There seems to be a lot more emphasis on science in this new series and it doesn't appear to take as many liberties with the Laws of Physics as the original series did (though Thunderbird 2 still looks gloriously un-aerodynamic with its grossly obese fuselage and stunted swept-forward wings).

All in all, a lot of the old Thunderbirds charm appears to have been lost in the new series and old fans will miss the wooden performances (literally) of the original crew. However, the new Thunderbirds does introduce the action-packed world of International Rescue to a whole new generation of kids - my eight-year old is now certainly hooked. And if it inspires our kids to be world-class scientists, engineers and pilots, rather than pop-stars, footballers and celebrity chefs, who am I to complain.

First of all, everyone needs to get over there are no puppets, we all would have loved that but hey this is 2015 not 1965. There are projects (hope all the YOU critics have signed up to the kick starter project) for A possible future puppets series :-)

This Thunderbird series is not bad at all, in fact it's really good. I have given it 10 to readdress the balance, as some people who have given it 1 is absurd. Yes it's a faster pace (but think about the time restriction) the CGI is fantastic, Thunderbird 3's launch is like something out of NASA footage.

There has been some meddling with the characters, not sure why Brains has now an Indian accent, perhaps he has spent some time out in Asia :-) Jeff Tracey is AWOL but there seems to be a story there, and yes to make it more PC we have females taking a bit more of a role. Nothing wrong with that,remember Gerry's new Captain Scarlet had a female LT Green.

I love the Original Thunderbirds (it is the greatest TV show ever made) but this is as close as you can get to it, and to be honest a lot closer than I thought it would be. There are people who will never be satisfied with any remake, and they need to think about the legacy Gerry has left behind, that Thunderbirds are go 50 years later, and I for one, although apprehensive, am thrilled to see the series, after writing to ITV many times telling them they were on a goldmine, has now been made.

Take this in isolation and enjoy it, I did.

Let me start off saying that they've done a good job reviving the Thunderbirds series. Like many others I started off skeptic, especially because of the CGI. But let me tell you, it looks great. Apart from certain movements from the characters (the puppets from the originals moved awkwardly as well, so perhaps it's intentional) , they've done an amazing job.

The cinematography looks great.

Certain (re)design choices look good and are well thought out. They give a realistic feel to the world. Such as the ships and the suits. However, other designs were left out, such as the caps for the Thunderbirds and Parker and the music (much of the music is not on par with the original). It would've been a nice nostalgic nod.

The focus on the different characters is more balanced (e.g. Thunderbird 5 has a much bigger role). And the female cast has a bigger role to play as well. Plus, Brains is now Asian (so hurray for diversity I guess ;) )

My biggest criticism concerns the pacing. Perhaps kids these days like hyperactive TV and/or movies, but what I loved about the original Thunderbirds was its rather slow pacing and attention to (single) details. By pacing things up, scenes lose their tension and sense of urgency. Especially with the bombastic music playing in the background (the original Thunderbirds had lots of silent moments). They want to shove as many action as possible into a single episode.

I think today's kids would be just as appreciative of slower pacing as we were back in the day (but perhaps this is nostalgia speaking)

Anyone who took this task on was always going to have a hard time of getting it right, and with the absolute utter abortion that was the live action version directed by Jonathon Frakes still firmly in people's minds care and attention was due.

Fortunately a great deal of care and attention has been spent on this show so it works in almost every area, almost.

The set is up is much the same. It's 2060 and the world is united under one army (The Global Defence Force)Thunderbirds already exists, any background as to how or why the organisation was set up is dispensed with. It's run by five brothers, their assistant Brains, and Kyrano, head of their intelligence and in this version a woman. Jeff Tracey is absent although you do get to see his desk. What happened to him is alluded to but not fully explained and will no doubt become a story arc as the show goes on. Someone is causing undersea earthquakes and putting lives in danger so Thunderbirds are Go and its time to launch!

So far so good. The CGI is better than in the live action movie, the new versions of the craft move and feel as though they have weight and have been designed with the flavor, feel and colours of the originals and all work a treat. Time is spent on the launch sequences and these look and feel right. Tracey island looks a little different but not too different and there's even the lemon squeezer on the wall of the Thunderbird 1 launch bay in fact if you keep a close eye on things you will see nods a plenty to the original show. Some of the writing feels a little cheesy but overall works well enough and the updated technology seems in keeping with the times of what may well be possible in the near future.

Some of the characters voices lack depth and I felt a better range of voices could have been chosen for the brothers. Shane Rimmer's voice as Scott in the original show was always going to be hard to match but here at times they blended together, also the CGI look of the characters whilst fine lacked any real emotion on the faces, perhaps to be expected for this type of animation but Alan and Gordon even looked too similar at times that I couldn't always tell them apart. However these gripes were fairly minor and didn't detract from the show the one that did for me was the music. I thought overall the score was weak.

The score for any Thunderbirds show is vital to its success and here I felt it was really lacking in a signature tune. Barry Gray had several stand out scores and easy to identify for each sequence, be that in the danger zone or the Thunderbirds launching sequence. Opening titles aside which paid a suitable homage to Gray, I found the music for the rest of the show a bombastic mess which lacked any real direction or clear emotional underscoring. While Grays shoes were large to fill here is one area they really didn't succeed in my view. That major gripe aside I will watch the show and suspect I will enjoy finding out where the back story of Hood goes as long as he is not a main feature in every episode. Otherwise it will feel like a spy show and not a show about rescues from disaster. The introduction of a new Thunderbird at the end was a nice idea though its worth pointing out that Tracey Island had this same vehicle in the original show, it just had a different name. The pilot was 55 minutes but the main show will run at 30 minutes which with the fast paced editing that CGI animation allows will probably be about right. All in all a commendable effort and not the mess it could have been.