Thunderbirds Are Go Slingshot review

Here's what you need to know; Thunderbird 3 is called into action when an asteroid mining machine and it's lone operator end up on a collision course with the sun, but things go very wrong when Thunderbird 3 is hit by a solar flare, leaving Alan and Kayo isolated and soon to share the same fate as the asteroid mine.

This episode bears a strong resemblance to the episode Sun Probe from the original series, though with some slight differences, enough to be less blatant than Fireflash. What I like about this episode is that it goes in a different direction without trying too hard to homage the original. This time Ned and his plant are barrelling towards the sun on a giant rock, far from the scenario of Sun Probe. However, something Sun Probe did miles better was tension, and in this episode, a more prominent sense of tension would have made it much more enjoyable. Slingshot has plenty of Thunderbird 3 in it, and while it's less involved than Space Race, it's still cool to see Thunderbird 3 doing stuff. Slingshot has some fun sciency stuff thrown in, as Alan and Kayo are forced to get creative to escape and return to Earth. This episode tries to get serious with the characters, but as usual it isn't all that interesting, especially given that Ned and his plant aren't very pleasant to Alan and Kayo, making the attempt at emotion far from heart wrenching, this is made worse by the disappointing absence of any serious tension. Still, this episode has some fun moments, some sciency stuff, and from a story perspective it isn't dumb, it is certainly as smart the best of this new series, if maybe a little preachy in the same way as Unplugged, something I didn't like in that episode, and didn't like here either. So while Slingshot is a good episode to watch, and has some fun in it, all in all I'd actually call this episode forgettable, not disappointing, just fun to watch but not going to make any sort of impact on you, and that maybe unfair, it being a show for children, but this episode could have been better. At least I can't fault it for being fun and sciency.