Sci fi Legends: Thunderbirds

possibly the greatest and certainly the most successful series created by the Late Gerry Anderson. Thunderbirds came from a surprisingly dark place, Anderson's inspiration for the series came from the Wunder von Lengede, a mining disaster that happened in 1963 in Germany. I don't know how long I've loved Thunderbirds, like Godzilla it's just always been a part of my life, only with merchandise that was much easier to get, and I still have my Vivid Thunderbird 2 toy that's probably as old as me. I had videos of a couple of the episodes and had a crappy video recording of the 1968 film Thunderbird 6. While my love of Godzilla comes in phases, Thunderbirds does too, but the phases are much longer, this one started in March, and it really hasn't ceased yet, in fact in recent weeks I'd say it's been getting stronger. Thunderbirds means so much to me, and that isn't changing, probably never will.

Thunderbirds tells the story of the Tracy family, billionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy and his sons; Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John, who secretly operate the top secret organisation International Rescue, an organisation ran from a base hidden under their pacific island home whose sole purpose is to save lives, enabling this purpose is the Thunderbirds, a collection of advanced supersonic aircraft and state of the art rescue equipment. Thunderbird 1, first response, Thunderbird 2, heavy lifter, carries the rescue equipment, Thunderbird 3, designed for Space rescues, Thunderbird 4, compact mini sub for underwater rescues, and Thunderbird 5, a space station that monitors radio transmissions for calls for help, at their disposal is also a host of specialised recue equipment that I won't bother naming because we'd be here all day. The origins of the concept of the Thunderbirds is important really because of what the Thunderbirds stand for. They are a family that risk their lives every day to save people, and that selflessness and bravery is very important to the series, and to the family themselves, since these are very valuable and admirable characteristics. But when you really get to it, Thunderbirds is a kids show, so what else was it in Thunderbirds that made them legends. Like I said in my Trapped in the Sky review, the Thunderbird machines are beautifully designed and instantly endearing, growing up my favourite was Thunderbird 2, probably because it was the one that did most of the work, but everyone has their favourite, and no one is wrong in their choice, because they're all really cool. More than that is the specialised equipment, again, I had a favourite, the Mole, there is a great deal of fun in seeing what rolls out of TB2's transport pod, and watching those often very interesting looking machines in action doing what they do. The sense of adventure is also a big part of it, everyone likes adventure, and the various missions the Thunderbirds go on are often cool and exciting, for example giant alligators, the underground fire, and the appropriately named Atlantic Inferno, this is a more simple endearing quality, but not as simple as the splosions, as I said in my Godzilla SFC, there is a part of the human brain that just finds enjoyment in destruction, it's fun and exciting, and things get destroyed in Thunderbirds, lots of things, for example, the Empire State building, and that's only episode 4.

Thunderbirds is loved for many reasons, and maybe I missed a few in this actually pretty short SFC, but that doesn't change the fact that Thunderbirds is a very loved series, and regardless of the reason, it will probably stay loved for many more years.