Thunderbirds Attack of the Alligators review

Here's what you need to know; a secret lab hidden deep within a south American swamp has invented something extraordinary, a chemical that can mutate creatures and force them to grow to enormous sizes. Things quickly go very, very wrong however when a small amount of the chemical contaminates the surrounding swamp, and the resulting mutations begin unleashing hell on the lab. Trapped in their lab, the scientists' only hope is International Rescue.
There are some Thunderbirds episodes I have stronger memories of from my younger days, this is one of them, one that was up there with Trapped in the Sky and Pit of Peril as one of the greatest episodes this series ever offered, now I'm older, let's see how it holds up.

This episode is nothing short of a technical marvel, saying it plain, the use of live alligators for the mutations was extremely well done, and the mood of the swamp and the house is established beautifully, as the storm rolls in and the house goes dark for example, it's spooky stuff, as is the swamp surrounding this creepy, creepy house. back to the Alligators because they really are the star of the show here, the scenes with them destroying boats and wailing on the house are really cool and really well done, even if it's sometimes pretty apparent that they're just babies, when that isn't noticeable, the scaling is very good at showing these mutations' size. which leads me onto story, another strong point in this episode, it starts off in the spooky swamp, where we see the very mad scientist looking lab, and the resident blocker, a boat driver with some nefarious schemes, this is a pretty interesting story with this growth chemical contaminating the swamp, it's all got a very don't tamper with nature vibe to it. When the Thunderbirds show up, you would think they'd be at least a little shocked at seeing a 30 foot alligator, but they must be professional I guess. This is a pretty cool rescue, with Scott getting into bother in the house while Virgil, Alan and Gordon are outside tranqing all the Alligators. which then leads me onto another strong point of this episode, the tension, this episode has some damn intense moments, 90% of which of course involving the alligators, one particular scene with Alan and an alligator stands out, because it was awesome, and very tense. Finally, this episode even throws in a bit of humour at the end, and another alligator, can't have enough of them.

All in all this episode is just amazing, it has everything a good Thunderbirds episode needs in the proper proportions, and it has a really interesting story with shady science in a swamp and mutant alligators, also, did I mention it has mutant alligators, absolutely a must watch.