Thunderbirds Atlantic Inferno review

Here's what you need to know; after some persuading, Penelope is able to get Jeff away from Tracy Island and away from International Rescue, leaving Scott to oversee the operation. On the other side of the world however, the Navy has got the crew of an Atlantic drilling rig into some serious trouble, now an underground fire threatens the rig, and International Rescue have to save the day, and take care of themselves.
This episode of Thunderbirds aired on the 2nd of October 1966, and while I've been out of the game for a while, which is entirely my fault, there's still episodes of Thunderbirds that need to be watched, plus the new series of Thunderbirds Are Go coming soon, plus season 3 of The Strain, plus a few thousand photographs. I think I've earned the title of idiot at last, it's such a privilege, and with all the stuff I've missed, I think the word idiot is an exceptionally applicable word. Enough sorry attempts at apologia though, Atlantic Inferno, let's go.

This episode's introduction doesn't strike me as terribly relevant, with Penelope opening a new construction operation in some mountains, I suppose it gives her and therefore Jeff a reason to be down under, but as far as the whole sea rig disaster thing goes, it seems somewhat irrelevant. Ignoring the issues I have with the very concept of a world anything, let alone a world military power for a minute, the set up of the situation on Seascape is handled fairly well, with the navy doing tests in the area and having a malfunction with one of their new toys. Meanwhile Jeff is off on vacation in Australia, leaving Scott and the rest of International Rescue to look after things themselves, I think this is a very interesting and fun idea for the series to go up against, throwing its characters into a situation that's entirely alien to them, Jeff in particular, who spends a lot of his time in this episode worrying about his sons and the operation, much to Penelope's annoyance. While he's losing sleep down under, it's equally interesting to see Scott losing sleep, not used to the new position and the responsibility that is required. When I think about Scott's character in the new Thunderbirds series on ITV, I think about this episode, where Scott's almost pathological desire to save literally everyone really shows itself in a way it hasn't before. In that sense this is an episode where you can pick sides, as Scott's morals and ambitions for International Rescue clash with Jeff's morals and ambitions for International Rescue, it's an interesting thing to consider, as Seascape goes up in flames. Pun aside; this episode's situation is a very well paced burn, providing a very calm and collected approach to a situation, that doesn't work, leading to a less calm and more frantic approach to the situation. This episode has some sweet tension, and a great sense of urgency certainly helped greatly by the sheer amount of explosions in here, the episode opens with an explosion in fact, which actually gives the irrelevant intro a bit of relevance. Really I can't think of any glaring issue this episode has, the biggest issue I have with it, personally is the whole World Navy thing, which is completely throwaway anyway. All in all, this is an episode of Thunderbirds to remember, this episode has a very fun family element with Jeff on vacation, and the rescue on offer has some fantastic tension and urgency, Atlantic Inferno is a top notch episode of Thunderbirds, and I'd very highly recommend it.