Back in the 1960s a small organisation probably rescued nearly as many people as Superman. That organisation, of course, was International Rescue.
Because I don't pay as much attention as I should to TV news, I only learned today that a new series of Thunderbirds episodes launches on Saturday evening on Britain's ITV. It's CGI animated, of course, not puppets like the original, but the sole review I've seen suggests that it might be worth watching. First series will be 26 half-hour episodes with a second series already confirmed. Cast looks much the same as in the original, as do the vehicles, except that it looks like FAB 1 can fly, and that there is at least one new action-orientated female character.
Annoyingly I'm away from home on Saturday, at an SF con, and may not get to watch it for a couple of days. Really must remember to set up the recorder...
Last edited by Marcus Rowland; 04/02/1501:23 PM.
Marcus L. Rowland Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
Just got round to watching the recording from Saturday.
OK. Well. That was a little naff. The plot was about par for Thunderbirds, though not as complicated as it sometimes was, but the animation let it down badly. The cast are in uncanny valley territory (In particular everyone's hair looks like it's moulded and part of an action figure), and inertia seems to go bye-bye whenever it suits the animators - for example, Thunderbird 2 is supposed to be a massive machine, but the "loading a cargo pod" sequence which used to seem appropriate to something that massive is now compressed to a couple of seconds. The water effects in the first part of the story were also very poor, and looked like very small models very close to the surface, not huge machines well above it. Gerry Anderson could do considerably better many years ago.
I think kids will probably love it, but I'm just not convinced. Sorry if I raised anyone's hopes.
Marcus L. Rowland Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
I have to say that I never came to like the original series, back in the day: the puppets just looked weird to me Still, in my opinion they were what made the show peculiar: this new version, as I could see from the trailer, is just "boring" CGI (and not particularly well made, as you said). Lots of remakes* these days, in movies, animated series, comics and so on... Usually, they make you miss the originals, but what annoys me most is the lack of new ideas. (*And sequels, too!)
Episode 3, (counting the initial two part episode as 1-2) was actually surprisingly good.
It focused almost exclusively on Alan aboard Thunderbird 3, Lady Penelope and Parker, and was funny despite Alan's life being in danger for much of the story. There were a few problems, most notably their sheer inability to depict space manoeuvering convincingly, but even so it was an improvement on the opening episodes and worked well enough that I wasn't too bothered by the implausibilities of the animation. I'll watch at least one more episode on the strength of it.
Marcus L. Rowland Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
Still, in my opinion they were what made the show peculiar: this new version, as I could see from the trailer, is just "boring" CGI (and not particularly well made, as you said).