Thunderbirds Set 2 :: Education by Design Store

Editorial Review
Created by Gerry Anderson (Space: 1999), this '60s-vintage British series remains a one-of-a-kind. With its "Super-Marionation"-animated characters (their strings endearingly in plain sight) and way-cool supersonic vehicles and space-age gadgets, each hour-long episode plays like a mini-James Bond film. This boxed set contains six fab episodes that chronicle the further futuristic adventures of International Rescue, led by former astronaut Jeff Tracey and manned by his five sons, who pilot the five Thunderbirds aircraft. They are aided on the ground by the glamorous and unflappable Lady Penelope, who is squired around in a pink Rolls Royce by her devoted chauffeur, Parker ("Yes, milady"). PC alert: Lady Penelope smokes and drinks! Perhaps her finest hour is "The Perils of Penelope," in which she searches for a missing scientist who has converted seawater into rocket fuel. With each attempt on her life, she is the epitome of grace under pressure, while her more flustered companion, Sir Jeremy, is more apt to yell, "Open this door. We're British." The squad is also heading for trouble ("and I mean trouble") in "Vault of Death," "Operation: Crash-Dive," "Move and You're Dead," "Martian Invasion," and "Brink of Disaster." Adults who formed their own Thunderbirds squadron on the playgrounds of America in the '60s and '70s should be thrilled with these newly digitally remastered episodes. Yet this is not some Baby Boomer nostalgia trip. The Pokémon crowd will probably watch with rapt fascination and dig these adventures once and again. --Donald Liebenson
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Customer Reviews

The greatest sci-fi of the '60's!!!

2001-10-24
This series was intellegentlly written and the effects were awesome. You must keep in mind that this written in the mind 1960's, but well ahead of it's time.

A great trip back to when sci-fi TV kicked

2001-10-01
Not just this set of episodes, but the Thunderbirds saga as a whole. Now there's tremendous news that Volumes 3 and 4 will be coming out for Thanksgiving. No details yet on the episodes or whatever extras may be included, but figure 6 more episodes in each set. So that's 24 of the 32 episodes which will be seen. It still holds up well, even 35 years later. I'm glad A&E has seen fit to release two excellent Gerry Anderson series, two of his best.

From The Vault Of Death To The Perils Of Penelope

2001-08-26
The second half-dozen episodes of Thunderbirds are available on DVD and they encompass several of the series' best moments.

Vault of Death - A more comedic-oriented episode than usual, it details Lady Penelope and Parker's break-in at the Bank of England - designed to prove to the bank's officials the need for more modern vaults - but the ensuing change may kill an absent-minded employee, who becomes trapped in a high-tech vault programmed to purge out all the air inside.

The strongest aspect of this episode is that it delves into Parker's past and gives the viewer a look at the man and helps explain how he became who he presently is.

Operation Crashdive - A sequel to the series pilot, to which there is a reference in a newscast about the crash of a Fireflash airliner. Additional such craft are mysteriously crashing, and IR must deduce the reason why - to the point that Scott must fly a Fireflash craft with Captain Hanson, the pilot of the first Fireflash. This episode also features one of the best "intro" shots of the series as Fireflash taxis out of its form-fitting hangar in Act IV underscored by one of Barry Gray's most powerful cues.

Move And You're Dead - This episode is told almost entirely in flashback, and the use of the technique by writer-director Alan Patillo is strikingly effective. Alan and Grandma are kidnapped by a jealous racecar driver and left on a bridge with a bomb and motion detector - the motion detector will detonate the bomb if the two prisoners try to escape. Jeff and tinTin must talk Alan through retelling his story while Scott and Virgil fly to the area.

Martian Invasion - The Hood uses his hypnotic power over the Tracys' manservant Kyrano to shut off camera detectors about Thunderbird One, and then uses a sci-fi movie as cover to lure IR to the Nevada desert, where he films them in action for a mysterious international general. The premise is good and well presented, especially the chase in the third and fourth acts, but there are some plot holes and the denoument of the chase is too comedic, an uncharacteristic failing of the show's best writer, Alan Fennell.

Brink of Disaster - Basically two unrelated plots in this Fennell script are tied together by the central premise of Warren Grafton, a monorail executive in need of a big infusion of quick cash to finance his US-based monorail system, a system overly dependent on automated train systems and a fleet of patrolling hoverjets, one of which crashes and severs an overhanging section of track. The episode's subplot involves thieves with Grafton's company who break into Penelope's home to steal her valuable collection of jewels to finance Grafton's business. This aspect appears more an effort to kill time than a believeable subplot, as the train-crash angle does not contain enough screentime to fill out an hour-long format.

The Perils Of Penelope - Penny gets involved with the kidnapping of a famed scientist, and it is up to IR to find them amid the blackness of a monorail tunnel in Switzerland. The episode used two directors, Alan Patillo and Desmond Saunders, perhaps because of the extensive use of footage from the Saunders-directed episode Sunprobe at the beginning - which suggests Sunprobe and Perils were filmed simultaneously.

Please Carlton, release the other episodes and films on DVD! 2001-08-07
Everything in my review of Set 1 applies here too. Two things I forgot to mention there were Barry Gray's brilliant incidental music, and the Frank Lloyd Wright-esque architecture on Tracy Island.

Can't wait for when (if?) Carlton will release the other 20 episodes and 2 feature films on DVD! And how about UFO, too!

I want rest of the series also 2001-08-06
When I first watched the series on black-and-white TV screen, I was wrongly informed that it was stop-motion animation. And much later when I got news that it came on DVD, I learned that it was marionation that called the puppets to life. Anyway I've been longing to watch it again for really a long time. And I want the rest of the series on DVD....

About the series itself, the essence is that the IR has wonderful equipments which powers the drama and feeds the excitement to the viewers in each episode of the series. And there's the not-superhuman-strong but courageous characters, somewhat unrealistic, self-sacrificing for their mission -- from their unknown motives(What do they get from their work? Suspicious. But it's okay for enjoying the show.). And this show is pollitically more right than "Superman" series. It's the equipments that makes them hero, not their muscular body. Men and women show the same validity in their work. It's not polluted by macho chauvinism while it's a story of heroes.

Sorry for my gibberish :-p

Thunderbirds GO 2007-07-18
I haven't watch it as yet waiting for the special time just to sit back and watch them all!
I bought the set 1 and watched repeatedly until I received the set 2
I'm sure I will not be disappionted

Excellent 2007-01-10
A lot of Fun!. I remembered when I was a kid, and spent a lot of time enjoying the series. Very good.

childhood memoryies 2006-06-30
Loved it helped me complete the set,and it brought back my younger days.

A look back to the 60's future. 2002-01-17
My husband loved this show and now my 4 year old is hooked. Great for space loving kids.

A fun blast from the past 2002-01-11
A fun blast from the past. as a kid, I always found Thunderbirds fascinating but also a little creepy. Here they are in gorgeous DVD with excellent remastered sound. As an adult, you realize that many of the episodes drag a bit through their 50-minute length, but that doesnÕt affect the sheer fun-factor of watching these classic episodes! Thunderbirds Are Go!