Thunderbirds Are Go season 1 part 1 review

After 13 weeks of returned nostalgia, the broadcast break for the remake of this classic series is upon us unfortunatly.

In 13 weeks, the next 13 episodes of the first season will be aired, so let`s have a look at what this has been all about so far.

The series, produced with the aid of WETA Workshop (Lord of the Rings amongst others) is a CGI remake of the original Thunderbirds series by G. Anderson from the 60s, that back then used `supermarionation` to animate the figures.

But the cool thing abou this whole computer generated series is that it actually looks modern yet vintage at the same time.  Ships shuffle left to right when caught in gales in a style as if they where cord supported, the scenery and cars at times look like actual toy models on a railroad scenery used decor...

All of the original Tracy`s return, except father Jeff who is assumed to have been killed in a plain crash engineered by The Hood.  But the voice actor, the late Peter Dyneley, is still heard as they use the countdown sequence from the original during the opening or when the Thunderbirds launch.

The ships themselves closely resemble the original, though TB2 does have the biggest update perhaps (okay, except TB5, which is now a far more advanced space station) and all the gimmicks of the vessels launching are still there: the retracting swimmingpool, the flipping to the side palm trees...

And so far, only one episode of the original series has actually been remade, Firefly, all the others are `new` adventures for International Rescue, even though they all follow the style of the old series.  Perhaps that the resues themselves might be a bit more high paced, as episodes run now for 22 minutes instead of the original series 45 minutes.  But the epic music and sequence of the Tracy`s gliding down tubes to get ready and into their vessels are goosebump moments for all us old series fans still.

Definitly one of the better series this past half year, I even came to the point sometime ago that I was anticipating the newest episode of Thunderbirds Are Go MORE the another episode of Game of Thrones... so yes, I really do like it and can definitly recommend it to anyone not looking for just another `pew pew boom bang blast` series to follow...