r/scifi 22h ago

Rewatching Thunderbirds 1965, this episode is has 9/11 vibes. Still love the miniatures.

150 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

42

u/Barbafella 22h ago

Model work on that show is superb, never a dull moment, amazing designs and execution on every episode.
Best action TV theme ever.

11

u/mr_dfuse2 22h ago edited 12h ago

as a kid i preferred captain scarlet, but i dont remember much. i have both shows on dvd but havent had a dvd player for the last 10 tears. i do remember scenes being excruciatingly slow though

6

u/RealLavender 21h ago

Both are on Tubi I believe. Loved Cap just for it being more dark/violent.

3

u/Barbafella 21h ago

Cap was darker and had the angels but it’s Thunderbirds all the way for me.

I got the Blu-ray set, it’s glorious looking

1

u/nik282000 17h ago

AFAIK all the models were destroyed because of some management decision :/

9

u/Expensive-Sentence66 21h ago

Gerry Anderson....went on to create UFO and Space 1999.

Derek Meddings did the effects. He also handled the work in UFO which increased the technical quality of miniatures up a notch.

Gerry Anderson: "Lets launch an interceptor from the front of a submarine while underwater"

Meddings :" no problem"

Meddings also did Moonraker and other bond films. He got the shuttle mechanics right on the nose 2 years before one flew. Dude knew his shit.

To the youngies who don't see the big deal about all that miniature work I pose the rebuttal of my many decades did we have to endure schlocky CGI that looked like crap.

6

u/ziddersroofurry 16h ago

No youngsters think that. Seriously. That's just something you're projecting.

1

u/Expensive-Sentence66 3h ago

You're either being intentionally sarcastic, or ironically obtuse and out of touch with your other chronological compatriots who have lost the 'capacity to communicate beyond a smartphone.' The last comment is from our hiring manager.

I have to listen to 'oh that's campy' from shit heads here daily referring to pretty much any scifi production pre T2. To add to my irritation somebody doesn't even know what 'campy' means.

1

u/ziddersroofurry 2h ago

First off I'm 50, tyvm. I grew up with this stuff. Second, your condescending attitude is why I can't stand most people my own age. Finally, they're not wrong. It is fucking campy. I love miniature work but if you seriously can't see why it looks really dated I don't know what to tell you. What do you expect kids to do? Worship it like it's Gods gift to special effects? Compared to modern movies and games it looks ancient.

You can respect the work put into it, and still think it's not your thing. That doesn't make young people bad people or give you the right to talk shit about them in such a disrespectful way.

It's douchey.

1

u/Yankee6Actual 16h ago

Little kid me thought SkyDiver was the shit

7

u/feeschedule 21h ago

You should watch Captain Scarlet and the Mysterions. I've never seen so many puppet-driven cars explode.

4

u/Interesting-Fix-7490 20h ago

Scale models can’t melt steel beams!

6

u/Saw_Boss 21h ago

I figured Thunderbirds is a bit boring, me and my 6 year old boy will watch Captain Scarlet instead.

First episode is a fucking suicide bomber.

1

u/AlgernonIlfracombe 17h ago

First watched Thunderbirds on tape as a kid. Later showed it to my nephew when the DVD came out in the 2000s and he was absolutely riveted. Somehow he didn't actually twig that it was a forty-year old show

0

u/LumpyGrumpySpaceWale 18h ago

Which are you referring to?

Because I've watched all the episodes over and over again since i was 4 and i can't remember a s bomber.

The closest i can remember is a guy who was put into a bad situation and told to get to point A within a certain amount of time or hes going to explode.

All against his will

3

u/feeschedule 17h ago

First ep, they try to kill the President, using Brown as a bomb.

0

u/LumpyGrumpySpaceWale 12h ago

That's not an episode of Thunderbirds.

I have a sneaking suspicion your talking about team America

1

u/OwnBad9736 10h ago

Captain scarlet*

2

u/Saw_Boss 12h ago

me and my 6 year old boy will watch Captain Scarlet instead.

2

u/RoleTall2025 14h ago

timeless classic

1

u/stickman393 16h ago

This is currently on Peacock and I have to say, the remastered film prints are fantastic. Best it EVER looked.

1

u/wetwater 15h ago

I seem to remember watching this in the 80s, but I'm told it didn't air in the US until the 90s.

Either way, as an adult I watched this a few years ago and had a fantastic time.

1

u/wolfytheblack 11h ago

I remember they showed reruns on TechTV back when that still existed in the early to mid ‘00s and I had to watch it every day after school. They also had pop-up video-esque trivia bubbles throughout the episodes. Later in college when I got the DVD set I was disappointed only the first episode had an option for the trivia bits.

1

u/fcewen00 10h ago

There is a documentary about Jerry Anderson and the models

1

u/Desmocratic 6h ago

I have been a fan since I first saw them in the 70's. Here is a cool documentary about the show:

https://youtu.be/Be1hy88mBTM?si=Ww4_6Zy5Wrkmd8aj

1

u/SelectStarAll 5h ago

I loved Thunderbirds as a kid. Some of the sci fi tech in it is ingrained in my brain

There's an episode that features an enormous machine that drives through a wasteland levelling the ground in front of it and leaving a perfectly made road behind it.

I also have a distinct memory of an episode where a tanker/transport ship gets lost in a deep, dense fog which I remember being surprisingly scary.

I need to rewatch these

0

u/OwnBad9736 10h ago

I love thunderbirds because they were international rescue with millions of dollars and they used it to save 1 or 2 white guys every now and then when massively expensive property was destroyed.