Episode 1: Trapped in the Sky (by Neil Crossley)

The Story:

When International Rescue are sent on their first mission, the danger hits too close to home for the Tracy boys as the maiden flight of the new atomic-powered Fireflash aircraft carrying Kyrano’s daughter Tin-Tin is sabotaged by megalomaniac The Hood in an attempt to photograph the Thunderbird craft as they race to the rescue to try and get the Firefash on the ground without setting the precariously-planted bomb…

Review:

The opening episodes of the series were all originally filmed as 25-minute shows, and when Lew Grade the head of ATV saw this episode, he reportedly ordered for the film to be stopped and all the episodes to be bumped-up to a 50-minute running time, and it’s not hard to see why. This first episode had spectacular special effects, and a storyline that pretty much held together, and did an adequate job of introducing most of the major International Rescue equipment. On some of those extended episode, it is not difficult to see where the padded material was added, but in Trapped In The Sky, you would be hard-pressed to identify where the extra material was. The special effects are staggering, and feature the first appearance of the rolling road, and the music is epic in scale as well. All in all, this episode is nothing short of spectacular, and perhaps the very best Thunderbirds episode of all.

Bloopers:

When the Doctor visits Tracy Island at the end of the episode, Jeff Tracy operates Operation Cover-Up and all the portraits duly change from those of the brothers in their International Rescue uniforms to them wearing ordinary civilian clothes. However, in one shot of Scott and Gordon, the portraits can be seen behind them of the boys wearing their Thunderbird uniforms.

Although Matt Zimmerman’s name appears in the end titles to the episode, he had not been employed by the AP Films crew when voice recording commenced on this episode.

Notes:

It seems odd that the positioning of the bomb would cause it to detonate with the impact of a normal landing, yet it undergoes aerobatics and a decidedly bumpy landing on the elevator cars which sees its nose cone scraping against the runway, without the bomb going off.

Alan’s one short line of dialogue utilises a different voice to the rest of the series, with him being voiced by Ray Barrett as opposed to Matt Zimmerman who had not been employed by the AP Films crew.

The whole part with getting Meddings into the undercarriage of the Fireflash seems long and tedious, although it is heart-in-the-mouth stuff when he falls, and it is very surprising when you witness it for the first time.

All the major characters in the series are introduced in this episode except for Grandma Tracy (she was probably baking apple pies at the time).

In a view of the underside of Thunderbird 1 when The Hood is photographing the rocket and when it comes in to land at the Airport, the “T” of the word “Thunderbird” is on the nose cone of the craft, although it appears like this in no other model of the craft, and in no other episode, except from stock footage of Thunderbird 1 landing at London Airport.

The music for the opening and closing titles is different to that used for the rest of the series and on the opening credits, there is the only sound effect heard from the “this episode” montage in the whole series when Kyrano screams.

Lieutenant Meddings, the man who is winched out into Fireflash’s undercarriage is named after Derek Meddings, the supervising visual effects director on Thunderbirds.

Commander Norman makes numerous re-appearances throughout the series, appearing in no fewer than four other episodes, and as a member of the Martian Exploration Centre in the movie Thunderbirds Are Go. Captain Hanson makes more appearances in the series as well, sometimes in footage lifted from this episode, but in a new role in Operation Crash-Dive, the direct sequel to this episode.