Thunderbirds are go.

This afternoon I had the pleasure of joining two of my nephews aged 7 and 5, and their Dad to watch Thunderbirds, the new movie directed by Jonathan Frakes, aka Riker of Star Trek The Next Generation fame.

Let me start out by noting I am from geeksville when it comes to Thunderbirds the 1960's television program, produced and directed by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson using Supermarionation marionette technology and special effects by Derek Meddings who went on to build many of the special effects for the James Bond series of films.

There is little I do not know about this series and have faithfully watch rerun after rerun and on coming to the States seen the half hour episodes not broadcast in the UK for decades.

The premise of a secret base, a family of a billionaire astronaut, saving the world from disasters has over time proved that fiction can become fact, insofar there is a voluntary international rescue team of doctors and emergency specialists who will fly at the drop of a hat to help those in distress. The concept of the program, the missions and the strings attached have stood the test of time with only now, almost 40 years after the first program was aired has a live action film been made replacing the marionettes with a human cast and using the best technology to update the futuristic Thunderbird machines.

For many years a live action Thunderbirds film has been discussed much to the excitement of many cult fans like myself. Only for the plans to fail, until now.

I had deliberatly avoided trailers for the new film until recently. The opportunity to watch the film with my nephews, themselves fans of the original film was a delight.

I applaud everyone involved with this film, it was truly outstanding. It would have been very wrong of me to expect Jonathan Frakes to keep wholly to the original series, for the most part he did, the film is set before the TV series in time, Alan Tracy is still at school in the film.

These are the points I want to make note of for Thunderbird fans. There are still 5 Thunderbirds, they even retain the original color schemes, they look much the same although have been sleeked up in design. Old favorites like the Mole and the Firefly exist.

Thunderbird one still flys out from under the swimming pool, Thunderbird 3 appears from beneath a circular building, Thunderbird 2 still needs a ramp and has palm trees to fall back along the short airstrip. Thunderbird 4 is launched from Thunderbird 2 and in this film Thunderbird 5 sees more action than in the entirity of the original series.

Lady Penelope and Parker, continue to steal scenes, the Rolls Royce sadly has beebn replaced with a new car, similar in specification that also flys. We know that FAB1 is a Ford, and ford cars seem to feature very prominantly throughout the film, including a ford Thunderbird in one of the hangers.

The rescue sequences especially those in London are very well handled, I loved the monorail rescue, a hark back to classic episodes and the first rescue we see on burning oil rig.

This is a great kids movie, those of us with long memories can recognize the diversions from the original but they are all forgiveable.

Regardless I was going to love this film. I hope that enough people go see it so that a sequel may be produced. The scope of developing a franchise with Thunderbirds, much as Spykids, is very possible.

The stars remain the Thunderbird machines. Awesome, truly awesome.

Finally my thanks to Mac and the Tommy and Glenn who sat either side of me jumping up and down in excitement at this film, made the afternoon all the more worthwhile.