Marcus Hearn

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THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

Watched the CGI remake of this show and thought it was okay, but Amazon finally added the original show and I like that even more. You could say I got obsessed. Bought this book because I wanted to know how the hell they made the vehicles move, the puppets talk, how they filmed underwater scene, and other little things. This book answers all my questions and then some.

This is a book about the British kid's show called Thunderbirds. The Tracy brothers and there father save people as a team called International Recuse. Once and awhile, a spy and her manservant, Lady Penelope and Parker, help with missions and arguably seal the show. This book is also a biography on Gerry Anderson's life, the creator of Thunderbirds and this book covers a brief look into all the other wonderful creations he has done.

The main reason I love watching this show, even today, is the fact they are puppets. You can tell each episode took awhile to make. The script is alright. It can get a little slow and repetitive, but for me at lest, the puppetry is worth watching every episode. I like seeing the Thunderbird vehicles all the time too, props to the creative department of these shows.

Besides the Tray brothers, whom I like, the real star of Thunderbirds was Lady Penelope. She was classy, fashionable, but don't let her looks and charm fool you. She kind of reminds me of a female James Bond at times, but better than Bond. I kind of wish they made a spin-off of her character, but at the same time it might have spoiled everything. What I like about her character is she was created and voiced by Sylvia Anderson (Gerry's wife). Sylvia had a lot of say with her character and she also had a lot say with the rest of the show too. To say Gerry Anderson is the only creator of this show is kind of an understatement.

This book has a ton of photos. I liked looking at all the behind the sense stuff. There's image of the puppeteers on top of these bridges which is how they controlled the puppets for each episode. For underwater scenes they had this giant glass wall in between the set and the camera with fish swimming in the glass, I thought that was a pretty neat trick. The mouth they used magnets to match lipreading. There is one episode I haven't watched yet, but I will soon, with real baby alligators to make it look like the puppets were with adult alligators. According to this book, that episode was probably the longest to make and work with the show.

It's no supersize when watching this show Gerry Anderson liked working with puppets, but he wanted to make things look as real as possible. I'm not sure about the other shows, but Thunderbirds has a bit of realism to it that makes it work. I think if he made the show today, it would have been actors or maybe CGI, but he stuck with puppets and made a unique show. With all the information in this book, you can see why this show was so popular. It's not that popular here in the United States, but it has a cult following.

I'd only get this book if you are a fan of Thunderbirds, Gerry Anderson, or puppet stuff, but it's really well done, written, and presented. "Parker, well done."… (meer)

This book is a treasure trove of information about the first 50 years of Doctor Who: from its beginnings in 1963 to the 50th anniversary special in 2013. There are production notes, explorations of other aspects of the fandom (the novelizations, Big Finish), and tons and tons of photos. It’s a beautiful book and I learned a great deal from it. Reading this will make you want to dig through your Doctor Who DVDs, fire up BritBox if you have it, or go on a spending spree at Big Finish. Lots of fun and highly recommended.… (meer)