Another 5 episodes of the popular '60s show "Thunderbirds" from A&E Home Video. This review will look quite a bit like the review for sets 1-4 since A&E has kept the quality of the release the same.
Gerry Anderson was known for his shows "Supercar," "Fireball XL5" and "Stingray" featuring "Supermarionation" which used marionettes instead of actors. In 1963 he was coming to the end of production on "Stingray" and needed an idea for a new show. While listening to radio reports about a mine disaster in Germany he got the idea for a show about a group of people working as an international rescue organization. Since villains would be after their amazing equipment, the organization was hidden in a secret location on an island in the Pacific ocean. In 1965 "Thunderbirds" premiered and lasted 32 episodes. The show has aired somewhere in the world since it's first episode.
Sure the show can drag on and the dialog is cheesy, but it comes from the wonderful 60's where a 60 min show was almost that long. It's still enjoyable for adults and kids.
Menu Design
The menus on the disc are quite nice and reflect the feel of the show and the look of the artwork on the cases.
This set features the following episodes:
The Cham-Cham
Three US air Force transporters are shot down, and Alan notices that before each one was attacked, the Cass Carnaby Five were performing live, broadcasting their chart-topping hit "Dangerous Game." Brains listens to the broadcasts in an attempt to unravel the mystery, while Lady Penelope is sent to infiltrate the band.
Security Hazard
Thunderbirds 1 and 2 sit unguarded in a field while the Tracy boys are helping fight a refinery fire. Chip, a local boy, sneaks aboard Thunderbird 2 and stows away to Tracy Island. Getting Chip home - without compromising International Rescue security - becomes the mission of the day.
Atlantic Inferno
With Jeff on vacation, Scott is left in charge. When a World Navy training exercise goes awry, an offshore gas rig is threatened with destruction and Scott has a series of difficult decisions to make.
Path of Destruction
The crew of a giant Crablogger is incapacitated by food poisoning, and the massive, nuclear-powered machine is out of control in a Mexican forest, blazing a trail of destruction through the town of San Martino and heading for a nearby dam.
Alias Mr. Hackenbacker
Lady Penelope is in Paris to help designer Francois Lemaire with his latest fashion show. When she discovers that he is being spied on, she suggests that the event move aboard Skythrust, a new plane designed by Brains. But his rivals are ready, and the high-flying show comes to earth with a crash.
Video
Okay, I'll admit that I wasn't expecting much from a show that's over 35 years old, so what's on this disc blew me away. Many of the elements in the show are meant to be brightly colored, from the character's uniforms to the Thunderbird ships and background sets. I was expecting the picture to be washed out but was surprised by nice, bright colors. It's obvious that A&E Home Video did a lot of work to the print for this DVD release. Sure there are some dust specs, and the "outdoor" shots show some grain and look a little poorer compared to the "inside" shots, but overall this is a nice picture. A few shots suffer from minor shimmering, but nothing that's too distracting. Most of the show features the marionettes, but every once and awhile they'll insert a human hand because they can't do the shot with a marionette.
Audio
While the video quality was a surprise, the audio was even better. The soundtrack has been completely redone in Dolby Digital 5.1 and it sounds great. There's excellent use of panning between the front speakers and from the front to the rears. The rears feature some nice ambient effects while most of the dialog and music comes from the front 3 speakers. Explosions really rocked! I couldn't believe I was watching a show from the 60's that sounded this good. Excellent audio work!
I was a little surprised that the Dolby Digital 5.1 track wasn't the default track used for this release but I guess they wanted to set the original mix as the default.
Photo Galleries
There are 15 photos on the first disc and 20 photos on the second. The photos feature scenes from each of the episodes contained on these discs.
Production Credits
Not really an extra, but this is a still with the people responsible for the DVD.
Summary
The "Thunderbirds" is one of those shows that you can enjoy no matter what your age. A&E Home Video didn't let anything slide from the first two sets, and I expect the others to be of the same quality. It's nice to see a company spending the time to restore old shows for DVD release.
I loved seeing Derek Meddings name in the credits as the Special Effects Director. I'm a big fan of the Bond movies and Derek Meddings did special effects work on 5 of them.
