Poster boys and 90's toys.

It feels strange that I am re-awakening my love for Thunderbirds and Gerry Anderson productions.



The fact that they were made in the 60's, made a comeback around 1999 to the early 2000's, and were even remade into a dire modern film with 'real people' surely shows their enduring appeal. My brother was obsessed with all things Gerry Anderson, right down to Fireball XL5 and Joe 90 around 2000 and I, living in the same house as him, ended up watching a lot of the programmes and playing with a lot of the toys (don't tell anyone, I would have been 10 and 11 at the time - far too old to be zooming Thunderbird 2 around Tracy Island).

My favourite was, at the time, probably Stingray, or Captain Scarlet. However, now I'm a bit older, the black and white retro sophistication of Fireball XL5 appeals a bit more, while the others do still stand as great kids' TV. The always menacing villains, from the classic 'Hood' to the futuristic, almost visionary Mysterons (see below for the Portishead song of the same name) and the peripheral characters such as Lady Penelope and Parker, as well as the Captains of all colours in 'Scarlet', made these expertly made, marionette-driven programmes seem all the more real and exciting. It wasn't the same as Disney Pixar, it was personal and the characters of the makers shone through. Who cares if the mouths don't move properly? Who cares if they make the most of hand shots, because they use real hands? Who cares if sometimes you can see the strings?

Life's not perfect, these programmes just reflected that. Until the end, that is, when of course the day would always be saved by our heroes. But who'd watch next week if we all died at the end?

Sq.