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Thunderbirds Are Go!: Ring Of Fire Parts 1 & 2 - A Review

Starring Rosamund Pike, Thomas Sangster, Rasmus Hardiker, David Menkin, Kayvan Novak, David Graham & Angel Coulby, with Sandra Dickenson, Andres Williams, Adjoa Andoh, Teresa Gallagher & Ramon Tikaram 
Written by Rob Hoogee
Directed by David Scott 


After another daring rescue, International Rescue are called to the scene of a earthquake, where an under-sea research base is caught right in the epicentre. However, as Gordon soon discovers, this is no ordinary seismic shift...

Soon, International Rescue will be stretched to the limit to deal with a worldwide crisis. Scott and Virgil must try and save a whole city from being scorched to death, while Alan and Kayo must try and interfere with a satellite sat right in the centre of the chaos. 

All the time, however, they are racing against the clock. One of International Rescue's oldest enemies is behind this disaster, and he has plans for them all...

50 years after Thunderbirds first aired of British television (in regional instalments, mind you, so for some, it isn't 50 just yet), it back, with a brand new look: CGI animation, updated vehicles, more diverse characters etc, etc. In many ways, this two-part opener acts like the Thunderbirds equivalent of  Instruments Of Darkness, the two-part blockbuster that started the rebooted Captain Scarlet a good few years ago. However, unlike that confident opener, Ring Of Fire is somehow more stilted than the puppet version that spawned this. Yes, there's lot's of visual treats, but, unlike the rebooted Captain Scarlet premier, there's something missing. 

The plot itself seems sound: the Hood (brought back into the fold from the original series) plans to cripple the South Coast of Austraila and the Indonesian Islands with a series of controlled sea-quakes that will force them to hand over International Rescue. So far, so good. However, here lies the rub. It all ends up buried beneath set piece after set piece that it becomes incredibly difficult to follow what's going one. Having virtually five different rescues going on in the space of a hour makes for a frenetic opening two parter, and also no time for some of the lovely character interaction that characterised the orginal show so beautifully. It's all rushed, trying to set up it's stall in only an hour, throwing things at the audience such as Jeff's disappearance, Kayo's secret, the return of the Hood etc, that it never really gets going. What doesn't help is the barrels of exposition that the characters have to say to get the show going. Gone are the days of the original show, Captain Scarlet (both versions), Blake's 7, Survivors, classic and, yes, even new Doctor Who, when all the first episode had to do was to set up a few elements, but hold the rest back for a later point in the season. Thunderbirds Are Go seems intent on giving everyone the answers to questions they didn't even know they had straight away. That's what was annoying: the single minded determination to spell it out. While the show may be being aimed at kids, they are intelligent, and they don't need to be told everything. What feels even worse, however, is that, two episodes in, there already reusing plots from the classic show. If this was a mid season filler episode, then I could understand why they would do that, but the moment I heard the words 'scorch the city' I knew they were planning to rip off Lord Parker's 'Oliday from the second season of the show. What's worse is that they've merely kept the 'rescue' part of the plot, and ignored the remoteness of the setting, and the beautiful character interactions that made the story watchable. That what annoys me more: because it's integrated into a plot that it doesn't belong to, it just feels like Rob Hoogee ran out of ideas, and stuck on a random episode of the classic show to nick his plot from. Added to that, the whole thing feels incredibly soulless, with little of the humour that was well placed in the orginal. Any humour there is, however, is ill placed and frankly poor, dragging you out of the story.

The characterisation in this new version of the programme is also poor. The only person who seems to get any development is Kayo, and that's only because her backstory is spilled out in a giddy stream. All of them fall into the steriotypes that seem to have only been informed by a quick perusal of the character's Wikipedia pages, and that to me just feels like it's a complete waste. The actors are a little hit and miss, however. Most of the leads barely register; average, but little more. Both Rosamund Pike and David Graham, however, are much better. Pike gives Penelope some much needed charm and humour, while Graham manages to rekindle some of the magic that made Parker Parker. It's not perfect, but it'll do. Kayvan Novak, on the other hand, fudges Brains completely. He doesn't get the character at all, and just adds a few random stutters to give us any hint that this is the same person. Angel Coulby is proberbly the standout, really bringing Kayo to life. The rest of the cast are simply moderate, never really making an impression. The direction and camerawork is all over the place as well, really just mad. It's almost schizophrenic. I simply found it difficult to follow the main plotline. The GCI was patchy as well. There were elements that worked eg. Thunderbird 4's design, the panoramic shots, but others eg. character movements, Thunderbird 5's design that didn't. The music of Ben and Nick Foster was good, but rather over-the-top at times. Still, their rendition of the theme was quite nice. 

The very first episodes of Thunderbirds Are Go are a mixed bag. They are good in some ways, but in others they are appalling. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, still, but I won't be if the series continues in this piecemeal fashion.

Rating - 5/10

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