听 When one mission to Mars is destroyed by sabotage, International Rescue is asked to oversee security for a second space launch. But this secret organisation is then called upon when the Mars mission returns to Earth, too, as the spaceship is damaged and will crashland on a town.
Now rarely seen, this was going to be the film that beat "James Bond" - it was expected to be far more popular than "007" and to lead to a whole series of movies. Yet despite opening to good reviews and extremely good box-office takings, the movie rapidly died away and became a financial disaster.
Co-creator Sylvia Anderson says it was because they failed to convey to the public that this was a new Thunderbirds adventure rather than a TV episode, but that's just insulting to the audience.
The good news is that you will be mystified why the film failed because now it seems every bit as good as this most exciting TV series. Perhaps that's the reason, though: "Thunderbirds Are Go" is better suited to the TV screen than the big silver one.
Certainly there's no greater profundity or universal theme to the film, it is just an extended episode. But it does feature a puppet-sized Cliff Richard and the Shadows, performed by the men themselves.
Unfortunately, it's now almost as hard to catch it on TV as it is in the cinemas as it's not usually included with the TV episodes. A low quality video version was released in the UK and a much higher quality - and widescreen - laserdisc came out in America but perhaps it's only if the current TV repeats are a hit that we'll get to see this anew.
Read our review of "Thunderbird 6" and visit our "" for more of your favorite puppets.
The "Thunderbirds" series is currently showing on 麻豆社1 on .
