‘DAY OF DISASTER’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This happens to be a Thunderbird 4 episode. It’s also an episode penned by ‘Doctor Who’ writer/script editor Dennis Spooner. I could tell this by the doses of humour featured in the episode.
In the episode, a severe electrical storm weakens the Allington Suspension Bridge in London. The bridge soon collapses once the Martian Space Probe convoy tries to cross it and ends up in the river.
The massive rocket itself ends up at the bottom of the river, containing its crew of two technicians. I think it would have been better if the two technicians weren’t inside the rocket in the first place. 😀
What’s worse is that the rocket’s impact with the riverbed causes the automatic onboard launch countdown to start. It can’t be stopped. Who designed the Martian Space Probe rocket to be like that?
Incidentally, the rocket was meant to be heading for Mars. This is before Zero-X goes to Mars in the movie ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’. Thankfully the Martian Space Probe avoided meeting the rock snakes. 😀
Whilst this occurs, Brains is with Lady Penelope and he sees the incident occur on the TV. They soon make to the Allington Suspension Bridge as Brian participates and supervises the rescue operation. 🙂
He’s met with some resistance in the bridge control tower from people like the ‘bridge controller’ (voiced by Ray Barrett) and Dave Clayton (voiced by David Graham). Thankfully Brains isn’t stopped.
He manages to make contact with John aboard Thunderbird 5 and very soon Thunderbirds 1 and 2 are sent to the danger zone. Thunderbird 4 in Pod 4 of Thunderbird 2 also takes part in the rescue. 🙂
It was funny to see the bridge controller and Dave Clayton react to Brains talking to his watch when making contact with International Rescue. Mind you, we could be having mobile phone-like watches. 😀
It was also funny when Lady Penelope and Parker created a diversion by blowing up the nearby, disused Allington Research Centre. This is so Brains could enter the bridge control tower very easily.
The two technicians inside the doomed space rocket include Bill Craddock (voiced by Matt Zimmerman) and Frank (voiced by David Graham). How unfortunate they had to be in that rocket. 😐
It’s intriguing the ‘bridge controller’ didn’t want International Rescue to be involved with saving the space rocket and that ‘they’ could handle it. He could have been ‘Thunderbirds’s J. Jonah Jameson. 😀
In the first rescue attempt by bridge control, several antiquated dock cranes are used to clear the debris away from the rocket. But the loads are just too heavy and two of the cranes capsize. Hmm. 😐
Thankfully when International Rescue takes over, things go according to plan once Thunderbird 4 laser cuts through the debris. Virgil in Thunderbird 2 airlifts the wreckage, but it’s time-consuming. 😐
I hope the place where Virgil dumped the wreckage was like a wasteland and not actually green ground. It did look like that in certain shots when I was watching the episode recently on the DVD. 😐
Time is running out. The rocket will soon launch with the two technicians in it. Brains comes up with a new tack and instructs Gordon in Thunderbird 4 to fire missiles to blast the remaining wreckage. 🙂
Thankfully it clears a path as the rocket withstands the blast. Gordon in Thunderbird 4 soon rams the nose cone of the rocket – with the technicians inside – in order for it to reach atop the river surface.
Thunderbird 2 soon takes the nose cone away with its magnetic grabbers, just in time before the Martian Space Probe rocket roars upwards into the sky where it spectacularly explodes. Close shave!
It was funny when Brains was dancing around happily in the bridge control tower and the ‘bridge controller’ and Dave Clayton look at him peculiarly. 🙂 He’s soon taken to be seen by a psychiatrist. 😐
This is R. G. Korda (voiced by Ray Barrett). Thankfully, Lady Penelope comes to collect Brains to take him back to her home just before the psychiatrist spots her talking to Scott via her power compact. 🙂
It was nice to see Brains back at Lady Penelope’s house with Scott, Virgil and Gordon at the end. All in all, ‘Day of Disaster’ is a very enjoyable and entertaining episode in the ‘Thunderbirds’ TV series. 🙂
‘Day of Disaster’ rating – 9/10
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