Season 1

Thunderbirds

Episode Guide

Episode 1

Trapped in the Sky

Episode 2

Pit of Peril

Episode 3

City of Fire
Premiere: 30 September 1965 Premiere: 7 October 1965 Premiere: 27 January 1966
Director: Alan Patillo
Writers: Gerry & Sylvia Anderson 		Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Alan Fennell 		Director: David Elliot
Writer: Alan Fennell
The Thunderbird machines rocket into their first adventure when a mysterious extortionist, know only as The Hood, plants a bomb aboard the supersonic airliner Fireflash. The rescue operation is complicated when The Hood escapes from the airport police with detailed photographs of Thunderbird 1. Utilising radio-controlled elevator cars, International Rescue attempts to catch the Fireflash on its landing approach without disturbing the bomb. Meanwhile, Lady Penelope is called into action to stop The Hood. On a jungle test, the U.S. Army Sidewinder falls into an old landfill where combustible gases have turned it into a raging inferno. International Rescue hope to haul the massive machine up, but how do they properly attach the winch gear? A family is trapped in the subterranean corridors beneath a blazing building when a car crash starts a fire in the underground parking lot. As the tower collapses, burning rubble hampers the rescue effort and Scott and Virgil are forced to risk an experimental gas torch, the vapours of which could prove fatal for the boys!

Episode 4

Sun Probe

Episode 5

The Uninvited

Episode 6

The Mighty Atom
Premiere: 9 December 1965 Premiere: 2 December 1965 Premiere: 30 December 1965
Director: Alan Patillo
Writer: Alan Fennell 		Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Alan Fennell 		Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell
A team of astronauts make a daring attempt to capture a piece of the sun, but become trapped on a collision course when their retro rockets fail. A rescue attempt by Thunderbird 3 goes terribly wrong when, after triggering Sun Probe's rockets by remote control, the sun's blazing heat causes the failure of the International Rescue craft's own retros. To transmit the remote signal to the doomed spaceship, Thunderbird 2 must battle a blinding snowstorm to reach a key transmission point. Thunderbird 1 is shot down over the Sahara desert where Scott is rescued by two archaeologists. He has a chance to repay their kindness when the men are taken prisoner by the Zombites, who launched their attack on the International Rescue craft from the lost Pyramid of Khamandies. Australia is saved from disaster after a nuclear accident by a miraculous change in wind direction. The saboteur is, in fact, The Hood who plans to exploit his next nuclear 'accident' by photographing Thunderbird 2 using a robot mouse named The Mighty Atom. Lady Penelope, unknown to him is on board the craft and will thwart the villain's plan in a manner she is not likely to forget!

Episode 7

Vault of Death

Episode 8

Operation Crash Dive

Episode 9

Move And You're Dead
Premiere: 23 December 1965 Premiere: 16 December 1965 Premiere: 10 February 1966
Director: David Elliot
Writer: Dennis Spooner 		Director: David Elliot
Writer: Dennis Spooner 		Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Martin Clump
Lady Penelope and Parker have successfully proved to Lord Sefton of the need to modernise the Bank of England's main vault. No sooner is the new vault installed than an employee, named Lambert, is accidentally locked inside. With air being pumped out, International Rescue must move fast via the Underground system. Meanwhile, Lady Penelope and Lord Sefton, the only man with the key, race back to the bank in FAB1 only to discover he has left the key behind in the mad dash. Disaster befalls the supersonic Fireflash airliner once again when a test crew crash beneath the sea and Thunderbird 4 dives to the rescue. Scott agrees to fly aboard the test and when trouble starts Gordon is winched aboard from Thunderbird 2 only to discover an armed saboteur. Alan makes a deadly enemy out of rival Victor Gomez when he resumes his racing career. Using an ultrasonic bomb, he traps Alan and Grandma on a lonely bridge in the blazing sun. The slightest movement and the bomb will explode. Can Brains disarm the bomb before the sun does the pair in?

Episode 10

Martian Invasion

Episode 11

Brink of Disaster

Episode 12

The Perils of Penelope
Premiere: 17 March 1966 Premiere: 24 February 1966 Premiere: 7 October 1965
Director: David Elliot
Writer: Alan Fennell 		Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell 		Director: Alan Patillo
Writers: Desmond Saunders/Alan Patillo
While filming a science-fiction movie, two actors dressed as Martians become trapped in a cave. Unknown to International Rescue, the Thunderbird craft have been caught on motion picture film by a camera operated by The Hood. After rescuing the actors, a madcap chase begins as the Tracy's pursue The Hood before he delivers the film to the even more mysterious General Strond. International con man Warren Grafton has aroused Jeff Tracy's interest in a nationwide monorail system, but the interest is more the railroad's safety than any money making potential. Jeff's fears prove correct when a storm damages a bridge crossing a canyon... and nothing can stop the onrushing train! A revolutionary method of converting seawater into fuel provides danger and adventure for Lady Penelope as she and her friend, Sir Jeremy Hodge, search for its inventor, Professor Borender, who vanished on the Transcontinental Monotrain a few days earlier. When the duo follow in the Professor's footsteps, they are captured by the abductors. In an attempt to force the secrets from the Professor, Lady Penelope is placed before another oncoming monotrain in the Anderbad Tunnel.

Episode 13

Terror In New York City

Episode 14

End of the Road

Episode 15

A Day of Disaster
Premiere: 21 October 1965 Premiere: 25 November 1965 Premiere: 4 November 1965
Director: David Lane
Writers: David Elliot/Alan Fennell 		Director: David Lane
Writer: Dennis Spooner 		Director: David Elliot
Writer: Dennis Spooner
Ambitious TV reporter Ned Cook and his cameraman are on the spot when the Empire State Building collapses during an attempt to move it. When the unstable ground splits apart the two men find themselves trapped beneath the rubble in a rapidly-flooding cavern. Its a job for Thunderbird 4, but Thunderbird 2 was shot down by a Navy strike vessel and the only way to get TB4 to New York fast is via that same Navy ship. Eddie Houseman is a partner in the Gray-Houseman Construction Company which has taken on the difficult task of building a roadway through a tropical rain forest. When earth tremors start landslides, Houseman makes a desperate bid to save the project by taking volatile nutomic charges into the mountains to stop the slides, but a tremor sends his truck to the edge of a cliff. Precariously balanced, the Thunderbirds must approach with caution as a blast from their vertical rockets could send the truck over the edge. Weakened by a storm, a bridge cannot take the weight of a rocket being transported by road to its launch site. The rocket falls into the river with two engineers aboard and the impact starts the automatic countdown system. Thunderbird 4 must clear the debris before the rocket motors fire.

Episode 16

Edge of Impact

Episode 17

Desperate Intruder

Episode 18

30 Minutes After Noon
Premiere: 28 October 1965 Premiere: 18 November 1965 Premiere: 11 November 1965
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Donald Robertson 		Director: David Lane
Writer: Donald Robertson 		Director: David Elliot
Writer: Alan Fennell
The Hood is commissioned by General Bron to sabotage the Red Arrow aircraft tests. Using a homing device, he draws the Red Arrow II into a collision with a telerelay tower. The impact weakens the structure and it sways dangerously in a thunderstorm. International Rescue is called to save the two men trapped high above. Their only hope is sending the men two rocket belts. Brains and Tin-Tin join an expedition to explore a submerged temple in the hidden lake Anasta, but The Hood wants the hidden treasure in the temple and also sees the chance of using Brains and Tin-Tin to draw the Thunderbirds into his evil net. The rescue of a man from a skyscraper unveils a plot to destroy England's plutonium store by using three men to carry in explosive devices locked to their wrists. The same key that unlocks the bracelets unlocks the plutonium vault. It is up to International Rescue to stop the bombs and rescue a British secret agent trapped in the vault by a security robot.

Episode 19

The Imposters

Episode 20

The Man From M.I.5

Episode 21

Cry Wolf
Premiere: 13 January 1966 Premiere: 20 January 1966 Premiere: 27 January 1966
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Dennis Spooner 		Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell 		Director: David Elliot
Writer: Dennis Spooner
International Rescue is framed by a gang out to steal top secret papers. Jeff Tracy decides to lay low and allow hidden agents to seek out the imposters. A space observatory involved in the manhunt for International Rescue develops a technical fault and when an astronaut attempts to repair it he is sent hurtling away as a result of a thruster fault. Can Lady Penelope and some hillbilly agents expose the imposters in time so the Thunderbirds can be launched to save the astronaut? Lady Penelope is sent on a mission to help the British secret service recover plans for a nuclear device. Under cover as a fashion model, she and Parker sail to the French Riviera on FAB2, but her cover is blown and she is kidnapped by the bombers, tied up and left aboard a boat docked in a lonely boathouse with a time bomb ticking away. Can the Thunderbirds find her in time? Two young boys draw International Rescue to Australia with a false call. When The Hood discovers their father's weather station is actually a space tracking station, he traps the boys in an old mine and attacks the station. When the boys send out a call for help International Rescue takes it to be another phony call.

Episode 22

Danger At Ocean Deep

Episode 23

The Duchess Assignment

Episode 24

Attack of the Alligators
Premiere: 3 February 1966 Premiere: 17 February 1966 Premiere: 10 March 1966
Director: Dennis Spooner
Writer: Donald Robertson 		Director: David Elliot
Writer: Martin Clump 		Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Patillo
The disappearance of Ocean Pioneer I leads International Rescue into a myriad of mysteries. An investigation by Brains reveals the Liquid Alsterene carried aboard the tanker becomes volatile when in contact with OD/60, a substance in the ocean directly in the path of Ocean Pioneer II, Worse yet, the mix sends off high impedance waves which can interfere with radio signals. Can the Thunderbirds pull off a rescue in total silence? Lady Penelope tries to help an old friend who has gambled all her money away. The Duchess of Royston still owns a painting titles "Portrait of a Gazelle" which they hope to rent to the Gazelle Automations Organisation as their new logo, but the journey to America is full of danger as two crooks kidnap the Duchess and leave her bound in an old house which soon catches fire. An experimental drug that makes animals grow four times their normal size is spilled into the Amazon River by a greedy boatman attempting to steal it. Soon the alligators grow to incredible sizes and attack the lonely laboratory. The Thunderbirds must stop the monsters and the boatman, who wants to make off with the rest of the drug.

Episode 25

The Cham Cham

Episode 26

Security Hazard

Season 2 Guide

Season 2
Premiere: 24 March 1965
 Premiere: 31 March 1965
Director: Alan Patillo
Writer: Alan Patillo 		Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Alan Patillo
Lady Penelope and Tin Tin are sent under cover to Paradise Peaks to investigate the Cass Carnaby Five, a pop group who have been performing live on radio each time an Air Force rocket transporter has been attacked. The duo discover the group's arranger uses a device called a 'Cham Cham' to broadcast a series of ultra sonic notes under the music which aid the fighter planes in their attack. His plan thwarted, the arranger plots his vengeance by sabotaging the cable car Penelope, Tin Tin and Parker make their escape in. A young boy stows away aboard Thunderbird 2 and, despite their best intentions, is treated to a tour and stories (flashback sequences from previous episodes) by Jeff and his sons. When the boy falls asleep from exhaustion they sneak him back home. Waking up the next morning he wonders - was it real or just a dream?