this is stuff you like and if you're going to change things for an adaptation
of some kind of source material you should at least try to change them in a
way that is an improvement. I know this sounds really obvious but you would be
surprised. Jonathan Frakes' 2004 live action Thunderbirds
was as we have previously discussed a bit of a disappointment
both to fans of the original series and to moviegoers generally. It took the
focus off the actual rescues and machines and onto a convoluted plot, the Tracy
brothers were shunted off to one side so we could focus on the teenage main
characters, the script was a bit naff and nobody bar Penny and Parker seemed to be
having any fun. Thunderbirds are go is a different
kettle of fish. Tofu fish. The plots may not be complicated the jokes may be
punny but they know how to make a show that really properly updates
Thunderbirds while retaining the things which made it so special.
OK I guess I could ask for better internal consistency when dealing with
the overarching themes of the series but as someone said to me not so very long
ago well, it's not avatar is it? There were a lot of changes made from the
original series: some big ones like Jeff being missing and the length of the
episodes, and some small ones like the designs of most of the Thunderbirds are
still pretty recognizable (with the possible exception of five) but we are going to
focus on Kayo Kyrano and the nature of the episodes on the missions. Someday I'm
going to make a whole episode about EOS and maybe also one about Gordon and
Penny and how their ship name came to be Pen and Ink and how that's my
ship name ever but today is not that day you're all going to watch it when I do
though it's gotta be great. Let's talk about Tintin Kyrano. She is the daughter
of Jeff Tracy's manservant just call me Kyrano, she's Malaysian, Kyrano is the
Hood's half-brother making Tintin the Hood's niece and she and Alan have a thing
sort of. She's a pilot she has a background in engineering and maths and
she works variously as Jeff's secretary, Brains's lab assistant, Penny's espionage
assistant, and auxiliary crew on Thunderbird 3 for radio beam operation.
Which is to say she doesn't have a terribly defined role as such she's kind
of all over the place. Now due to copyright issues stemming from
that other Tintin who also had a recent CG reboot when the TAG team - you see what I
did there - started their series development they basically redesigned
the character from the ground up. I mean for a start they
renamed her Tanusha "Kayo" Kyrano. Also neither of her parents are ever
mentioned does The Hood have a brother or a sister? We don't know but she is still
the Hood's niece, don't know if she's Malaysian, and she and Alan sort of have a...
there's a thing but it's not quite the same thing. Since they've chosen to age
down most of the cast but not Tanusha / Kayo / formerly Tintin it would have been
kind of weird if they kept that, so instead Alan has an adorable crush on
his surrogate big sister and we don't really mention it very much which is
probably for the best. Oh and she is still a pilot. The very
biggest differences though are pretty indicative of the differing ways that
Thunderbirds the original series and Thunderbirds are go treat their female
protagonists, and honestly their female characters more generally. Thunderbirds
is very man heavy especially if there are engineers or astronauts involved
it's dude puppets all the way, but thunderbirds are go is the opinion that
it's 2060 it's a modern world and so you know having an equal number of men and
women might be a good idea. This also might be because they want to get
maximum use out of their limited number of character models but you know just go
with it. The original Thunderbirds was made in
the 60s which means that even with Sylvia Anderson's efforts to introduce
Penelope and Tintin to get more female faces on the screen there was still a
lot of casual sexism that just would not fly today. In City of Fire a crazy lady
driver manages to crash her car in an underground car park and because cars
are made of explodium everything falls down and International Rescue have to go
save a mum and dad and their little boy. Yes the driver was female ha ha ha ha
it's funny because women be crazy and also statistically safer drivers than men.
Thunderbirds Are Go's Lady Penelope does act like a brainless socialite on
occasion including having the requisite small dog but we're supposed to know
that that's just an act. But anybody condescending to her or Kayo does tend
to get some small amount of plot-related comeuppance at least. More generally the
women who need rescued in Thunderbirds are go tend to be as active and often
less stupid and impulsive than their May controverts and Kayo is no exception. But
it did seem for a moment during the first season that she was going to
suffer a similar fit to her predecessor which is to say they didn't really seem
to know what to do with her after the initial episode she was shunted off to
the side just just a little. she played auxiliary astronaut with
Alan in that episode where they were going to crash into the Sun okay I see
what you did there but there were a few occasions of oh Kayo's off
testing Thunderbird Shadow that said we did at least build up a
picture of her as someone more likely to defy Scott's orders than any of the Tracy
brothers are. And as it turns out they did know what they were going to do with
her and boy it was a doozy. Kayo has two big roles: head of security and auxiliary
crew. Which is to say person who figures out what the baddies are doing and goes
and stops them, and spare pair of hands. And this clarification of role, I mean
you never see Kayo taking notes or doing science, really helps to make her an
interesting character to watch, but it also meant a smaller or non-existent
role in a lot of episodes of thunderbirds are go because of the
nature of those episodes. Which is to say that first they're shorter because
they're only 20 minutes long each and second the show as a whole is more
optimistic about humanity. The change to 20-minute episodes was obviously a
change which needed to be made because of the nature of modern children's
programming but I think it works pretty well. They've still got their traditional
handmade miniature sets but now they have CGI Thunderbirds and characters and both
the timing and the CGI contribute to the faster pace because the characters can now
do stuff instead of flipping switches while their eyes roll wildly. And
as for that second point well it's fairer to say... sort of more optimistic.
Perhaps it would be better to say that their focus is a little bit different
Thunderbirds was made in the 1960s, which is to say right around the time of the
space race and the Cold War and mutually assured destruction, and because of this
military related missions or rescues were fairly common. Many of the episodes
are obviously things like fires, building collapses, space missions going wrong, but
there are a fair few which involve the army or the Navy or the Air Force or
mysterious military style baddies. There are also more guns and the original
light up guns thunderbirds are go however has in its
backstory the straightforwardly named global conflict of 2040 which leaves
things like orbital space mines and lots of junk in low-earth orbit. The global
conflict seems to be the reason for the global defense force but the world of
2060 all in all is pretty peaceful
there aren't many world ending baddies around. Most of the baddies are either
pretty small-time or not really featured in the episode. For example bad people in
their mining machine caused a dad and his son (hey look not everybody white!) to
need rescuing. And other things that go wrong or things like solar collectors or
trains. And if someone is say trying to blow us all to kingdom come with nukes
then it's probably the hood. And in this setting Kayo Kyrano fits neatly but specifically.
she is a main character but because you mainly need her as head of security when
the hood is doing something shady and you don't want to overuse your villain
it kind of makes sense that she gets less screen time than say Scott. Or even
Penelope who can be relied upon to do non rescue mission related stuff. But
overall I think they do take good advantage of Kayo's more clearly defined
role as surrogate Tracy sister, head of security and niece of the Hood. I just
wish it was easier to get a gosh-darn action figure because seriously who
wouldn't want Thunderbird Shadow. Look at it! Anyway the reason that the show works so
well is that they know the core of what people really want from Thunderbirds:
daring rescues! Heroism! Fantastical machines! Beautiful sets! Exciting music!
with trumpets! And they know what needs updating: there's no smoking no tapes no
pointless sexism, more than two non-white characters exist, there are more
Holograms and more jetpacks and more space skateboarding. Ugh, it's just...really pretty
good you guys. I mean no it's not Avatar good and it may never get there but it's
still something I actually enjoy watching and there are episodes like EOS
or tunnels of time that I would happily watch multiple times and I would still
find them interesting. And that's... that's just really nice. But you know even after
more than 50 years and three iterations at least I still have no idea what FAB
means. If you have any suggestions put them in the comments but there's quite a
long banned words list so make sure to keep them clean. And if
you'd like to support the show then you can do so on patreon by clicking on the
link to my right. thanks for watching!