Producing quality nostalgia content in the modern digital age is no easy task. Just ask Jonathan Frakes. Thankfully, Thunderbirds: Fire and Fury is further proof that Anderson Entertainment’s future is in the most capable of hands.
And who better to deliver the balance required for cult TV continuations than Big Finish? Perfecting new nostalgia releases relies on protecting the original content’s aesthetic while blending it with a smattering of new ideas that, perhaps, went a little unexplored in the initial run. This recipe is why Big Finish’s Doctor Who and Babylon 5 audios have proved so popular, and it’s exactly what you get with Fire and Fury’s two stories The Space Mirror and Blazing Danger.
You can tell Anderson Entertainment and Big Finish are into their stride with Thunderbirds audio productions, having already adapted three John Theydon novels and, more recently, moved onto TV Century 21 comic strips. Fire and Fury is the second of these new adaptations, following on from the success of September’s Thunderbirds Versus the Hood. Like its predecessor, Fire and Fury is well-grounded in established Thunderbirds lore thanks to Alan Fennell, who earns himself another posthumous writing credit with this release.
Fennell, who passed away in 2001, wrote for both televised seasons of Thunderbirds, before going on to write and edit for TV Century 21. It was his pen that brought us some of the original show’s best instalments (including Sun Probe, The Uninvited, The Man From MI.5 and Atlantic Inferno), specialising in episodes that placed main characters in real jeopardy and forced them to make difficult decisions. It was also Fennell who wrote the original comic strip Blazing Danger is based on. So, unsurprisingly, all of that authenticity and high stakes for the Tracy family really shines through in Fire and Fury, while Iain Meadows and Nicholas Briggs do a great job of freshening things up for modern audiences and creating well-paced scripts that neither outstay their welcome nor fall short of enough drama.
As for new ideas, there is a welcome increased presence for John Tracy and Thunderbird 5 in the first of the two stories, The Space Mirror. The character was famously sidelined due to Gerry Anderson’s dissatisfaction with the puppet’s visual aesthetic; no longer a problem when you’re producing audio drama, and here, we get to see John in the thick of the danger, the action and the difficult choices. Think Danger At Ocean Deep meets The Imposters.
The illustrious Jon Culshaw and refined Genevieve Gaunt continue to earn much praise for their roles as Jeff Tracy, Parker and Lady Penelope but it was Justin T Lee who stole the show for me. His impressions of Scott and the aforementioned John were second only to Culshaw’s flawless Parker for accuracy. It must be hard enough mimicking an actor as legendary and vocally distinctive as Shane Rimmer, let alone managing a convincing Ray Barrett on the same record as well. But that’s not to take anything away from Culshaw and Gaunt. As Jeff, Parker and a number of other characters, Culshaw continues to prove he is Anderson Entertainment’s modern-day David Graham while Gaunt had the chance to really flex her muscles and boast some excellent range on Fire and Fury. She plays not one but two villains on this latest release, showing that her charm and sophistication only need a slight nudge in the morals department to create truly accomplished and menacing antagonists.
And speaking of morality, a personal highlight of The Space Mirror was those aforementioned difficult decisions. How far does International Rescue’s remit of rescue actually extend? Are there individuals who don’t, in fact, deserve to be rescued? Are there people whose sins might force International Rescue’s hand and ask them to weigh up the value of one life versus chaos for millions? These are meaty concepts that the original shown never grappled with as much as it might have done in a different age of television and it is very welcome to see them explored in Fire and Fury.
This latest released also continued the fine tradition of Anderson’s Entertainment’s unrivalled sound effects ethic. I have long made the case that it is this department of Gerry’s original Supermarionation production that set Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet apart from their contemporary rivals; giving us real explosions, real rocket engines and real explosions instead of the sound of polystyrene rocks screeching over each other and spaceships propelled to the sound of a synthesiser wobble. I love you Doctor Who, but I am looking at you! As a ‘Nineties kid’ fortunate enough to be born in time for the renaissance, the Anderson soundboard was the soundtrack to my childhood. And so the roar of each Thunderbird launch, the crescendo of rocket engines in flight, the caterpillar tracks and spluttering of pod vehicles, and thunderous fires blazing all bring a quintessential Anderson weight to Fire and Fury. When combined with the iconic whirring and whining of Thunderbirds technology, the listener is immersed anew in Anderson’s distinctive atompunk aesthetic which, in a flash, invokes the excitement of watching these shows as a spellbound eight-year-old once again.
That feeling is well bedded-in by Joe Kraemer’s score. The music of Fire and Fury music remains very true to Barry Gray’s iconic work, which comes as no surprise. We know Kraemer has loyalty to source material in his locker from his contributions to Big Finish’s Space: 1999 and Doctor Who releases (The God of Phantoms is a particular favourite soundscape of mine). He manages to bring all the urgency and fanfare of Gray’s original Thunderbirds score to Fire and Fury, and hardcore fans will find themselves humming along to the familiar incidental motifs as well as the main anthems.
Familiar is, perhaps, the key word here. Along with its beautiful cover art, which retains the soul of Thunderbirds but boasts the franchise’s fresh readiness for the current digital market, that all-important nostalgia recipe has been followed to the ingredient and to the gram with Fire and Fury, which has been crafted with love, intimacy and the utmost respect paid to source material. Further confirmation, as if we didn’t already need it, that the future of Anderson Entertainment is in safe hands.
If you enjoy Gerry Anderson content, why not check out the reviews of my favourite Anderson episodes?
- Dragon’s Domain (Space: 1999)
- Sun Probe (Thunderbirds)
- A Christmas to Remember (Stingray)
- Survival (UFO)
- Avalanche (Captain Scarlet)
YOU CAN BUY THUNDERBIRDS: FIRE AND FURY ON BIG FINISH
BUY MY BOOKS ON AMAZON (FORGIVE THE SELFISH PLUG)
