Totally NOT, the Titanic.
The One With… John actually going to the rescue!Ocean Pioneer, a new automated chemical tanker, sails into a bank of mysterious fog and explodes, apparently without cause. A year later, Ocean Pioneer II, christened by Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward herself, casts off from Southampton. Investigating the original explosion, Brains discovers that a freak reaction between the tanker's cargo of liquid alsterene and the sea fungus OD-60 is responsible for Ocean Pioneer I's demise. Thunderbirds 1 and 2 speed to the rescue as Ocean Pioneer 2 enters another fog bank....
- Abandon Ship: In one of the simplest and quickest rescues of the series, the Tracy boys cut the door open and evacuate the crew before the ship explodes. The focus of the episode is instead on the efforts made to determine whether Ocean Pioneer II will suffer the same fate as its namesake.
- Discussed in the episode's final moments. John argues with Scott that they should have at least tried to tow the very expensive ship away from the area that would make its cargo explode. Jeff reminds his sons that technology can always be replaced, while human life cannot.
No mention is made of the huge environmental impact of a fully-loaded super tanker exploding.
- Discussed in the episode's final moments. John argues with Scott that they should have at least tried to tow the very expensive ship away from the area that would make its cargo explode. Jeff reminds his sons that technology can always be replaced, while human life cannot.
- A Day in the Limelight: This is the only episode in which John takes part in a rescue. Unfortunately, poor John doesn't really get to do much.
- Alcohol Hic: Done by Parker, when he gets drunk. He politely apologizes for it; he may be a thief, but he tries to be a Gentleman Thief.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: Alsterene and OD-60 react when they get close to each other; first they create a static that can interfere with radio waves and when they get close enough, they cause a huge explosion. How any this happens without the two physically touching is anyone's guess.
- Contrived Coincidence: Quite strange that no other alsterene tankers passed over OD-60 colonies in the year between Ocean Pioneer's sinking and its namesake's launch. Can only an Ocean Pioneer ship carry this fuel?
- Cool Boat: It would be nice to be able to say this about the Ocean Pioneer ships but, in a surprising subversion for the series, they really are just boring old oil tankers. They're the only vehicles in the show that the viewer is unlikely to feel sad about when they inevitably go boom.
- Going Critical: One of the effects of the strange chemical reaction between the liquid alsterene and the OD-60 is cause the ship's nuclear reactor to go critical.
- It's for a Book: When she goes to get information about OD-60 from Sir Arthur, the head of Allpets, she claims that she wants the information for a book she's writing about dogs.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Early on in the episode, Scott, Virgil and Gordon leave to answer to a distress call from Hawaii. We don't get to see the rescue, but upon returning to base, all three of them are covered in dirt and their hair is a mess, suggesting it was pretty intense.
- Ominous Fog: The mist surrounding the place where the OD-60 is located.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The crew on the first Ocean Pioneer.
- Seadog Beard: The captain of Ocean Pioneer II.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sir Arthur, whose company dumped the OD-60 in the Mediterranean in hopes they could avoid having to ship it from America. He didn't even know if it would flourish, much less that its reaction with the liquid alsterene aboard the Ocean Pioneer vessels would destroy them both.
