History Recap / ThunderbirdsS1E6DayOfDisaster

** The capsule is far too small and simple for a trip to Mars. The voyage there alone will take at least 3 months, so the astronauts will have quite the cabin fever by the end of the mission. And when they do get there, what then? They can't possibly have the capability to take off again if they land, so there's nothing to do except potter about in Mars orbit for a bit, then go home again... which is another 3 month (minimum) trip. Something of the size and complexity of the Zero-X mission in Film/ThunderbirdsAreGo is far more appropriate for a self-contained mission to Mars.

* CoolButInefficient: The Mars rocket looks pretty sweet, and those loving shots of it passing through the streets of England are rightly admired. One can't help but wonder, however, if it would have been easier to just construct a slightly bigger or more powerful rocket and launch from Cape Canaveral than to design and build this enormous, complex, self-contained transport-and-launch vehicle to launch from the UK.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: It doesn't matter what the position of Mars is, it will never be more efficient to launch a mission to any planet from the UK than from just about anywhere in the United States.

* CoolButInefficient: The Mars rocket looks pretty sweet, and those loving shots of it passing through the streets of England are rightly admired. Here's the thing:
** There is literally no advantage to launching a Mars mission from Great Britain rather than Cape Canaveral. Indeed, as the episode shows, the lack of launch infrastructure in the UK comes with serious drawbacks.
** Installing a 12-hour timer that begins when the rocket is raised upright and ''cannot be aborted'' is an insane idea, especially for a manned mission! It is with good reason that launches of rockets can be aborted right up to liftoff, and that manned missions have crew escape options for every stage of countdown and launch.

* NoOSHACompliance: Even by this world's already dismal safety standards, here the noncompliance is cranked up to eleven. One can't help but admire the [[InsaneTrollLogic utter brilliance]] of the entire Martian Probe transportation scheme.

The Martian Space Probe rocket, fully fuelled and loaded, is being transported to a launch site in Great Britain (ItMakesSenseInContext); on the way, it must traverse the Allington suspension Bridge. The two astronauts are also inside, making final in-cabin checks. Alas, despite being within the tolerances of the bridge, the sheer concentrated mass of the rocket causes a catastrophic failure in part of the bridge and the rocket plunges into the water below. While substantially undamaged by the fall, the automatic countdown clock is activated. In a few hours, the rocket will launch and the astronauts will be killed!

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Mars rocket looks pretty sweet, and those loving shots of it passing through the streets of England are well-deserved. But installing a 12-hour timer that begins when the rocket is raised upright and ''cannot be aborted'' is an insane idea, especially for a manned mission! It is with good reason that launches of rockets can be aborted right up to liftoff, and that manned missions have crew escape options for every stage of countdown and launch.

* ContrivedCoincidence: As listed on the [[Series/Thunderbirds main page]], this episode is possibly the crowning example of the trope. It takes a lot of coincidences to set up the situation which Gordon summarises so succinctly in ''[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS1E26SecurityHazard Security Hazard]]''

* ContrivedCoincidence: This episode is full of them. Here, a vehicle is transporting a giant rocket. Fully fuelled. With people inside. And it's set up with an unstoppable automatic launch countdown. And they have to cross a bridge. A bridge that has been weakened by a storm. And the bridge supervisors are idiots. As Gordon notes in "Security Hazard":

* DramaticTVShutOff: Brains is watching the Martian probe on the television, and Lady Penelope switches it off, saying that in her house, everything stops for a SpotOfTea.

The Martian Space Probe rocket, fully fuelled and loaded, is being transported to a launch site in Great Brittain (ItMakesSenseInContext); on the way, it must traverse the Allington suspension Bridge. The two astronauts are also inside, making final in-cabin checks. Alas, despite being within the tolerances of the bridge, the sheer concentrated mass of the rocket causes a catastrophic failure in part of the bridge and the rocket plunges into the water below. While substantially undamaged by the fall, the automatic countdown clock is activated. In a few hours, the rocket will launch and the astronauts will be killed!

* NoOSHACompliance: Even by this world's already dismal safety standards, here the noncompliance is cranked UpToEleven. One can't help but admire the [[InsaneTrollLogic utter brilliance]] of the entire Martian Probe transportation scheme.

-->'''Gordon''': "Who would have thought at the time that an underwater craft would be used to save a martian probe rocket?"

* ShoePhone

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's a scene dedicated to discovering which member of the Tracy family has eaten Grandma's "edible transmitter". It's an amusing little slice-of-life moment, but nothing in it has anything to do with the rest of the episode. The edible transmitters are never brought up again in the whole series.