Line #137 WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_nnhff9ppvv1u0mvyro1_1280.png]]
2
3	->''"5...4...3...2...1 Thunderbirds are GO!"''
4	-->-- '''Episode opening'''
5
6	''Thunderbirds Are Go'' is the remake of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}''. It began on Creator/{{ITV}} and Creator/{{CITV}} on 4 April 2015 and concluded 22 February 2020. The original marionettes have been replaced with CGI, although many of the sets and environments, most notably Tracy Island, are models. The series is a UK-New Zealand co-production and features visual effects by [[Creator/{{WETA}} Weta Digital]], Creator/CGCGInc and Creator/MilkVFX, which look every bit as awesome as you'd expect. The series received a great deal of publicity in the British media, with all concerned insisting that they wanted the new series to remain true to the spirit of the old.
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8	Two more seasons were then commissioned, bringing the episode total to 78.
9
10	Not to be confused with the 1966 [[Film/ThunderbirdsAreGo film]] set in [[TheMovie the milieu of the original series]].
11
12	----
13	!!Tropes:
14
15	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The series, like the original which was set in 2065 to 2067, is set in 2060.
16	* AbandonedMine: In "Crosscut", Thunderbird 5 picks up an unusual radiation spike from a remote corner of Africa, and John discovers a former uranium mine has reopened, leading to Scott rushing there in Thunderbird 1 to investigate, with Virgil following. When Scott arrives and enters the mine, he discovers a source of unstable uranium, and is attacked by a mysterious woman, who claims that the mine belongs to her family. During their confrontation the mine soon begins to crumble, and she and Scott must work together to escape and reseal the mine, before a storm spreads the leaking radiation to the nearest city with serious consequences.
17	* AccidentalHug: In "Heavy Metal", Brains and Moffie (who are sharing an awkward nerdy unspoken crush) ''nearly'' do the spontaneous-hug-in-a-moment-of-joy version, but break off at the last moment.
18	* ActionGirl: Penelope as in the original, but Kayo even more so.
19	* AdaptationalBadass: Kayo, who is the equivalent of the original series' Tintin. While Tintin was a renowned NeutralFemale, Kayo is a full-blown ActionGirl.
20	** Likewise, Grandma Tracy's personality has undergone a full 180 degrees from a sweet little old granny (who could cook just fine) to a [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior foul-tempered]] LethalChef [[NeverMessWithGranny badass grandma]].
21	** Also applies to Thunderbird 5 from a certain perspective, as it goes from just being the satellite communication system that alerts the team to their next rescue to actually being able to participate in rescue missions on its own.
22	* AdaptationalExpansion: Due to the move to CGI, several cases of literal wooden acting are gone, with much more natural movements, including weightlessness within space, and scenes such as when swimming actually have the characters move and act.
23	* AdaptationalNationality: The Kyranos, including the Hood, flip nationality from non-specifically Asian to British.
24	* AdaptationalWimp:
25	** Compare Brains' performance in "[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS2E4LordParkersOliday Lord Parker's 'Oliday]]" to his fear-induced paralysis in "Runaway"...
26	** The Hood had full-on PsychicPowers in the original series from mind-control to telekinesis, but here is merely a MasterOfDisguise... [[spoiler: but still uses technological-based hypnosis]].
27	* AdaptationDyeJob: In the original series, John was blond and Gordon was ginger. Here, it is reversed.
28	* AIIsACrapshoot: Eos. More petulant and childish than evil though.
29	** After her first appearance she gets becomes more a case of CreepyGood, making somewhat morbid comments about how a single malfunction could kill John at one point.
30	** The drones that [[SuckSessor more or less replace the Thunderbirds]] in the season 3 premier. When faced with a situation involving two groups of people in equal amounts of danger, the drones freeze up, unable to figure out who to rescue first. [[FromBadToWorse And then the Chaos Crew get their hands on the remote...]]
31	* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The Hood pulls this off in the Season 1 finale!
32	* AllYourPowersCombined: [[spoiler:The Zero-XL created to rescue Jeff Tracy features all five Thunderbirds combined into one vehicle around a central primary rocket (albeit with Thunderbird 4 just being transported via Thunderbird 2 as per usual and Thunderbird Shadow staying behind to defend Tracy Island from an invasion)]].
33	* AndImTheQueenOfSheba: This exchange in "Volcano", when Virgil meets a hotel greeter who'd just had a CassandraTruth conversation with Brains.
34	--> '''Virgil:''' Hi. I'm from International Rescue.
35	--> '''Greeter:''' Yeah. And I'm Jeff Tracy.
36	--> ''(Virgil points out the window at Thunderbird 2, wiping the smarm from the greeter's face.)''
37	* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:In the Season 3 finale, after rescuing Jeff and having a graduation ceremony for Alan, International Rescue is immediately dispatched with [[CallBack Jeff answering the call]].]]
38	-->[[spoiler:'''[[HesBack Jeff Tracy]]:''' This is Jeff Tracy of International Rescue. How may we be of assistance?]]
39	* ArrowCam: Done with grappling hooks in "Recharge" and "Touch and Go."
40	* ArtificialGravity: Portrayed more realistically than in the original series. Thunderbird 5 has a rotating section which provides centrifugal gravity, but when he's in other parts of the station John is authentically weightless. Thunderbird 3 has no such section, and as a result everything in the cabin is weightless.
41	* AscendedExtra: In the '60s series, despite John Tracy essentially being part of the main cast, his appearances were so minor compared to the other brothers that he might as well have been an "extra". That is definitely ''not'' the case here, as he's filling Jeff and Scott's previous roles as MissionControl - and getting a couple missions of his own.
42	* AssholeVictim:
43	** Langstrom Fischler, too eager to push the bounds of science [[NoOSHACompliance to give two hoots about safety concerns]]. Between his CIRUS balloon that crippled some of the Thunderbirds, an asteroid-mining attempt that nearly created a MeteorOfDoom, and a WeatherControlMachine that went haywire, he's always getting into messes that the Thunderbirds have to get him out of. Moreover, he's not exactly eager to accept responsibility when things go wrong.
44	---> '''Fischler:''' This is your fault! [[NeverMyFault Hey, everyone else but me, this is on you!]]
45	** [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense Francois Lemaire]], frequently going into dangerous, unexplored locations just to be the first on the scene, and for his long-suffering wife to add another chapter to his biography. After he is inevitably rescued from whatever trouble he gets in, he's often complaining that the Thunderbirds aren't more opulent.
46	* AsteroidMiners: In "Slingshot", a large solar flare causes a malfunction at a mining operation on an asteroid, sending it careening towards the sun and endangering its only crewman.
47	* BaitAndSwitch:
48	** While Lady Penelope is dealing with a rather recalcitrant official whom they need information from, Parker does some KnuckleCracking and says he's got ways to make him talk. After they receive the info, it's revealed that the "way" was to give the official a photo-op with [[TeamPet Sherbet]].
49	** On a mission to the Amazon, Kayo is slightly nervous about running into [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes a particular bug]]. Scott is convinced that it's spiders, considering the mission's subject matter, but only at the end, do they find out it's [[spoiler: butterflies]].
50	* BelligerentSexualTension: Between Gordon and Lady Penelope in "Tunnels of Time".
51	* BigDamPlot: In "Power Play", the Mechanic takes over the Grand Sequoia Dam in North America and steals power for a project the Hood abandoned because he considered it to be too extreme. When the turbines are pushed to the limit the dam starts to break up. Scott crawls inside to rescue the trapped workers while Virgil, Alan and Gordon attempt to seal a growing crack.
52	* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Alan and Gordon are blonds, Scott and Virgil are brunettes and John is a redhead.
53	* BluffTheImpostor:
54	** In "EOS", the fake John is tested with a leading remark about [[LethalChef Grandma Tracy's cookies]]. When he replies that they're one of the things he misses most while he's in orbit, everyone within earshot immediately knows he's an impostor.
55	** In "Chain of Command", Parker does this to a "Colonel Janus" who had grounded International Rescue (and would later interrupt a rescue without taking it over) with wrong information about a former military division both he and Janus were in.
56	* BollywoodNerd: Brains, having been subjected to a RaceLift.
57	* BrainsVersusBrawn: The season finale of the second season "Brains vs Brawn'' subverts the trope by having BollywoodNerd Brains go up against TheDragon only known as "The Mechanic." While he has been causing trouble for the team all season long as TheHeavy, The Mechanic is a GadgeteerGenius and far from dumb, thus making this encounter less of a battle between two [[{{Foil}} Foils]] as it is between [[MirrorCharacter Mirror Characters]].
58	* BreakingOutTheBoss: In "Escape Proof", a tunneling vehicle belonging to the Mechanic leaves a plumber trapped in its wake and it is up to Virgil and Gordon to get him out. Lady Penelope and Parker track down the Mechanic's vehicle and discover that he's heading straight for Parkmoor Scrubs prison, where the Hood is being held. Although the breakout is successful the Hood double-crosses the Mechanic and leaves him to be arrested by the GDF while he slips away. The Mechanic also escapes and programs his vehicle to self-destruct.
59	* BrokenAesop: The "don't be too over-reliant on technology" aesop of "Unplugged" is undermined by the fact that most of the Thunderbird's missions are ''only possible with their technology'' and the situation depriving them of the technology is due to active enemy attack instead of any inherent fault in the technology or arrogance on the part of the Thunderbirds. It's akin to chiding a pilot for being too reliant on his plane and not flying under his own power after it's been sabotaged. Though it could also be considered a Creator/MichaelCrichton-esque lesson -- "All tools can break; make sure you can fix or replace them. Any system can fail; make sure the first failure won't kill you."
60	** Alternatively: "Don't give up and lose hope just because the tools you rely on don't work anymore." Since Virgil seems particularly despondent when he learns that his gear isn't working, and needs Grandma Tracy to encourage him multiple times throughout the episode.
61	* ButtMonkey: Ned Tedford. Seems no matter what job he gets, from asteroid mining, to undersea cleanup, to working with the GDF, trouble always seems to find him and his [[CompanionCube geranium Gladys]].
62	* ChekhovsGag: Grandma Tracy's terrible cooking is a once-an-episode running gag to begin with, and then there's an episode where it's used to BluffTheImpostor. After that it's brought up less often.
63	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Alan shows shades of this in the episode "EOS":
64	-->'''Alan:''' But John has eyes on pretty much everywhere! He could tell us if a cat was stuck up a tree in... Antarctica!\
65	'''Brains:''' But there are no trees in Antarctica.\
66	'''Alan:''' That's how they get ya!
67	** Then there is Langstrom Fischler...
68	-->'''Fischler:''' I am going to go with monkeys from now on! A lot easier! Monkeys with helmets! Actually, no helmets! Just put the logos on the monkeys' foreheads...
69	* ColourCodedCharacters: The pilots wear coloured sashes -- which do not match the original show's colours (they instead match the colour of their crafts, except for John):
70	** Scott: Silver
71	** Virgil: Green
72	** Alan: Red
73	** Gordon: Yellow
74	** John: Orange
75	** Kayo: No sash, but has a black utility harness instead.
76	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The vehicles:
77	** ''Thunderbird 1'': Silver and Blue
78	** ''Thunderbird 2'': Green
79	** ''Thunderbird 3'': Red
80	** ''Thunderbird 4'': Yellow
81	** ''Thunderbird 5'': Gold and silver
82	** ''Thunderbird S'': Black
83	** ''F.A.B. 1'': pink
84	* CompanionCube: In "Slingshot", Ned the asteroid miner keeps up a running commentary to his potted geranium Gladys, and at one point announces her opinion on the current situation. During their second appearance in "Under Pressure", Gladys occasionally gets reaction shots in which the swaying of the flower looks like nodding or head-shaking in response to Ned's last remark.
85	* ConspicuousConsumption: It's usually not enough for whatever vehicle Francois Lemaire is using to go on whatever expedition he's off on to just be functional, be it a spaceship or a submarine, it has to be luxurious, full of teak furniture and gourmet cheese, and be given a pretentious name like the ''Jules Verne''.
86	* ContagiousAI: In her first appearance in "EOS", she is a childlike A.I. encountered in Japan that suddenly takes control of Thunderbird 5, trapping John outside of it. The program, created by John as a game, believes it is defending itself from being shut down and is sending false monitor images to Tracy Island to deceive the others. John is eventually able to reason with her and she becomes a recurring ally.
87	* ContinuityNod:
88	** Ned in "Under Pressure" makes reference to Alan and the rescue in "Slingshot".
89	** After Eos's introduction episode, she appears again in "Skyhook" acting as John's support. Technically, she also had a hand in with the train in "Runaway", forming a minor arc between the episodes.
90	* CoolCar: Lady Penelope's Rolls-Royce FAB-1, no longer referred to as a Rolls-Royce and lacking the "Spirit of Ecstasy" hood ornament, but still retaining the traditional oversized chrome grille (now topped with a rocket hood ornament) and a silver hood resembling that on the modern Rolls-Royce Phantom. It's also chock-full with gadgets, including hover-tyres, flight and submersible modes, anti-pursuit weapons like an OilSlick, and offensive foam-trap rockets.
91	** Its predecessor FAB-0 is older, but just as sophisticated, being, basically, effectively [[ContinuityNod the ''original'' FAB-1]]
92	* CripplingOverspecialization: Of a sort. "Unplugged" showed just how reliant International Rescue (and by extension the City of London) is on their technology. So much so that Virgil believes his presence is useless without it.
93	** Defied in terms of the Thunderbirds themselves; Thunderbirds 3 and 4 are still the only vehicles capable of regular space flight and aquatic rescues respectively, but Thunderbird 4 in particular has been modified on a few occasions to deal with rescues in high-pressure environments, and Thunderbird 2 has managed to go into space or underwater with appropriate modifications when faced with particularly dangerous rescues.
94	* CuteMachines: Brains now has a robot assistant named Max.
95	* CyberCyclops: The A.I. in "EOS" is the variety where it controls a building and the building's cameras act as face stand-ins, with ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' an obvious (and ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' a possible) influence.
96	* DarkSecret: Kayo is the Hood's niece, which she kept as a secret from the Tracy Brothers until the Hood revealed it in "Legacy".
97	* DecoyGetaway: [[spoiler:With a bomb attached to Tracy Island's generator, the Hood plans to make his exit, only to find that thanks to Kayo's misdirection, he's on the neighboring ''Mateo Island'', with the ''backup'' generator set to blow...]]
98	* DidntThinkThisThrough: At the end of "Signals Part 1", Havoc manages to steal Thunderbird 3. However, come "Signals Part 2", it turns out she did this out of impulsive opportunism without an actual plan to keep her acquisition, something the Hood calls her out on since he made the same mistake in the past.
99	* DieHardOnAnX: In "Fireflash", Kayo is riding aboard ''Fireflash'', a supersonic airliner that was recently improved by Brains, unaware that the Hood is planning to hijack it in mid-flight. While International Rescue notices the plane has suddenly vanished from their monitors and attempt to locate it, Kayo manages to avoid a powerful gas attack that has knocked out both the passengers and the crew, and is forced to not only confront the Hood, but also safely land the airliner when the craft is accidentally damaged and the landing gear fails to deploy.
100	* DisappearedDad: Unlike in the original show, Jeff Tracy is nowhere to be seen. In "Ring of Fire", it is mentioned that he was in a crash, and that [[BigBad The Hood]] is to blame. But they NeverFoundTheBody. Tintin[=/=]Kayo's father Kyrano has also been AdaptedOut [[spoiler:making her relationship with the Hood even more of a tenuous stretch,]] though she mentions later that he's a RetiredBadass who would likely come out of retirement if Jeff were ever found. [[spoiler:The ''Signals'' two-parter reveals that the Hood impulsively stole Zero-X and overloaded the engine, threatening to accidentally cause the end of the world, but Jeff got it out of the atmosphere and was seemingly killed in the explosion. It later turns out that the "explosion" was in fact an aftershock and Zero-X flew off in a random direction, meaning there is hope that Jeff is still alive.]]
101	* DrillTank:
102	** In "Escape Proof", the Mechanic constructs a tunnelling machine that he uses to [[BreakingOutTheBoss break the Hood out of Parkmoor Scrubs prison]]. On his way there, the machine wreaks enough incidental havoc that it attracts the attention of International Rescue.
103	** Not technically a tank in the strictest sense, but [=IR=] still has the much-loved Mole pod, which is now a commonly used configuration on the modular pods that replaced the original [[HyperspaceArsenal Hyperspace Module]] full of standard vehicles in the original show.
104	* DurableDeathtrap: The tomb in "Tunnels of Time" is full of traps, including spears and deadly gas vents, that are still working after nearly a thousand years.
105	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Despite all the hardship International Rescue endured through all of its mission without Jeff Tracy around to guide them, the Tracys and their allies prove themselves capable of saving lives, even without their organisation's head. [[spoiler:An even better one comes round over in the series finale where after getting put through the wringer by the Hood and his forces and braving extreme danger in space, the organisation manages to pull through and the Tracy brothers successfully find their still-alive father and bring him home, allowing him to head IR once again.]]
106	* EasterEgg:
107	** John likes watching ''[[Series/{{Stingray1964}} Stingray]]'' reruns, as indicated in the pilot, where he watches a snippet of the series' opening credits hologram-style in Thunderbird 5.
108	*** Speaking of ''Stingray'', the aquarium behind the living room that hides the access tube for Thunderbird 4 has a miniature of the sub swimming around in it. Which appears to be autonomous, as it's shown actively maneuvering it's way around the tank during the brief moment it's seen.
109	** One of the characters in the pilot is named Meddings, after Gerry Anderson's visual effects wizard Derek Meddings. (There was also a character called Meddings in the original version's pilot.)
110	** The doomed underwater research base in the pilot has a module resembling the nose of an Eagle transporter from ''[[Series/{{Space1999}} Space: 1999]]''.
111	** When FAB-1 sprouts wings and takes flight, it resembles Series/{{Supercar}}.
112	** In the second season, Jeff Tracy's prototype Thunderbird is found abandoned in the ocean after it was sabotaged by the Hood years ago. It's called TV-21, which was the name of the publication that printed Thunderbirds comic strips in the 1960s. Inside, Gordon finds a hat of the same style that the team wore in the original series.
113	** In the second season episode "High Strung", Kayo flicks through several TV channels, which shows scenes from several episodes of the original series.
114	* EpicLaunchSequence: Much like [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} the original]], ''Thunderbirds Are Go'' is likewise filled with it's fair share of launches. And while most of them are largely reproduced ([=TB1=] still comes out of the pool, for example), the one sequence that was completely changed is Thunderbird 4's "island" launch, first seen in ''SOS Part 2'' ([=S3E13=]): Instead of just taxiing(!?) out of it's module and plummeting off the end of Thunderbird 2's runway, it instead gets a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SubYfKe1D4 proper sub-aqua launch sequence]] worthy of this trope.
115	* TheExitIsThatWay: At the beginning of "Slingshot", Alan is woken by an emergency call and sleepily stumbles into his closet before finding the door of his bedroom.
116	* EvilDetectingDog: In "Under Pressure", Lady Penelope's usually-friendly lapdog Sherbet reacts aggressively to a corporate executive who turns out to be the Hood in disguise.
117	* EvilGloating: The Hood has a bad case of this in "Unplugged", where he starts gloating to his pawns about how he's used them for his own purposes as soon as he's got his hands on the {{MacGuffin}} -- while they're all still standing in the vault where it was stored. Fair enough, he goes on to demonstrate that he's planned his exit, but wouldn't it have been a good idea anyway to leave the scene of the crime first?
118	* EvilLuddite: A group shutdown Thunderbird 2 and the entire city of London in "Unplugged". Predictably, these were merely pawns for the Hood.
119	* EvilSoundsDeep: The Mechanic wears a breath mask and goggles and speaks in a deep, [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises Bane-esque]] voice.
120	* FacelessGoons: In "Under Pressure", the Hood has three mooks wearing motorcycle helmets with opaque faceplates.
121	* FailedASpotCheck: In "Crosscut", Scott investigates a room that's supposedly been abandoned for a decade and takes a worryingly long time to spot the clear trail of footprints running across the dusty floor.
122	* FakeInTheHole: In "Path of Destruction", Fuse plants a sonic detonator on a tanker carrying Nutrezine, a [[HairTriggerExplosive highly volatile fuel]]. Gordon manages to reach the detonator but does not have time to defuse it. He tries to run, but the truck driver Roadhog just picks the detonator up and holds it. The time runs out and nothing happens. Roadhog explains that she knew the detonator had to be a dud, as Fuse wanted to steal her cargo, and would gain nothing by blowing it up. The detonator was intended to cause them to panic and abandon the truck.
123	* FauxAffablyEvil: The Hood in this version is a ''lot'' more sophisticated and calmer than the diabolical LargeHam we saw in the original series. He seems to bear more of a resemblance to Creator/BenKingsley's portrayal of the character from [[Film/{{Thunderbirds}} a certain live-action adaptation]].
124	* FighterLaunchingSequence: Faithfully reproduced from the original series.
125	* {{Foil}}:
126	** After various missions in the first season saw IR dealing with inventor Langstrom Fischler's latest disaster because he didn't do his work properly, the second-season episode "Hyperspeed" featured Tycho Reeves, whose work is so good that it impressed Brains and whose only mistake was a minor error in his calculations that he and Brains had to analyse closely at least twice to find.
127	** Buddy and Ellie Pendergast are this to Francois and Melanie Lemaire. Both couples are {{Bold Explorer}}s with a penchant of going where no-one has gone before, whom the Thunderbirds have rescued more than once. However, while [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense Francois]] mostly does it out of self-aggrandizement, has no respect for the locations he goes into, often makes problems worse with his antics, and drags his long-suffering wife along for the ride, the Pendergasts have a true sense of scientific discovery, support each other all the way, and are actually helpful to the Tracys.
128	* FromBadToWorse: Most of the Tracy's rescue missions go this way, ramping up the stakes and the danger with each problem compounding on top of their operations.
129	* FunnyRobot: MAX, Brains' RobotBuddy, can be this in some episodes.
130	* GravitySucks: In "Heavy Metal", scientists researching gravitons accidentally create a "gravity tornado" that sucks aircraft and satellites out of the sky, and generally behaves in ways that real gravity doesn't.
131	* GreatOffscreenWar: In "Space Race", there is a mention of a global conflict that spanned from 2040 to most 2043 and even in 2060, there are remnants of the war left such as space mines. (Which is itself a modern update of England's very real UXB (Unexploded Bomb) problem, dating back from the last days of [=WW2=], and still ongoing today.)
132	* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: In Season 3: Chaos part 2, while they do claim to have thoroughly searched Havoc, they don't actually remove any of her high-tech clothing when they capture her.
133	* HandicappedBadass: Buddy Pendergast has a prosthetic leg, but that doesn't stop him or his wife from going on adventures from the deep jungle to outer space.
134	* HolographicDisguise: The Hood uses one in many of his appearances.
135	* TheHopelessReplacement: The air show in "Icarus" had its original announcer fall ill, so a new one is brought in... from his usual gig as a dog show announcer. As a result, he has absolutely no idea what is happening on the runway, and when an emergency occurs, his inexperienced panicking almost panics the crowd too until Lady Penelope steps in.
136	* HurricaneOfPuns: Just about every second line from Lady Penelope and Parker during the fight scene in "Under Pressure" is a pun.
137	* IfIDoNotReturn: In the episode "Runaway", Brains is dangling from a zipline from Thunderbird 1. When it appears he will slam into a mountain face, he screams "TELL MAX I LOVE HIM!!!"
138	* IgnoringBySinging: In "EOS", the rogue AI does this when John tries to persuade her that he means her no harm. She doesn't have hands to clap over her ears (or ears), but on the other hand, she can sing "la la la" ''really loud''.
139	* IKEAWeaponry: Instead of a large variety of auxiliary machines in the original series, Thunderbird 2's second pod contains an array of modular vehicle components, which can be assembled on-site into a variety of auxiliary machines. Examples include a four-rotor gyrocopter, a bulldozer, space modules, and the classic [[DrillTank Mole digger]].
140	* INeedToGoIronMyDog: When Grandma Tracy says it's time for a family dinner, Virgil says he'll go to clean up and tells Gordon to meet him at the ship. Scott and Alan on the other hand ...
141	-->'''Scott:''' ''[pretending to listen to a communicator]'' What's that, John? A rescue? I'm on my way!\
142	'''Alan:''' Uh, I think I left my thruster on!
143	* InkSuitActor: GadgeteerGenius Tycho Reeves from the episode Hyperspeed looks exactly like his voice actor, Creator/DavidTennant.
144	* InMediasRes: When the show starts, they've already been doing rescues for a while. We join the action when The Hood reappears on the scene.
145	* InstantAIJustAddWater: EOS, the AI in "Runaway" and "EOS", spontaneously evolved from a non-sapient computer program when its creator wasn't looking.
146	** It is implied though that EOS evolved from an AI opponent game code.
147	* IOweYouMyLife:
148	** "Chain Reaction" involves IR catching Fuse inside a malfunctioning nuclear reactor. [[spoiler: When Fuse gets in trouble, Scott goes out of his way to save him, and although Fuse leaves them trapped at first, he has second thoughts and secretly helps them escape]].
149	** [[spoiler: In exchange for disabling the Hood's remote control implant in his eye, the Mechanic promises to help Brains build a new T-Drive engine, to help the Tracys reach their father.]]
150	* IronicEcho:
151	** The Hood remarks "amazing what switching a few relays can do" when he triggers the escape capsules on a falling space station, keeping one for himself by sabotaging it. Then Kayo says it when said sabotage leaves the Hood in a malfunctioning escape capsule.
152	* ItTastesLikeFeet: In "Runaway", Scott and Alan each independently remark that a cookie from Grandma's latest batch "tastes like a foot".
153	* JustTrainWrong: In "Runaway", Japanese railways is testing an experimental train on an active railway line with no passing sidings. And dispatch vanishes after John takes over without clearing obstacles from the track ahead.
154	* KarmaHoudini: Langstrom Fischler, entrepreneur and 'inventor' whose machinery is always poorly designed and insanely dangerous when it goes bad, keeps somehow finding new investors for his schemes. Probably the worst example is 'Impact', where his half-baked attempt at asteroid mining nearly dooms the Earth by sending a rogue comet hurtling right at it. But then two episodes later he's right back at it with a faulty WeatherControlMachine.
155	* TheLastStraw: One rescue has Scott and Kayo balanced on a tree branch trying to get a trapped drone, and just as Kayo nabs it, a leaf falls on the branch. Cue the cracking.
156	--> '''Scott:''' Oh, YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe A leaf? ''[[LampshadeHanging That's]]'' enough to-''whoa!''
157	* LawfulStupid: Light-Fingered Fred, while working at Oxy-Baker, is so obsessed with following the rules that not even ''a life-or-death situation'' is an acceptable reason for breaking them to him. A life-or-death situation that he caused by refusing to let a cleaning crew in a few minutes early. In addition, he utterly refuses to cooperate with International Rescue because they haven't received clearance. Ironically, in his refusal to break rules for any reason, he's breaking the ''[[RuleZero very first rule]] of Oxy-Baker'': "Any of the rules in this book can be dismissed and forgotten in any emergency where loss of human life might result". Needless to say, Mrs Baker is not happy when she finds out that his inflexibility has cost her a scrubber and nearly killed two workers, and she fires him for completely and utterly mishandling an emergency minutes after entering his office.
158	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: "Volcano!" has Brains and Max meet a rather ornery volcanologist and his rather junkish-looking RobotBuddy Fritzy. When the latter reveals herself out of a pile of scrap, Max's lens widens while romantic music plays... and then Brains asks why Max is playing that music, causing him to hastily switch it off.
159	* LethalChef: Grandma's cooking is apparently so bad that everyone [[INeedToGoIronMyDog makes whatever excuses they can]] to avoid having to try it. Even Max the robot cooks better than she does.
160	-->'''Alan''': ''[gags]'' [[ItTastesLikeFeet Tastes like a foot]].
161	* LeParkour:
162	** Kayo, when infiltrating the Hood's Australian base.
163	** Parker retains some skills from his youth.
164	* {{Lockdown}}: In "Chain Reaction", a young GDF officer gets trapped inside a lift shaft in Shackleton, a haunted nuclear power station that was abandoned after a meltdown. Scott takes Thunderbird 1 in to assist, along with help from GDF Lieutenant and nuclear expert Marion Van-Arkel. They soon discover that Fuse is trying to steal uranium but when he puts himself in mortal danger, Scott has no choice but to rescue him. Fuse escapes just in time but the power plant goes into lock down, trapping Scott and the GDF officers inside along with the Shackleton Beast!
165	* LowSpeedChase: "Designated Driver" has some thieves kidnap Lady Penelope and her great-aunt Sylvia and try and get away in FAB-1 , while Alan and Parker chase them down in its predecessor FAB-0... very slowly around Creighton-Ward Manor's roundabout. Justified in that the thieves don't know how to drive a car because it's [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2060]] and no-one drives any more, and Parker's arm was broken while giving Alan his first driving lesson.
166	* LuckBasedSearchTechnique: Ably demonstrated by Parker while exploring the South American pyramid in "Tunnels of Time".
167	* LudicrousPrecision: In "EOS", the rogue AI announces that the odds against the Thunderbirds defeating it are 5617 to 1.
168	* MadeOfIron:
169	** Most apparent with Scott in "Crosscut", however this applies to all brothers to some extent.
170	** During the episode "Skyhook", John withstands g-forces of ten and over (up to 25) for an estimated ten to fifteen seconds. That's a lot. Not only does he not pass out, he is able to get up immediately afterward without any apparent injuries.
171	** Sometimes covered by RuleOfFunny, such as when Brains is testing a walking-on-the-ceiling device in "EOS", and falls a significant distance without noticeable ill effect when the device breaks down.
172	* MadnessMantra: In "Runaway", a terrified Brains has been reduced to repeating a series of mathematics and electrical engineers lessons to himself (which is understandable since he was ''hanging for dear life from a long wire under a speeding Thunderbird 1!'') .
173	* MediumBlending: The characters, vehicles, and most of the explosions are CGI, while everything else (including ''all'' of Tracey Island) is a physical model; occasionally, live pyrotechnics are used, mainly to blow up buildings.
174	* MonumentalDamage: ''Thunderbird 2'' clips the top of Nelson's Column as Virgil brings it in for an emergency landing in London in "Unplugged".
175	* MuggedForDisguise: In "Unplugged", Lady Penelope and Parker mug two of the Luddites and take their face-concealing hoods.
176	* MyGodYouAreSerious: While trying to dig through a very crumbly asteroid, Alan jokes that the only way to go faster is for Thunderbird 3 to back up and ram it. He stops laughing when he sees Virgil put on his helmet.
177	* MythologyGag:
178	** The solar collector subplot in "Ring of Fire" is lifted directly from the original ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' episode "[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS2E4LordParkersOliday Lord Parker's 'Oliday]]," but moves the location from the Mediterranean to [[UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} Taipei]].
179	** In "Fireflash", as Kayo brings the titular CoolPlane for a landing, the old [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyGk4JwQiFo "Fireflash Landing"]] score is utilized.
180	** The [[Main/FunWithAcronyms T.E.A.]] in "Designated Driver" is patterned after the radio teapot from the original series.
181	** In "Touch and Go," the fuel that the Hood steals has the same name as the highly combustible cargo of Ocean Pioneer and Ocean Pioneer II from the original series episode. "[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS1E19DangerAtOceanDeep Danger at Ocean Deep]]."
182	** The repulsor in "Undercover" was stolen from "Houseman Industries," last seen building roads as "Gray and Houseman" in the original series episode "[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS1E9EndOfTheRoad End of the Road]]."
183	** Lady Sylvia Creighton-Ward (Lady Penelope's great aunt) is named after and voiced by the late Sylvia Anderson, voice of the original Lady Penelope.
184	** "Relic"'s base on the moon, Shadow Alpha One, looks remarkably similar to another [[Series/Space1999 Moonbase Alpha]]...
185	** When Kayo tracks down Captain Taylor to help with a mission in "Colony", Taylor's attempt to remember her name hints at the fact that Kayo is basically the old series' Tintin with an ActionGirl makeover:
186	--->'''Kayo:''' You won't remember me, I'm--\
187	'''Captain Taylor:''' I remember you. It's Tina?... Tiny?\
188	'''Kayo:''' ''[firmly]'' It's Kayo.
189	** FAB-0 in "Designated Driver" is based on the design of FAB-1 from the original series.
190	** When Gordon boards Jeff Tracy's old TV-21 prototype rocket in "Up from the Depths", he finds a gold-rimmed International Rescue hat from the original series. And the ship's control chair is identical to the pilot's seat in the original Thunderbird 1.
191	** A tiny but clever one, in "Designated Driver", we see Lady Penelope reaching down to press a hidden button while the burglars bicker amongst themselves. The camera shows a clearly human (not CGI) hand pressing the button. This is a tribute to the original ''Thunderbirds'' series which would use human hands in close ups when they would handle items.
192	** In one episode, Virgil mentions to Alan that their dad used to wear shirts with flamingos printed on them. This is a reference to ''Thunderbirds 1965'' episode "Introducing Thunderbirds" where Jeff does indeed wear a shirt with a flamingo print.
193	** The Zero-X space shuttle is the same name as the Earth to Mars space shuttle used in the [[Film/ThunderbirdsAreGo film of the same name]], as well as ''Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons''.
194	* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: In "Slingshot", International Rescue comes to the aid of an asteroid miner named Ned Tedford. Ned reappears in "Under Pressure", having got as far from space as possible by taking a new job on an undersea platform -- which promptly goes wrong, requiring International Rescue to come to his aid again. Ned reappears again in "Undercover" as a "refreshment technician" (tea boy) for the GDF. ''Even then'', things go wrong; during Parker's sting operation, he tries to deliver tea and cake to MissionControl at the ''least'' appropriate time, and accidentally gives a go signal putting a cake down ''on a button'', blowing Parker's cover prematurely and setting the events of the episode in motion. [[ReassignedToAntarctica He's reassigned to the GDF Arctic outpost for his idiocy]].
195	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In "Chain of Command", the Hood manages to arrange for Colonel Janus, a mole he's planted inside the GDF, to be appointed International Rescue's new liaison officer within the organisation after a bridge is destroyed during their latest rescue in a manner that creates the impression the Tracys were responsible. However, when Janus twice forbids IR from getting involved in clearly dangerous rescues to the point of threatening to arrest them when they show up at a danger zone in Thunderbird 2 because he hadn't approved their presence, this just provides the Tracys with proof that he has some other agenda, reinforcing Parker's own efforts to expose his true identity.
196	* NitroExpress: In "Path of Destruction", a truck carrying Nutrezine, a highly volatile fuel, is trapped by a rock slide and International Rescue are called to assist. They soon discover that the rock slide was not an accident and that Fuse is trying to hijack the truck. Virgil and Gordon must escort the truck through the treacherous mountain pass to its destination and stop Fuse from causing more chaos.
197	* NobleDemon: Fuse. He's all about chaos and destruction, and he never actually does a HeelFaceTurn, but in "Chain Reaction", [[spoiler:after the good guys save his life, he returns the favor and saves theirs]], showing that he has at least some honor.
198	* NobodyCanDie: International Rescue is faced with dangerous missions on a near-daily basis and each member has had many near-death situations (be it from [[spoiler:evading a space mine, radiation poisoning, being buried alive, running out of oxygen, being on a crashing plane, almost flying into the sun, etc.]]) but no one ever dies. At least, not yet.
199	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In "Heavy Metal", one of the astronauts on the stricken Worldwide Space Station bears a clear resemblance to International Space Station astronaut (and Youtube celebrity) Chris Hadfield.
200	* NoOSHACompliance: CIRUS and presumably anything else created by Langstrom Fischler, [[TooDumbToLive a danger to himself and others]] who thinks it's a good idea to fill balloons with superheated hydrogen plasma for use as weather station flotation devices, finds redundancy pointless, and is too impatient to install other safety systems such as ''escape pods''. CIRUS even proved a hazard to the Thunderbirds -- the static electricity building up on the station because of the lack of static dampening plates shorts out ''Thunderbird 2'', forcing Gordon to abort his attempt to fix the aerofoils and take control of the stricken aircraft through the pod, and the superheated hydrogen plasma balloons cause it to reach altitudes that ''Thunderbird 1'''s engines aren't designed to handle.
201	* NoPaperFuture: It's all computer screens and holograms. Made explicit in "Unplugged", when the grey-haired Parker remarks that he hasn't seen anyone use paper since he was in school.
202	* NoSell: Thunderbird 2 to imposter Janus' attempts to entry.
203	-->'''Scott:''' Thunderbird 2 defense protocol gamma! Light'er up Virgil!
204	* NotMeThisTime: "High Strung" involves a luxury balloon flying through a snowy and windy mountain range, owned by Francois Lemaire. When Kayo investigates, she finds Lemaire a BandageMummy on his yacht after an accident, while Scott finds out that one of Lemaire's employees took the balloon on a joyride.
205	* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: "Crosscut" establishes that nuclear weapons and even nuclear power generation is a thing of the past, having been judged too dangerous in the wrong hands. (It's not said what replaced them.) When Scott hears that somebody has been surreptitiously buying uranium, he correctly concludes without any further evidence that it's the Hood, apparently because nobody else would do such a thing.
206	* OhCrap:
207	** Played for laughs. Appears to be the general reaction to Grandma Tracy's cooking.
208	** Played straight when Alan discovers a live nuclear-powered SAT-MINE in space.
209	* OlderIsBetter: Grandma Tracy, who is now a more active character than in the '60s series. She teams up with one of her grandsons in the episode "Unplugged" to stop the anti-technology terrorist group The Luddites. She also takes over MissionControl when EOS temporarily compromises ''Thunderbird 5'' and coaches Scott out of a spin.
210	* OnePasswordAttemptEver: The deactivation code for the automated weapon in "Space Race" is designed on this principle; if the first attempt to enter it is unsuccessful, the weapon will assume enemy action and destroy itself, the person entering the code, and anything else that happens to be within range.
211	* OopNorth: Ned the asteroid miner in "Slingshot" has the accent and no-nonsense attitude of a stereotypical northern miner.
212	* OpenSecret: In the original series, International Rescue is top secret due to the technology they use being far ahead of its time. While the Thunderbirds are still more advanced than most of the world, the technology displayed in this series have caught up where there's not a lot of point in keeping their secret. Several characters will even comment on Jeff Tracy's legacy and there are protocols taken if International Rescue is not available. In the episode "Icarus", all of the Thunderbirds, except 5 for obvious reasons, are on full display for the public to see.
213	* OutrunTheFireball: In "Flame Out", Virgil and firefighting expert Kip Harris are attempting to plug a gas leak at a hydro-methane storage facility when an explosion out at sea sends a shockwave towards them. They turn and run as the gas ignites and explodes behind them.
214	* OverzealousUnderling: In "Clean Sweep", a jobsworth employee creates the danger of the week by refusing to let a cleaning crew into an anti-pollution weather device a few minutes early because they are ahead of schedule, citing the employee rule book. When the International Rescue team arrive, he creates further rule bothering because he hasn't received official clearances and that is against the rules too. He genuinely thinks he is doing what his employer wants by doing all that. At the end of the episode he's reminded of RuleZero saying that all rules can be waived if there is an actual reason to do so, and then fired.
215	* ParrotExpowhat: On arrival at the Quantum Research Centre in "Heavy Metal":
216	-->'''Brains:''' This is the epicentre of leading-edge research into spin-2 bosons.\
217	'''Alan:''' Spin-who what-sons?
218	* PercussiveMaintenance: Comes up a few times to restart uncooperative tech; most notably when Gordon needs to restart the SuperPrototype Thunderbird TV-21, his brothers advise him to use the "Jeff Tracy fix", which is a thump on the console.
219	* PossessionImpliesMastery: Subverted in "Relic" when Scott confidently announces he'll drive a lunar rover before realising he has no idea what any of the controls do.
220	* PowerLossMakesYouStrong: Virgil goes through this plot in "Unplugged". The villain's scheme involves causing every electronic device in the area to malfunction, leaving Virgil to rise to the challenge of saving the day without the aid of any of the gadgets he usually uses.
221	* PowerSource: It's never really explained what power source they use in the future setting of 2060, but in "Crosscut", it's explicitly said that nobody uses nuclear power anymore, to the point that when it's mentioned that someone is trying to buy uranium, the automatic assumption is that it's The Hood attempting to create a nuclear weapon, because apparently nobody else wants uranium. And in "Designated Driver", Parker mentions that FAB-0, a very old car, uses petrol (gasoline) like it's something unusual, meaning that's probably not used anymore either.
222	* PoweredArmor: Virgil uses a mechanical exo-suit for heavy lifting on occasion. John also dons similar spaceflight armor when he goes on space rescues himself.
223	* RaceLift: Brains is now a BollywoodNerd.
224	* ReassignedToAntarctica: In "Undercover", once the repulsor magnet crisis is over, Colonel Casey reassigns Ned Tedford to the Arctic outpost for singlehandedly ruining the sting operation.
225	* RedEyesTakeWarning: In "EOS", the AI's camera-eyes have status lights that change color with the AI's mood; when she's feeling angry or hostile, they are of course red.
226	* RedOniBlueOni: Scott and Virgil Tracy are red and blue respectably. Especially in the episodes Crosscut and Recharge. Virgil is also Blue Oni to Gordon's red. In episodes such as Slingshot, older Action Girl Kayo acts as the red oni to Child Progidy Alan's Blue oni. John acts as blue Oni to all the other Tracys. (and EOS)
227	* TheRemake: The whole show is this, but especially episode 5, "Fireflash", which is a remake of the original pilot episode, [[Recap/ThunderbirdsS1E1TrappedInTheSky "Trapped in the Sky"]].
228	* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Francois Lemaire, a businessman who frequently goes on dangerous expeditions into uncharted areas, like Halley's Comet and Atlantis. He even runs away from Thunderbird 4 in the latter to explore Atlantis (a seaquake-prone zone).
229	* RisingWaterRisingTension: In "Ring of Fire, Part 1", International Rescue have to save the crew of an underwater lab that has been damaged by an earthquake and is taking on water.
230	* RunawayTrain: International Rescue have to stop a runaway experimental train in "Runaway".
231	* TheScream: At the beginning of "Under Pressure", the operator of the stricken undersea salvage platform panics and starts screaming. The camera pulls back all the way to orbit, with Thunderbird 5 drifting through the shot, and the scream is still audible. (In a DiegeticSwitch, it then turns out that the scream actually is audible inside Thunderbird 5, because John's picked up the platform's distress transmission.)
232	** And when Ned hears that International Rescue is coming, he takes a deep breath... and continues screaming.
233	* ShipTease: For Gordon and Lady Penelope, especially in "Tunnels of Time".
234	* ShoutOut:
235	** During "EOS" John has to spacewalk to repair a busted AE-35 unit and is attacked by a [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue AI]] which refuses to let him back in through the airlock. [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey Sound familiar?]] Her first line is literally "I'm afraid I can't let you do that" to boot.
236	** Alan mentions ''VideoGame/AlienStorm'' by name when flying to the asteroid in "Slingshot".
237	** Recurring character Ridley O'Bannon gets her name from Creator/RidleyScott and Dan O'Bannon, respectively the director and writer of ''Film/{{Alien}}''.
238	** While trying to land a damaged GDF flier in "Undercover", Parker says Left hand down a bit" echoing [[Radio/TheNavyLark Sub-Lieutenant Phillips]]
239	* SixthRanger: Kayo, who gets her own Thunderbird at the end of the "Ring of Fire" two-parter.
240	* SkyHeist: In "Up from the Depths - Part 2", the Mechanic uses the stolen TV-21 to to steal a GDF vault containing the world's supply of iridium, with [[ButtMonkey Ned Tedford]] inside, and then sends his ship into space.
241	* SkySurfing: Alan's favored method of EVA movement is a red rocket board.
242	* {{Slurpasaur}}: The episode "Attack of the Reptiles" has giant iguanas played by actual iguanas on the model sets. Justified in that the episode involves an abandoned scientific lab in the jungle, leaking chemicals that super-size the surrounding flora and fauna.
243	* SomethingTheyWouldNeverSay: In "The Long Reach", [[spoiler:Jeff Tracy identifies the Hood in disguise as Brains as an impostor because Brains has never called him 'Jeff' to his face, always 'Mr. Tracy]].
244	* SpaceElevator: John is shown in several episodes using one to travel between Tracy Island and Thunderbird 5. A lot of technical limitations, such as requiring an anchor point on the planet's equator, appear to have been handwaved away.
245	* SpaceMadness: The asteroid miner in "Slingshot", after an unstated but lengthy solo stint on his asteroid, has a mild version involving emotional immaturity and an attachment to a CompanionCube potted geranium.
246	* SpikedWheels: The motorcycle mooks which the Hood sends against Lady Penelope in "Under Pressure" have these, though they don't achieve any noticeable damage to FAB-1.
247	* SpiritualSuccessor: Arguably, to ''WesternAnimation/GerryAndersonsNewCaptainScarlet''. Both are remakes of popular Anderson-led Supermarionation series from the '60s, and both have a very similar art style.
248	* SpoilerOpening: As in the original series, the opening titles of each episode include a montage of moments from the episode itself.
249	* StockFootage: As in the original series, there's a single "suiting up and launching" sequence for each Thunderbird, with variety created by varying which bits of it are shown from episode to episode.
250	* StarfishAliens:
251	** In the series 2 episode "Deep Search", Gordon and Alan Tracy travel to the moon of Europa to rescue a pair of astronaut vloggers who were trying to discover life there who got trapped in the underground oceans. After the Tracys rescue the duo, they encounter a large green bioluminescent creature akin to a featureless manta-ray. It's also a colonial lifeform, as it's revealed to made up of millions of tiny organisms when scanned.
252	** Then in the series 3 episode "Life Signs", Alan and Virgil travel to Mars to rescue Captain Lee Taylor and a scientist obsessed with finding life on Mars after the caverns they're in collapse around them. In the episode's epilogue, it's reveled that the probes the scientist sent into a crevasse have discovered an underground lake, in swimming in it are several tiny bioluminescent tadpole-like creatures that swim in shoals.
253	* SuperMode: Thunderbird 3's Maximum-Max mode, where it's equipped with more heavy-duty equipment on its robot arms, including a buzzsaw and blowtorch, as well as bringing Max along as an onboard AI assistant.
254	* SuperPrototype: TV-21, the first Thunderbird prototype built by Jeff Tracy. Its thrusters are even stronger than those of Thunderbird 1.
255	* TalkingToPlants: In "Slingshot", asteroid miner Ned Tedford has a pet potplant named 'Gladys' that he talks to: mostly as a sign that he has [[GoMadFromTheIsolation gone mad from the isolation]]. However, he still has the plant and is still talking to it in later appearances when he is back on Earth.
256	* TemptingFate: At the beginning of "Under Pressure", the operator of an undersea salvage vessel remarks that the best part of his job is that there's no drama. The vessel immediately catches fire and breaks down.
257	* ThemeMusicAbandonment: "SOS, Part 2" has Thunderbird 2 launch not to the regular launching theme music, but to a more dramatic orchestral piece, on account of the team [[spoiler: flying to Gordon's aid, who's been crushed under an undersea mountain]].
258	* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Played with depending on the vehicle. Thunderbirds 3 and 5 have much greater use compared to the original due to the increase of space missions. In particular, Thunderbird 5 has various modules to allow John to tackle missions close to the space station. Thunderbird 4 still plays this straight but can launch from Tracy Island if Thunderbird 2 cannot be used to transport.
259	* ThrillerOnTheExpress: "Heist Society". On an underwater hyper loop train, Lady Penelope and Parker are escorting Professor Moffat to a rendezvous with the Global Defence Force in Iceland in order to safely deliver a particle born from the Supreme Hadron Collider disaster - Centurium 21. However, the Hood is keen to get his hands on the particle and plots an elaborate robbery in order to steal it for himself. Thunderbirds 1, 2, and 4 are soon dispatched to not only rescue the trapped train and its passengers, but also attempt to foil the Hood's plan.
260	* ToTheBatpole: Naturally for the Thunderbirds, including the rotating lamp wall that leads to T1, the launch-rail picture that leads to T2, and the descending chairs that lead to T3. Season 3 adds an aquarium that leads to T4. The variety is even {{Lampshaded}} in "Impact".
261	--> '''Virgil:''' I go down a tube backwards and you get a comfy chair?
262	--> '''Alan:''' Nobody said gear-ups were fair, Virgil.
263	* UnusualEuphemism: When Brains notices his RobotBuddy Max rolling after another robot, after a scene with Max getting a CrushFilter:
264	--> '''Brains:''' Robots. Always thinking with their diodes.
265	* VariableTerminalVelocity: Averted. When saving a falling man in the opening of "Ring of Fire", Virgil doesn't even try to dive after him, and even Thunderbird 2 doesn't catch up just by falling -- instead he gets back in and uses the ship's rockets to dive faster.
266	* VastBureaucracy: In "Space Race", Lady Penelope and Parker need access to the kill code of a nuclear space mine that threatens to destroy Alan along with Thunderbird 3. A lady at the Consolidated File Archive informs them that the paperwork can only be accessed with an access retrieval form...and that even with the form, files can only be released to requestors on the first Thursday of every month.
267	* VerbalTic: Brains' stutter, while still present, is {{downplayed}} to the point where it's hardly noticable. It does, however, become noticeably stronger when he's under emotional stress in "Heavy Metal" (which actually has a "special thanks" credit at the end of the episode for speech impediment specialist Elaine Kelman).
268	* VomitDiscretionShot: In "Runaway", Brains is showing sitting behind Scott, visibly nervous about having to fly in Thunderbird 1. We soon see his eyes and cheeks bulge out, Brain leaning over (hidden by Scott's seat back) and all we hear is the sound of an airsickness bag rustling, and Brains groaning.
269	* WhamEpisode: "S.O.S. Part 2" has probably one of the biggest ones in the entire series, setting up the ending arc for Season 3 and the entire show up to that point. [[spoiler: After a tussle between International Rescue and the Chaos Crew leaving Gordon severely injured, Brains finally uncovers what Braman's strange message is really about from Part 1: It's not just a random message about the situation on the colony ship he was on, but an SOS from deep space. An SOS using a call-sign and encryption that ''only International Rescue uses.'' The implication is clear: ''' The believed long dead Jeff Tracy is still alive, and he's in danger somewhere in deep space.''']]
270	* WorldOfSnark: Basically, every other line in this series is snark. Everyone gets in on the action, even the resident A.I.
271	* {{Xenafication}}: Tin-tin has been [[AdaptationNameChange renamed]] Kayo to distinguish her from the [[{{Franchise/Tintin}} Belgian boy detective]], and is now head of security with her own Thunderbird. Like Brains, she was also {{Race Lift}}ed.
272	* YouHaveFailedMe: The Hood refuses to bail Imposter Janus out of prison for failing to procure Thunderbird 2 and states that [[YouCanRunButYouCantHide there's nowhere he can hide]] (in what can't explicitly be but is quite clearly a death threat) should he be released, as it was due to his own incompetence (and his actions convincing the Tracy brothers that [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight he wasn't an authority figure worth respecting]]) that he failed to carry out ''any'' of The Hood's orders.
273	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In the season 2 finale, [[spoiler:the Hood stuns the Mechanic (who just broke him out of jail) and leaves him behind in his crippled drilling machine, so the GDF will have to deal with him while the Hood makes his escape.]]

Context WesternAnimation / ThunderbirdsAreGo