Recap / Thunderbirds S 2 E 5 "Ricochet"

The One With… the falling satellite.

The pirate radio satellite, KLA, with its star disk jockey Rick O'Shea, is a popular music source for the young and hip (especially Tin Tin). Her obsession with O'Shea annoys Alan, who thinks himself unable to compete with the flashy DJ.

Disaster strikes when KLA is crippled by the destruction of a rogue rocket in its path (because KLA is an unregistered satellite and the authorities thought that area of space would be unoccupied). With its systems damaged and orbit decaying, the satellite tech attempts repairs, but is trapped in the airlock. Desperately, O'Shea radios for help, which arrives first in the form of Thunderbird 3, who extracts the technician. Alan attempts to force O'Shea into a space suit and out of the satellite, but O'Shea panics and refuses. Thunderbird 3 is forced to wave off as the satellite enters the atmosphere and Thunderbird 2 takes over. KLA is on a collision course with a large oil refinery and Thunderbird 2 prepares to destroy it when they pick up a transmission from O'Shea. Unable to radio Thunderbird 3 (due to a component needing to be changed in Thunderbird 5) and confirm O'Shea was clear, Thunderbird 2 is forced to destroy the satellite by non-conventional means (ie: diverting its crash path), convinced that they've killed a man. On return to Tracy Island however, it's revealed that Alan managed to persuade O'Shea to don a space suit (accidentally starting a tape of O'Shea's show in the process). Alan refuses to elaborate on how he did this or whether it's related to the impressive black eye O'Shea seems to have picked up.

Thundertropes Are Go!:

• Almost Out of Oxygen: Loman, the satellite's tech, suffers from this when he gets trapped in the airlock.
• As You Know: While waiting on confirmation on where to (presumably) safely destruct the rogue rocket, professor Marshall explains the purpose of International Space Control to the launch operator, something which he should be expected to be well aware of.
• Buccaneer Broadcaster: KLA is this, In space
• Coming in Hot: Surviving reentry in one piece, O'Shea's satellite is on collision course with a huge oil refinery, and International Rescue must do something to stop the major disaster that would cause.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: O'Shea panics when Alan enters the satellite and refuses to go with him. It takes Alan some persuasion to get him to come along.
• Contrived Coincidence: Combined with Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale (even in low Earth orbit, space is ridiculously big), the odds of the KLA satellite just happening to be in the same spot the malfunctioning rocket explodes are literally astronomical.
• Cool, but Inefficient: O'Shea's pirate radio station broadcasts from space. Not just the transmitter, but the entire radio station and crew are on the satellite. While a studio in orbit is definitely a Cool Spaceship, the idea kinda falls apart with a bit of thought. Do they ever get to leave for a holiday? If so, how? How do they replenish their food/water/oxygen? And it's not a particularly roomy space station either, barely bigger than a Soyuz capsule, so isn't cabin fever an issue? Do they just launch it, orbit for a while, then come back and launch again later? Wouldn't it be way easier and way cheaper to keep a transmitter satellite in permanent orbit to relay a show performed on the ground?
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Alan, as usual. His brothers suspect he actually enjoyed punching O'Shea in the face a little, to snap him back to his senses.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Alan does this off-screen to the terrified O'Shea. We later see O'Shea with a huge black eye, but he is nonetheless thankful that Alan did it.
  Alan: I did it in the line of duty.
• Hypocrite: Jeff makes a big issue out of unregistered satellites being a danger to other spacecraft, but conveniently doesn't seem to have a problem with his own space station (Thunderbird 5) and rocketship (Thunderbird 3), both of which are unregistered and shielded from radar (which means that while International Rescue is probably a great deal more careful than space pirates, there's still a risk of collision with other spacecraft who don't expect either Thunderbird 3 or 5 in their trajectory).
• Idiot Ball: The plot hinges on the authorities having no idea where KLA is, which means that:
  • KLA is an undocumented space station, when spacecraft and their orbits are documented and registered specifically to prevent this sort of disaster; failing to do so, even if it is somehow not legally required (as it is in reality^note indeed, one could argue that it is effectively a prerequisite for the commercial use of spacecraft in planetary orbit, let alone manned space stations) is simply Too Dumb to Live.
  • The people who administer earth orbit and track satellites somehow failed to notice an undocumented space station, even though it was large enough to be inhabited by multiple people and literally broadcasting its location with a powerful radio signal.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: O'Shea is probably the biggest jerk International Rescue ever had the honour to save. He clearly cares for the engineer, Loman, though and shows gratitude towards International Rescue once he's returned to Earth.
• No New Fashions in the Future: Apparently, rock music is the latest thing in 2066.
• One-Note Cook: Honey Crunch Crispies (a sponsor of KLA broadcasts) are apparently the only form of breakfast on board the KLA satellite.
• Precision Crash: Once back in the atmosphere, the KLA satellite threatens to crash right on top of a big oil refinery.
• Relocating the Explosion: Virgil Tracy and Brains use Thunderbird 2 to divert the crippled KLA space station so that it harmlessly explodes in the desert instead of crashing into and blowing up the desert oil refinery.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Since we don't see the complete rescue, everyone believes O'Shea is indeed dead after the KLA satellite crashes. It's not until later we learn he is safe back on Earth and what Virgil and Brains heard over the radio was just a recording of a prior show.
• Sadistic Choice: Brains and Virgil face one; save the oil refinery at the price of (apparently) blowing up Rick O'Shea in the process or allow the satellite to crash on the refinery. They attempt to Take a Third Option by having Thunderbird 2 steer the satellite off course and make it land safely in the desert, but this fails.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: O'Shea and his engineer Loman have this dynamic.

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