Well, my personal opinion without giving away any spoilers is the model work is very nice, although in places some of the backgrounds looked a bit like they were from Thomas the Tank Engine, but I expect those will improve. I am having trouble taking to the CGI characters which do give it a cartoony look but I suspect youngsters will take to it very easily. I obviously won't go into story and plot points at this time, but overall a thumbs up from me, and I'll certainly be tuning in next Saturday morning.
I enjoyed it, but it kinda made me long for the original. I suppose that's just because I am an "oldie" these days!
ReplyDeleteI think those old puppets had a lot more "character" than the CGI ones.
As woodsy mentioned below, the constant loud music got on my nerves, wish they would cut that out but I won't be holding my breath.
I did like the little reference to "Stingray"...was it John who said it was his favourite TV show?
All in all, a good effort. I would give it 6.5 out of 10...of course, that might go up (or down) according to subsequent episodes.
I'll definitely be watching again!
I get the impression that everyone in our camp is cautiously optimistic about the whole thing. As far as I'm concerned though , it will obviously never replace the original.
ReplyDeleteI thought the style was pretty true to the originals, while obviously updated in some places. Overall the pace was a bit manic, I wanted them to slow down at times and build the tension rather than rushing through it. But good to see it alive and well!
ReplyDeleteI suppose with a normal episode being around 22 minutes tension could be short on the ground, plus it's said modern audiences apparently don't have the attention span for slow build ups.
ReplyDeleteAs I said earlier, the constant music got on my nerves and distracted from the dialogue, which my family, who were watching too, struggled to keep up with. The action seemed very fast as well, which as Scoop says, will appeal to the X-Box generation. I loved seeing the vehicles on the small screen again and the extras were neat: the Space 1999 Eagle-inspired undersea skeletal rig vehicle and the small red space sled towards the end. I was also looking out for the Lemon squeezer in the TB1 launch bay but I wasn't quick enough. The black and white holographic Stingray clip was inspired and an obvious bone for us oldies! Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteWhat do the Facebookers think Scoop? Any reaction?
ReplyDeleteHaha!
ReplyDeleteI was so thinking of the old lemon squeezer too...the set details in this new series are just a little too perfect for my tastes, but of course, that's the way they do it these days.
I did like the underwater spider with the Eagle cockpit design...a bit of an underwater Sidewinder.
Sharon and I watched the programme and we both loved it. I was genuinely surprised how much my wife enjoyed this new series! I was also surprised how many elements of continuation there were from original programme. Certainly for us, it was close enough to be a sequel, set perhaps a couple of years down the line from the original.
ReplyDeleteI picked up hints that the craft had not long been "retrofitted" too, and of course a new FAB1 added to this, as the Rolls had been destroyed in the film Thunderbird 6.
I found the special effects quality close to the original, although during the commercial break, ITV aired a Meerkats advert. I felt the effects in that were altogether better than the programme it was paying for! But then again, I suspect the budget to make that 30 second commercial would probably be the same as, or more than one entire episode of this new Thunderbirds series! On a technical level, I think they could have employed the same camera slow motion effects as the original to give the scenes a more realistic feel.
I had no trouble with the level of the music, I just increased the volume of the speech channel on the surround system to compensate. Job done.
I did miss Jeff Tracy, and to be honest, I think it's a mistake to exclude him from the whole series.
Was it for me, worth a wait of close to half a century? Possibly, we'll certainly be tuned in for the whole series. The acid test will come when its available on DVD. At the moment, I don't know if I'll buy it...
Time will tell.
Judging by what I read Facebookers seem fairly happy with what they've seen so far.
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching it this morning and the lemon juicer is there on the wall! The marriage of miniatures and CGI in scenes was really well done, better than some movies.
ReplyDeleteThe tributes/influences of other Anderson shows are sprinkled around lightly, just right to acknowledge what came before and not confuse the new/first time viewers. I do like the somewhat reimagining of Grandmother as the original character was seriously dated and to me at least, annoying. It appears the mystery of Jeff's disappearance might be a sub plot throughout the series. They don't really say he's dead, just crashed and out of the picture hence why the overwhelming desire to jeopardize a mission to investigate the beacon. I think Jeff and Kyrano where out on a test flight or such when the accident happened. I'm probably wrong on that but that's my take on it.
I still think Lady Penelope should be a bit older looking and would prefer Parker back in the chauffeur uniform but that's a minor thing left over from me binge watching the original series recently.
Voices were far better than I had expected. Thank goodness we have the real Parker voice! He would not be the same sounding like anything else. Brains on the other hand has suddenly become Indian? I guess the treatments for his stuttering affected that part of his brain.
The pacing is a bit too fast imo but if you take it as an action based show instead of a drama it works. The old series built up tension, released some, built up more until finally they were rescued. This new series is just pow pow pow. Situation, slight drama build, resolution and off to the next situation. The hectic pace is the biggest change for me and I hope it slows a little for the rest of the episodes.
Max. We don't need a comedy relief robot. Sure the design is better than Braman but don't make him cower/act with emotions, it is very off putting on this bastard love child of rover Curiosity and a tachikoma to be cringing at The Hood.
That all said, it was enjoyable and I look forward to future episodes and hope some of the toys make it over here to the states at affordable prices.