Thunderbirds Episode 7 Tele-Snaps

69 Tele-snaps for Episode 7 of Thunderbirds, "30 Minutes After Noon"

-SYNOPSIS-

"Tom Prescott picks up a hitchhiker as he drives home after working late. As he drops the man off, a strange bracelet made of hydrochomatized steel is locked onto his wrist and he is told that the key is in a filing cabinet in his office at the Hudson Building in Spoke City. Prescott races back to the building to unlock the bracelet before the explosive device set into it detonates. He arrives at the building just in time, but is still descending from his office in the elevator when the device explodes. The elevator plunges into the basement and Prescott is trapped at the bottom of the lift shaft.

With the sprinkler system sabotaged, the fire rages out of control and the Spoke City fire department is unable to contain the blaze, so Jeff dispatches Thunderbirds 1 and 2 to the scene. Virgil and Alan descend into the lift shaft in a specially cooled dicetylene cage fitted with grabs, recovering the elevator car and rescuing Prescott.

Prescott's amazing story appears to ring true in light of the discovery of the bracelet remains. The fire has also destroyed extensive files on several criminal organizations and Police Commissioner Garfield suspects the work of the Erdman Gang. In order to draw the gang out, a story is released to the press that Prescott died in the Hudson Building inferno. The case is turned over to the British Security Service, and top agent Southern is assigned.

Southern infiltrates a meeting in Glen Carrick Castle in Scotland, posing as one of three men hired to break into a plutonium storage facility. By radio, the Leader of the gang explains how they must disable the store's guard robots and plant explosives in the main storeroom before escaping by helijet. The explosives are contained in the bracelets locked to their wrists, which are set to detonate at 12:30 p.m. They will find the keys to unlock the bracelets in the main storeroom.

The plan goes as scheduled, but on arrival in the storeroom Southern pulls a gun on the other two men, Dempsey and Kenyon. Unfortunately for Southern, he is attacked by a guard robot which has not been disabled and, held in its steel arms, he is helpless as Dempsey and Kenyon escape, trapping him in the storeroom with their bracelets. Southern uses his radio pen to contact his boss, Sir William Frazer, who calls International Rescue.

Scott and Virgil arrive at the plutonium store in Thunderbirds 1 and 2. Using the Laser Beam Equipment, they burn their way through the series of locked security doors penetrating the main storage area. With just five minutes to go, Scott loads the three explosive bracelets on to Thunderbird 1 and dumps them in the sea as they detonate. Lady Penelope and Parker meet the Leader's helijet at the rendezvous point, bringing down the craft with FAB 1's cannon as it takes off."

-NOTES-

Before it became a 50-minute show, Thunderbirds was meant to be a 25-minute programme. This is one of the few episodes where the conversion to 50 minutes is more noticeable. The entire first half of the episode was created to pad out the story with another rescue mission. Everything in the second half (all snaps following the snap of Big Ben) is what the actual episode would have been. There are one or two lines of dialogue that relate to the first half, but other than that, it's almost a different story, with the exploding bracelets being the only element that carries over.

Regardless, it's a very tense story that was handled really well. The Thunderizer, the device used to break through steel doors in the second half, was redesigned quite well in the 2004 film, one of the few good elements about it, but I digress.