INTRODUCTION

31 October 2021

Written By Matthew Teevan

Welcome to my WEBSITE. This BLOG will focus on the fantastic, Film and TV, Sci-Fi, VFX, models and other interests and inspirations.

As even a cursory glance at the website will reveal I am a huge fan of the works of GERRY ANDERSON. I grew up in England in the 1970s and I don’t recall a time when I was not aware of the work of Gerry Anderson. For those who don’t know, Gerry and his wife SYLVIA ANDERSON assembled a team of extraordinarily talent artists and created remarkable Television programmes. The pinnacle of which was ‘Thunderbirds’.  The science fiction adventure story were brought to the screen with a verisimilitude that for me, and many others, made it all totally believable. The Andersons created a technique which they called ‘Supermarionation’ and involved very realistic looking lifelike marionettes, which had limited facial expressions, but could move their eyes and open their mouths to speak, and through judicious editing be made to look angry or intense or happy by replacing the heads between the cuts.

At the studios’ peak - making ‘Thunderbirds’ - the characters had a level of caricature and appeal that was balanced with the detail and along with the excellent voice acting, the characters seemed real. Although the puppets were expensive, they were expendable and could be put in real danger. For example if the story called for someone to be trapped in a burning house, they could actually be in a  burning set. No fires bars in front of the camera, or superimposed smoke make the effect as was the practice with live-action shows of the time. This was all real. One aspect of the puppets that Gerry did not like was that it was hard to maintain credibility when they were seen walking. This lead to devising scenarios which negated them needing to walk. Sitting down whilst driving a car, or flying an aircraft were perfect scenarios. Situations set in the future allowed for more widespread machinery in the stories. This in turn lead to dramatic situations wherein the vehicles themselves would be used extensively in the storytelling and become a ‘star’ of the show. The series ‘Supercar’, ‘Fireball XL5’, ‘Stingray’ and ‘Thunderbirds’ are all named after the principal vehicles. The jewel in the crown was ‘Thunderbirds’ This is where everything came together and exceeded anyone’s expectations in its enduring popularity. The premise of the show is that a dedicated team, with superior technology has dedicated themselves to helping people in distress, where ordinary rescue methods are not sufficient. This gives the programme a focus which is unlike most other adventure shows, where it was good guys vs bad guys. The altruistic nature of the heroes, and the optimistic and daring futuristic world was very positive. Each week would feature the World’s 1st atomic powered airliner, the worlds tallest building, a rocket to Mars and the like.

Each exciting episode involved characters that were credible and likeable. Clever and daring as they faced dangers. The characters were not written as especially deep, but this suited the ‘Supermarionation’ medium. Besides the stories were about rescuing men trapped in a rocket that had sunk to the bottom of the sea, there was not a lot of time for this sort of thing. .The dangers were often a bi-product of the daring nature of the project at hand, or an unforeseeable accident and in some cases foul play. The drive of the show was always saving the people in danger. The hardware was often destroyed, but the people were saved. ‘A good story, well told’ is very applicable here. On top of the unique premise, the writing, voice acting, design, characters, action and music all came together perfectly for Thunderbirds. A terrific programmes that is in the UK is still loved today – over  60 years since it was made is a huge testament to the programme and all worked on it.

But Gerry and Sylvia Anderson also created the popular shows ‘Stingray’, ‘Fireball XL%’ (The only show to really make it big in the USA), as well ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’, and ‘Joe 90’ as well as the live action series ‘UFO’ and ‘Space:1999’. People still refer to huge machines as ‘like something from Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet’. spectacles as ‘Joe 90’ glasses,

The Anderson shows always had excellent production values. Always shot on 35mm and with special effects that any feature film of the day would have been proud of. You can watch the launch sequence for ‘Thunderbird 2’ and it is as fantastic, thrilling and believable today as it was in 1965 - over 50 years ago. The skill and craftsmanship of the Anderson’s team meant that not only was anything possible, but it would be totally believable. The work of DEREK MEDDINGS who designed most of the hardware and supervised their depiction on screen via imaginative and highly realistic special effects cannot be overestimated. Add to all of this the incredible music of the exceptionally talented, and sadly little known, BARRY GRAY and you had magic.

I remember watching TV programmes as a child and I knew when they talked about something ‘big’ happening in ‘Thunderbirds’ or one of the other Anderson shows, you knew you would see it happen, In contrast to say ‘Dr Who’ or even ‘Star Trek’ where you invariably would not see the big event - a spaceship crash-landing for example - and on the rare occasion you were shown something outside of the usual scope of the show it looked pretty awful.

I grew up watching these programmes and this lead to my interest in visual effects and film making and furthered my interest in model making. I was taken with how ‘cool’ everything was and fascinated with the craftsmanship involved. One aspect of how the Anderson shows were able to show such a richly detailed and believable world, was by the innovative use of repurposing detailed parts from an assortment of plastic (styrene) model kits available at the time. This technique became common-place as way of detailing sci-fi models in movies and is known as ‘kit bashing’. The Vehicles and landscapes and hangars were all very detailed and dirtied down to look like they could, and did, actually function, One such kit that shows up all over the place is the ‘Airfix Girder bridge’. An HO / OO scale railway bridge. I stumbled across this kit at my local hobby store many years ago;. Jennings in Ponder End, London which was a treasure trove of model kits - old and new - all stacked to the ceiling. Finding this ‘Girder Bridge kit was like opening the doorway to Aladdin’s cave. I initially identified only these small square pieces as being the 4 square ‘magnetic locks’ on the front of Thunderbird 2’s pods! Wow. - A piece of Thunderbird 2! Upon further examination we quickly identified that every piece in this kit was used somewhere on all sorts of models in ‘Thunderbirds’. This also meant we could work out how big the various models more. There is a graphic celebrating the ‘Girder Bridge’ in the GRAPHICS gallery.

There is so much that can be written about the Anderson shows, but to be honest the best thing to do is watch them. All are available on DVD and / or blu-ray and there are several behind the scene books on their work. There is a fantastic documentary and book called ‘Made in Supermarionation’ by Stephen La Riviere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLM-EZzPJOM

https://shop.gerryanderson.com/collections/books/products/filmed-in-supermarionation-book-hardcover-with-slipcase?gclid=CjwKCAiAiKuOBhBQEiwAId_sKwRK6WFGmOZwWBeoM0rA3tlwrDMJsQKgZu5sYGVfPlMsKyzpRL6zSRoC5B4QAvD_BwE