When it premiered in 1964, "Thunderbirds" became Gerry Anderson's most successful series (and remains the jewel in the Anderson crown to this day); its popularity was such that after the second shorter series - 26 episodes were produced in 1964, followed by a further six episodes in 1966 - a pair of feature films were made for the big screen. Unlike a lot of movies to come from TV shows (like "Mission Impossible Vs. The Mob," which was the two-part story "The Council" given a theatrical release),they were real movies, but they were never as popular as the source.

"Thunderbirds Are GO," the first of the two, deals with a manned mission to Mars which the Hood (International Rescue's recurring nemesis) tries to sabotage, but our heroes give the astronauts help both going there and on the return journey. The model work and special effects remain impressive, but Scott, Gordon, Alan, Gordon and John never defeat their real foes this time around:

1. With or without his wife Sylvia, Gerry Anderson's strengths were never in the writing department, and to his credit he knew it, which was why apart from the pilot episodes of his shows (and a few exceptions, such as the entire second season of "Supercar" and a couple of episodes of "Stingray") he left the actual writing to the likes of Dennis Spooner, Tony Barwick, Donald James et al. But he and the missus wrote the movie, and the weak pacing and terrible dialogue hobble the tale.

2. The movie's second act is an endless dream sequence (a staple of most Anderson shows - though tellingly, never of "Thunderbirds") featuring Alan Tracy, the most whiny and least appealing of the brothers. This is a three-time loser: it serves no real purpose outside of padding the running time, it stops the movie dead in its tracks in a manner not seen again until the Michael Jackson song in "Free Willy 2," and it provides the movie's official low point - an awful song from Cliff Richard (er, "Cliff Richard Jr.") and the Shadows, with a music video to boot!

All Gerry Anderson/"Thunderbirds" fans should see this movie once, and then go back to the previous 32 stories. (But the live-action military band performing the theme music at the end is a nice touch.)

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO is a big screen outing for Gerry Anderson's popular puppet TV series and the good news is that it's a successful one. This successfully captures the magic of the show and is as exciting adventure as you could wish for. I always find myself impressed that Anderson's productions don't pander to kids in any way, instead telling adult story lines that just so happen to have puppets instead of actors on the screen.

A wealth of British voice talent helps things considerably and I would even go so far as to call this realistic, at least in the attention to detail. It says something that the puppets are more animated and have more character than many of the so-called TV stars of our modern age. The cameos by Bob Monkhouse and Cliff Richard help to make this a lively experience, and the globetrotting storyline is as explosive and action-packed as you could wish for. Fab? Yes, it is!

I wasn't an avid viewer of the Gerry Anderson television series when I was younger, I may have watched a few episodes, I just found myself drawn more to Stingray and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, nevertheless I watched this movie. Basically it is the year 2065, and Glenn Field are constructing and preparing to launch the manned Zero-X spacecraft mission to land on Mars, but something goes wrong and it crashes during lift-off. Two years later investigations conclude that it was sabotage, so to make sure it doesn't happen again, they decide to call International Rescue to secure and oversee the mission on the second launch. Father Jeff Tracy (Peter Dyneley) is dubious that the Thunderbirds should be used for more serious emergencies, but he allows them to be launched and helped. So his three sons, Scott (Shane Rimmer) in Thunderbird 1 (mostly on ground),Virgil (Jeremy Wilkin) in Thunderbird 2 in air and Alan (Matt Zimmerman) in Thunderdird 3 in space, get going, while Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (Sylvia Anderson) with driver Aloysius Parker (David Graham) investigates the sabotage threat. They all watch over as the second Zero-X successfully lands on Mars, but there is an appearance by villain The Hood (Ray Barrett) trying to ruin things, and worse some Martians attack the craft and force it leave with damages. Returning to Earth, the Zero-X now does have a serious emergency and need International Rescue, so with Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon (also Graham) and Brains (Graham again),they do everything to save the lives of the four men. Also, in a subplot, Alan feels unappreciated, and has a dream sequence going to "The Swinging Star" nightclub with Lady Penelope, watching Cliff Richard Jr. and the Shadows (as themselves),and this comes true at the end. Also starring Christine Finn as Tin-Tin Kyrano, Ray Barrett as John Tracy, Paul Maxwell as Captain Paul Travers and Bob Monkhouse as Space Navigator Brad Newman / Swinging Star Compere. The puppetry has a charm, the camp music video appearance by Sir Cliff and the group is good fun with their song "Shooting Star", and when it happened there were some alright action moments. My only criticism is that with the spacecraft called Zero-X and Martians attacking, it was too much like the first episode of Captain Scarlet, and it is felt more kiddie than what I remember in the past, but not a bad family science-fiction adventure. The TV programme was number 60 on The 100 Greatest TV Shows, and it was number 24 on The 100 Greatest Kids' TV Shows. Worth watching!