Trapped in the sky.

First Appearance of...: Well, everything. But also the Fireflash, which is a damn pretty model, and I don't blame them for wanting to re-use it. The TX 204s show up again, as well. They remind me of the enemy planes out of 'Hot Shots' but I'm pretty sure it's just because of the markings.

The Hood Pad: A beautiful Malaysian palace in the depths of the jungle. Why does this guy want more money? Why does he want to run the world? I'd be happy with a bloody big palace, personally. Also, does he hire cleaners? The place looks pretty big, and you never see anyone else there, and I can't see the Hood getting down to scrub the floor...

Name Game: So, the Hood, Kyrano's brother, refers to him as 'Kyrano'. But the airline stewardess calls Tin Tin 'Miss Tin Tin Kyrano'. So is Kyrano their family name? And if so, why does the Hood call him that? It could be that they have different family names, and the Hood is being all disrespectful, or it could be something to do with the Japanese naming thing of putting family names first, but even so, within a family group, wouldn't they refer to each other by their personal names? And do they do that with names in Malaysia, anyway?

Costume: The Hood hasn't really got to grips with his role as Arch-Villian yet. His costume has no giant shoulder pads, is pastel blue, and has flowers on. Bless.

Power to the People!: You can tell this is a British show. Even the Americans have servants. Kyrano's fawning over Jeff is irritating. "Privilege to work for" my arse. Although Jeff holding his hand when the Hood takes him over is kinda sweet.

Look Into My Eyes...: Bit of mixed message with this. The Hood's eyes light up in a scary way. He's evil. On Tracy Island, the eyes on the communicators light up in a scary way. But the Tracy boys aren't evil... Or they aren't yet, anyway. Just wait until the resentment really starts to set in. I predict Alan will be the first to crack. He's far too cool to be kept cooped up on that island all his life.

Isn't That...?: I'm sure that's the doctor from the cute bit at the end waiting at the airport... bit short on extra puppets this early on?

Population Crash: On a similar note, why so few people at the airport? I've been to airports, they've usually got more than five people waiting. Still, it is the future. Maybe most of the population's been wiped out in world war three or something.

Another Famous First: The very first protracted explanation scene! "Isn't that the new aircraft that flies at six times the speed of sound?"
"Right. But don't worry, it's perfectly safe."
Hmmm...

Neat Freak: I like the way the Hood has neatly labelled his bomb. Still, saves it from getting mixed up with his sandwiches...

Good Music: I like the music in this episode, especially when the Fireflash takes off (complete with Star Wars directorial stylings). Few dodgy comedy boings when the Hood survives the car wreck, but aside from that, it's okay.

Guys..?: Now, I'm no aeronautical engineer, but it seems wrong to be doing such massive acceleration before you've leveled out... if anyone knows different, I'll be glad to correct this...

First Class: Carrying on the strangely-small-number-of-people motif, this plane takes leg room to extremes.

Phone Technique: The Hood's calling in a bomb threat on a videophone with sound only. Surely he wouldn't have to worry about how he looked, just about how he sounded? Yet he's still wearing his disguise (which he takes off straight afterward, if I remember correctly) and makes no attempt to disguise his voice, and I bet they can do really amazing things with voice distorters by now...

Phone Technique 2: I do like the videophones. It'll be a great day for the deaf when they finally get round to inventing the things.

Master of Disguise: The Hood's disguised as a man who looks just like the Hood, except he's got hair. Why bother with the mask? Just stick a wig on.

Join the Mach 6 Club: So, before the emergency distracts him, the captain (who sounds strangely like Brains...) is going back to hit on Tin Tin. Bit unprofessional... Do they often share out the female passengers like this? Ah, I love the small of lawsuits in the morning...

Cute!: Aw, the wickle tiny zoomy emergency vehicles!

Lest Ye Forget...: I like the huge 'International Rescue' spread across the window of TB5. Is this in case John/Alan forgets who they work for? I hope they didn't bring independant contractors in when they were building the thing - would have been a bit of a giveaway.

Home, Home on the Pacific: Tracy island. So pretty. You don't need the stock footage...

Blatantcy: Protracted explanation scene no. 2 - Jeff and Kyrano on Jeff's early career. Before he decided to settle down and repeople the world in his own image.

Beef up the Grief: "Say, that's a great aircraft!"

Snap!: Good idea to photograph the plane and find the bomb. They must have a new kind of electromagnetic spectrum in the future, though, cos that ain't no X-ray...

Temporary Takeover by Troma: Love the crash zooming. "Code RH. (zooooom) Radiation Hazard!" "Why, (zoooooom) that's Tin Tin's aircraft!"

Just a Thought: If it's the impact on the landing gear that's going to detonate the bomb, couldn't they try a splashdown? London's not that far from the sea, and I'm sure they could get boats to the plane to get the passengers off before the radiation safety factor expired.

Whose Stupid Idea Was This?: A two hour limit on flying time or all the passengers and crew get fatal doses of radiation? Tiny design flaw.

Wake up: John sure took his sweet time deciding they needed helping. If Scott had got there five minutes later they would have tried to land the thing and blown up London.

Blatantcy 2: Jeff dictating a memo (Who to?) about the need for secrecy.

Dude!: John's wearing his hat! John's wearing his hat!

Do You Really Think That's Wise?: "We're going to try to shake the bomb loose".

Fashion Victims: "Your uniforms must only be worn on call." Have they had problems with the boys wearing them around the house?

Dude! 2: Gordon's first line! "Yeah, father." Beautiful.

On That Note: Doesn't Alan sound as if he's trying to make his voice sound deeper? Little insecure, are we? (I know, I know, different actor, but I try not to deal excessively in reality)

Pretty: Full launch sequence for TB1. I'm impressed he can miss the diving board every time. It may just be an oddly angled shot, but I'm sure it's right in the way.

Get it Right: "International Rescue space station from Thunderbird 1." Why not call it Thunderbird 5? Wouldn't take as long to say. On a vaguely similar note, Virgil still uses 'Thunderbird 2' as his callsign when he's operating the elevator car, but Scott switches his to 'mobile control' when he leaves TB1, and in 'The Uninvited' when he leaves to check out the pyramid, he uses 'Scott Tracy'. Is Virgil just having trouble understanding the complicated processes involved?

Existentialism: What's the point of having a reconaissance craft (TB1), if he's not gonna wait until he gets to the scene before he decides what they'll need? Jeff could just have asked John straight off, and sent Virg off at the same time as Scott. Would have given them ten minutes extra rescuing time.

Pretty 2: Full launch sequence for TB2. I'm surprised Virg can get changed so quickly, that chair looks nasty to get out of.

Meddings: Suicidal idiot. I would have had some doubts about sending him out, especially considering how long he took to open his parachute. He's obviously got some kind of death wish, and as his superior, the little controller guy should have realised that. Also, what's with all this 'superior' stuff? Has London airport been put under military jurisdiction, or something?

Wasted Space: It looks as if the guy with the map is plotting only the positions of TX 204s. At least, there's only two planes on the map, and they both look suspiciously TX 204y.

Watch Where You Point That Thing: 'Target one.' Bit of a misleading name. I wouldn't want to be flying something with the word 'target' in the name when there's some trigger happy air force guys around...

Shaken, not Stirred: There's a cocktail bar on that plane. I bet that's fun in heavy turbulence.

Cowabunga!: When Meddings hits earth, he should sell plane surfing to the extreme sports crowd. Could make a bit of money.

"We're running into turbulence...": Cocktail waiter - "bugger, spilt my martini..."

Control Freak: So, they can open the inspection hatches from the cockpit. Must be a bit tricky for the maintenance guys...

Oh my God! They Killed Meddings!: "His 'chute has failed!" Er, no, it hasn't. Silly pilot.

Are We Fashionably Late?: Shouldn't IR have radioed ahead a bit earlier? But then we wouldn't have got to see Meddings make an arse of himself.

Smooth: "Negative. Will not require runway." (Deep sigh) International Rescue! They're so cool!

Master of Disguise 2: I'm confused. The Hood's policeman outfit is practically indistinguishable from his airport maintenance guy outfit, except that it has a hat.

"I want men...": We know, Scott, we know.

What The Devil...?: I like the airport controller's attitude when IR first show up, although he does give in a bit easily. Still, to be fair, he's about to have a bloody big aircraft explode at him, so he doesn't have much to lose.

"The equipment I require will be here in twenty minutes...": Not exactly a quick response outfit, are they? Strange, considering 'Operation Crash Dive' seems to imply TB2 is capable of speeds rivaling the Fireflash, which obviously needs to be able to circle the globe in two hours, otherwise it's really not worth building a whole series of them.

Warning, Warning, Danger, Danger: I'm not convinced by the automatic camera detector. How does it know? Also, what harm is there is photographing the control panels? Surely the Hood should have at least tried to get some shots of the internal workings, or the engines or something...

Cute! 2: The elevator cars, with their little pudgy wheels... shame they don't use these again. Still, they were all pretty much destroyed...

Waste of Space 2: The airport police. Not only do they sound bored out of their minds, but they can be foiled by driving away from them.

Bitch Monster of Death: I object to the IR theme being used in connection with Lady P. We all know she only got to be an IR agent because she's shagging Jeff. And why does she have to talk so slowly? I don't believe for one second she was expecting visitors. She's just trying to pretend she's popular.

I Like Driving in my Car: Virgil's talents are supposed to be as a pilot. In this episode they let him do some driving, and look how badly he screws that up. Should have sent Alan.

Cute! 3: The wickle emergency things again!

"Don't know. It's just cleared.": Wickle thick Virg. Should have replaced the elevator car when the fault first showed up. That's a bloody great big atomic plane with in a bomb in it, you don't want to land it on a faulty car. But they did.

Kersplat!: I wonder if they got billed for those two planes they blew up? Also for cleaning the runway after Virgil left most of the elevator cars' tires spread all over it.

"Let those aircraft burn.": Good thing they weren't fuelled.

Hello, Ladies: Virgil drapes himself very nicely over the remains of the elevator car. Playgirl lost a great model when he joined the family buisness.

Population Crash 2: There's nobody on the road. There's nobody on the M1 just outside of London. Is this really a post-apocalyptic drama?

Bitch Monster of Death 2: So she just shoots the car off the road, then doesn't even stop to check of anyone survived, let alone call the emergency services. And Jeff was worried IR could be used to destroy life...

I See a Little Silhouetto of a Man: Alan and Tin Tin on the balcony. Aw, young love.

Operation Cover-up: Ignoring for a second the fact that the pictures are all of the boys in uniform in the close-ups, that's a poor bit of planning in the first place. Why can't they have the unincriminating versions of the photos there all the time? Would help avoid unfortunate incidents.

Relaaaax...: I swear the doctor is John's real dad. He seems to know Jeff quite well... Could he be an old family friend? Just how well did he know their mum?

Oooo, the Irony: "The one thing I'd like to do is shake them by the hand." Puh-lease.

I am the Music Man: I think we should cut Virgil's hands off to make sure that cute piano bit at the end never happens again. Ever.