Terror in New York City

"Terror in New York City"
Thunderbirds episode
Episode no. Series 1
Episode 4
Directed by David Elliott and
David Lane
Written by Alan Fennell
Story by Gerry Anderson
Cinematography by Julien Lugrin
Editing by Peter Elliott
Production code 13
Original air date 21 October 1965
Guest appearance(s)

Voices of:
Ray Barrett as
USS Sentinel Commander
TV Newsreader
1st NYPD Officer
Ned Cook's Announcer
David Graham as
Joe the Cameraman
USS Sentinel First Officer Clayton
NYPD Officer Garner
2nd NYPD Officer
NYPD Patrol
Shane Rimmer as
USS Sentinel Radar Operator
Washington, D.C. Voice
Matt Zimmerman as
Ned Cook

Episode chronology

"Terror in New York City" is the fourth episode of the first series of Thunderbirds, a British 1960s Supermarionation television series co-created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott and David Lane, it was first broadcast on ATV Midlands on 21 October 1965.

In this episode, International Rescue must save a reporter and his cameraman who are trapped underground following the collapse of the Empire State Building – without the help of a damaged Thunderbird 2.

Plot

Scott (voiced by Shane Rimmer) and Virgil Tracy (David Holliday) prepare to fly back to Tracy Island following a successful operation to extinguish an oil well fire in the desert. While Virgil returns Firefly to Thunderbird 2, TV news reporter Ned Cook and his cameraman, Joe, ignore Scott's earlier warning and film the lift-off of Thunderbird 1. The men believe that they hold the makings of an award-winning news story until Scott, having chased their vehicle from the air, uses an electromagnetic pulse to erase the illicit footage.

During the flight home, Thunderbird 2 is deemed hostile by United States Navy strike vessel USS Sentinel and severely damaged in a surface-to-air missile attack. Although the Sentinel desists after Jeff (Peter Dyneley) urgently radios Washington, D.C. to disclose the aircraft's identity, Virgil only narrowly avoids hitting the ocean and is barely able to pilot the stricken machine onto Tracy Island's runway before falling unconscious. While Virgil slowly recovers from his ordeal, Brains (David Graham) organises extensive repairs to Thunderbird 2, which will require weeks to complete.

Meanwhile, the New York City authorities start to move the Empire State Building to a new location to make way for the regeneration of Midtown Manhattan. Disaster results when a subsidence causes the building to slip from its hydraulic jacks. Ned and Joe, who are covering the event, are swallowed up by the crevice formed by the subsidence and trapped underground when the Empire State Building collapses overhead.

Re-establishing communication with his studio via a microphone, Ned reveals that the cavern is filling with water. On Tracy Island, where IR have been following the broadcast, Brains theorises that the destruction of the Empire State Building was caused by the currents of a subterranean river. Realising that Ned and Joe will drown – yet also aware that without Thunderbird 2, the limited range of Thunderbird 4 makes it impossible for Gordon (Graham) to reach the accident zone without third-party assistance – Virgil suggests that the submersible be transported to New York on board the Sentinel. Jeff obtains Washington's approval; however, the Sentinel's ETA is 24 hours.

In New York, the authorities drill a hole into the ground to supply Ned and Joe with air and rations. After landing in Thunderbird 1, Scott oversees the delivery of breathing equipment with which the men can keep themselves alive until Thunderbird 4 arrives. Eventually, the cavern is completely submerged and Ned and Joe are forced to don the equipment; they have enough air for two hours, but Gordon will not reach them before then. Thunderbird 4 is offloaded from the Sentinel in the Hudson and Gordon quickly locates the mouth of the river running under Manhattan Island. Ned and Joe assist his search by swimming upriver to meet him.

At ground level, the subsidence expands and threatens the neighbouring Fulmer Finance Building. Aware that the impact of another skyscraper collapse will be fatal to Ned and Joe, Scott warns Gordon that he has less than three minutes to recover the men. With their air supply virtually exhausted, Ned and Joe finally make contact Thunderbird 4 and enter the submersible's airlock seconds before the Fulmer Finance Building is destroyed and the shockwave devastates the river bed.

Some time later, Ned, recovering from his ordeal in a wheelchair, introduces his regular TV show in front of a live studio audience by publicly thanking IR for saving his life. Unknown to him, most of the organisation is sitting in the back row.

Production

Inspiration for the plot of "Terror in New York City" was provided by Gerry Anderson, who had uncovered a newspaper article concerning the physical re-location of a Japanese department store as part of a highway re-development scheme: "Because of its huge value as a going concern, it was not demolished but jacked up and moved inch by inch to a new site."[1]

The episode's working title was "Terror of New York".[1] Alan Fennell's script was originally submitted before Lew Grade, the Andersons' financial backer at ITC, ordered that the standard episode length be increased from 25 to 50 minutes. As with all other earlier instalments of Thunderbirds, the doubling of the running time necessitated the scripting of filler material – specifically, the opening oil well fire and reporter Ned Cook's unsuccessful attempt to record illicit video footage of Thunderbird 1.[2][3]

During the filming of the Thunderbird 2 crash-landing on Tracy Island, the AP Films special effects crew attempted to prevent damage to the shooting model by covering various parts of it with foil lined with rubber gel; it was this, rather than the model itself, that was ignited.[4] However, the model was severely burnt when one of its rockets caused the cellulose paint to catch fire, blackening a whole side.[4][5] To allow the shooting to continue, effects artists Mike Trim and Roger Dicken made a hasty repair by applying green Plasticine to the damaged section, in the process substantially increasing the model's weight.[5] Trim has since commented that this was unnecessary: "On-screen, there was so much smoke, you couldn't really have told whether the far side was completely missing, let alone burnt."[5] Ultimately, the damage was judged to be so extensive that the model was scrapped and completely re-built.[6][7]

Series composer Barry Gray devised three incidental tracks for the episode, running to seven-and-a-half minutes in total: "World Exclusive Foiled!", "Moving the Empire State Building" and "The Rescue of Ned Cook".[8] The pieces were recorded on 5 April 1965 in a four-hour studio session with an orchestra of 25 musicians.[9]

Broadcast

"Terror in New York City" received its first network broadcast on 22 November 1991 on BBC 2.[10]

Reception

"Terror in New York City" was given a positive contemporary review by Punch critic Patrick Skene Catling, who praised the episode's visual spectacle and sound effects as well as the "magnificent absurdity" of the plot.[11] He commented: "The suspense is nugatory, but the fun is immense".[11]

The episode has been well received by series co-creator Sylvia Anderson, who sums it up as an "exciting drama with an ingenious plot and stunning visual effects".[12] She believes that it exemplifies the best of Alan Fennell's scriptwriting[12] and also praises the effects crew's "life-like" model work, remembering that the 18-inch-tall (46 cm) model of the Empire State Building was "perfect in every detail, a work of art".[13]

"Terror in New York City" is considered the best episode of Thunderbirds by TV Zone, which sums it up as a "dramatic, tense story".[14] The magazine praises the realism of the "tightly-plotted" script – from the decision to make the Empire State Building the focus of the disaster, to the method used to ship Thunderbird 4 to New York ("no deus ex machina cop-out is employed here").[14] On the damage sustained by Thunderbird 2, it notes that the idea that IR's machines are not invincible arrives as "something of a revelation ... we realise that the Tracy boys can actually be hurt".[14] Among its few criticisms of the episode are the appearance of the Empire State Building model ("a little insubstantial") and the fact that only two people are endangered by the building's collapse (considered to be the "most implausible" element of the plot).[14]

Tom Fox of Starburst magazine is less positive in his assessment, awarding the episode three out of five stars.[15] Describing "Terror in New York City" as "the 'disaster movie' special that was bound to come along", he criticises the "silly" building collapse and a perceived lack of realism in the underwater puppet scenes; however, he expresses satisfaction with the crash-landing of Thunderbird 2.[15]

The destruction of the Empire State Building is considered by TV Zone to be "uncannily prescient" of the September 11 attacks.[14] Stuart Galbraith of the review website DVD Talk offers a similar view, describing the similarities between fiction and real life as "eerie";[16] Fox, meanwhile, comments that the episode's plot contains "some uncomfortable overtones" in the light of "modern events".[15]

Other media

"Terror in New York City" was adapted into an audio play by Jim Watson and released on the Century 21 mini-album Thunderbird 4 (MA 113) in November 1966.[17]

In 1982, a re-edited version of the episode was paired with a Series Two instalment, "Atlantic Inferno" (also written by Fennell), to create the Thunderbirds feature-length compilation film Countdown To Disaster.

"Terror in New York" was serialised by Fennell and Keith Page for issues 9 to 11 of Thunderbirds: The Comic, published in 1992.[10] The same year, the strip was reproduced in the graphic album Thunderbirds in Action.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 Bentley, p. 24.
  2. ↑ La Rivière, p. 122.
  3. ↑ Archer, Simon; Hearn, Marcus (2002). What Made Thunderbirds Go! The Authorised Biography of Gerry Anderson. London: BBC Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-563-53481-5.
  4. 1 2 Johnson, Brian (16 June 2001). "Eagles, Aliens and Oscars: A Conversation with SFX Director Brian Johnson" (Interview). Interview with Gainsford, Martin; Sisson, David. Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, UK. Archived from the original on 4 July 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 La Rivière, p. 124.
  6. ↑ Archer, Simon (2004) [1993]. Gerry Anderson's FAB Facts: Behind the Scenes of TV's Famous Adventures in the 21st Century. London: HarperCollins. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-00-638247-8.
  7. ↑ La Rivière, Stephen. "The Genius of Gerry Anderson". SFX Collection/Special Edition. Bath: Future Publishing (49): 64. ISSN 1749-6969. OCLC 225980008.
  8. ↑ Eder, Bruce. "Thunderbirds: Volume 2 AllMusic Entry". AllMusic. San Francisco, California: All Media Network. Archived from the original on 22 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  9. ↑ de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete Studio-Recording List of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 Bentley, p. 76.
  11. 1 2 Catling, Patrick Skene (3 November 1965). "Television". Punch. Punch Publications. 249: 662–3. ISSN 0033-4278. OCLC 781612324.
  12. 1 2 Anderson, Sylvia (1991). Yes, M'Lady. London: Smith Gryphon. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-856850-11-7.
  13. ↑ Anderson, Sylvia (2007). Sylvia Anderson: My Fab Years!. Neshannock, Pennsylvania: Hermes Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-932563-91-7.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Payne, Stephen, ed. (Summer 2004). "The Anderson Files". TV Zone Special. London: Visual Imagination (57): 39. ISSN 0960-8230. OCLC 438949600.
  15. 1 2 3 Fox, Tom (August 2004). "TV View". Starburst Special. London: Visual Imagination (65): 43. ISSN 0958-7128. OCLC 79615651.
  16. ↑ Galbraith IV, Stuart (28 June 2004). "The Best of Thunderbirds: The Favorite Episodes DVD Review". DVD Talk. El Segundo, California: Internet Brands. Archived from the original on 13 January 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  17. ↑ Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4th ed.). London: Reynolds & Hearn. p. 349. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.
Bibliography
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