In the year 2086, Earth and the Solar system are governed by the Federation, a supra-national organisation that evolved out of the United Nations. In a world of advanced robotics, artificial superintelligence, climactic disturbances and natural disasters, it falls to the International Rescue Organisation to fly to the rescue of anyone in trouble on or off the planet.
I think I can guess what you're thinking here: what the hell is Thunderbirds 2086? You've heard of Thunderbirds, the 1965 original puppet-and-explosions classic, and you've (probably) heard of Thunderbirds Are Go, the 2015 CGI-and-models reboot show from the Lord of the Rings effects team. You may have even heard of (and tried to forget) the ill-advised 2004 live-action movie directed by Jonathan Frakes. So what in the fresh heck of obscurity is this show?
Thunderbirds 2086 is an English-language dub of a Japanese anime called Scientific Rescue Team Technoboyger. The anime was developed by Jin Productions after a possible collaboration with Gerry Anderson on his new show Terrahawks fell through in the late 1970s. The team were huge fans of Anderson's work and, even after Gerry went back to the UK, they decided to honour his work with an animated "spiritual successor" to Thunderbirds. This successor featured the Scientific Rescue Team attending to disaster zones with their high-tech vehicles, the "Technovoygers." Amusingly the team deliberately mistranslated the name in English characters in the show as "Technoboygers," meaning the vehicles were dubbed "TB-1," "TB-2" etc as a further homage to Thunderbirds. More amusingly, this meant they could sell the show to ITC in the UK (the Thunderbirds IP holders) direct as a successor show, which ITC followed through on in its dub.
In this iteration of the franchise, the International Rescue Organisation (IRO) operates from the Arcology, a gigantic city-building rising out of an island in the South Pacific, as well as Thunderbird 6, a city-sized space station in orbit. The IRO has tens of thousands of people working for it and no less than seventeen major Thunderbird vehicles, alongside numerous less-impressive vehicles. The IRO was founded as a private enterprise by Commander Simpson, but now operates as an official arm of the Federation, the UN-descended government of Earth and its colonies across the Solar system. The IRO operates effectively as a space-age version of the US Coastguard, ensuring both the safety and security of people from natural disasters on and off Earth.
Despite the IRO's gargantuan size, the organisation is heavily dependent on a team of just five pilots: Dylan Beyda, the pilot of Thunderbird 1; Thunderbird 2 pilots Jesse Rigel and Jonathan Jordan Jr.; Thunderbird 3 and overall team commander Gran Hanson; and Thunderbird 4 aquanaut Kallan James. Commander Jared Simpson oversees their operations from the Arcology, and the commander's young nephew Skipper lends a hand as he prepares to apply as a Thunderbird cadet when he is older.
The vehicle roster is much larger than the original show. Thunderbird 1 is a large space shuttle which operates as a fast recon vessel and can more directly help in rescues than in the original show; Thunderbird 2 is still a huge transporter (though blue rather than green) which can bring other equipment to the danger zone in its various pods; Thunderbird 3 is a ground-control mobile command centre, basically a massive APC; Thunderbird 4 is still a submarine, but much larger than the original, and can carry smaller vessels inside it; TB5 is a firefighting vehicle which also has a large drill on the front; TB6 is the orbiting space city; TB7 and TB8 are fast interceptor vehicles stored on TB1 (and can also be used as drones); TB9 is a mech suit; TB10 is a spacecraft used for fast travel to other planets; TB11 is a high-speed ground vehicle carried inside TB3; TB12 is a large bulldozer carried by TB3; TB13 and TB14 are smaller underwater vessels (a flying mini-sub and bathysphere respectively) carried on TB4; TB15 is a ground drone and mobile computer; TB16 is basically the Mole from the original show; and TB17 is a huge spacecraft with an experimental near-light drive that can cross the inner Solar system in a matter of hours.
This massive and impressive vehicle roster is made a bit less impressive given that several vehicles never show up and almost every episode relies on TB1, 2 and 3, which can combine together into a larger vehicle capable of space travel. TB4 plays a major role in only a few episodes, so Kallan spends most of her time acting as a co-pilot on one of the other vehicles.
Like the original show, we have a mixture of natural disasters and problems caused by criminals. Unlike the original show, we also have something approaching a story arc as the sinister Shadow Axis - an alliance of asteroid settlements that want to break away from the Federation - launches various terrorist attacks on Earth to try to secure its independence. We even have a recurring villain, the Shadow Axis's unseen leader, General Starcrusher. Before you get too excited, this story arc is not very well-developed and left unresolved at the end of the show (though given the last half-dozen or so episodes don't even mention the Shadow Axis, this is not a major problem). More impressive is that the characters actually show some development and internal characterisation. Captain Hanson is the oldest and most experienced member of the team and the only one to have a wife and family. In at least one episode, he struggles to reconcile his calling to help people with the time it takes away from spending with his family. Dylan and Kallan have an unresolved mutual attraction, whilst Dylan also suffers from a clash of duties when his friends are put in danger and he has to choose between helping them or saving thousands from impending disasters. It's no big thing, but very different from the much more limited character arcs in the original.
Some of the disasters are very clever and well-portrayed. Arguably the best episode deals with a tidal wave striking the South Pacific after the weather control system goes haywire and has the four main Thunderbird vehicles having to work in concert to save thousands of lives across multiple islands. Another episode about a research station in danger of crashing into the Sun (a clear homage to an OG Thunderbirds episode) has a lot of superb tension given the limited running time. Most of the episodes are in fact pretty decent, with a strong sense of character and tension. The worst episodes are the ones that phone in some dodgy stock-SF plot, usually about aliens (Mindmeld and Trial are the worst offenders here) which are otherwise largely missing from the setting. The Shadow Axis/Starcrusher storyline is promising but doesn't really go anywhere, and without an on-screen face for the villains, it falls a bit flat. Starcrusher ends up being a less compelling villain than the Hood, which is really saying something. Other episodes are goofy but somehow pull it off: one episode about a dolphin joining the organisation ends up being surprisingly enjoyable, and an episode about a forest fire caused by the never-ending battle of wits and wills between a prize hunter and a cyborg stag (!!!) is one of the strongest episodes of the season.
The show is arguably a little darker than the original, even granting that the English dub pulls its punches way more than the Japanese original in terms of casualties, but the sense of worldbuilding and the scale of the Federation is really well-realised. There's a lot more work here in terms of scene-setting and continuity than the original show attempted.
The animation is mostly decent, especially by the standards of 1983, and the music is superb, with a mixture of themes from the original Japanese version and ITC's Barry Gray library. The use of themes from the original Thunderbirds and other Supermarionation shows is restrained and will raise a smile when they appear. The voice acting is mostly fine, especially from the regulars, but the guest cast can be hit or miss. The English-language dub has some very witty dialogue and pop culture references, though one episode where the redshirts who are about to die in the opening disaster refer to themselves as redshirts is a bit too on-the-nose. Some of the guest voices in the last couple of episodes are awful, possibly due to a budget crunch as they tried to finish the project on time.
As an alternative, Next Generation-style take on the classic premise, Thunderbirds 2086 (***½) is a decent show. It has some clever ideas and pretty entertaining episodes. It lacks the full charm of the original puppets, but the shorter running time means the show is much more dynamic and faster-paced, and the advantages of animation in portraying things the puppets and small sets could never even attempt are obvious. It definitely gets weaker towards the end of the run and the serialised elements never really take off, but you can do much worse than giving this curiosity a spin. The show has never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray, but a remastered version is available to watch for free on YouTube.
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