Thunderbirds-Volume 3 (1964)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Featurette-Lady Penelope and Parker Gallery-Photo Gallery-Tracy Island Trivia
Rating
Year Of Production	1964
Running Time	193:01 (Case: 200)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	David Lane Alan Patillo David Elliot Desmond Saunders
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$34.95	Music	Barry Gray

    This volume contains another four episodes:

• The Brink of Disaster - will Jeff Tracy, Brains, and Tintin survive an automatic monorail train that is speeding towards oblivion?
• Perils of Penelope - a classic set-up, but the lady tied across the railway tracks is Lady Penelope
• Terror in New York - moving the Empire State Building fails, and two men are trapped underneath, waiting for death by drowning - will TB4 be in time?
• End of the Road - can Thunderbirds save a man without revealing their secret identities?

    I do find it humorous that the Andersons went to the trouble of making many things quite futuristic, but transplanted 1960s cars (big bonnets, big boots), and TV show design (The Ned Cook Show) into what is supposed to be 2065.

    I must mention a failing in the foley work - there are what look distinctly like laser pistols in Perils of Penelope, but they sound just like conventional pistols.

Video

    Thunderbirds is a TV series made in the mid 60s - it is therefore presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and consequently not 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the transfer improves noticeably as you work through these episodes. The first one (Brink Of Disaster) is a little soft, but things do improve. As I mentioned in the previous review, interiors are generally quite sharp and clear (you can count the beads of "perspiration" on some faces!) but exteriors are generally softer, this being a consequence of the way the exteriors were filmed. Many of the model shots were filmed at very high frame rates (up to 120 frames/sec) so that they would appear to be moving slowly and ponderously when played back at 24 frames/sec. These high frame rates tend to result in more grain. Shadow detail is generally OK, but never wonderful. Low level noise is not a big problem.

    Colour is important here - we are dealing with exciting machines, so they must be painted yellow and red (and green, and silver). But we are talking about 1960s film stocks, so saturation is a bit limited. There's no bleed, but the colours are not overly vivid, either.

    Artefacts are more troublesome on this volume than the previous one. I saw far more film artefacts here, including some fascinating single frame things (see around 24:35 in Perils of Penelope, and 37:04 of End of the Road). Aliasing causes a few problems, particularly on Jeff Tracy's desk, for example, because of its parallel line design. There was some nasty telecine wobble, mostly in the first episode, but also in the credits of the fourth episode.

    The disc is single sided and dual layered, but not RSDL. There is no visible layer change - they have sensibly placed two episodes on one layer, and the other two on the other layer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue is clear and easily understood. There are no problems with audio sync, although spotting a sync problem with marionettes is difficult.

    The score is part of the Thunderbirds experience. I am fairly confident I could identify a Thunderbirds episode from the score alone - the fast, strident music when the climax is building - almost as distinctive as the Mission Impossible theme.

    One area where this volume surpassed its predecessor is in the area of surround sound usage. They have done rather a good job of using the surrounds, especially considering that the original material must have had a mono soundtrack. Sure, the surrounds aren't used all that often, but they are used effectively, providing ambient noises and surrounding sounds during rock falls, earthquakes, and so forth. The subwoofer is called upon to support both the score and the explosions. Lots of explosions!

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Lady Penelope and Parker (14:08)

Stills Gallery

Tracy Island

Thunderbird Facts

    I have been told that we are getting the episodes in the order they were originally broadcast, while R2, on the other hand, is getting them in the order they were made. Makes it difficult to play mix'n'match with R2 and R4 discs.

    I'd suggest getting our versions - they are cheaper than importing.

    The video quality is surprisingly good for mid 60s TV, but not quite as good as Volume 2.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are quite decent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall