Thunderbirds 2086
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese anime
series loosely inspired by the original Gerry Anderson
Supermarionation
series Thunderbirds
. The series was dubbed in English by ITC Entertainment
, the original company who produced Thunderbirds, but is not officially recognised as part of Thunderbirds canon
, due to the non-involvement of either Gerry
or Sylvia Anderson
. Despite this the English dub of the series contains music and sound effects from Anderson's series Stingray
, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
, Joe 90
, UFO
and Space:1999. A total of 24 episodes were produced, but only 18 were shown on Fuji TV in 1982.
. Although the dub is called Thunderbirds 2086, the Tracy family are not mentioned. In the dub, the Thunderbirds name is used to refer to the team, while in the original series the name merely referred to their vehicles. The animated series otherwise has notable similarities to the original, with most episodes revolving around a natural or man-made disaster which the TechnoVoyager/Thunderbirds team must investigate and help resolve. Unlike the original series, Thunderbirds 2086 also has an on-going story arc
, like many Japanese anime series. This one revolves around a breakaway independence group known as the Shadow Axis, led by the mysterious Star Crusher. There is a heavy intimation in the series that Star Crusher is not human and may be some kind of alien entity.
. Like the original International Rescue, a space station in orbit is maintained to monitor mayday calls. TB-6 is the space station in this series, similar in concept to Thunderbird 5. Both the Arcology and TB6 are home to many thousands of people.
The vehicles are
Commander Jared Simpson (same name in the original) is the commanding officer of the team and gives the heroes their missions. He is the "Jeff Tracy
" figure of the animated series. He has a nephew, Skipper Simpson (Paul in the Japanese original), a young boy who idolizes the Thunderbirds and hopes to one day join their ranks.
Oddly, for an organisation numbering in the thousands, the same five-person team is always dispatched to the danger zones.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series loosely inspired by the original Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
Supermarionation
Supermarionation
Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...
series Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
. The series was dubbed in English by ITC Entertainment
ITC Entertainment
The Incorporated Television Company was a British television company largely involved in production and distribution. It was founded by Lew Grade.-History:...
, the original company who produced Thunderbirds, but is not officially recognised as part of Thunderbirds canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
, due to the non-involvement of either Gerry
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
or Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson , born 25 March 1937, is a British voice artist and film producer, most notable for collaborations with Gerry Anderson, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1975....
. Despite this the English dub of the series contains music and sound effects from Anderson's series Stingray
Stingray (TV series)
Stingray is a children's marionette television show, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment from 1964–65. Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ITV in the UK and in syndication in the USA. The scriptwriters included Gerry and...
, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
, Joe 90
Joe 90
Joe 90 is a late-1960s British science-fiction television series documenting the exploits of a nine-year-old boy, Joe McClaine, who embarks on a double life as a schoolboy turned spy when his scientist father invents a pioneering machine capable of duplicating and transferring expert knowledge and...
, UFO
UFO (TV series)
UFO is a 1970-1971 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth, created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.UFO first aired in the UK and Canada...
and Space:1999. A total of 24 episodes were produced, but only 18 were shown on Fuji TV in 1982.
Background
The series takes place in 2086, (with the dub setting being roughly twenty years after the original series with other dates seen on screen) and chronicles the adventures of TechnoVoyager (literally, "TechnoBoyger", a contraction of "Techno", "Boy", and "Voyager") a rescue team portrayed in the dub as the "Thunderbirds" working for the International Rescue Organisation (in the Japanese version, the two entities are one and the same). Unlike the original International Rescue, which was small-scale and family-run, TechnoVoyager is a vast organisation comprising numerous branches and overseen by the Federation, this series' equivalent of the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. Although the dub is called Thunderbirds 2086, the Tracy family are not mentioned. In the dub, the Thunderbirds name is used to refer to the team, while in the original series the name merely referred to their vehicles. The animated series otherwise has notable similarities to the original, with most episodes revolving around a natural or man-made disaster which the TechnoVoyager/Thunderbirds team must investigate and help resolve. Unlike the original series, Thunderbirds 2086 also has an on-going story arc
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
, like many Japanese anime series. This one revolves around a breakaway independence group known as the Shadow Axis, led by the mysterious Star Crusher. There is a heavy intimation in the series that Star Crusher is not human and may be some kind of alien entity.
Base
Similar to the original show, the team's headquarters is an island in the Pacific. Its main building is a huge pyramid containing an entire city inside. It is known as the ArcologyArcology
Arcology, a portmanteau of the words "architecture" and "ecology", is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures would contain a variety of residential, commercial, and...
. Like the original International Rescue, a space station in orbit is maintained to monitor mayday calls. TB-6 is the space station in this series, similar in concept to Thunderbird 5. Both the Arcology and TB6 are home to many thousands of people.
Vehicles and characters
There are 17 vehicles, each with a different purpose and specialty. The craft are referred to using abbreviated designations containing "TB" (originally standing for "TechnoBoyger", the literal Japanese romanization of "TechnoVoyager"; in the dub, it is portrayed as standing for "Thunderbird"), such as TB-1, TB-2, etc. Oddly, the introductory dialogue in the dub describes the characters as cadets, while all of the episodes give their rank as Captain (although Gran Hanson is the senior captain in charge of the group).The vehicles are
- TB-1/Thunderbird 1, an aircraft similar in design to the space shuttleSpace ShuttleThe Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
. It is capable of space flight and can combine with Thunderbirds 2 and 3 to form a larger vessel. It is piloted by Captain Dylan Beyda.
- TB-2/Thunderbird 2, a large cargo hauler identical in purpose to the original series' Thunderbird 2, although it is blue rather than green and stores the smaller interchangeable vehicles inside its cargo bay rather than through the use of hangar pods. TB-2 has space flight capabilities and is piloted by Captain Jesse Rigel (Eric Jones in the Japanese version) and Captain Jonathon Jordan Jnr (Sammy Edkins Jnr).
- TB-3/Thunderbird 3 is an APCArmoured personnel carrierAn armoured personnel carrier is an armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield.APCs are usually armed with only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles , or mortars...
-like mobile command center used to monitor situations on the ground. It can split in half and merge with TB-1 and TB-2 for transportation to remote parts of the world. It is piloted by Captain Grant Hanson (same name in the Japanese version, but without the "t"), the oldest and most senior-ranking of the Thunderbirds.
- TB-4/Thunderbird 4 is a yellow submarine like its original series counterpart but much larger. It is too large to be carried by TB-2 and usually makes its way to the disaster area after being directly launched from the Arcology. It is piloted by Captain Kallan James (Catharine Heyward in the original), the only female crew member of the Thunderbirds team.
- TB-5/Thunderbird 5 is a large ground-tunneling vehicle which is reminiscent of the original series' pod vehicle known as the Mole. However, TB-5 is much larger. It is carried into missions by TB-2.
- TB-6/Thunderbird 6 is the largest Thunderbird, a massive space station which serves a similar purpose to the original series' Thunderbird 5. TB-6 is manned by hundreds if not thousands of IRO personnel and is described as a floating city.
- TB-7 and TB-8/Thunderbirds 7 and 8 are fast interceptor aircraft which can be stored either inside TB-1 or TB-2 and used as drones. The only difference between them is that TB-8 has VTOLVTOLA vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...
capability.
- TB-9/Thunderbird 9 is a walker-robot used for repair and upgrade work. It is always carried by another craft.
- TB-10/Thunderbird 10 is an exceptionally fast spacecraft which can reach speeds of over MachMach numberMach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure...
176 and is used for rapid travel from Earth to other planets.
- TB-11/Thunderbird 11 is an armored high-speed ground vehicle carried aboard TB-3. Although never shown or referenced in the show, it is shown in the 1983 Thunderbirds 2086 annualAnnual publicationAn annual publication, more often called simply an annual, is a book or a magazine, comic book or comic strip published yearly. For example, a weekly or monthly publication may produce an Annual featuring similar materials to the regular publication....
.
- TB-12/Thunderbird 12 is a bulldozer-like vehicle which can move extremely heavy weights.
- TB-13/Thunderbird 13 is a smaller submarine which is carried inside TB-4 and deployed to reach places too small for TB-4 to travel.
- TB-14/Thunderbird 14 never appears but is referenced in one episode. It is a deep-water bathysphere capable of traveling far below crush depth.
- TB-15 and TB-16/Thunderbirds 15 and 16 are small tracked vehicles stored inside TB-3 and apparently capable of drone operation. TB-15 is virtually identical to the original series' Mole and is essentially a much smaller version of TB-5. TB-16 is a reconnaissance and scout vehicle.
- TB-17/Thunderbird 17 is a huge spacecraft which is bigger than any other Thunderbird bar only TB-6, where it spends most of its time docked. TB-17 is used for extended operations away from Earth and can store all of the other Thunderbirds (apart from TB-6) inside it.
Commander Jared Simpson (same name in the original) is the commanding officer of the team and gives the heroes their missions. He is the "Jeff Tracy
Jeff Tracy
Jeff Tracy is a fictional character from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation television show Thunderbirds and the subsequent films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6. The voice for the character in these shows was supplied by Peter Dyneley. The character also appeared in the live...
" figure of the animated series. He has a nephew, Skipper Simpson (Paul in the Japanese original), a young boy who idolizes the Thunderbirds and hopes to one day join their ranks.
Oddly, for an organisation numbering in the thousands, the same five-person team is always dispatched to the danger zones.