Thunderbirds are Go - Unplugged

"When I was a lass we didn't have any Thunderbirds; had to
save the day with string and good manners."

In Unplugged, Virgil finds himself in a powerless London, forced to work without his high-tech gear to prevent a group of anti-technology fanatics bent on bringing down modern society. Luckily, he has his grandmother along for support.

Grandma Tracy was a very minor figure in the original series, but has cropped up several times in the new version and now gets a chance to shine, displaying courage and ingenuity as well as Girl Scout preparedness and an unshakable faith in her boys. Her belief in Virgil even without any gear to back him up is touching, and the moment when she gives him her late husband's compass, that she had originally intended for her also deceased - apparently - son, was genuinely moving.

There's also plenty of action and snappy dialogue, with Lady P and Parker running the B-plot and tracking the Luddites to their goal, and the Hood's sudden yet inevitable betrayal. The crux of International Rescue's mission is also spelled out, when Virgil opts to save a trapped crane operator rather than stop the Hood escaping with the means to blackmail the world. IR saves lives; it's what they do.

I do love the Luddites' logo.

I note that the series keeps throwing sassy ladies into danger - the crane operator in this episode is a young woman with an accent from the Jane Leeves school of British sass - to be rescued by our manly heroes. I'm not sure if this is so much a deliberate choice, however, or a cost saving exercise allowing all the secondary characters to be played by Theresa Gallagher. Secondary male characters tend to be douchebags for Kayo to roll her eyes at, so there's definitely a double standard at play.