Thunderbirds - 'Slingshot' and 'Tunnels of Time'

Hot enough for ya?

An asteroid mine is drifting close to the sun. The pressure is on for Thunderbird 3 to reach the asteroid and evacuate the one-man crew, in time and with fuel left for the journey home.

'Slingshot' is Alan Tracy's episode, with Kayo in support, and makes me wonder when Kayo is going to get another episode of her own. As it is, this is about the Tracy family's boy wonder. Alan is a prodigy who leaves his older brothers for dust (presumably as a result of growing up surrounded by super-talented brothers,) but tends to take things lightly. This makes the very serious Kayo an excellent foil, and they play well on each other's strengths.

The thing that really throws me in this episode is that John leaves the lounge to go to TB5 at the same time that Alan leaves to go to his room. Alan drops onto the floor to sleep and is immediately called by John from TB5. Apparently John's transfer pod is faster than TB3's countdown.

Parker: Chauffeur, valet and gooseberry.

In 'The Tunnels of Time', Lady Penelope is called on in her capacity as a trustee of some antiquities group to survey a dig at a temple in South America. Parker, hoping to get out of accompanying her, summons one of the boys from IR and gets Gordon, because he's not had an episode yet.

This is an impressively layered episode, with the tomb raiding shenanigans interspersed with Scott and Virgil dealing with a shifty professor (voiced by original Alan Matt Zimmerman). Gordon and Lady Penelope spark nicely over methodology, with Parker along as the grumbling comic relief, although the hints of attraction (between Lady P and Gordon, that is) are less successful, although maybe I just find it weird because Jeff Tracy and Lady P seemed to have an 'understanding' in the original.