Thunderbirds are Go - 'Under Pressure' and 'Heavy Metal'

It's that man again!

When a heavy metal extractor - part of an effort to clean up the seas after that global conflict/looming ecodisaster - loses control, Thunderbird 4 is sent in to prevent the solution becoming part of the problem. Meanwhile, Lady Penelope seeks out the company who own the extractor to find out why they are fielding a defective rig.

'Heavy Metal' is a fairly routine rescue of the week episode, but featuring the return of Ned Tedford and Gladys, the engineer and his plant from Slingshot, who is apparently pretty unlucky when it comes to job placement. His misfortune may stretch credulity, but gives a nice sense of continuity. There is also another bit of world building, highlighting the global environmental efforts of 2060 and the attempts to profit from them.

Brains gets to flirt with a sexy science lady, voiced by - you guessed it -
Theresa Gallagher.

Closing out the first half of the season, 'Heavy Metal' sees Brains and Alan visiting the Supreme Hadron Collider - and its director, Brains' old college crush, Professor Moffat - which must be better than the Large Hadron Collider, since it is capable of actually generating a black hole instead of just a panic that it might.

This half hour episode puts more meat on the character of Brains than pretty much everything that has come before, not just the ex, but the confirmation that he is - or has been since college - called Hiram, and that it isn't just an alias. Not sure about the Hackenbacker yet. As first a jet and then a space station are drawn down towards disaster, the mid-season closer gives us a barnstorming finale, as Thunderbird 4 is lowered into the event horizon to deactivate the Collider, being the only craft able to operate at the necessary pressure, thus allowing Gordon a non-aquatic rescue to his credit.