Star Wars Rebels - 'The Siege of Lothal'

"We are so boned."

Now part of a collective of rebels, acting in alliance with one another, the crew of the Ghost return to their former base of operations on Lothal to rescue a defecting Imperial politico, only for the defector to be assassinated and the killing pinned on the rebels. As a result, they lose a fair whack of their respect on the old homeworld, and lose a shot at finding out what the Empire really wants with a backwater like Lothal anyway.

Of course, narratively speaking this is really just part of a process for moving the crew definitively out into the wider rebellion, working with former Jedi Asoka Tano and Phoenix Squadron, but the two-part episode which bridges Season 1 and Season 2 also provides an opportunity for our heroes to get their collective arses roundly handed to them by the big man in black.

"Is this your show? I don't care! I'm Darth fucking Vader!"

Following the death of the Grand Inquisitor, Lord Vader is taking a personal interest in the rebel crew. After a few appearances in part 1, largely to establish his presence, he begins episode 2 by trashing Kanan and Ezra in lightsabre combat and then shrugs off getting a scout walker dropped on his head. The crew of the Ghost flee, and Vader follows them, rounding off his day by taking out half of Phoenix squadron's A-wings and their command ship in his TIE Fighter.

He also burns down a refugee camp, just to really get at them. Threat established. Puppies kicked. Darth Vader is not a man you want to have on your case, and Rebels takes some clear pleasure in being allowed to bring that fact to the screen for the first time. Sure, Anakin was a serious proposition in The Clone Wars, but we've never got to see the modern standards of screen combat applied to him as Vader before now.

"Don't throw those bloody mid-weight armoured assault vehicles at me."

Seriously; the still on the left may look like Vader's giving a rock concert, but the moment where he just Force lifts a walker off his own head like it ain't no kind of thing is hella badass. He may not manage to kill any of our protagonists, but he hurts them bad.

Season 2 of the previously so-so Rebels begins in style.

Thunderbirds are Go - 'Fireflash'

"Well, I'm sure this can't go wrong."

In a bold move, the fifth episode of Thunderbirds are Go basically just rips its plot from the first ever Thunderbirds episode, 'Trapped in the Sky'. With Thunderbird S in the shop (not that we've yet seen it in use,) Kayo is obliged to travel first class on the massive hypersonic airliner Fireflash (poor thing,) only for the flight to be hijacked by the Hood. Whereas the original episode saw Tin-Tin a passive observer, Kayo quickly takes charge, engaging in another hand-to-hand struggle with her uncle before attempting to land the plain with the assistance of her adoptive family.

I really liked parts of this episode, and in particular Kayo's dramatic 'in case I don't make it' was well done and it was good to see the brothers showing a familial concern for Kayo instead of the chest-puffing romantic competition that occasionally crept in to the older series. The use of the elevator cars was a nice nod to the original, but the need for a different solution felt like an important step.

The necessary comparison to the Gerry Anderson series did, however, throw up one of the main problems with Thunderbirds are Go, specifically that with the exception of the two-part opener, the shorter format can not build up the tension that good episodes of Thunderbirds did so well. Of course, it also avoids the dragging sections which dogged not-so-good episodes.

Anyway, if they're going to knock-off old episodes, I vote for The Uninvited, the weird one with the lost pyramid full of fighter jets and the secret civilisation of 'Zombites'.

Thunderbirds are Go - 'Crosscut'

"Help! My face is stretched across the inside of my visor!"

I joke about the uncanny valley a lot in regard to CGI productions, but it's especially apparent in this week's Thunderbirds are Go, as the visors on the radiation proof masks worn by Scott and guest character Marian van Arkel (voiced by Theresa Gallagher of Alphablocks fame) eerily distort their features across the available surface.

In the absence of the other brothers, Scott and Virgil set out to reseal an old Uranium mine in South Africa, before a storm front blows radioactive dust across Pretoria. The unsealing turns out to be the work of Marian, daughter of the mine's former owners, who were ruined by the death of the nuclear industry in and around the same conflict of 2040 that created last week's stealth satellite. She plans to restore her family's wealth by selling refined Uranium to the Hood, but comes good in the end during a daring escape from the mine in Scott's company.

She also tries to kill him with an aliens-style power loader, which is close enough to a forklift for my money.

Thunderbirds are Go - 'Ring of Fire' and 'Space Race'

Tracy Island, located squarely in the flooded basin of the uncanny valley.

When it was announced that a rebooted CGI Thunderbirds series was to be made, the response from fans was predictably restrained.

This is going to be shit, they said, because they always do. Now, I enjoyed the Captain Reboot, so here I am to check out Thunderbirds are Go, ITV's shiny new Anderson-derived property, in particular the opening two parter 'Ring of Fire' and the third episode, 'Space Race'.

There's no build up in the opener, as Virgil Tracy rescues a man and his son from a lost balloon in storm force winds. It's clear that International Rescue are an established presence in the world, even as they set out to rescue the crew of an underwater research station, and become embroiled in a plot by their megalomaniac foe, the Hood, to blackmail the world with satellite controlled earthquake machines.

Line of the week goes to the Hood: "I don't want to rule the world; I just want to own it. Someone else can run the place."

In 'Space Race', astronaut Alan shares centre stage with London operatives Lady Penelope and Parker, as they race to deactivate an old stealth satellite left over from a less enlightened age.

Line of the week is probably Parker dubbing himself 'the Grey Ninja', although there is also a pricelessly awkward exchange between Alan and Kayo:

"Sorry for last time. The babysitter crack."
"It's okay; most men would kill to have you as a babysitter. I mean... because you're so... responsible."

Our new series then is set in a world where International Rescue has been operating for some time, but the organisation is missing a head; Jeff Tracy is gone, lost in a crash thought to have been engineered by the Hood. Also gone is faithful butler Kirano (presumably lost in the same crash,) leaving IR in the hands of the younger generation.

The Tracy brothers are all pretty much as they were before. Scott and Virgil are the serious, dark-haired ones; Gordon and Alan are the junior members of the team; and John sits in a tin can in space and watches everything, making him a little bit creepy. Thus far, the balance between the five has been better than in the original, and in particular space monitor John has been a far more active member of the team, running a lot of their data analysis like a human version of Person of Interest's Machine. Also present and correct are Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and Parker; the latter is most directly influenced by the original series in performance, almost to the point of parody.

Rounding out the team's gender dynamics a little bit (it's still a 3:1 ratio, but better than the old 6:1) is Kayo, IR's covert ops specialist. In full Tanusha 'Kayo' Kyrano, this is the cloyingly proper Tin-Tin revised for the modern age, nicknamed for her knockout punch rather than her maidenly sweetness (and to avoid IP conflict with the big screen version of Herge's boy reporter.) She even gets her own ship, the Thunderbird Shadow, courtesy of Brains, who is apparently now an Anglo-Iranian (or possibly Indian, but voiced by Anglo-Iranian Kayvan Novak*.)

The cast is mostly unremarkable, but it is noticeable that they are primarily English actors affecting variable American accents. Rosamund Pike gets a pass on this as Lady P, of course, as does Angel Coulby, playing Kayo strictly RP.

All in all, this is a pretty good adventure show. There are doubtless fans of the old series shaking their heads in despair, but a show running on CITV is for the new generation, and I am keen to know what my nephew makes of it, having been introduced to Thunderbirds by his dad.

* Just to mess with my head, original Brains actor David Graham now voices Parker, while original Lady Penelope Sylvia Anderson is set to guest voice.