Day of Disaster

"Day of Disaster" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (later Century 21 Productions) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Dennis Spooner and directed by David Elliott, it was first broadcast on 4 November 1965 on ATV Midlands as the sixth episode of Series One. In the official running order, it is the 15th episode.

Set in the 2060s, Thunderbirds follows the missions of International Rescue, a secret organisation which uses technologically-advanced rescue vehicles to save human life. The lead characters are ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, founder of International Rescue, and his five adult sons, who pilot the organisation's primary vehicles: the Thunderbird machines. In "Day of Disaster", a space probe being transported to its launch site sinks to the bottom of a river following a bridge collapse, trapping a pair of technicians underwater and triggering the probe's automatic countdown. International Rescue race to save the two men before the compromised craft is destroyed on blast-off. The events of "Day of Disaster" are later recalled in flashback in the clip show episode "Security Hazard".

In 1967, Century 21 released a condensed audio adaptation of "Day of Disaster" on EP record (Thunderbirds, catalogue number MA 121), with narration by David Graham in character as Gordon Tracy. The episode had its first UK‑wide network broadcast on 6 December 1991 on BBC2.

Plot
While visiting Lady Penelope in England, Brains watches TV coverage of the upcoming launch of the Martian Space Probe (MSP). Due to Mars' position relative to Earth, the probe is being launched from England instead of Cape Kennedy. Two technicians, Bill and Frank, are aboard the probe rocket carrying out pre-flight checks while it is driven to the launch site on the back of a transporter truck. Disaster strikes when the Allington River Suspension Bridge, which has been weakened by a storm, collapses from the weight of the shipment. The rocket sinks to the riverbed, buried under wreckage. Trapped in the nose cone, Bill and Frank discover that the impact has triggered the probe's automatic launch countdown: after 12 hours, the rocket will blast off from this compromised position and inevitably be destroyed.

On Tracy Island, Grandma loses her edible transmitter (a kind of homing device), leading Jeff to think that one of his sons has accidentally eaten it. Eventually the culprit is revealed to be Jeff himself, who – to Alan's amusement – grudgingly drinks a transmitter-dissolving medicine that Tin-Tin has prepared.

Brains and Penelope race to Allington in FAB 1, driven by Parker. Penelope and Parker fire the car's machine gun at some abandoned warehouses, distracting the emergency services and enabling Brains to slip into the bridge control room, where the personnel are arranging to lift the rocket out of the river using a floating crane. The Controller dismisses Brains' suggestion of calling International Rescue and orders him to keep out of the way, so Brains quietly contacts the Tracys using his wristwatch videophone – to the astonishment of the personnel, who think that he is talking to an ordinary watch. Jeff dispatches Scott, Virgil and Gordon in Thunderbirds 1 and 2, the latter carrying Thunderbird 4. At the bridge, the rocket proves too heavy for the crane, which capsizes and sinks.

The Tracys arrive and set to work freeing the nose cone. Thunderbird 4 is launched and Gordon uses the submersible's plasma torch to break off wreckage, which Virgil lifts clear using Thunderbird 2's electromagnetic grab lines. Time is running out, and the nose cone remains inaccessible, so Brains orders Gordon to speed up the process by torpedoing the wreckage to disperse it, then ramming the nose cone to separate it from the rocket. The plan is successful and the nose cone rises to the surface, where Thunderbird 2 carries it away. The rocket lifts off, shoots out of the river, and explodes.

Brains is overjoyed and starts dancing in the control room, seemingly confirming the personnel's suspicions that he is an escaped mental patient. He is referred to psychiatrist Dr R.G. Korda, who is asking him about his habit of "talking to watches" when Penelope arrives to take him home. Watching them depart, Korda is dismayed to see Penelope talking to her compact, unaware that it is a concealed transceiver she is using to call the Tracys.

Regular voice cast

 * Sylvia Anderson as Lady Penelope
 * Peter Dyneley as Jeff Tracy
 * Christine Finn as Tin-Tin Kyrano and Grandma Tracy
 * David Graham as Gordon Tracy, Brains and Parker
 * David Holliday as Virgil Tracy
 * Shane Rimmer as Scott Tracy
 * Matt Zimmerman as Alan Tracy

Production
The miniature model appearing as the MSP transporter truck was originally a fire engine in the episode "City of Fire". The shots of the MSP in transit were accompanied by the archive incidental music piece "March of the Oysters", originally composed for the Stingray episode "Secret of the Giant Oyster".

Dr Korda was named after either Alexander Korda or Dr Roger Corder, protagonist of the TV series The Human Jungle.

Reception
Tom Fox of Starburst magazine rates the episode 3 out of 5, praising its "friendly little attempts at comedy".

For Chris Bentley, "Day of Disaster" is one of several Thunderbirds scripts by either Spooner or Alan Fennell that use "incredible technology in a developing world as a springboard to disaster". Sam Denham describes "Day of Disaster" as a "classic 'doomed technology' episode" of Thunderbirds, commenting that its premise about an ill-fated space probe is one of several that "reflected a growing concern in the 1960s that the pace of progress may have been moving too fast". He adds that judging by the guest characters' surprised reactions to Brains and Penelope's communication devices, the episode may be implying "there are certain types of technology that only International Rescue can be trusted with".

According to Marcus Hearn, the subplot about the swallowed transmitter – "entirely unconnected to anything else in the episode" – is perhaps "the most baffling sequence" in Thunderbirds. He also comments that the episode plays with national stereotypes – arguing, for example, that Peter Dyneley's use of an affected German accent while voicing a rocket scientist (Professor Wingrove) was an acknowledgement of German scientists' contributions to the Space Race. He adds that psychiatrist Dr Korda "is, of course, Austrian", while the presence of an American space probe in Britain "presents a refreshing picture of Anglo-American relations".