TV21 - TV Century 21

New Thunderbirds Novel published in the US

While we wait for the pricey Thunderbirds Blu-Ray set to be published in the UK, a new Thunderbirds novel has been published in the US. The softcover book is entitled "Countdown to Action!" and is written by Joan Marie Verba. Although Joan is new to the world of Gerry Anderson, this marks the fifth (at least) book she has available at Amazon. I think the title is dangerously generic, especially for Anderson fare, but time will tell how good the story itself is. The book appears to focus on the formation of Internatonal Rescue, rather than on missions for IR. I just ordered the book, and will post details later, but the synopsis is as follows:

After his wife dies in a tragic accident, astronaut Jeff Tracy is left with five young sons to raise. But he turns his grief into a dream: to create an organization which will rescue people that no one else can reach. He builds a business which creates the new technology that the organization will require and earns the billions he needs to finance it. At last, he is ready to put it all together. He enlists the services of a genius to design aircraft and supporting machinery far beyond the standards of his time. Together, they find a Pacific island to use as the base for their operations. Jeff asks his five sons, now grown, to give up promising careers to build the base, operate the machines, and serve in his organization. But he finds that in order to make his dream a reality, it will require sacrifice, courage, and determination...far beyond what he, or his sons, ever expected. Can they make International Rescue a reality, and what will it take to make the fantastic Thunderbird machines go?

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: Publications; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 5779

Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds coming to Blu-Ray!

I guess it was inevitable, but Thunderbirds is coming to Blu-Ray disc on 15 September 2008. This will be in the UK only for now, but if past history is any indication, this will be the first of many Blu-Ray releases for Anderson productions. Right now details are very sparse, but it appears to be a box set of the entire series. Probably will be 16:9 which will inevitably mean that something gets lost. See the Stingray HD broadcast article to see what I mean.

Although its a fairly obvious first release, I was actually expecting to see the New Captain Scarlet show get the first high-definition DVD release, as it was produced in high-def and 5.1 sound. That would be an ideal candidate, as would the Thunderbirds movies. Expect little in the way of extras this time round though. One question that does come to mind is will they attempt to 'hide' the strings, now that the show is going to be high definition?

Price on this is a bit steep, too: £90.75. Pre-order it now from Amazon. That reminds me, are there any region-free Blu-Ray players yet?

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: BluRay; Last Updated: 24 May 2014; Hits: 7010

Barry Gray Centenary Concert tickets available

Tickets for the much anticipated Barry Gray Centenary Concert are now available. The event will be held in London at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday, 8th November 2008. Guest of honour will be Gerry Anderson, ably assisted by the ever low-key Brian Blessed who will compere the event. Full details are in the complete press release, after the jump.

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: Barry Gray; Last Updated: 16 August 2013; Hits: 7660

Barry Gray

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun DVD released in US

A remastered version of the 1969 movie 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun' (aka Doppleganger) was released on June 24 2008 in the US. Contrary to original reports, this DVD is Region 1 encoded. According to reports, the movie itself is remastered, or at least cleaned up from the prior release. However, no additional features of extras are included on the disc. There is nothing extra on the disc with the exception of subtitles. No commentary or trailers.

A Region 2 disc should be coming out later this year.As there is a likelyhood this was remastered, perhaps we can look forward to a high-def Blu-Ray DVD release sometime in the future...

This DVD is widescreen 1.85:1 and runs 102 minutes, NTSC.

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: DVDs; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 5711

Brains TV Ad for Drench

A drink company by the name of "Drench" just did a TV advert for the UK featuring a very animated Brains puppet. Its quite fun to watch and certainly shows some of Brains' hidden talents.

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: Thunderbirds; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 7570

TV21 Returns

TV Century 21 the web site returns to the web after a more-weeks-than-I-care-to-think hiatus. As you can see, there is significantly reduced functionality, but I'll be testing and activating the missing parts of the site over the next couple of weeks.

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: News; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 7472

Doppleganger/JTTFSOTS DVD in June

After languishing as a ropey, hard-to-find and ultimately deleted DVD release, the US Theatrical release of "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" is being reissued in the US. The NTSC Region-free release hits shelves June 24 2008.

The scant information on the Amazon page indicates it is a widescreen version (1.85:1) with Dolby sound (oooh). The packaging and contents can only be an improvement over the original US release which had a cardboard cover and I don't think it even had a menu, just went straight to the movie!

This release has subtitles and shows a running time of 102 minutes. It would be really nice if there was commentary, or maybe a little background feature, but at least its getting a proper release.

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: News; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 6162

Barry Gray Concert this November

As if to draw a line between the UK fans and the rest of the world, we now have this. People lucky enough to be in the London area on November 8 2008 will be able to attend the "Barry Gray Centenary Concert" at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank in London.

It will certainly be a major event for Anderson fans.

Full details after the jump. Lucky gits.

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: Personnel; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 7865

Barry Gray

Real world Skyship

This came out early February in an Australian newspaper. There is a large airship apparently capable of going around the world.

The Anderson tie-in is that they claim it looks like Thunderbird 2. It does, but as many will be aware this also bears more than a passing resemblance the SKYSHIP from the Thunderbird 6 movie.

This airship is apparently a hotel, so that should be fun. I don't see an old biplane anywhere though...

Details: Written by: Simon Wickes; Category: Latest; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 7433

Review of Anderson night on BBC (Updated)

On January 2 2008, BBC4 in the UK put together a night of Anderson productions as well as a new documentary and a partially "new Stingray episode. It was presented in widescreen. Also included was an episode of the "Mastermind" quiz show which feaured Anderson-themed questions. Contributor Theo de Klerk reviews the evenings entertainment. Especially interesting for the many many fans who were not able to see the shows due to living in other parts of the world...

Details: Written by: Theo de Klerk; Category: Supermarionation; Last Updated: 05 August 2013; Hits: 8241

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