Thunderbirds Trapped in the Sky/Terror in New York City 4K Collectors Edition Steelbook (UHD Blu-ray)
Anderson Entertainment have released a limited special edition UHD blu-ray of the opening two ‘Thunderbirds’ episodes ‘Trapped In The Sky’ and ‘Terror In New York’ in its original ‘square’ format, with a choice of sound in mono or stereo 5.1. Be sure to make sure you have a UHD blu-ray player or it won’t play.
We’re so used to seeing it converted to widescreen, which is how video, DVD and blu-ray have shown ‘Thunderbirds’, this offers the opportunity see Thunderbird One in its original length than truncated. This is also the build-up for the complete series in the original ‘square’ format limited edition for the opening of 2026. I’m still wavering on this as I’ve got all the previous editions and suspect that this limited edition release is to catch us waverers.
OK, I put the disk in the UHD blu-ray player, accepted that was bound to be some rattle in its play but not the sound jumping in stereo. Out came the disk, a wipe and put back in and this time only this time the menu options wouldn’t reveal and it was going in a loop of opening scenes. Out again and CD spray cleaner and paid particular attention to the disk edge. Ran it in mono and sound was all right. I’m giving this detail so you persevere and a decent clean should sort out these problems. I didn’t even notice any rattle once the first episode started.
As I’ve reviewed these episodes before, I’m not going to repeat myself here. The joy of this series is getting drawn into the events and I defy anyone not to have a smile on their face when Thunderbird 2 lands at London Airport. Not that I wasn’t analysing. Jeff Tracy had a telegram from TinTin Kyrano saying she would be at the island in two days. Bearing in mind she knew she was on the maiden flight of the Fireflash and that its radiation shields needed renewing in just over two hours also gives the time of the flight to Toyoko. Both Thunderbirds came from the same direction only in just over 50 minutes. So how did TinTin’s time be worked out to 2 days? I put some thought into this and think she waited a day for the inaugural flight. Had the Fireflash ran to schedule, she would have arrived in Toyoko in a couple hours and a private flight to Tracy Island and a conversion to local time which is nine hours ahead of London Makes you wonder how the Tracys kept up with local times whenever they flew to rescues. Even when she took a second flight, she still managed to get to the island before the doctor who came to see her father.
There was even more disk cleaning with the second story but looks like it affects both sound options. Of particular concern was when Jeff Tracy was organising things his voice went gravely dalek. Lets get back to that in a while.
There are two extras. The first, running at 86 minutes, is ‘Thunderbirds: FAB At 60’ is a mix of people who have worked post-1960s on versions of Thunderbirds to fans. There are snippets from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and little snippets behind the scenes. Of the voice actors, only Shane Rimmer is shown in a different role on ‘Space: 1999’ and none of the others, not even as photographs. When you consider Peter Dyneley’s voice was even used in the WETA CGI production, you would have thought that an acknowledgement should have been there. Some of the commentators said the cast did a lot of radio work. Thing is, with odd exceptions mostly previously did film and TV work. Even Gerry Anderson veers off on how ‘Thunderbirds’ became 50 minutes long because Lew Grade insisted it should be bigger after seeing the 25 minute version. There is a singular absence of both TBs films as well. The worse thing is the omission of Derek Meddings’ contribution. Jonathan Ross almost mentions his name 45 minutes in and someone else nearly 40 minutes later. When you consider he designed the vehicles and special effects, this really is a serious omission. With nearly 90 minutes, there was surely enough time to have had a lot more reflection than they had.
I thought in this instance Anderson Productions needed a right to reply and Jamie Anderson came back saying he didn’t want to repeat what’s been done before. I did contest him on that because people would want to see more of the other show’s creators.
There is also a nearly 5 minute ‘Restoration Featurette’ showing how they got the print back to its original format and got the colours sorted out. The way Jamie Anderson was speaking, I don’t think the complete season had been done at the time of the recording.
I’m a bit worried about the amount of cleaning I had to do to the disk and even resorted to Pledge. I just hope this is a glitch only with my copy. They provided me with a second copy and the problem with the second story was still there. They and me hope I was unfortunate to get these copies and hope none of you other buyers have the same problem. No one else has contacted them about this yet, so I hope they are right.
GF Willmetts
December 2025
(pub: Anderson Entertainment, 2025. 1 4K UHD blu-ray disc, 220 minutes 2 * 50 minute episodes with 2 extras. Price: £29.99 (UK))
check out website: https://gerryanderson.com/products/thunderbirds-trapped-in-the-sky-terror-in-new-york-city-4k-collectors-edition-steelbook-blu-ray
