‘THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

This ‘Thunderbirds’ anniversary episode is based on the 1966 audio play called ‘F.A.B.’. I greatly enjoyed watching this episode on Britbox and it contains an exciting opening sequence where Scott in Thunderbird 1 and Virgil in Thunderbird 2 are rescuing a uranium factory which has caught fire. 😀

The episode has Thunderbird 5 receiving reports from the Himalayas about kidnappings carried out by the Abominable Snowman. Jeff Tracy sends Lady Penelope and Parker to investigate. They soon come across a dark truth. The Abominable Snowman isn’t a Yeti from ‘Doctor Who’ as you’d expect!

It’s in actual fact the Hood. This episode might another example where the International Rescue team gets close to meeting the Hood as their archenemy. It’s certainly the closest that Lady Penelope gets to meet the Hood. She ends up as his prisoner and she’s about to be killed by him. 😮

Scott Tracy might also be close to meeting the Hood for the first time after chasing him in ‘Martian Invasion’. Another time I saw the International Rescue meeting the Hood was in the 2004 ‘Thunderbirds’ film. This is a rare instance in 1960s ‘Thunderbirds’ for the IR team to meet the Hood.

Incidentally, this episode, both in visual and audio forms, is penned by Desmond Saunders and David Graham. I’m amazed David Graham got to co-write a ‘Thunderbirds’ episode that was originally an audio play. Had more ‘Thunderbirds’ TV seasons been made, David could have been a prolific writer.

It was fun to see Thunderbird 2 lowering onto Pod 2 for the mission to rescue Lady Penelope and Parker from the Himalayas. As far as I’m concerned, Pod 2 had never been used in the ‘Thunderbirds’ TV series. I’m curious as to what rescue equipment would have been included in Pod 2.

Sylvia Anderson provides the voice of Lady Penelope whilst David Graham provides the voice of Parker. Ray Barrett voices John Tracy as well as the Hood in the episode. Peter Dyneley voices Jeff Tracy, Shane Rimmer voices Scott and David Holliday voices Virgil. Alan also appears in this episode!

Sadly Alan doesn’t speak and he isn’t voiced by Matt Zimmerman here. We don’t get to see Tin-Tin either. I’ve picked up a number of lines said by main characters and a number of shots in the episode are taken from various Season 1 episodes. This is to make the episode much less like an audio play. 🙂

‘The Abominable Snowman’ rating – 8/10