Thunderbirds Are Go! Goes to Air in Taiwan

The rebooted series of the Thunderbirds – Thunderbirds Are Go!, will begin airing on PTS Taiwan starting Wednesday September 14. The show will air Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 6:00pm.

Taipei City will feature in Episode 2, when the city is threatened after a solar-collector dish is knocked askew by an earthquake. The solar collector is positioned so that at sunrise it will reflect a concentrated beam of light on the city, burning it to the ground.

The original Thunderbirds was a British science fiction series produced from 1964 to 1966 using electronic puppetry. The new series is a joint British-New Zealand production which uses scale-model sets and CGI characters. The CGI is handled by Taiwan company CGCG.

The original series first aired in Taiwan in 1967 and caused a sensation. The use of puppetry was particularly appealing in a culture where puppets were a popular form of entertainment. While Taiwanese puppet shows were rooted in tradition, and featured historical characters and settings, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s ‘supermarionation’ sent puppets into the future, and even into space.

Taiwan English News is an independent publication with no corporate funding. If you found this article informative, and would like to support my work, please buy me a coffee or support me on Patreon. Subscribe to Taiwan English News for free to receive the latest news via email. Advertising queries are welcome. Share, like, comment below.