- "Piece of cake!"
Alan Tracy is a character from the Thunderbirds Are Go! television series. He is the pilot of Thunderbird 3, and astronaut for International Rescue. He is the youngest of Jeff Tracy's sons and is the younger brother of Scott, John, Virgil and Gordon as well as the adoptive brother of Kayo and the youngest grandson of Grandma Tracy.
Personality and Traits
"A typical teenager, Alan Tracy is the youngest member of the Tracy family. With naturally gifted piloting abilities, along with incredible focus and reflexes, he's enthusiastic and loves his job helping people."
As the youngest member of the Tracy family and of International Rescue, Alan is the most enthusiastic, expressive and excitable member of the team and is also the one who also gains the most experience throughout the series.
As a lover of all things action he loves to show how brave and useful he thinks he can be to his brothers in any given situation, even if it is something that is a little bit more than he can handle on his own. There are times where he dislikes being the youngest and being left out of missions (Runaway) but also knows that he doesn’t have enough experience to be completely self reliant when cut off from his brothers - even when he has the intelligence and creative thinking to get him out of most problematic situations, like giving Thunderbird 3 an extra push towards earth from being on the wrong side of the sun (Slingshot), or using the pressure of the geysers on Europa to break through to the surface of the ice in Thunderbird 4 (Deep Search).
Alan gets excited when on missions and occasionally that over-enthusiasm can cause a few annoyances, mostly for Scott or Kayo who have sat co-pilot with him on a number of occasions, however Gordon had reversed that trend by annoying him with endless episodes of his favorite TV show and Alan has even crippled his craft just for Virgil to plant a bomb into an asteroid heading towards the earth (Impact). He comes to the rescue of John on two occasions, firstly to save his brother and retake control of Thunderbird 5 from an artificial intelligence (EOS) and when Scott lost contact with him while on board EDEN, Alan helped him steer the broken Exo-suit in their attempt to escape the generational ship being torn apart (Ghost Ship).
He does have a tendency to sleep on his feet (Heist Society) or on the floor if the opportunity presents itself, he enjoys playing video games and pillow fights with his siblings (Slingshot, Earthbreaker) but his real passion is helping his brothers rescue people in need. He is a lover of all things space, like flying to the moon when they had to rescue Captain Lee Taylor (Relic), being able to fly within the tail of Halley's comet (Comet Chasers), helped a Martian space colony reach Mars (Colony) and even come into contact with an alien life form on the moon of Jupiter - a mission that he was given full responsibility for over one of his other siblings (Deep Search).
Despite complaining he doesn’t get to take Thunderbird 3 out enough (Space Race) Alan is the only member of the Tracy family to ever drive/fly FAB 1, an extremely rare privilege that even Scott himself admitted he’s never done before (Designated Driver).
Notable Episodes
- Main article: /Missions
Alan may not have as many solo missions like his other siblings, however there are a few episodes where Alan really gets to show that despite being young for his age - his is every bit as competent as a member of International Rescue as his brothers are.
Space Race
Alan is doing clean up duty in space, collecting a lot of floating debris to prevent it becoming a hazard until he accidentally collects a stealth mine left over from the global conflict of 2040. The mine becomes activated and Alan must keep it distracted with Thunderbird 3 so it doesn't blow up any of the large space ships in orbit around the earth.
Slingshot
Alan and Kayo are sent out to save Ned Tedford from the Golvanna Mine which is located on an asteroid near the sun. After over shooting the asteroid from being hit solar flare and wasting a lot of their fuel, Alan comes up with an ingenious way to move the asteroid around the sun and to launch Thunderbird 3 back in the right direction back towards earth.
Designated Driver
Parker is teaching Alan to drive FAB 0 when some thieves break into the Creighton-Ward Manor and after Parker injures his arm, Alan must try and stop the thieves who also have no idea how to drive when they try to make a getaway with Lady Penelope and her Great Aunt Sylvia.
Gallery
Trivia
- Alan is too young to remember the stories that his father and Captain Taylor use to tell about life on the Moon while his brothers (and possibly Kayo) would remember. This is evident when Alan asks what Taylor's story was while he and Scott were on their way to the Moonbase in Relic. Scott and John - via hologram - explain that they had some pretty wild adventures in their time and that Taylor's stories were more exaggerated than those of their father.
- It appears that Alan follows Jeff's footsteps more than the rest of his brothers. It is mentioned by Grandma in Relic that it was Jeff's dream to be an astronaut. Alan is one of two current International Rescue astronauts (as Jeff is missing in action), however Alan is more interested in space travel and exploration than his brother John.
- It is unexplained as to why Alan knows how to fly a spaceship and not how to drive. Flying is shown to be easier for Alan in Designated Driver when Parker is giving lessons and is able to control FAB 0 in mid air without complications.
- Much like with Captain Taylor's stories, Alan is too young to remember the TV-21, the original Thunderbird that Brains constructed as prototype to Thunderbird 1. This is apparent when the rest of his brothers and Brains gasp in awe when they see that the TV-21 has been found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He then questions them but doesn't get a straight answer at first. Scott then explains to him about the TV-21 and how it was the 'original' Thunderbird and how it was considered a precursor to Thunderbird 1 before The Hood sabotaged it.
Foreign Names
- Japanese: アラン・トレーシー
- Chinese: 艾倫·崔西