Colony

ColonySeason 2, Episode 5
Air date	November 12, 2016 (ITV) December 4, 2016 (AUS)
Written by	Patrick Rieger
Directed by	David Scott
Episode Guide
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next	Up from the Depths Part 1

Colony is the fifth episode of the second season of Thunderbirds Are Go!, and was broadcast on Saturday November 12, 2016.

Plot

Kayo finds Captain Lee Taylor, whom International Rescue need to help a space vehicle, the Helius, transporting colonists to Mars. A proton storm cause a systems malfunction and the ship overshoots Mars and heads straight for the asteroid belt. Thunderbird 3 launches with Alan, Scott and Taylor and a POD to fend off the asteroids. When trying to avoid a large asteroid the Helius is damaged and International Rescue must try and find a way to land the ship on Mars, even though it was only designed to orbit the planet.

Cast

Regular Cast

• Scott Tracy, Alan Tracy: Rasmus Hardiker
• John Tracy: Thomas Brodie-Sangster
• Kayo: Angel Coulby
• Brains: Kayvan Novak
• Captain Lee Taylor: Rich Hall

Guest Cast

• Dr. Travers: Alex Kelly
• Paul Travers: Reece Pockney
• Colony Dad: Chris Jarman
• Colony Daughter: Helena Hansen

Quotes

Kayo: "It's Kayo. And I wish you'd find less dangerous ways to spend your retirement."

John: "The Helius is a Transport ship designed to reach Mars and send landing pods to the life support systems on the surface. Dozens of families are on board and would be the first to actually live on the planet."

Alan: "Unless you count all the aliens!"

John: "Ignore him."

Taylor: "Like you boys say, Thunderbirds are off! Wait that's not it, Thunderbirds have left the building! Thunderbirds are, eh-"

Alan: "Go?"

Taylor: "That's the one."

Scott: "Settle in, everyone, even with our enhanced engine power we got a long flight ahead of us.

Alan: "No problem, I've got hours of alien footage to pass the time!"

Scott: "A really 'long' flight."

Scott: "You and Dad were the first team to land there."

Taylor: "Nearly didn't. Dust storm almost made us call off the descent, but we took the risk and went anyway. Jeff said humanity never got anywhere taking it easy, I've always remembered that. Gordon here should take it to heart every time he pilots Thunderbird 3."

Alan: "Uh.. I'm Alan, sir. Gordon's in Thunderbird 4."

Taylor: "Right.. maybe I better pull up that chart."

Scott: "Head in and make contact with the passengers."

Taylor: "Will do, Virgil."

Scott: "It's Scott, sir - never mind."

International Rescue Equipment Used

• Thunderbird 3
• Thunderbird 5
• Thunderbird Shadow
• Pod Explorer

Non International Rescue Equipment Used

• Helius

Gallery

Kayo is looking for Captain Taylor

"You're a hard man to find, Captain Taylor"

"I wish you'd find less dangerous ways to spend your retirement."

"That's the distance from Earth to Mars"

The Helius

"Dozens of family's are on board and would be the first to actually live on the planet."

"Unless you count all the aliens!"

"Ignore him."

"We received an emergency message from Dr Sandra Travis, the Helius mission director"

"An unexpected proton storm has crippled our ship's controls, engines won't shut off, none of the systems are responding correctly"

"Don't you have Brian to do that?"

"Yes, they do. But although the transponder is working, their other communications are down"

"My attempts at trouble-shooting remotely have failed, not to mention space travel makes me rather queasy"

"Those were the days"

"Like you boys say, Thunderbirds are off! Wait that's not it, Thunderbirds have left the building! Thunderbirds are-"

"Go?"
"That's the one."

"I've got hours of alien footage to pass the time"

"I made some Thunderbird 3 modifications for you to review as well. There are improvements to the heat shield, enhanced bomb defences"

"Oh, and, Captain, there's even a handy chart that lists all our names and vehicles.. just in case"

"Thunderbird 5 to Thunderbird 3. I'm reading no changes to the Helius's trajectory"

"By the time you arrive, the Helius will be deep inside the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter"

One of the families inside of the Helius

"Attention all hands, International Rescue has received our distress call"

The families begin to make their way to the emergency bay on the ship

"What do you think, Captain? Do any of these aliens look familiar?"

"I hate to break it to you kid, but nothing was there when Jeff and I explored the surface"

"On your left: planet Mars. Just like I remember it"

"Took us months to get out here the first time. Jeff and I didn't have fancy ion engines back in those days"

"Jeff said humanity never got anywhere taking it easy, I've always remembered that"

"Alan, match speed with the Helius"

The family hear a noise along side the ship

"See, Dad? I told you!"

"Now for the fun part.. getting to the other side"

Scott aims a grapple at the Helius

Scott makes sure it's secure before handing the grapple over the Captain

Scott is setting up a pod

Scott flies in front of the Helius in the space pod

Captain Taylor makes his way through the inside of the Helius

"Just me kid. Well, me and International Rescue"

Paul takes Taylor to the emergency bay where the other families are

"I've got an important job for you two. Make sure everyone stays here and straps in tight, can you handle that?"
"Yes, sir!"

Scott fires a laser at the incoming debris to clear the asteroids

"Remind me to thank Brains for this"
"OK, Scott? Remember to thank Brains"
"Very funny Thunderbird 3"

"So Captain Taylor's on board, you're blasting asteroids and I'm just sitting here!"

"Any other ideas?"
"Actually yes. There might be another way to help guide the Helius"

"I'm coming to the front"
"Be my guest, Thunderbird 3"

Thunderbird 3 flies around the front of the Helius

Alan uses Thunderbird 3's engines on at a time to control the Helius through the debris

Captain Taylor makes it to the control room

Taylor starts re-wiring the systems and taking them out of standby which was caused by the proton storm

"About that... We've got a big, rocky problem up ahead"

Taylor gets the engines working on the Helius and is able, with TB3's help, to steer around the large asteroid, only to clip it on passing

"Glad to have you back, Pod Explorer. Remind me to thank you some time"
"Sure thing. Hey, Alan?"
"Later, Scott"

"Sorry to spoil the mood, but the landing pods are gone and I'm reading heavy damage to your oxygen tanks"

"John said there were life-support systems waiting for you on Mars, right? That means we just need to land the Helius on the surface"

Brains explains how Alan can use the heat shields for Thunderbird 3 to protect the Helius's decent to the planet

Scott docks with the Helius before they attempt to land to Mars

The Helius is using TB3's heat shielding as it heads for the planet

TB 3 is forced to break off from protecting the Heluis as it begins to crashland

The Helius crashes down on the surface of Mars, breaking apart

Alan's worried about everyone on board and if they survived the crash

The emergency bay opens up to revel the plant's surface

The colonists start heading over towards the Mars base in which they will be living

The Mars colony base

A monument of Jeff Tracy's foot print as the first person to land on Mars

"Thanks to you boys it's the home of a shiny new Martian colony"

"Pretty cool, huh? I was still kinda hoping for aliens"
"I'm just glad this mission is complete"

TB3 leaves the surface of Mars

Trivia

• Colony features a character called Paul Travers, who is named after the Zero-X captain of the same name.
• When Kayo first encounters Captain Taylor, he has difficulty remembering her name, trying "Tina... Tiny...?" These are nods to Kayo's earlier counterparts, Tin-Tin Kyrano and Tintin.
• When going down into Thunderbird 3's hangar Alan is sitting on the right hand side (screen left) instead of the left but still comes out in the pilot seat position.
• This marks the second occasion that one of Thunderbird 3's Pods have been destroyed, the first being Comet Chasers and the fourth time a pod has been destroyed in the entire series.
• There is a continuity error involving the talk about aliens, Lee Taylor tells Alan that he's never seen any and it's dismissed as there being no such thing in existence, however in Deep Search earlier in the season, Alan and Gordon come into contact with an alien life form while in Thunderbird 4 on Europa. It is possible that this episode was intended to be broadcast before Deep Search.
• Similarly, it took Alan and Gordon what's implied to be weeks to get from Earth to Jupiter, with Gordon watching episode after episode, and season after season of Buddy and Ellie's show, "Into the Unknown." It takes Alan, Scott and Capt. Taylor very little time to get to Mars, and then the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It's possible Mars was relatively close to Earth in its orbit compared to Jupiter, but that would mean Buddy and Ellie's journey was rather poorly planned.
• In Slingshot, Thunderbird 3 was regarded as incapable of getting back home due to fuel expenditure as a result of a heavy braking maneuver and having overshot the target. This time, Thunderbird 3 slows down and steers the entire Helius spacecraft, and acts as its heat-shield, with no concerns about fuel for the return home.
• Although uncredited, Angel Coulby (Kayo) voices Colony Mother.
• Colony Father, voiced by Chris Jarman (The Mechanic) shares a CG rig with Ethan Sullivan from the preceding episode.
• The Mars colony is later revisited in Life Signs.