- "We have our first emergency call..."
He's the quiet one, usually; but, when he speaks - look out. There's an emergency, somewhere in the world; and the appeal has gone out: "Calling International Rescue..."
Answering that call for help - from aboard Thunderbird 5, IR's orbital listening post - is space monitor John Tracy, the third (or second?) of Jeff Tracy's five sons.
John's signature colour on his IR uniform is lilac.
Biography[]
John was named by his parents after Mercury 7 astronaut John Glenn.
He was educated at Harvard and decided to follow in his father's footsteps of becoming an astronaut, before joining International Rescue.
As space monitor aboard TB5, John has the most important task of relaying received calls for help back down to IR headquarters at Tracy Island, on Earth. As IR's "gatekeeper," he can expect to hear just about anything - from lost boys, to secret agents, and even (wait for it) giant alligators!
John is also very fond of astronomy, and has had several textbooks that he's written and published. With the aid of TB 5's state-of-the-art telescope, he actively observes and photographs the heavens...and his incessant space-searching led to the discovery of the Tracy quasar system.
Personality & Traits[]
John is the quietest and most intellectual of Jeff's sons, slighter in build than his older brothers Scott and Virgil and younger brothers Gordon and Alan. He is also tremendously lithe, sharp-minded, has a lot of mental energy, and is graceful. He's all as desirous of action as his brothers - and sometimes gets frustrated with his duties aboard TB5, because he's unable to take part in as many rescue missions as they do. While John may appear to act over-enthusiastically when dealing with emergencies ("Wow-wee, that's serious!"), he's very quick at assessing a situation, proving invaluable when dealing with distress calls. However, when required to, John can successfully pull off a rescue just as well as the others can, showing that he is a very versatile member of the team.
Outfits[]
- Main article: John Tracy/Outfits
Appearances and Mission[]
- Main article: John Tracy/Missions
Although John is the primary space monitor aboard Thunderbird 5, he regularly changes shifts with Alan (and, occasionally, with Scott) every other month.
While home on leave, on Tracy Island, John is available to take part in rescue missions on Earth - as he does in Danger At Ocean Deep, where he and Virgil team up with Scott for the crew rescue from the stricken tanker Ocean Pioneer II.
John appears in twenty-four TV episodes: Trapped in the Sky, Pit of Peril, City of Fire, The Uninvited, Vault Of Death, The Mighty Atom, Operation Crash-Dive, Martian Invasion, Brink of Disaster, End Of The Road, Day of Disaster, Desperate Intruder, 30 Minutes After Noon, The Impostors, The Man From MI.5, Cry Wolf, Danger At Ocean Deep, The Duchess Assignment, Attack of the Alligators!, The Cham-Cham, Atlantic Inferno, Path Of Destruction, Ricochet, and Give or Take a Million.
John appears in both feature-films, Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6.
He also appears (via updated archival footage) in The Abominable Snowman as part of The Anniversary Episodes.
Expressions[]
Trivia[]
- John's facial features are based on those of actor Charlton Heston and pop star Adam Faith.
- He was sculpted by Mary Turner, who also did Lady Penelope, Brains and John's brother, Gordon.
- Initially, John was to be the hero of the show - but co-creator Gerry Anderson failed to find any warmth in the character's face and didn't particularly like the voice, so he had him confined to Thunderbird 5 (so much so, that when Alan had to relieve him in The Uninvited, John wasn't seen alongside Scott on the settee which came out Thunderbird 3, and reappeared in the Tracy Villa lounge).
- John is the second/third-eldest (after Scott).
- Compared to his brothers, John seems to be the least-experienced at being directly involved in rescues, even though he and Alan (and Scott, albeit never seen on-screen) swap shifts aboard TB5 on a regular basis. This could well be coincidental, in that not many rescues were needed with him during his time home on Earth. However, it's more down to the fact that Gerry Anderson didn't include him in many of the rescues. His only on-screen rescue was Danger At Ocean Deep.
- Surprisingly, John is never seen talking to his brother, Gordon!
- That said (pun intended), though, it may be rather safely assumed that the two brothers do converse (albeit out of our view!) during Gordon's stay-over aboard TB5, lending John an extra pair of helping hands with station maintenance, during the second-season episode Ricochet.
.png "John (City of Fire).png (2.15 MB)")
Quotes[]
- "That's just what you might get." - Trapped in the Sky
- "Less than two hours to go, then, back to Earth! I can't wait to dive into that pool. Sure gets lonely up here. It's so quiet. Still, not much longer now." - City of Fire
- "Well, I think I'd rather I'd have a dirty old bar of gold!" - Desperate Intruder
- "Giant alligators!?" - Attack of the Alligators!
- "Go ahead...Tracy. This is International Rescue...Is anyone with you?" - Brink of Disaster
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