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"I fail to see why you're still laughing, Virgil. I just don't like mice, that's all."
— Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward

"The Mighty Atom" is the fourteenth episode of Thunderbirds season 1, first broadcast on 30th December 1965.

Plot[]

A year after the Hood's first attempt to steal the secrets of an Australian nuclear power plant ended in disaster, he's ready for another go - but, this time, with a very different, and utterly unorthodox, approach...

Having stolen a new anti-espionage device called the "Mighty Atom" - cleverly disguised as an ordinary-looking mouse - he uses the high-tech little creature's photographic acumen to secure detailed images of an atomic plant in the Sahara Desert.

Flushed with his new success, he decides to take his nefarious plans one big step further - by deliberately sabotaging the installation, to lure out International Rescue...

Storyline[]

Main article: The Mighty Atom/Storyline

Transcript[]

Main article: The Mighty Atom/Transcript

Cast[]

Regular Characters[]

Guest Characters[]

Cameo Roles[]

Crowd Scenes[]

International Rescue Equipment Used[]

Non-International Rescue Equipment Used[]

Locations[]

Trivia[]

  • The Mighty Atom is noteworthy for being the only series episode in which all five Thunderbirds craft appear (excluding the feature films).
  • It's also the only episode in which all of the series' major characters appear (the Tracy (7) and Kyrano families (3, including The Hood), plus Brains, Penelope and Parker - 13, in all!).
  • Originally a half-hour episode filmed in late 1964, it was extended in mid-1965.
  • For subsequent 'cliffhanger' formats broadcast in some countries, the first installment ends with The Hood gloating in his temple that the secrets of the world will soon be his.
  • The Target Carrying Aircraft first seen in Trapped in the Sky returns, and is used by the Australian Atomic Station workers to escape from the nuclear explosion at the start of the episode.
  • The Conference Hall's exterior set makes an appearance, and would go on to be reused in Cry Wolf, The Impostors, and Ricochet as entirely different buildings.
Coventry-paper-TMA

Coventry Evening Telegraph (Sample front page).

  • The newspapers seen rolling off the presses after the radioactive cloud is blown away are actually copies of the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
  • Not only one the very few times Thunderbird 2 is seen flying without a pod; this is the only series episode in which Thunderbird 2 lands without a pod.
  • At the meeting with Professor Holden, The Hood has assumed the guise of one 'Professor Langley'.
  • This is the only episode where the first line of text ("The") is in a smaller font size than the next line of text ("Mighty Atom").
  • First out of Three episode plot that features Australia.

Goofs[]

  • An Edition of the Melbourne Herald newspaper can be seen in this episode, and appears to be dated Friday, December 24, 1964. Yet Thunderbirds is supposed to be set in the 21st Century (2026 or 2065 depending on who you believe). This date is also seen on newspapers which appear in the episodes Edge Of Impact, The Impostors and Cry Wolf. Moreover, to compound the error, December 24th, 1964 was actually a Thursday, not a Friday.
  • The Mighty Atom supposedly only takes pictures of human faces, yet we see it taking photos of the machinery in the Saharan Plant when no one is in the room.
  • The Mighty Atom is brown, but changes to grey in close-ups.
  • When the reactor's guard spots the Hood taking pictures, he is already heard blowing his whistle before he has finished saying "Hey, what are you doing?"
  • When Scott and Virgil are pushing the reactor rods back into place, Virgil says "that's better" without moving his lips.
  • Scott's mobile control centre inside the Atomic Station isn't the correct equipment; it is actually the radio safety beam transmission console from Thunderbird 3 which Tin-Tin had used in Sun Probe.
  • Inside his temple, the Hood opens up to the curtains to Kyrano's statue twice for no apparent reason. Likewise, in one shot, his eyes light up for no apparent reason.
  • The Mighty Atom should not actually have taken so many photos of Lady Penelope, as its safety factor would have caused it to run away and hide at the very moment she saw it.

Foreign Titles[]

  • French: Sabotage à l'usine atomique
  • German: Die Supermaus
  • Spanish: El poderoso átomo; El átomo poderoso (DVD)
  • Italian: Nube sull'Australia
  • Dutch: De geheime foto's (TV) De machtige atoom (VHS, DVD)
  • Portuguese: O Átomo Poderoso
  • Japanese: 原子炉の危機

References[]

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