"Unplugged" is the sixth episode of Thunderbirds Are Go!, and was broadcast on Saturday May 2nd 2015.
Plot
The episode opens with Thunderbird 2, with Virgil and Grandma Tracy on board, lifting off from Tracy Island for London. As it approaches Lady Penelope's rendezvous point, the ship’s systems shut down along with all the power in London below. Virgil is forced to make an incredibly violent emergency landing at a side street. As they disembark, Virgil guesses that it was a sustained EMF (electromagnetic frequency) generator knocking out electrical power before they hear a woman cry for help from a nearby crane. Virgil climbs to the top and tries to get the woman out but to no avail due to the door’s electronic controls. He asks her to release the crane's load but she explains that he has to do it manually by climbing across the boom and down to the coupling. Virgil manages to drop the load by giving the coupling an "old fashioned whack" from his ion wrench. The crane starts to fall but Virgil manages to jump to the coupling of another crane before the other one crashes to the ground. As he lowers himself onto the road, he admits that life in 2060 wasn’t equipped without electricity and why he can’t stop any of the power loss. After Grandma comforts him, they find a strange poster made of real old fashioned paper.
Meanwhile, Lady Penelope and Parker find the same paper, which Parker hasn't seen since his school days and Penelope reads the message "We the Luddites demand a world without technology, a world without power. We will return to the better ways of the past." They discover two Luddites and manage to knock them out and steal their hoods and masks before another Luddite says that they got to meet up with his comrades. Back at Thunderbird 2's crash site, Virgil thinks that the Luddites' EMF is near the center of London. Grandma says that they should use her map and compass, due to its magnetic affection by the EMF. Elsewhere, Parker thinks the Luddites did the "Old Lights Out Trick", a trick from his misspent youth: If there was a high tech lock the Luddites couldn’t crack they cut the power and shut down the security system.
When Virgil and Grandma follow the compass to a dead end alley, they take the London Underground. Virgil takes out a glow stick which works on a chemical reaction before his stomach rumbles. Grandma thinks she brought one of her cookies but Virgil objects her advice. After she says that the London Underground is the oldest subway system, she explains that her compass belonged to Virgil's grandpa, who had old fashioned determination and heroism. After they discover some Luddites, Virgil's stomach rumbles again but the Luddites think it was a rat before they move on. Grandma and Virgil find the EMF generator before Grandma worries about the Luddites near it.
Parker and Lady Penelope meet up with the rest of the Luddites and Penelope explains that this is the Codex Vault, a location her father brought her once. The vault is where they keep the Universal Grid Codex, a code that gives its user control of the world's power, and the Luddites want to use it to create a worldwide blackout. It turns out the Luddites are led by the Hood. They manage to open the vault and retrieve the Codex but the Hood betrays them: he intends to use the Codex to keep the lights on for a very steep price. Grandma manages to lure the Luddites guarding the EMF away from it before Virgil whacks it, causing it to crash to the floor and restoring power to London. As the vault door closes, the Hood uses a device to blind the Luddites before he escapes, pursued by Lady Penelope before the door shuts.
Virgil and Grandma rush back to Thunderbird 2 and retrieve Virgil's power suit as the Hood’s ship takes off. Virgil decides to save the crane operator rather than go after the Hood and retrieves her with his suit and they escape before the collapsed structure crashes onto the road. Back at the Codex vault, Lady Penelope contacts the Prime Minister to open the vault. When the vault is opened and the Luddites are arrested, Parker reveals that he switched the Codex for a flashlight when the Hood escaped, another trick from his misspent youth. Back at Creighton Ward Manor, Penelope congratulates Grandma and Virgil but Grandma says that she can actually congratulate Virgil. She offers him her compass and says that in a time of crisis, he can look at it and it will remind him which way to go. When Virgil says he doesn't know what to say, Grandma says to wait until his mouth isn’t full referring to one time when she was proud and he spat cookie crumbs over the couch.
Cast
Regular Cast
- Virgil Tracy: David Menkin
- Grandma Tracy: Sandra Dickinson
- Lady Penelope: Rosamund Pike
- Parker: David Graham
- The Hood: Andres Williams
Guest Cast
Crew
- Note: the following section is large. As such, it is hidden by default.
- Voice director: Dave Peacock
- Original dialogue record: Simon Capes, Soho Squares Studios
- Miniatures: WETA Workshop
- Design & miniature FX supervisor: Richard Taylor
- Lead model maker: Steven Saunders
- Workshop supervisor: Rob Gillies
- Production co-ordinator: Holly Beals
- Model makers: Sofia Pedersen, Mona Peters, David Duke, Joaquin Loyzaga, Laura Marie King, Abigail Smith, Masayuki Ohashi, Pietro Marson, Sourisak Chanpaseuth, Kim McAuslan
- Director of photography: Simon Godsiff
- 1st assistant director: Robin Wilson
- Production manager: Sadie Wilson
- Gaffer: Simon Oliver
- 1st assistant camera: Charles Edwards
- Key grip: Jan Kleinheins
- On set model technicians: Rob Chesney, Ben Fairless
- Lighting equipment: Portsmouth Lighting, NZFX SFX Equipment
- Catering: Deborah Logan
- Production designer: Ben Milsom
- Designer, Thunderbird Shadow: Shoji Kawamori
- Lead concept artist: Christian Pearce
- Concept artists: Aaron Beck, Gus Hunter, Rebekah Tisch
- Head of design: Richard Athorne
- Design studio co-ordinators: Tasha Guillot, Catherine Mitchell
- Asset supervisor: Sven Trotter
- CG modellers: Ben Hutchinson, Tom Robinson, Ben Picking, Che Thorpe
- 3D story supervisor: Tim Gaul
- Lead 3D story artists: Martin Haughey, Andrew McCully
- Matchmove: James Donald, Luke Swasbrook
- 3D story: Jason Campbell, Eduardo Gutierrez, Rhys Hanan, Nagaraju Kasama, Kai Ma, Yohann Misst, Ben van de Laar, Robin Wilson-Davey
CGCG
- Head of production: Sareana Sun
- Production executives: Ivan C, Alen Fang, Andy Tsao
- Line producer: Diana Chen
- Production team: Sean Li, Lara Lin, Jing Zhang, Tsung-Hsein Tsai, Bernie Huang, Pang Sy, Joseph Cheung, Yao-Cheng Wang, Heyifang, Tan Tao, Xu Ding, Shiwei Yang
End CGCG
- Editor: Anthony Cox
- Assistant editors: Louise Pattinson, Adam Reynolds
- 3D artist: Rhys Clapcott
- Software engineer: Mike King
- Animation supervisor: Chad Moffitt
- CG supervisor: Andrew Harris, Park Road Post Production
- Data wranglers: Joyce Kamille Cristal, Wattana Moeung, Clare Brody
- Casting: Peacock Sound
- VFX line producer: Malcolm Angell
- Production co-ordinator: Sophie Gregory
- Production assistants: Brittany Connell, Jordan Harding
- Production secretary: Christine Healy
- Production runner: Nate Hinde
- Script co-ordinator: Patrick Rieger
- Post production co-ordinator: Dee Collier
- Legal and business affairs: Sally Perry, Sarah Cull
- Production accountants: Emily Stafford, Karen Kong
- Special advisor, International Rescue: David Tremont
- Branding and title design: ITV Creative
- Compositing: Milk VFX
- Online editor: Simon Brook
- Colourist: Paul Staples
- Picture post production: Encore London
- Sound effects editor: Darren Banks
- ADR recordists: Alexander Fielding, Oliver Brierley
- Foley engineer: Keith Partridge
- Mix technician: Kiran Marshall
- Audio post production: Jules Zabbar
- Music composed by: Ben Foster, Nick Foster
- Original theme: Barry Gray
- Sound designer & re-recording mixer: Nigel Heath
- Audio post-production: Hackenbacker
- Producers: Sharon Lark, Stuart McAra
- Line & consulting animation producer: Teresa Reed
- CITV commissioning editor: Jamila Metran
- Executive producers: Estelle Hughes, Giles Ridge, Andrew Smith, Richard Taylor
- Based on the original series by: Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
Quotes
(under construction)
Equipment Used
- Thunderbird 2 (Module 3)
- FAB 1
- Jaws Of Life
- Ion Wrench
Non-International Rescue Equipment Used
- The Hubship
- Universal Grid Codex
- Electromagnetic Frequency Device
Gallery
Trivia
- This is the first episode not to feature either John or Scott.
- The EMF generator is the Stealth Mine from Space Race, but with blue lights instead of red.
- This is the first episode where Grandma Tracy assists in a rescue.
Goofs
- Parker says he hasn't seen paper since he was a schoolboy, but he handled a paper note written by the Hood in Ring of Fire: Part 1. He was also surrounded by paper when he broke into the London Archive in Space Race.
- Virgil's neck protection appears and disappears in between shots.
- When Thunderbird 2 can be seen behind Grandma in one of the scenes, the 'D' and '2' are missing on Thunderbird 2's body.
Foreign titles
- Dutch: Stroomloos (De-energized)
- French: Déconnecté (Offline)
- Spanish: Desconectado (Disconnected)
- Japanese: ロンドン大停電 (London Blackout)