The Best Episodes of Thunderbirds
Every episode of Thunderbirds ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Thunderbirds!
Thunderbirds is a 1960s British science-fiction television series which was produced using a mixed method of marionette puppetry and scale-model special effects termed "Supermarionation". The series is set in the 21st century and follows the exploits of International Rescue, a secret organization formed to save people in mortal danger with the help of technologically advanced land, sea, air and space vehicles and equipment, launched from a hidden base on Tracy Island in the South Pacific Ocean.
Top Episode Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Thunderbirds" is "Trapped in the Sky", rated 8.1/10 from 302 user votes. It was directed by Alan Pattillo and written by Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson. "Trapped in the Sky" aired on 9/30/1965 and is rated 0.2 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "Terror in New York City".
8.1/10 302 votes#1 - Trapped in the Sky
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/30/1965
The Fireflash, on its maiden flight from London to Tokyo, is sabotaged by the Hood, a criminal who has learned of the formation of International Rescue, and is unable to land. The Hood's attack is intended to draw out International Rescue so he can record secrets of its machinery for sale to the highest bidder, an attempt thwarted by the intervention of the organization's London Agent.
Director: Alan Pattillo
Writer: Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson
7.9/10 210 votes#2 - Terror in New York City
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/21/1965
While returning from a mission, Thunderbird 2 is seriously damaged when it comes under attack from a new, high-speed U.S. Navy strike vessel, the U.S.N. Sentinel. After an operation to move the Empire State Building disastrously ends in the tower's complete collapse, Jeff asks that Thunderbird 4 be transported onboard the same ship to the mouth of an underground river to reach a reporter and his cameraman who are trapped beneath the wreckage.
Director: David Elliott, David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.6/10 195 votes#3 - The Perils of Penelope
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/14/1965
Lady Penelope goes on the trail of a kidnapped scientist, only to find herself in mortal danger at the hands of a megalomaniac determined to exploit the expert's work to his advantage.
Director: Desmond Saunders, Alan Pattillo
Writer: Alan Pattillo
7.6/10 161 votes#4 - Attack of the Alligators!
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 3/10/1966
When a new growth hormone is accidentally released into a South American river, a house is besieged by alligators – now many times their normal size. International Rescue must subdue the reptiles and save the house's occupants.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Pattillo
7.5/10 173 votes#5 - The Uninvited
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/2/1965
While returning to base, Scott is attacked by mysterious fighter aircraft and shot down over the Sahara. He is discovered by two archaeologists, who send him on his way, only to find themselves entombed within the lost Pyramid of Khamandides.
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.5/10 179 votes#6 - Sun Probe
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/9/1965
The Sun Probe rocket and its crew are locked in a collision course with the Sun, prompting the launching of Thunderbird 3 – but International Rescue itself requires saving when Thunderbird 3 is unable to escape the Sun's gravitational pull.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.5/10 133 votes#7 - Atlantic Inferno
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/1966
World Navy tests of a nuclear torpedo inadvertently threaten the offshore rig Seascape. Jeff, having been invited by Lady Penelope to join her on holiday in Australia, places Scott in charge of International Rescue, with Alan substituting for Scott at the helm of Thunderbird 1. Jeff though is angered when Scott launches a rescue effort to the mid-ocean rig.
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.4/10 221 votes#8 - Pit of Peril
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/7/1965
A 500-ton U.S. Army walker, Sidewinder, falls into a pit during testing and International Rescue are called to save the crew trapped inside.
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.4/10 154 votes#9 - Operation Crash-Dive
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/16/1965
A series of unexplained Fireflash airliner disappearances sees Thunderbird 4 being called to rescue a crew stranded on the ocean floor. International Rescue then volunteer its services in helping to diagnose the cause of the mechanical fault.
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Martin Crump
7.4/10 159 votes#10 - Vault of Death
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/23/1965
During the installation of a new, airtight security vault at the Bank of England, one of the employees is accidentally locked inside, and International Rescue must come to his rescue before the air is extracted.
Director: David Elliott
Writer: Dennis Spooner
7.4/10 141 votes#11 - The Man from M.I.5
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/20/1966
A criminal organisation steals classified plans. Working in conjunction with a British Secret Service agent, Lady Penelope must recover the material to save the world from total destruction.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.3/10 139 votes#12 - Brink of Disaster
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/24/1966
An unscrupulous investor attempts to recruit Lady Penelope into funding his automated, cross-country monorail building project. Jeff volunteers to ride the prototype, but he, Brains, and Tin-Tin find themselves trapped onboard, and with no possibility of escape, when it is discovered that the monorail train is speeding towards a stricken bridge.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.3/10 137 votes#13 - The Cham-Cham
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/24/1966
When aircraft are shot down during live broadcasts of a hit song, International Rescue suspects foul play. Tin-Tin and Lady Penelope (posing as the singer Wanda Lamour) investigate, but are left in mortal danger when a ski lift is sabotaged and speeds out of control down a mammoth mountain slide in the Alps.
Director: Alan Pattillo
Writer: Alan Pattillo
7.2/10 171 votes#14 - Day of Disaster
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/4/1965
The Allington Bridge collapses while a space rocket is being transported over it, trapping the rocket on the riverbed and inadvertently initiating its automatic countdown. International Rescue is called upon to save the crew before the rocket launches.
Director: David Elliott
Writer: Dennis Spooner
7.2/10 168 votes#15 - 30 Minutes After Noon
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1965
The Erdman Gang has developed an ingenious technique of having their work carried out – an explosive bracelet that can be removed only at the designated target. A secret agent's attempt to infiltrate the organisation backfires as he is left trapped in a plutonium store. International Rescue face a race against time to prevent a massive nuclear explosion.
Director: David Elliott
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.2/10 135 votes#16 - The Imposters
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/13/1966
A gang of criminals masquerade as International Rescue to conceal their theft of top-secret military plans. The ensuing worldwide manhunt for International Rescue leaves the organisation powerless to operate in a rescue situation until its name is vindicated, just as a member of a manned reconnaissance satellite is suddenly trapped in space while trying to repair the station.
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Dennis Spooner
7.1/10 170 votes#17 - Edge of Impact
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/28/1965
The Hood sabotages the Red Arrow aircraft programme. One of the planes crashes into the TV Tower in England during a brutal rain storm, and International Rescue is summoned to save the engineers inside the tower before it collapses; making their job trickier apart from the driving rain and winds at the site is that the Red Arrow's director, a long time friend of Jeff, is fired from the project and stays at Tracy Island, forcing the Tracys to draw him away and thus remain oblivious to International Rescue's existence.
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson, Donald Robertson
7.1/10 153 votes#18 - End of the Road
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/25/1965
International Rescue's security is jeopardised when Tin-Tin's close friend Eddie Houseman, who recently visited Tracy Island, takes drastic action to save his road-construction company's threatened contract by planting explosives to tear open a jungle mountainside, and the ensuing chaos leaves him trapped on a cliffside in a truck with another case of explosives on board.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Dennis Spooner
7.1/10 150 votes#19 - City of Fire
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/6/1966
The world's tallest tower catches fire following an explosion in the car park and International Rescue are called to rescue a family trapped in the basement, which they can accomplish only with an experimental cutting gas ("Oxyhydnite") that previously rendered Scott and Virgil Tracy unconscious during testing.
Director: David Elliott
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.1/10 137 votes#20 - Move – And You're Dead
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/10/1966
After Alan Tracy returns to motor-racing, his rivals decide to remove the competition by rigging a bridge with a movement-sensitive bomb, which will explode the moment that Alan and Grandma Tracy try to escape. (Some of this episode is narrated in flashback.)
Director: Alan Pattillo
Writer: Alan Pattillo
7.0/10 153 votes#21 - Desperate Intruder
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/1965
Brains and Tin-Tin set off on an expedition to retrieve sunken treasure from Lake Anasta. The Hood has also set his sights on the riches and plans to put both Brains and Tin-Tin in grave peril.
Director: David Lane
Writer: Donald Robertson
7.0/10 134 votes#22 - Danger at Ocean Deep
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/3/1966
When the Ocean Pioneer tanker inexplicably explodes, Brains investigates the cause. With some help from Lady Penelope, he discovers it to be a chemical reaction between the cargo of liquid Alsterene and OD60, which is found in the sea. International Rescue set out to save the crew of the ill-fated Ocean Pioneer II.
Director: Desmond Saunders
Writer: Donald Robertson
7.0/10 139 votes#23 - Martian Invasion
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/17/1966
The Hood arranges for a mishap with explosives during a film shoot, leaving two of the actors sealed inside a cave. When International Rescue arrive the ensuing rescue is surreptitiously recorded by the Hood, and when the Tracys realize they've been set up a tense chase through the nearby desert ensues.
Director: David Elliott
Writer: Alan Fennell
7.0/10 135 votes#24 - Path of Destruction
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 10/9/1966
A new invention – the Crablogger (a nearly fully automated logging machine that converts wood into fuel) — threatens widespread devastation if it collides with an unfinished dam, after its drivers collapse due to food poisoning.
Director: David Elliott
Writer: Donald Robertson
7.0/10 123 votes#25 - Ricochet
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 11/6/1966
A staffed, pirate telecommunications satellite (which broadcasts a music programme of which Tin-Tin is a devoted fan) is disrupted by the detonation of a rogue unmanned space rocket and is set on collision course with a Middle Eastern oil refinery.
Director: Brian Burgess
Writer: Tony Barwick