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The Worst Episodes of Thunderbirds

Every episode of Thunderbirds ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Thunderbirds!

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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

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 26 - Security Hazard
    5.6/10(152 votes)

    #1 - Security Hazard

    S1:E26

    Clip show episode: the Tracy family cannot help but reminisce about their many successful missions after a young boy infiltrates the island. They are nevertheless burdened by the problem that the boy knows their identity and the location of their base – until Jeff realises that they can use the boy's dreams to their own advantage. Includes clips from "End of the Road", "Sun Probe", "Trapped in the Sky" and "Day of Disaster".

    Director:Desmond Saunders
    Writer:Alan Pattillo

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  2. Thunderbirds Season 2 Episode 6 - Give or Take a Million
    6.4/10(148 votes)

    #2 - Give or Take a Million

    S2:E6

    While Christmas preparations are underway at both Tracy Island and a local children's hospital, which is expanding to incorporate a new radiotherapy wing, a pair of criminals attempt to burgle a high-tech vault storing gold bullion.

    Director:Desmond Saunders
    Writer:Alan Pattillo

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  3. Thunderbirds Season 2 Episode 3 - Alias Mr. Hackenbacker
    6.6/10(143 votes)

    #3 - Alias Mr. Hackenbacker

    S2:E3

    The passenger aircraft Skythrust, conceived by Brains using his real name (Hiram Hackenbacker) as an alias, falls into the hands of fashion criminals who hi-jack the plane to steal a new French design from the renowned François Lemaire.

    Director:Desmond Saunders
    Writer:Alan Pattillo

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  4. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 18 - Cry Wolf
    6.7/10(158 votes)

    #4 - Cry Wolf

    S1:E18

    Two Australian boys are playing their favourite game — "International Rescue" — when their "distress" call is picked up by John Tracy on Thunderbird 5. After a tour of Tracy Island, and a warning not to use their radio again, the brothers are returned home. The Hood then tricks the boys into an old mine shaft before stealing secret photographs from their government agent father. This time the brothers' SOS is real, but International Rescue refuses to believe them.

    Director:David Elliott
    Writer:Dennis Spooner

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  5. Thunderbirds Season 2 Episode 4 - Lord Parker's 'Oliday
    6.7/10(145 votes)

    #5 - Lord Parker's 'Oliday

    S2:E4

    A malfunctioning solar reflector menaces the Italian coastal village of Monte Bianco, where Lady Penelope and Parker happen to be visiting while on holiday.

    Director:Brian Burgess
    Writer:Tony Barwick

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  6. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 8 - Desperate Intruder
    6.9/10(178 votes)

    #6 - Desperate Intruder

    S1:E8

    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

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  7. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 21 - The Duchess Assignment
    6.9/10(160 votes)

    #7 - The Duchess Assignment

    S1:E21

    The Duchess of Royston has fallen on hard times, leading her friend Lady Penelope to enlist Jeff's help. The Duchess and her one asset – the painting Portrait of a Gazelle, by Braquasso – fall into criminal hands and it is up to International Rescue to save both.

    Director:David Elliott
    Writer:Martin Crump

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  8. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 24 - Martian Invasion
    6.9/10(155 votes)

    #8 - Martian Invasion

    S1:E24

    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

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  9. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 14 - The Mighty Atom
    7.0/10(164 votes)

    #9 - The Mighty Atom

    S1:E14

    The Hood plans to corner the Thunderbirds vehicles by drawing them out to an emergency at an atomic irrigation plant in the Sahara, then photographing them with a miniature camera disguised as a mouse.

    Director:David Lane
    Writer:Dennis Spooner

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  10. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 19 - Danger at Ocean Deep
    7.0/10(152 votes)

    #10 - Danger at Ocean Deep

    S1:E19

    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

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  11. Thunderbirds Season 2 Episode 5 - Ricochet
    7.0/10(141 votes)

    #11 - Ricochet

    S2:E5

    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

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  12. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 5 - Edge of Impact
    7.1/10(199 votes)

    #12 - Edge of Impact

    S1:E5

    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
    Writers:Donald Robertson, Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson

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  13. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 20 - Move – And You're Dead
    7.1/10(156 votes)

    #13 - Move – And You're Dead

    S1:E20

    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

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  14. Thunderbirds Season 2 Episode 2 - Path of Destruction
    7.1/10(151 votes)

    #14 - Path of Destruction

    S2:E2

    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

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  15. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 9 - End of the Road
    7.2/10(177 votes)

    #15 - End of the Road

    S1:E9

    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

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  16. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 15 - City of Fire
    7.2/10(171 votes)

    #16 - City of Fire

    S1:E15

    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

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  17. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 16 - The Imposters
    7.2/10(161 votes)

    #17 - The Imposters

    S1:E16

    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

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  18. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 2 - Pit of Peril
    7.3/10(263 votes)

    #18 - Pit of Peril

    S1:E2

    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

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  19. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 6 - Day of Disaster
    7.3/10(201 votes)

    #19 - Day of Disaster

    S1:E6

    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

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  20. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 7 - 30 Minutes After Noon
    7.3/10(192 votes)

    #20 - 30 Minutes After Noon

    S1:E7

    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

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  21. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 25 - The Cham-Cham
    7.3/10(159 votes)

    #21 - The Cham-Cham

    S1:E25

    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

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  22. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 12 - Operation Crash-Dive
    7.4/10(175 votes)

    #22 - Operation Crash-Dive

    S1:E12

    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

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  23. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 13 - Vault of Death
    7.4/10(178 votes)

    #23 - Vault of Death

    S1:E13

    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

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  24. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 17 - The Man from M.I.5
    7.4/10(163 votes)

    #24 - The Man from M.I.5

    S1:E17

    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

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  25. Thunderbirds Season 1 Episode 22 - Brink of Disaster
    7.4/10(159 votes)

    #25 - Brink of Disaster

    S1:E22

    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

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Security Hazard" is the worst rated episode of "Thunderbirds". It scored 5.6/10 based on 152 votes. Directed by Desmond Saunders and written by Alan Pattillo, it aired on 3/31/1966. This episode scored 0.8 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Give or Take a Million".