Even the most furiously ardent Gerry Anderson fan would be hard-pressed to argue that Terrahawks, the 1980s series which saw the Master return, more or less, to the puppet world of his Supermarionation hits from the 1960s (now rechristened Supermacromation due to an entirely different style of puppeteering), is anywhere near Anderson at his best. Bluntly put, Terrahawks doesn’t – and can’t – hold a candle to the likes of Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet although it’s certainly less boring than Joe 90 and significantly less bizarre than The Secret Service. Times and tastes had changed since the heyday of Century 21 in the 1960s and when Gerry joined forced with ambitious businessman Christopher Burr to craft a new series in the style of his ‘greatest hits’ for a 1980s audience, Lew Grade’s deep pockets, providing the generous budgets which made Thunderbirds at al so vital, were long gone as were many of the creative behind-the-scenes talents he’d worked with for the better part of a decade.
Terrahawks – all thirty-nine episodes of the series, previously released by Network, now gathered together on this impressive Blu-ray boxset generously packed with a variety of special features and documentaries previously available on the individual season boxsets – sees Gerry Anderson returning to the themes and flavours of the show which made his name (although, famously, he remained frustrated by his failure to break out of kid’s TV and into proper grown-up film and TV making). The elite fighting force known as the Terrahawks, led by the cloned Tiger Ninestein, defend the earth from attack by the hideous cackling Zelda (an android from the planet Guk) and her ghastly offspring Jungstar and Cystar and their menagerie of frankly ludicrous monster allies. The Terrahawks themselves are based in a huge country house in South America and have at their disposal a fleet of vessels including the orbiting Spacehawk commanded by Lieutenant Hiro, the space transporter Treehawk (it emerges, Thunderbird-style, from a tree which conveniently splits open), the bulkier Battlehawk (the house folds open to allow the ship to lift-off) and its detachable Terrahawk command centre (Ninestein’s personal ship) and the Hawkwing, a fighter aircraft which launches, like Stingray, through an underwater porthole, and is usually piloted by part-time pop star Kate Kestrel and her co-pilot Lieutenant Hawkeye. None of these vessels are as iconic as their illustrious forebears but the modelwork which brings them to life, whilst not as detailed as, for example, the iconic Thunderbird ships, surprisingly manages to stand up to the savage scrutiny of 21st century hi-definition.
Early episodes of Terrahawks are, admittedly, a bit of a slog. Coupled with special effects which just don’t have the sheer class of the best of Derek Meddings’ work in the 1960s, the actual puppetry style takes some getting used to. Supermacromation sees the puppets operated from below which allows for a greater range of movement and expression yet there’s a rather disconcerting jerkiness in their movements which is at times as distracting as the sometimes painfully-visible wires from the gantry-operated marionettes of the Century 21 days. The stories are drab and formulaic too but the show quickly finds its feet and its strengths, emphasising the absurdity of its very existence with scripts which become almost outrageously tongue-in-cheek with gags aimed squarely at the older audience and a wonderfully ripe vocal performance from Windsor Davies as Sergeant Major Zero, commander of the Terrahawks’ army of often-bumbling circular robot Zeroids, probably the show’s most memorable and engaging creation.
Watched in the right frame of mind, secure in the memory that this is Gerry Anderson returning to his roots long after his heyday, Terrahawks is huge tongue-in-cheek fun and although Gerry Anderson would move on to the better, but more criminally-mistreated Captain Scarlet CGI reboot, it serves as an enjoyable, slightly bittersweet full stop to the Great Man’s life of adventure in the world of puppet science-fiction.
Special features: The Terrahawks story, featurettes, FX trims, audio episodes, image galleries.
TERRAHAWKS – THE COMPLETE SERIES / CERT: U / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: DENISE BRYER, JEREMY HITCHEN, WINDSOR DAVIES, ROBBIE STEVENS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
